Blue gal’s eternal truth about David Brooks, above, was never more evident than in his column today. In Our pathetic herd immunity failure, he notes:
In 2020 Americans failed to socially distance and test for the coronavirus and suffered among the highest infection and death rates in the developed world. Millions decided that wearing a mask infringed their individual liberty.
Very true. And tragic. Why did this happen? Could it have something to do with certain governors in, for example, Georgia, Texas and Florida, whose anti-mask and other reckless policies have killed thousands? Brooks doesn’t say. Could it be because a year ago, he wrote:
Rush Limbaugh and others on the right thinks the lockdown is a Democratic plot to get President Trump. When the governors of Georgia and Florida opened up a bit, many commentators on the left treated them as if they were serial killers -— as if what they were doing was an obvious atrocity. In truth, the people of Georgia and Florida are not worse off than before, and there’s evidence they’re actually better off, at least so far.
Some of us were “woke” enough a year ago to know this both siderism wasn’t just lazy and disingenuous, it was deadly: How many died because those governors were in power? How many died because they were not held accountable by David Brooks and the rest of the media?
And his colleague Bret Stephens wrote America shouldn't have to play by New York Rules, complaining:
Americans are being told they must still play by New York rules — with all the hardships they entail — despite having neither New York’s living conditions nor New York’s health outcomes. This is bad medicine, misguided public policy, and horrible politics.
But some of us were awake and paying attention, writing things like Bret Stephens' April 24 Column has Turned Deadly. Perhaps IT should have been "Canceled."
One of the many tragedies of the Pandemic is the failure of the media to call the actions of Trump and governors like Abbot, DeSantis, and Noem, what they are: Reckless actions showing depraved iindifference to human life.
So today, David Brooks scratches his head in bewlilderment wondering how it could possibly happen that so many people are acting selfishly and won’t even put on a damn mask. Surely it can’t be Republicans (a word he can’t bring himself to mention in this column).
But can it be in part David Brooks and Bret Stephens, who a year ago minimized COVID’s danger and mocked liberals like us who were screaming that Republican leaders were killing people before our eyes?
There must be a long German word for people whose memory is so selective, they screen out their own terrible past actions and cast about for some “higher truth” beyond all responsibiility for them.