Getting COVID-19 In Bad Taste
On 7/30/2020, CNN commentator Ana Navarro-Cardenas said the following on Twitter:
Herman Caín thought Covid was a hoax, scoffed at wearing a mask. Died of Covid.
Bill Montgomery, co-founder of pro-Trump, Turning Point USA, scoffed at virus. Died of Covid.
Rep. Gohmert refused to wear a mask. Has Covid.
See a pattern?
Covid doesn’t care about partisanship.
This tweet was quickly criticized for being in “bad taste.” Personally, when it comes to spreading a contagious illness that has since become a pandemic, whether or not stopping the spread is in “good taste” is not my concern. After all, I thought facts didn’t care about my feelings — guess they seem to care about Louie Gohmert’s.
Over the weekend, Rep. Raul Grijalva announced that he had caught COVID-19, more than likely from Rep. Gohmert. Grijalva is seventy-two years old, meaning he is in the age group most likely to die of COVID-19, meaning Gohmert might end up leading to the death of another human being because of his refusal to wear a mask.
Of course, most people will not mention that this is Gohmert’s fault, especially if it gets serious, for that would be in “bad taste.”
The cult of “good taste” has been working overtime during the COVID-19 pandemic. Mind you, I thought the reason why America elected Donald Trump was because they were sick of “political correctness” and “tone policing” and wanted someone who “tells it like it is,” but that’s besides the point. Plus, that was almost four years ago, and the pussy grabbers for civility and decency have long since forgot about anything that happened that far back in the past.
Here’s what “bad taste” means in political conversation: You’re right, but boy am I angry at what you said. It’s the response of people who do not actually have an argument, but would very much like to make it clear they do not like what was said.
The primary reason people do this is to move the point of the conversation from what was said to the reaction to what was said. Here’s another example, on 3/27/2020 Hillary Clinton tweeted out a news story with the headline “The U.S. Now Leads The Word In Confirmed Coronavirus Cases,” and joked:
He did promise “America First.”
Many commentators were offended by that joke, and spent as much time as possible informing you that they were offended by it. As a result, the conversation became about what Hillary Clinton said and now the fact that the United States leads the world in Confirmed COVID-19 cases — which is a much bigger story than Hillary Clinton saying something mean.
Mind you, spiking cases of COVID-19 is not in “bad taste,” nor is catching it and spreading it to other members of Congress. Instead, it is only those who react to the deaths of others that are considered to have committed the only deadly sin of “bad taste,” because killing others is okay but reacting to that killing by saying its wrong is not.
