STREET DOGS

From Rusty Guinn at Epsilon Theory: There really aren’t any more just-the-flu-ers these days. OK, sure, there are still some solitary specimens sticking to their guns. But by and large, over the last several months the just-the-flumeme has faded, having evolved into another species that is far more well adapted to our environment. Far more resilient. The niche has been all but conquered by virus-gonna-virus.

What is virus-gonna-virus? It is a versatile memetic construction built from some combination of one or more ideas. What are those ideas? That everything we’re doing to combat Covid-19 is counterproductive. That nothing we could have done would really have changed anything about its spread. That every country is going to end up in the same place. That most of the public discussion is designed to support the institution of new social controls and criticism of politicians the media do not like.

Virus-gonna-virus is a welladapted meme because it provides a valuable ego integrity service to its host. Namely, it provides a smooth transition for those who truly believed and publicly expressed a belief that Covid-19 was a plandemic, a fake pandemic or just the flu. It allows those people to ignore that reality has proven their beliefs to be incorrect. Indeed, it permits them a way to say — if still speciously — that their beliefs being proven wrong is better than everyone else’s being proven correct. Since we’d still be better off if we hadn’t fussed with masks or distancing or anything else to prevent the spread at all.

However, if — and it remains a big IF — the vaccines from Pfizer and/or Moderna prove effective, then actions you take today don’t just delay the inevitable for the lives and livelihoods of your neighbours. They may change those outcomes. Permanently. So wear a mask, social distance, don’t be a jerk.