The American right is pushing 'freedom over fear'. It won't stop the virus
Covid-19 cases are exploding. The European Union has banned most American residents from entering the bloc. By doing so, it is basically treating the US as a failing state unable to get the pandemic under control. Some are blaming young people who are mingling with each other for the surge. But greater harm has been done by rightwing elites, who are pushing the narrative that protective measures like social distancing and masks impinge on their “freedom”.
Unlike with any crisis in living American memory, there has been absolutely no national leadership or comprehensive planning – Trump’s plan has been to have no plan, as the critic Jay Rosen put it. The resulting vacuum has been filled by the most extreme voices in the Republican party and the hard business right: they have pushed the idea that we are in an epic battle between fear and freedom. The likes of “Freedom Works” and the “Job Creators Network” have called for flatting the fear curve; this rhetoric is echoed on posters by the seemingly libertarian Michigan protesters proclaiming: “My freedom does not end where your fear begins.”
In many ways, the right has simply hit “repeat” for a political strategy that has apparently worked for it in the past: relentlessly stoke culture wars to distract everyone from growing inequalities and a rapidly deteriorating natural environment. Masks have been designated as inherently “leftwing” or signs of enslavement to the government; evil foreigners are being blamed for the virus. Instead of mobilizing state resources to protect both businesses and workers in the way countries like Denmark have done, the pandemic is instrumentalized to push the all-out deregulation agenda Trump and his backers have pursued from day one of his presidency.
This is a playbook Republicans have been perfecting with regard to global warming: pretend that an impersonal and for many people invisible threat doesn’t really exist, and, on top of that, claim that it’s a plot hatched by a global geopolitical rival.
The truth is that in many ways we are less free than four months ago; we have fewer options and some liberties are being restricted. Yet we should not forget that liberties are always both backed up and limited by the state – even the most ardent libertarian calls the police when their right to dispose of their property freely is threatened by thieves. And basic political rights are also always reasonably qualified: Mike Pence’s specious defense of Trump’s failed Tulsa rally invoked the constitutional right of freedom of assembly, but forgot to mention that assemblies can be regulated with regard to timing, place and manner.
The reason liberties have been restricted in the past months is not only that states had a clear democratic
mandate by a reasonably fearful majority to do so (polls showed consistent support for lockdowns). It is also that in a situation in which we, as individuals, cannot properly judge whether our conduct will cause major harms to others. It is therefore right for states to put proper regulations in place.
Our inability individually to calculate the risks we pose to others will not change any time soon, especially as asymptomatic Covid-19 cases are more common than assumed initially. Hence states should err on the side of imposing detailed regulations. They must sanction those businesses who fail to keep workers safe instead of declaring them “essential” and shielding them from proper responsibility, in the way Trump did with the meat industry. That will help allay the fears of those who are wary of returning to work.
If safety is not insured, the supposed economic freedom that the hard right is promoting is in fact unfreedom.
Many blue-collar workers don’t have a choice about whether to stay at home and have every reason to be fearful about returning to an unsafe environment. By contrast, the privileged – as they can work from home or don’t need the money – can choose to keep sheltering. The latter might even benefit indirectly from others getting infected and thus moving us all closer to herd immunity, a classic form of what economists call free riding: getting the benefit without incurring the cost.
America needs to recognize that freedom isn’t simply maximal individual self-assertion. It’s also, following the political theorist Hannah Arendt’s famous account, a collective capacity to coordinate and act in concert. That might require forbearance and proper attention to the spaces we share. Many people have been adopting such an attitude – putting on masks voluntarily as well as being considerate in how they move and talk. Such self-restraint – combined with temporary regulations – would lessen fear and increase everyone’s freedom in the long-term.
Jan-Werner Müller teaches politics at Princeton. His Democracy Rules is forthcoming from Farrar, Straus & Giroux in the US, and Penguin in the UK
Our inability individually to calculate the risks we pose to others will not change any time soon
of our era,” writes Steve Ranger in ZDNet. “It’s a brutally simple idea, executed with increasing sophistication by criminal groups. A huge chunk of our lives is now stored digitally, whether that’s photos, videos, business plans or customer databases. But too many of us, both businesses and consumers, have been lazy about securing these vital assets, creating an opportunity which criminals have exploited.”
In just over the past few weeks, security researchers have identified at least six significant forms of malware that are making their way across networks in this country, including WastedLocker, Phorpiex, ThiefQuest, EvilQuest, Tycoon and AgeLocker. These names sound like awesome video games. But in reality, they’re all potentially devastating to a small business and most act in a similar fashion. They gain access to company’s network through an employee’s inadvertent click on a fake email, compromised web page or merely by a vulnerability in an old operating system.
Once in, the malware either hides in the background collecting private data or simply makes its attack and demands cash. Unfortunately, with so many companies sending their employees home to work in the wake of the pandemic, the problem has been escalating.
For example, researchers at one security firm, Proofpoint, noticed a rise in email “phishing” (or spoof) campaigns with names like Avaddon, Buran, Dargate and Mr Robot, targeted at work-from-home employees across the world. “These attacks have featured many different families of ransomware and have targeted numerous industries in the United States, France, Germany, Greece, and Italy,” the report’s writers warned. “They often use native language lures and messages.” Even the Securities and Exchange Commission issued a formal alert to firms in the broker-dealer business of a ransomware specifically targeted towards them.
Although big companies tend to be targeted by hackers more often, many small businesses are also victims. One small firm in Kentucky this past year paid a $150,000 ransom to an attacker that locked up its network of just eight computers. “Their initial demand was $400,000,” the firm’s chief financial officer said in a Tech Republic interview. “And from what we were told, this group rarely attacks small companies because their initial demands are usually in the $1 million to $10 million range. So, coming after us or for a half of their normal amount that they typically request just adds to the fact of, why us?” Why indeed?
The answer is simple: small businesses tend to invest less in security and that makes them an easy target. The bad guys are taking notice. According to one new survey of senior executives, 46% of all small businesses have been the targets of a ransomware attack, and of those companies, 73% were forced to pay a ransom. And with all the disruptions caused by the pandemic, many firms have not paid enough attention to securing the remote devices and laptops that their employees are now using from home to access their networks.
To combat this threat, it’s going to cost. It’s critical that small business owners invest more resources in securing their now far-flung operations. Information technology consultants should be hired to provide training to employees, install security software and monitor networks. Training software such as KnowBe4, Infosec and Webroot should be implemented so that employees can be taught how to identify potential ransomware threats and then be tested with simulated scenarios during the workday. Redundant, online backups should be made of all servers and devices so that data can be restored elsewhere if an attack occurs. And, most importantly, the operating systems running on all devices used by all employees must be regularly updated. Making sure that your insurance policy includes cyber coverage to help offset the costs of any business interruption is also critical.
The researchers at the security firm Kaspersky Labs, who undertook a survey of more than 5,000 businesses around the globe, found that staff training is essential in raising awareness among personnel and that business owners must find ways to motivate their employees to pay attention to cyberthreats and countermeasures, even if they are not part of their specific job responsibilities.
“Installing updates, and managing personal passwords properly shouldn’t always be at the bottom of an employee’s to-do list,” the researchers warned. “Sometimes personnel may take cybersecurity requirements too lightly, leading to dramatic consequences for the organizations they work for.”
Small businesses tend to invest less in security and that makes them an easy target