Coverage of T-Weekend Gatherings

I read this in the Boston Globe:

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/11/10/nation/youre-not-doomed-zoom-how-have-safer-thanksgiving-during-pandemic/

That is a provocative headline — almost encouraging people to gather! The article is actually more about, If You Are Going to Gather, Here Are Ways to Risk Mitigate. But the headline is disturbing.

Once in the article, an example is given of someone who might have traveled anyway (daughter having a baby), and who will be getting tested before and after arriving. Then, the usual array of mitigation: reduce gathering size, have it outdoors, any indoors activities should be masked, use distancing, think about how much time you really need to spend eating together (this actually was funny — we are trying to turn a community feast into something that is safer in a pandemic, and reducing the time eating together somehow really brought that home to me).

I read this at the Seattle Times:

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/health/dire-warnings-from-health-officials-as-coronavirus-runs-wild-in-washington-any-in-person-gathering-is-risky/

It does not mention Thanksgiving gatherings, but it is about them.

“health officials from around the state warned Tuesday afternoon that “any in-person gathering is risky,” including Thanksgiving dinners.”

That is a surprisingly broad difference given that that the risk levels in the two locations are _not_ that different, and the politics of the two locations are somewhat different, they are not _that_ different.

My sister and I had planned to meet near me (she was going to drive her family up); we mostly independently decided that the backup plan (just staying put in our respective locations) sounded a helluva lot safer and the trend was going the wrong way. The resulting conversation was extremely easy as a result. I wish everyone else out there thinking this through a similarly easy conclusion, but, if there is a lack of agreement, please treat those who choose not to attend as people who are thinking about everyone’s health and safety, and NOT treating the rest of the family and its traditions with anything other than affection and respect.

WaPo coverage of a Qanon in recovery

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/11/11/masks-qanon-target-melissa-rein-lively/

PR person (contractor? Freelancer? How is this not some shade of “influencer”?) apparently had a dissociative episode at a Target and wrecked a display of masks. But it wasn’t _that_ dissociative, because she took video and posted it on Instagram Live. *shrug* Anyway. Bad times followed, and she is now doing the apology tour. I have a couple issues with this article.

First — and this is probably the most and possibly the only important objection — “This story has been updated to include information about Lively’s racist language that came to The Post’s attention after publication.” This is not some nice person who got sucked into Qanon (if such a thing even ever happens — I am still unsure); this is someone posting n-word and anti-burqa stuff. _And then this was concealed in the apology tour._ Apology tours are fine, but just like BK, you are supposed to bring _all_ your bad in at once. If you do not bring in all the bad, and we find more later, we are going to wonder what else you’ve tried to bury.

Second — and indirectly related to the first — is her attack on cancel culture.

If you have _any_ understanding of cancel culture _at all_, you understand that what is being canceled is reprehensible behavior by people who do it so consistently and egregiously that the person has become a problem because it is clear that that behavior is part of their identity. Thus, the canceled ism includes canceling that person’s access to our collective attention. People who relentlessly abuse those without power need to have their power taken away from them. That is canceling.

Instead, this woman focuses on all the death threats and threats against her puppers and whatever. Which is def not fun stuff! But tons of people have to slog through that shit all the time, canceled or not canceled, it is part of being at the center of cultural conflict. She seems to think that _having brought that down on her own damn head_, she deserves some sympathy there, and wants to center herself as a hero for having the “courage” to fight back against that.

Reprehensible behavior needs to be pushed back on; people who persistently engage in it need to be pushed back on. Anyone wandering around, having behaved reprehensibly, saying, oh, gosh, I needed some therapy, I’m a nice person, I helped people, etc., has _missed the point_.

The apology tour should be OMG I am so sorry I did that and I am in therapy and I am getting better and I am taking steps not to wind up in that bad place again etc. And if she wants to go around and center Qanon as a problem, I am interested in hearing more about her experience and even her ideas about how to help wind down that hot spot of crazy. But attacking cancel culture is not the right approach here.