Most people know better than to idealize small town life. For all of the benefits of community support, those are completely revocable in the case of community rejection and censure. Especially for someone in business in a small town, risky assertions are a luxury.
At this point, any comments about anyone’s personal and public pandemic protective measures are off limits. It doesn’t matter if you see grocery clerks licking packages before putting them out, or restaurant staff French-kissing random people in the parking lot. Individual safety is up to individuals. This is a free country. We’re all going to have to do business with each other when the current inconvenience dies down. Gotta look to the future, regardless of who doesn’t get to have one because they proved to be genetically inferior and were culled by this largely trivial illness making the rounds.
In a small town, if enough people take a dislike to you, you're dead. Maybe not literally dead, but shunned. It's not just for colonial times. It's human nature. You don't want to risk it. You're better off to keep your trap shut.
Community standards determine what is risky. Things that might repel one person have a robust following among others. Free speech belongs to the dominant group, not to individuals. To be more precise, free speech has consequences, and those consequences hit harder on minorities and individuals than on the majority point of view. If everyone else jumped off a bridge you might be able to avoid jumping off of it with them, but make sure you stand aside and say nothing against bridge jumping. Protect yourself as best you can. Let the world burn.
1 comment:
Well said, Tim!
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