Reporting from the great David Neiwert, who regularly covers the various flavors of white supremacist fuckery going on in the Pacific Northwest.
Indeed, anti-vaccination activists—who have a long history of crossover affiliation with the far right, given their shared predilection for conspiracy theories and antigovernment sentiments—have become a significant component of the anti-lockdown protests that have begun organizing over the past few weeks.
David Neiwiert, from DailyKos’s “Anti-vaxx mom’s ‘playdate protest’ becomes viral cause for lockdown critics“
The story is about a mom in Meridian, Idaho, who is a prominent anti-vaxx activist, setting up a protest of a closed public park playground to get herself arrested. The event is then picked up and spread by Ammon Bundy, he of the illegal Malheur Refuge occupation in Eastern Oregon last year, son of Cliven Bundy, the Nevada rancher who thinks he deserves millions of acres of tax-free land on which to graze his cattle.
I’ve lived around these selfish “Taxation is Theft!” III% Oathkeepers Patriot militia sovereign citizen faith-healing anti-vaxx libertarian types all my life. I feel it is time we finally excised these bloated ticks from our society.
I am sympathetic, actually, to the argument that we humans are sovereign in our bodies and minds. No other person, as an individual or as a government, has the right to force us to do anything to our bodies or minds we do not wish to do. If I wanna smoke pot, pierce my nipples, get breast implants, abort a pregnancy, get a tattoo, eat a pizza, drink a beer, or have sex with a willing participant in exchange for money, well, that’s my body and my choice.
But did you notice how none of those things I advocate has any effect whatsoever on anybody not directly involved with my choice?
People that are advocating for their right to not be vaccinated have a legitimate point: They should not be forced to introduce a foreign substance into their bodies. However, not doing so does have an effect on others not involved in that choice.
People advocating to not be taxed have a legitimate point: They did not assent to being born into a social contract that mandates their contribution of taxes. However, not paying taxes does have an effect on others not involved in that choice.
If they don’t want to be vaxxed or taxed, that’s fine. But then they don’t get to enjoy the societal benefit accrued by the rest of us being vaxxed (herd immunity) and taxed (roads, schools, internet, safe food, effective drugs, clean air, pure water, military defense, police protection, fire extinguishing, courts, markets, etc.).
Oh, no, they want to still send their little virus incubators to our public schools. They still want to use the internet to produce their viral videos of “FREEDUMB!” They still want to exchange currency backed by the full faith and credit of the United States. They still expect cops and firemen to show up when they need assistance. They’ll still eat and drink and breathe pure food, water, and air as if they paid for it.
So, what we need to do is take a few million acres of land, wall it off, and cede it to these people. Call it Libertania – an autonomous region of its own governance (or lack thereof) somewhat like Indian Country. All the anti-vaxxers and anti-taxers can move in and set up the truly free nation in which they wish to live. Or emigrate to some other nation in the world they think would provide more freedom.
But to visit the United States, they need to get visas and show proof of vaccination.
We are a society. The policies and practices in place today didn’t arise in a vacuum. We practice vaccination because we didn’t used to and far more of us died. We have taxation because we didn’t used to and it was far harder to have nice things. If you wanna be a part of our society, you’ve got to pay the membership dues.
Taxation is theft? No, man, freeloading in our society without paying your share is theft.
