I am almost at a loss for words at how genuinely moronic this is, and how cruel it really is. Almost.
So let's talk about "privilege:"
Who is it that is insistently calling for the lockdowns to continue no matter the costs in actual lives taken by the shutdowns themselves, estimated, says CBS News, to range from 75,000 to 150,000?
Who is it that dismisses well-reasoned and dispassionate calls to reopen the economy so that lives are not shattered, families no longer suffer deprivation, and the elderly are not abandoned?
Who is it that dismisses the documented forecasts that continuing the shutdowns will devastate rural medical facilities and quality of health care of rural Americans?
It is college-degreed white men and women who are financially secure, and who do not themselves think for a moment about how to pay for their next grocery trip or whether they will ever regain employment even approximating what they had before they were laid off.
It is college-degreed white men and women who think that the masses leave their homes merely to get haircuts or go shopping or - as one left-wing friend of mine posted on Facebook - to go bowling.
Minorities and lower-income Americans are being literally killed by the shutdown and their lives are being broken (NPR: "Why The Government Shutdown Has A Disproportionate Effect On African-Americans" and Center for American Progress, "The Impact of the Government Shutdown on People of Color").
But at least no one is turning a fire hose on them, so all is well! (But let us ignore for the meme's sake the political party of the men who turned the hoses on the marchers or loosed the dogs.)
So college-degreed, financially secure, upper-middle class and up white people simply, comfortably dismiss both the non-white and white unwashed, uneducated, poor deplorable-classes as mere untermenschen who have no idea how good they actually have it.
As for black Americans, what this meme really says to them is, "Shut up about how we have thrown you back into poverty and want. It is more important for us to feel safe! We are not attacking you with dogs any more, so what's your beef?"
Memes like this are frankly the most stunning examples of white privilege that I have seen in a long time. I will go further: to post this marks one as an actual white supremacist.
Updates as they come in:
'Our life is in danger': Unemployment hits 34% in Hawaii with no end in sight
Yep:
WSJ: Medical Lockdown Will Cause a Disease Surge -- Patients who are sick with conditions other than Covid-19 aren’t seeking screening and treatment.
Yep:
