“We are witnessing the burial of individual freedom in our country due to all of these mandates to wear masks and get vaccinated,” William said, disgorging phlegm from his throat and spitting it on the ground at my feet.
“Your crazy conspiracy theories beliefs are as distasteful as your gross habits,” I said. “I totally dispute your notion of lost personal freedoms. Do you vaccinate your children for measles and chicken pox?”
“It’s not the same,” William said. “Measles and chicken pox are real. This whole COVID nonsense is a liberal hoax.”
“Again, that’s crazy,” I said. “But if you’re so concerned about individual freedoms, why are you opposed to women having the freedom to choose to have an abortion?”
“Because abortion is the murder of innocent babies and I’m opposed to murder,” William said.
“And yet you’re in favor of capital punishment and you have no problem with people someone like Kyle Rittenhouse shooting and killing non-violent protesters. Plus, you are opposed to common sense gun laws.”
“Gun ownership is a fundamental right guaranteed by the Constitution,” William said. “I own four guns and you better believe, I got skills, so you better watch what you say next.”
“Ooh, I’m shaking in my boots,” I said, mocking fear. “Let me ask you, would you use your skills to defend Americans’ right to vote, which is also in the Constitution?”
“Not illegal votes, fraudulent votes, or votes by people who aren’t real Americans,” William said.
“Like white Americans, you mean?” I said.
“It was my ancestors, not theirs, who made this country great,” William said.
“I think you need to break the chains tying you to Fox News and try to come back to reality here on Earth One,” I said.
“Fox News is like the Bible,” William said. “It speaks only the gospel truth.”
All I could do was shake my head in despair. This country is in deep doo doo, I thought.
Written for these daily prompts: The Daily Spur (burial), Ragtag Daily Prompt (freedom), E.M.’s Random Word Prompt (disgorge), Word of the Day Challenge (tasteful), Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (dispute), Scott’s Daily Prompt (I got skills, and My Vivid Blog (chains).
Photo credit: JUSTIN LANE/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutters.
This, That, and the Other 
Many a discussion held around the US I dare say 😦
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Too many such discussions.
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I’ve had a few of those conversations – it’s so frustrating.
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I’ve learned that the best thing is to just walk away.
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There was a story on our news about health workers protesting at new laws requiring them to be vaccinated. I believe there is something similar there, and in several other countries. It was interesting because as you start, their problem is with the word “require” as opposed to the word “vaccine”. To them it’s a civil liberty issue. I thought I might explore it tomorrow.
The background to the story is that the health services (plus social care sector) are already massively short-staffed. So much so that the national nursing body is calling for a delay.
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I’ll be interested in your thoughts.
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Ha, I’m rethinking it since I wrote that comment. I thought about it some and it just seems, ultimately, to be a rehash of the old argument, which I’ve discussed before.
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America…….sigh
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Doesn’t it feel like we have fallen into an alternate dimension?
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Yes, it sure does.
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This is such a depressing post.
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Sorry about that.
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It’s the situation that you’re writing about that’s depressing.
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I know. It’s a very depressing situation.
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It’s even worse than our political situation
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Depressing yes, but also very real. Some 30% – 40% of the people in this nation are as ignorant as ‘William’ is. Sigh.
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These are the conversations happening all over the nation today, as a large group of people, led by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., are descending on Washington D.C. to protest vaccines. Funny, they use the term “My body, my choice,” and yet almost every one of them are anti-abortion. Fox ‘News’ is egging them on, yes, but the real problem is their level of ignorance that allows them to believe everything they are told without listening to other opinions or doing a bit of research. Fools!
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And that is the product of our American educational system, which focuses on memorizing dates and events in order to pass standardized “achievement” tests rather than teaching students critical thinking skills.
Okay, I’m stepping down from my soapbox now. Thanks for listening.
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You’re exactly right … and of late, the trend is to teach technical skills rather than teaching young people how to think for themselves. Don’t ever step down from your soapbox, for we need to hear what you say … you’re one of the sensible ones!
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Thanks, Jill. I try to be relatively sensible in a non-sensible world.
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Most countries are in “deep doo doo” but in matters of vaccination, yours is buried too deep! 😏
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Yes, I agree.
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Wow, this is a strong writing piece! You hit on all the big stories! Funny that I am listening to Desantis on the news as I am reading your post. Irony.
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awesome story, fandango! ❤ ❤
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Thanks, Carol Anne.
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As for why their rhetoric doesn’t add up on choice for one’s own body, they’ve always (in terms of a majority of their constituents) been hypocrites who go get abortion or take their kids for that; they’re just trying to look good. That’s why I was flummoxed when they started (years or decades ago) using the term “virtue signaling” to poke and ignore people who don’t agree with them. (Theirs is a misuse of the term as per the original academic specialization, btw.)
Quotation from your opening post: “I totally dispute your notion of lost personal freedoms. Do you vaccinate your children for measles and chicken pox?”
“It’s not the same,” William said. “Measles and chicken pox are real. This whole COVID nonsense is a liberal hoax.”
Covid-19 is not a hoax. But the fact that having had the disease is, contrary to how other infections are treated in our policies, not taken as sufficient for immunity… that’s weird. With polio, measles, chicken pox, you aren’t required to have the official vaccination(s) (there’s more than one choice of type with polio for those, most everyone, who do get the shot or oral liquid) if you’ve already had any of them, respectively. [Meanwhile, there was no widespread chicken pox vaccine when my kids were little. They had chicken pox like pretty much everyone.]
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CDC finally acknowledges the power of natural immunity · 6 hours ago
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Explication as to why I used the word widespread (it not having been) per chicken pox vaccine. If there was a trial going on, I hadn’t known about it. Had I known, I would not have put my kids in it; not that I’m anti-vaccination. Most people don’t like to take part in trials/experiments if they don’t have to; we have had to be part of this Covid-19 experiment (by which I obviously don’t mean vaccines have been mandated).
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Very deep, yes.
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