JakeStarkey
10-05-2021, 03:49 AM
This award celebrates the dark sides of the pandemic: the first, the humourless righteousness of the pro-vaccine culture, and, the second, the unavoidable results of the cultic anti-vaccine world.
Oct. 2, 2021, 4:30 AM CDT
By F. Diane Barth, psychotherapist
The increasingly popular r/HermanCainAward subreddit on Reddit.com (https://www.reddit.com/r/HermanCainAward/) is a distressingly predictable sign of America’s conflict-filled times. The subreddit, which now has upwards of 340,000 followers, “celebrates” those “who have made public declaration of their anti-mask, anti-vax, or Covid-hoax views,” only to die from Covid-19 or Covid-related complications. (It is named for Herman Cain, the former GOP presidential candidate and businessman who died from Covid-19 complications (https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/former-gop-presidential-candidate-herman-cain-dead-coronavirus-n1235312)in 2020 after attending a Trump campaign rally in Oklahoma (https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/herman-cain-trump-surrogate-tests-positive-coronavirus-after-attending-tulsa-n1232801).)
With many regions in the United States still struggling to control this plague (https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/tracking-coronavirus-case-surges-states-across-country-winter-n1247103), attention has not surprisingly focused on the minority of Americans who have, for various reasons, refused to get vaccinated (https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/unvaccinated-americans-not-changing-their-behavior-report-finds-n1275815). A dark and sardonic corner of the internet, the r/HermanCainAward subreddit captures the rage and outrage of presumably vaccinated, mask-wearing individuals, many of whom have either been infected with Covid-19 in the past or have watched friends and family become ill — and even die.
This push to revel in schadenfreude, and to assign collective blame, is understandable and more than a little expected, especially on the internet. But this so-called award also captures the collective loss of empathy that colors so many of our political and personal conversations right now. Like soldiers who have been trained to see their enemies as less than human, we have forgotten that those who disagree with us are, despite everything, still people.
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/reddit-s-herman-cain-covid-award-depressing-sign-our-times-ncna1280616
Oct. 2, 2021, 4:30 AM CDT
By F. Diane Barth, psychotherapist
The increasingly popular r/HermanCainAward subreddit on Reddit.com (https://www.reddit.com/r/HermanCainAward/) is a distressingly predictable sign of America’s conflict-filled times. The subreddit, which now has upwards of 340,000 followers, “celebrates” those “who have made public declaration of their anti-mask, anti-vax, or Covid-hoax views,” only to die from Covid-19 or Covid-related complications. (It is named for Herman Cain, the former GOP presidential candidate and businessman who died from Covid-19 complications (https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/former-gop-presidential-candidate-herman-cain-dead-coronavirus-n1235312)in 2020 after attending a Trump campaign rally in Oklahoma (https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/herman-cain-trump-surrogate-tests-positive-coronavirus-after-attending-tulsa-n1232801).)
With many regions in the United States still struggling to control this plague (https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/tracking-coronavirus-case-surges-states-across-country-winter-n1247103), attention has not surprisingly focused on the minority of Americans who have, for various reasons, refused to get vaccinated (https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/unvaccinated-americans-not-changing-their-behavior-report-finds-n1275815). A dark and sardonic corner of the internet, the r/HermanCainAward subreddit captures the rage and outrage of presumably vaccinated, mask-wearing individuals, many of whom have either been infected with Covid-19 in the past or have watched friends and family become ill — and even die.
This push to revel in schadenfreude, and to assign collective blame, is understandable and more than a little expected, especially on the internet. But this so-called award also captures the collective loss of empathy that colors so many of our political and personal conversations right now. Like soldiers who have been trained to see their enemies as less than human, we have forgotten that those who disagree with us are, despite everything, still people.
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/reddit-s-herman-cain-covid-award-depressing-sign-our-times-ncna1280616