Stacey Abrams and the Scourge Of the Willfully Ignorant – Opinion

Images of the incident have gone viral on the internet. Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, sitting in an elementary classroom, surrounded by masked, sullen looking students, grinning wide…maskless.

Do you want to look like this? pic.twitter.com/cFhgFx9i5B

— Todd Rizzo (@Only_The_Nuts) February 6, 2022

Abrams’ campaign pushed back on the criticism with a post that will most definitely be a contender for the “Unsurprising and Predictable” Hall of Fame. This unfairly targeted political attack was conveniently launched during Black History Month. It is shameful!

It is shameful our opponents use Black History Month for Georgia children to launch a false attack on politics. And it is predictable that opponents will continue to search for ways to distract themselves from the failures of their record when it comes protecting public health in the pandemic.

One of Stacey’s opponents downplayed the virus while trading stock to profit off the pandemic after his private coronavirus briefings as a Senator.

One of her rivals also attacked mayors who seek to protect their constituents and failed to expand Medicaid access even though rural hospitals closed.

Anyone who says he is interested in leading Georgia should not be laughing at this pathetic, transparent, and stupid attack.

Abrams also removed her mask to be heard by online students. She only did this after asking students not to remove their masks. She wasn’t trying to be harmful, seems to be the suggestion. Her only goal was to be heard, and it didn’t matter if others were masked. The only thing that was different was the time it lasted.

This reasoning is a lot of ignorance and willful stupidity. Abrams’ defenders want the rest of us to believe that her intentions were honorable, and we’re just making a mountain out of a molehill. In order for that to be true, we’d first have to all agree upon what “no big deal” refers to.

Is COVID “no big deal?” For the last two years we have been tortured by constant lectures from the left that mask mandates are necessary because even a single unmasked person could put everyone around them at risk. A single unvaccinated person could put all those vaccinated people around them at risk because SCIENCE™ or something. To see Abrams without a mask, even for just a few moments, should make everyone wonder if she’s really scared of COVID at all. You risk getting a call from the FBI if you put your mask on while flying. In a room full of other students, take your mask off. low-risk vulnerable children so you can campaign for governor and you’ll be applauded. It’s not about Abrams or anyone else being “at risk” from her maskless face. It’s about the notion that either COVID is so dangerous everyone needs to wear a mask, or COVID isn’t really that dangerous if we can pick and choose the people who have to wear masks at all times and those who don’t.

This is the logic around which the left should strive to be perfectly and willfully ignorant.

Perhaps it’s “no big deal” that the children had to wear masks despite the “authority figure” in the room not wearing one. Perhaps “do as I say, not as I do” is a curriculum highlight. Kids are resilient, yada yada yada. But Abrams removed her mask – apparently to great personal risk of death – so she could be heard more clearly. This is what the kids in those classrooms, and across mandate states all over the country experience every day. She couldn’t stand not to be understood for a few minutes. Imagine the torture of being a young child, learning sounds and phonics, learning to express your needs in a classroom, and not being able to discern half of what’s being communicated because you’re trapped in a mask for your entire school day. Abrams couldn’t even bear to be misunderstood for 20 minutes.

Or perhaps masks are just no big deal, and if you can remove one to speak to a crowd and put it back on when you’re finished speaking, maybe the mask is just pointless altogether. Maybe what we’re all supposed to do is just accept that masks are a character trait, not a health necessity.

There is no good argument that Abrams’ camp and supporters can make for her stupid photo op. This is a terrible photo op. So they have to make it about racism, or dirty politics or #RepublicansPounce, because to apply any logic or careful thought to the situation is to be forced to admit that all of this is just a big game, and we’re the ones getting played.