Despite their supposed apolitical nature, some issues develop along hyper-partisan fault lines and become a litmus test in identifying where someone rests along the ideological spectrum.  One might never think topics like patriotism or merit-based admissions or respect for law enforcement or the recognition of human XX vs. XY chromosomes would be cause for political friction and strife, but in today's America, they are.

Take anthropogenic global warming as a prominent example.  This has been a central calling card for the Progressive cause.  They claim it's entirely the fault of conservatives — that heartless Republican businesspeople, in their relentless pursuit of immoral profits, willfully and callously disregard the environment and run their businesses in a deliberately "dirty" manner in order to maximize their earnings and keep their expenses, like best environmental practices and the purchase of costly pollution-reduction devices, to a minimum.

When the warming that was promised in the late '80s and early '90s failed to materialize by the early 2000s, Progressives changed the terms of the discussion from "global warming" to "climate change."  That way, they could blame any weather-related anomaly or damaging event on what they saw as conservatives' willful disregard for the environment.

The intent here is not to re-fight the entire matter of global warming.  It's simply to point out that one's position on the question defines in explicit terms the political ZIP code of the neighborhood in which that person resides.

Now there's another — perhaps even better — ZIP code–revealer:  COVID-19.  This subject is imbued with so many points of contention that it's hard to know where to start.

Everything about COVID is controversial.  A person's position on every one of these points marks his political leanings:

The name.  Is it the China Virus?  COVID-19?  Coronavirus?  We call them "West Nile" and "Ebola" and "Legionnaires Disease" to reflect where and how they originated.  But "China Virus" is now all of a sudden racist to the wokeists.

Where/how it began.  In a lab, as an experiment gone wrong, or perhaps a failed bio-weapon effort?  At a so-called wet market?  Progressives scoff at any suggestion of evil Chinese intent.

President Trump's early stages response.  This varies from a hands-off failure, where he totally underestimated and intentionally downplayed the threat, to a sterling effort that involved such fast action (like the hospital ships to L.A. and NYC and the initiation of Operation Warp Speed) that he even received enthusiastic support from both Andrew Cuomo and Gavin Newsom.

Dr. Anthony Fauci.  He has transitioned from being seen by most of the public in the early days of the pandemic as sort of a neutral America's Doctor figure to conservatives now thinking he's nothing more than a flip-flopping, Progressive-pleasing, anti-Trump opportunist, willing to say anything — no matter how inconsistent or blatantly false — to enhance his own stature.

Mask mandates.  This has two distinct sides.  On one side are those who believe that wearing masks is essential to protect public health and anyone who opposes that viewpoint is ignorant and a danger to society.  The other side is more skeptical of masks, pointing out inconvenient little facts like that the typical mask opening is four times larger than the COVID-19 particle (500 nanometers to 125 nanometers), so wearing a mask is like trying to stop a swarm of mosquitoes with a chain-link fence, as that cliché goes.  Mask mandates in the public sphere and for kids in school divide the electorate sharply along ideological lines.

Vaccine mandates and vaccine passports.  The acceptance or rejection of the vaccine mandate and passport is more a reflection of political loyalties and the degree of wokeism an individual exhibits than it is a desire to adhere to rigorous scientific evidence.  Firstly, it's not a vaccine, not in the traditional sense.  Real vaccines, like the polio vaccine, prevent the disease.  This doesn't.  The-drug makers don't even claim that it will.  Nor will it stop the transmission.  All they claim is a meaningful reduction in the chances of getting COVID-19 and a reduction in the severity and duration of symptoms should a person become infected.  A recent study showed that U.S. COVID cases in early September 2021 were up 300% compared to September 2020, even though 66% of the adult population is vaccinated in 2021 compared to 0% in September 2020.  So much for "prevention."

They're treatments, therapeutics, not vaccines. There have more incidents by far of bad side-effects with these so-called vaccines than with other longer-standing vaccines that have been in use for decades.  Cheaper, totally safe COVID therapeutics (like ivermectin, Regeneron, and hydroxychloroquine) exist that have proven extremely effective, even if the studies showing that have been suppressed by politically motivated parties and the liberal media and Big Tech.

Again, as with global warming, the intent here is not to re-fight this battle.  Obviously, everyone is free to determine if getting the shot is right for himself.  Everyone is free to decide whether or not he considers it a "vaccine" or not.  There is no intent here to prove that the vaccines are bad or imply that a strong nexus exists among the pharmaceutical parent companies of the COVID vaccines, the advertising dollars they spend on the major news networks, and the political donations they make to various candidates of all stripes. That information is out there, and people can draw their own conclusions.

COVID-19 Is the New Global Warming

One's position on the COVID-19 issue identifies one's political loyalties, pure and simple.  Question the efficacy of the vaccine or the commonsense need for vaccine passports and mask mandates, and in the eyes of Progressive thought leaders and the liberal media, you are just the typical ignorant conservative, displaying a selfish, callous disregard for the safety of society and an unintellectual refusal to acknowledge what Progressives insist are unimpeachable facts.

Yet astonishingly, it is those oh, so tolerant Progressives who favor the draconian government vaccine and mask mandates, while the supposedly anti–civil rights conservatives come down unequivocally on the side of individual freedom and "my body, my choice."  That's a contradiction that no Progressive even tries to reconcile.

Image: qimono via Pixabay, Pixabay License.

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