I'm not sure how to make my point any clearer, but something is clearly getting lost in translation about "wants". I don't know how else to state it, so I won't try any further.
Regarless, if you're going to draw even the slightest comparison of the outcomes of COVID to the outcomes of 'pounding diet soda or smoking', then you've permanently lost me. As EB and many others have pointed out, those are PERSONAL decisions, with individual and personal ramifications, and does not have the potential of directly impacting my health.
And where the fuck does AOC (it's just easier to type it that way) come into this? Serious statement this time, don't make this political. Take those arguments to the Politics of Coronavirus thread.
We see things very differently. You seem to believe that it's reasonable for people to act in a manner that shows a complete disregard of any concern for PUBLIC health. I don't think it's unreasonable for people take steps to safeguard public health. We'll agree to disagree.
I yield, counsellor.
Whether you or I CAN (possibly) get this virus isn't the primary driver for me. I can get hit by a bus or drop from a major coronary tomorrow and I'm not going to see it coming. I am doing everything I can to protect myself; I can't change you or you or you, I can't make you do everything I want you to, so I accept there are no guarantees in this life other than Cam is going to dance and we're all going to die at some point. I rate "potential dying" pretty high on the list of priorities, but I also rate "personal autonomy" pretty high as well. It's a balance.
I'll put this as bluntly as I can:
You see the data, you see these people willfully and knowing flouting that data and drawing an erroneous conclusion, with significant consequences for you. You deride and marginalize them. Fair enough description?
I see the data regarding our divisiveness (I have put several links up here repeatedly, showing the current research on how it starts, why it starts, how we stop it), I see people willfully and knowingly flouting that data - here, using "COVIDIOTS" and "morons" and whatever - and drawing an erroneous conclusion - that it has no impact on why these people are being stubborn mules - with significant consequences for all of us - not only are they not vaccinated, but they are militantly so, AND they are a piece of the divisiveness that is crippling this country (look at Dave's post about Afghanistan a week or so ago).
I'm not asking you to agree with me (though I hope you do). I'm asking you see how this looks and acknowledge at least that if you get to ignore the science, so do they. OR, at bare minimum, acknowledge the hypocrisy in the position and acknowledge that for better or worse this is just a playground fist fight and we're just picking different ways of circling the drain.
(I brought up Ocasio-Cortez because I thought it would be a clear enough example without bringing specific people in this forum into play. Whether you rate "COVID" higher than her economic or other impacts or not, that's up to you. I consider our divisiveness to be as great or even a greater threat than COVID, and so I DO see it as harmful to all of us (I also consider a lot of her general politics, and her approach to those politics, to be part of the reason we got Trump, and I think we all agree he was dangerous).)