It is worth noting that this conservative pundit and culture warrior push for everyone dying to COVID is a direct result of conservatism long since just becoming "own the libs" no matter what.

They have so defined themselves as "anti-lib" that even staying alive is too much.

And this is the reality that pretty much no elected official is willing to grapple with. That there are people who are ready to full on Pepe meme getting COVID and spreading it to others just to state their cultural identity as "not liberal".

It's how we got Trump, it's how we got a reemergence of nazism under the banner of "ironic" nazis, and it's why pretty much every sensible attempt to heal the many things broken in this country get dragged into knockdown dragdown bad faith fights.

A portion of this country literally defines their very identity and soul as doing anything, literally anything including risking their lives to die from a brutal disease which even if you get the mildest version is a complete fucking hellscape, to not be "liberal" and hurt others

There's a lot of reasons why we're here.

And a lot of it has to do with a lot of cultural hegemonies defining themselves as an absence of something instead of being something.

White culture being an anti-culture of just lacking hallmarks of BIPOC culture or heritage instead of any real cultural landmarks.

Masculinity defined by not being labeled feminine.

Religious morality as defined by being seen being "against sin" as defined by one's pastors.

Hell, even pro-capitalism being defined throughout the Cold War as being "anti-socialist" whatever that was defined as.

This has resulted in modern conservatism being an angry core with no real identity, no real values, only things they are aggressively "not".

No wonder that led to bitterness and this destructive and self-destructive id-eology that is all about screaming at the top of your lungs that you are nothing like those filthy "underbeings" you share no qualities with.

And no wonder we have arrived at this point.

An ideology of being "against" with no real culture is easily hijacked by whatever interest can successfully sell that the "other" is "for" what they are against.

And it's led to the hodgepodge of self-destruction we've seen conservatism become in the modern day.

Gun companies want to boost sales. Sell "whiny liberals" being mad about dying to guns and voila, the culture warriors will flock to throw you money for overpriced murder junk.

Oil companies wanting some more years of relevance? Just sell living on a planet as "hippie talk".

And it's gotten to the point where we see the latest astroturf movement started by a couple of rich folks trying to shore up their profiles getting angry conservatives with no identity to be angrily all in shouting about "reopening" the country.

Not cause they honestly think its a good idea. In reality, the pundits selling it the hardest haven't once left their mansions and probably think that their culture of wealth prevents their overworked maid from contracting the virus.

But because they know their audience.

They know that a people carefully trained to be without identity outside what they are against can be poked into the most self-destructive action possible with the littlest effort and a captured media can spin that into the latest cultural signifier for the eternal horse race.

Now the part that sucks for all of us is this same group is also, largely in the palm of a death cult that wants the world to end before white supremacy ends.

Soo... yeah, this is pretty much win-win for these folks if everyone gets sick and dies because of these people.