Tipsheet

California: Land of the COVID Hypocrites

Guy Benson
Guy Benson  |  September 21, 2021 10:15 AM

I didn't watch a minute of the Emmy Awards the other night, even though I was glad to hear that the mawkish yet charming "Ted Lasso" won several trophies. I did, however, see some reaction on social media, including a steady stream of tweets and comments about all the beautiful celebrities celebrating themselves...indoors and maskless. Because of course they did. And it wasn't at all subtle: 


One notoriously rude and "progressive" actor even called everyone out on it from the stage: 

Very little time was wasted in the telecast before the setting was addressed — and questioned. Seth Rogen, in presenting the first trophy of the evening for supporting actress in a comedy series, said, “There’s way too many of us in this little room. They said it was outdoors. It’s not.” He added: “They lied to us. We’re in a hermetically sealed tent right now. I would not have come to this. Why is there a roof? This is insane..."

Counterpoint: According to the Hollywood Reporter, attendees were required to be vaccinated and present a negative test, so the gathering was not actually "insane" at all. Counter-counterpoint: Los Angeles County has an indoor mask mandate in place, regardless of vaccination status, which is much closer to "insane." But those are the rules imposed by lefty politicians and bureaucrats, and the celebrity class falls firmly within the performatively "pro-science" and "safety" camp. For other people, at least. If you believe the various regulations and mandates are meaningful, you should assiduously follow them in spirit and to the letter – especially if you have a large and influential platform. Instead, in consecutive weeks, America's glamorous crowd has very publicly flouted rules and cited technicalities in order to do precisely what they want to do.  Mary Katharine Ham articulates the takeaway lesson many others have also internalized: "The hypocrisy is to be expected at this point. What I take from all the pics of indoor revelry is even folks who talk about strict adherence to every mitigation even after vaccination for safety are not very worried about their safety if they don’t adhere. Live your life." The celebrities had special dispensation for a "film and television" event anyway.  Which is how this all works. Amazing: 


Up the California coast, the mayor of San Francisco is lashing out at critics after she was seen taking a page out of the Muriel Bowser playbook and brazenly ignoring her own masking rules at a night club. London Breed told a reporter that her violations don't really matter because she is vaccinated and gets tested, but that's not the rule.  And she made the rule. She wanted to dance and sing with friends in a crowded indoor space, so she did – and everyone else can just back the hell off, she says: 

“We don’t need the fun police to come in and micromanage and tell us what we should or shouldn’t be doing,” said Breed during an interview to address the controversy. The city’s health order states attendees at live indoor performances must remain masked except when actively eating or drinking. Breed maintained that she was drinking at the time. “My drink was sitting at the table, said Breed. I got up and started dancing because I was feeling the spirit and I wasn’t thinking about a mask." Some say the mayor was flouting the same tough rules some SF business owners have been complaining about.

Excuse me, madam, but the "fun police" is you. The requirements were implemented by you. There are no exceptions for "feeling the spirit" among struggling businesses. And having a drink at a table somewhere does not constitute drinking. Breed's comments make clear that she has zero respect for the mandates she's inflicting on citizens and businesses across the city. Widespread non-compliance should be the response, and any violations could be challenged in court under the mayor's own "fun" and "spirit" exemptions she laid out in public comments. But San Franciscans will likely just take it. Her whole performance is just spectacular within the genre:

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Is there something in the water out in Northern California? Gavin Newsom at the French Laundry, Nancy Pelosi at the salon, the San Jose Mayor's holiday adventure, and now Mayor Breed. These left-wing pols evidently all know that their constituents will forgive literally anything, as Newsom has just demonstrated; some may be even fetishizing being humiliated by their leaders. Thank you for your hypocrisy, sirs, may we have another? Most normal human beings resent this sort of thing, however. Charles Cooke reacts to Breed's indignant and incoherent rationalization: 


Little children are being forced to mask up for hours at a time at school, even though there is no proven benefit to this practice, while unmasked "pro-mask-mandate" adults do whatever they want (note the help holding up her gown – masked, of course): 


The evidence shows that unvaccinated children are safer from severe COVID illness than even fully vaccinated adults, who are very safe from severe COVID illness. Yet it considered the height of Super Sciencey Safety to force kids to mask up in schools, despite the data, policies, and experiences of many countries overseas. On that note, I'll leave you with these images from Germany. Look at all those faces: 


Will President Biden denounce Germany as anti-science and anti-child? Or are those rants reserved for Florida and Texas?