Are you a victim?

 I don't usually venture into politics here, because 1) they're kinda boring and 2) they drive us away from one another.  But Snowy suggested this topic to me, so I'm giving it a shot.

Are you a VICTIM?!

I'm reliably informed that many here in the Yew-knighted States feel positively victimized by mask mandates, vaccine requirements and such.  This really isn't new.  Americans, as a people, are very prone to feeling put-upon.  We've always had some anti-vaxxers (yes, even before that fraud Andrew Wakefield first claimed vaccines caused autism).  Back in the 1960s, we had flakes who insisted that fluoridating water was a Communist plot.  Heck, there are still some locales where it's illegal to add fluoride to water;  you can find these places by searching under  "poor tooth hygiene."

But the recent notion that mask mandates and vaccine requirements are akin to the imposition of the "Jude" star in Nazi Germany and its occupied territories?  That one takes chutzpah!

Now here's the difference.  Here in the USA, mask mandates are a sign that the wearer cares about his or her neighbors (and mayhap themselves as well).  You wear a mask to protect others.  It's a sign of social responsibility.  It makes you look like you care about everybody else.  In short, if you do it, you're a mensch!

By contrast, these two tykes were forced to wear that star as a sign that they were subhuman, and, well, soon to be murdered.

If some people honestly think that being forced to do something for their own good is equivalent to being marked for derision and death, is it even possible to discuss anything else with them?  Is up really down?  Does two plus two equal cow flatulence?  

Seriously -- we're talking something beyond confusion here.  We're talking a will to be a victim, a sincere belief that anything someone else wants you to do is unfair.  That the right to swing your fist should end around the time your knuckles emerge from the back of someone else's head.

Or am I overthinking this?  --alexthekay