Why Fauci Matters
He's not just a powerful guy who acted in bad faith. He's a totem to a whole class of people who don't care about that.
This is old inside- baseball blogger stuff in part, but there’s a bigger lesson.
Old time (and I mean old-time) blog readers may remember Jeff Jarvis’s fierce post-9/11 warblogging, which pivoted rather suddenly into leftish pro-Democratic blogging in time for the 2004 election. Jeff and I were close before the pivot (he got me my long-ago MSNBC gig), and remained friendly even after. We were Facebook friends from the beginning, though our interactions over the past decade-plus were confined to the occasional like or happy birthday.
Then the other day I posted this:
Jeff’s response was “He saved lives. What have you done?” My reply was “Did he?”
A few of my friends came on to suggest, politely enough, that Fauci’s contribution was mostly negative and Jeff abruptly responded “Good-bye, Glenn,” and unfriended me.
Well, I will survive the shock of that blow, but it struck me — after all those years of disagreeing on politics, this was the straw that broke Jarvis’s back? Anthony Fauci? Especially now, when he’s the butt of self-incrimination jokes? In front of Congress, Fauci wouldn’t even say what color his tie was. (I’m trying to talk one of my distiller friends into putting out a limited run of Fauci whiskey, with the slogan “Take the Fifth!”)
Why Fauci, and why now?
I think the answer is that Fauci, and Faucism, represented the apotheosis of what the managerial/academic/journo class desires: An excuse for sweeping power, based on (alleged) expertise, in which they could ride roughshod over those stupid proles and flyover people while preening about the allegedly superior moral and intellectual qualities that justify their rule.
Then it turned out that they were wrong about nearly everything and — as Fauci’s diaries demonstrate — knew it at the time, at least at the top. And their overreach is one of the things that gave us Trump 47.
That this is out in public now produces cognitive dissonance. The easiest thing to do is to check out of the discussion. And so. Well, goodbye, Jeff, if by chance you’re reading this. I never stopped liking you, but I confess I liked the pre-pivot Jeff better. Enjoy your life as you are now.
I've posted this elsewhere so it's a recycle(sorry about that). If they admit to themselves that they were wrong, and seriously wrong, then they might start wondering about what else they might be wrong (umm, incorrect?) about. And where does that lead, Immigration, Climate Change? Were they wrong about Israel\Gaza? Were they wrong about Trump (the horror, the horror). Were they wrong about Socialism, Communism, China, Net Zero. The Population Bomb exploded in their face, ditto Peak Oil, And so on and so forth. Deep down they can't admit the people they consider inferiors (intellectually, morally, ethically, spiritually fillintheblankly) might have been correct. Once the Cascade Preference starts you don't know where it will end. The horror, the horror, indeed. By the way as the old saying goes With Friends like that who needs enemies. I believe the correct appellation is he was a Fair Weather Friend.
Wow. I'm old enough to remember Jeff Jarvis as the post-9/11 war blogger! Regardless of your disagreements, I'm sorry that he thinks Fauci is a hill worth killing a friendship over (especially right now).
DISCLOSURE: I own a Fauci bobblehead, which sits in the bathroom on top of a stack of expired COVID-19 tests.