COVID-19 has ushered in a host of now-recognizable symptoms. Runny nose, sore throat, fever. But there’s a societal symptom of the virus that has been burning through American culture with no signs of slowing down: COVID classism.
The notion of classism used to be more applicable elsewhere in the world, while American “societal status” remained reasonably fluid. Now, however, COVID-19 appears to have cemented modern classism into place.
If you need to know what “class” you fall into under this new system, the test is very simple.
- Are you expected to simultaneously set the rules while actively ignoring them? You are in the upper COVID class.
- Are you expected to help promote the upper class’ rules while defending those in the upper class who ignore them? You are in the COVID middle class.
- Are you not included in the upper or middle class? You are in the COVID lower class.
Now, the idea of a societal “upper crust” who both set and ignore rules is hardly new. And the idea of a “lower crust” who are viewed as human fodder is far from new.
What is new is both the embrace of overt classism in the United States and the formation of a willing middle class whose sole existence is to facilitate this moral and intellectual travesty.
Those in the upper class are the easiest to identify. Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Gavin Newsom are obvious examples — requiring those “beneath” them to follow their arbitrary and definitionally unscientific “rules” while openly disregarding them with an almost impressive gall.
Those in the middle class are the metaphorical flies circling the metaphorical trash can that is the COVID upper class. Their dream is to one day join their “elite betters,” an objective they hope to achieve by doing the upper class’ dirty work.
No better example exists than Jim Acosta and Barack Obama’s birthday party. Acosta, a delighted COVID middle-classer, didn’t even blink at the dismissal of accusations of hypocrisy based on the view that Obama’s maskless birthday party was a “sophisticated, vaccinated crowd.”
"a sophisticated, vaccinated crowd" pic.twitter.com/qzh3glcQTQ
— Caleb Howe (@CalebHowe) August 8, 2021
Last, and least, there’s the rest of us. The COVID “lower class.” The collective scapegoat for the upper class and their middle-class minions.
We are known by a wide number of phrases, often crafted to suit the specific style of deflection required. “Unvaccinated,” “angry white conservatives,” or “basket of deplorables,” for example. While the names may change, the broader context does not. The COVID upper class believes they are better than us, and that their newfound COVID-related status alone allows an entirely different form of expected behavior.
Time for us to say: no.
Ian Haworth is an Editor and Writer for The Daily Wire. Follow him on Twitter at @ighaworth.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.