Contempt for the unvaccinated is a temptation to be resisted | Dan Brooks

The narrative of a dangerously ignorant minority may appeal, but it is not good for democracy

The Covid-19 pandemic was the perfect disaster for our cultural moment, because it made other people being wrong on the internet a matter of life and death.

My use of the past tense here is aspirational. The emergence of the more contagious Delta variant threatens to undo a lot of progress - particularly here in the US, where active cases of coronavirus infection are up 149% from two weeks ago. Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that fully vaccinated people return to wearing masks indoors in public spaces. The hope that this summer would mark our return to normal is curdling fast, and the enlightened majority - the fact-based, Facebook-sceptical, and fully vaccinated - are looking for someone to blame.