In this episode, we dissect the story published in the Boston Globe about a COVID-conscious lesbian bar in Western Massachusetts (Last Ditch) that lifted its mask mandate for one night a week to stay afloat financially, and the backlash they received from the COVID-conscious community. We start by addressing the disdain that COVID-conscious people and mask-mandatory spaces receive in the first place, the way critics have labeled ongoing COVID caution as “contagion OCD,” and how COVID fits into our belief that people have a right to “clean air.” We also share our understanding about why so many people felt angry, hurt, and betrayed after Last Ditch announced the change to their masking policy, and the complicated nature of the bar as both an accessible community space and a business under capitalism. From there, we seriously examine the critical comments that Last Ditch received from its patrons and people online, which contained accusations of “hatred and discrimination,” killing disabled people, eugenics, fascism, and white supremacy. It leads to a discussion about what eugenics and discrimination actually are, the weaponization of identity politics in the discourse, and our problem with accusations that deprioritizing masking is specifically a problem with “white or white-adjacent leftists.” At one point, we focus on making fun of the extreme “wokeness” of a particular commenter who said they hoped the bar would be firebombed, their insistence on masking their newborn baby, and their ridiculous posts on X. We move into talking about our differing responses to the way the Boston Globe, and the public, have made fun of our queer, polyamorous, leftist, weirdo culture, in what ways we find our own communities humorous, and how we personally know people who have gone to clown school. Finally, we start dissecting what we think went wrong with the community meeting that Last Ditch hosted for conflict mediation with some of their patrons, and why it’s important not to tolerate self-righteous identitarians in social justice spaces (like Soe Noir) from the very beginning of organizing! We close out angry and sad about how purity-politics pile-ons scare people out of ever trying to build anything good in community, our belief that the news cycle was more "profitable clickbait" than psyop conspiracy, and reminding each other that the loudest people online are never the whole story. 💖 Support the Show: If our conversations resonate with you, consider supporting our independent production! Check out our membership tiers (including exclusive content and monthly community video calls) or send a one-time tip at https://ko-fi.com/junzipodcast
