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Stop wishing ill on Texans just because of the state’s poor leadership

Please consider compassion over inhumanity when politicians make poor decisions that affect an entire state.

Stop wishing ill on Texans just because of the state’s poor leadership

[Illustration: FC]

BY Joe Berkowitz1 minute read

What: A couple of boneheaded tweets wishing ill on an entire state.

Who: Michael Moore and Keith Olbermann.

Why we care: Like George W. Bush unfurling that ill-fated “Mission Accomplished” banner prematurely by a couple of decades, Texas governor Greg Abbott announced on Tuesday that he was lifting the statewide mask mandate and opening up restaurants and schools and the whole shebang to the tune of 100%.

And also just like when Bush introduced that banner, Michael Moore had something to say about it. The documentarian’s comments this time, though, have not exactly gone over as well as Fahrenheit 9/11 among the left-leaning set.

The above tweet, more or less wishing death upon legions of Texans, was quickly flooded with thousands of comments calling Moore a variety of names such as “absolute goon” and the like.

Moore’s tweet was preceded, several hours earlier, by a nearly identical dispatch from former MSNBC pundit Keith Olbermann, who similarly suggested that the state of Texas should not have access to the vaccine.

Although many Texans likely agree with Governor Abbott’s decision for selfish reasons, many others almost certainly do not. Even if a full two-thirds of Texans were ecstatic about haphazardly opening up the state, right as the finishing line for the pandemic is finally in sight, that would still leave nearly 10 million Texans who share Moore and Olbermann’s thoughts on safety prioritization.

It’s not as though the pair’s tweets might somehow lead to the state’s citizens actually being denied vaccination, but they still deserve some scorn. After all, they embody the very same divisiveness and lack of compassion for one’s fellow citizens that Olbermann especially found repugnant in Donald Trump.

As the saying goes, one should never throw out the baby along with the bathwater—especially when the baby is millions of Texans.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Joe Berkowitz is an opinion columnist at Fast Company. His latest book, American Cheese: An Indulgent Odyssey Through the Artisan Cheese World, is available from Harper Perennial. More


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