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| KAREEM ABDUL-JABBAR: Why LeBron Is Wrong About "Honoring" Vaccination Hesitancy |
| 2021-10-07 |
| h/t HotAir I’m a huge fan of LeBron James, both as one of the greatest basketball players ever and as a humanitarian who cares about social injustice. I have written his praises many times in the past and undoubtedly will in the future. I admire him and have affection for him. But this time LeBron is just plain wrong—and his being wrong could be deadly, especially to the Black community. After Golden State Warrior Andrew Wiggins received criticism for refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine for personal reasons, his teammate Draymond Green said the public needs to "honor" that decision: "There is something to be said for people’s concerns about something that’s being pressed so hard," he stated. "Why are you pressing this so hard? You have to honor people’s feelings and their own personal beliefs." To which LeBron responded that he "couldn’t have said it better myself." Actually, it couldn’t have been said worse. On the surface, it appears that Draymond and LeBron are arguing for the American ideal of individual freedom of choice. But they offer no arguments in support of it, nor do they define the limits of when one person’s choice is harmful to the community. They are merely shouting, "I’m for freedom." We’re all for freedom, but not at the expense of others nor if it damages the country. That’s why we mandate seatbelts, motorcycle helmets, car insurance, education for our children. For example, seatbelt compliance is at 88% in the U.S., but that 12% that doesn’t comply results in 47% of car accident fatalities (17,000) and costs U.S. employers $5 billion a year, and those costs are passed on to us. They made the choice, but we survivors are left to deal with the grief and the price tag. The only support for Draymond’s statement is his belief that when people "press hard" there’s something inherently wrong with their opinion. There is no logic to that statement. If I press hard against institutional racism, if I press hard against police brutality, if I press hard against recent laws making it harder for minorities to vote, if I press hard against child porn, if I press hard in support of MeToo am I automatically wrong? On the contrary, the passion of those urging vaccines might suggest there’s some urgency to their opinion. That the situation is serious and we need to take immediate action to protect people. That thousands are dying every day, mostly among the unvaccinated. That the Black community, where vaccine hesitancy is high, are dying at a disproportionately higher rate than whites . That publicly talking about honoring opinions that contribute to their deaths is irresponsible. But it's good self-promotion at low risk - after all, a millionaire professional athlete is unlikely to die of Covid even if not super healthy - the quality of treatment/availability of mAb etc... make a lot of difference |
| Posted by:g(r)omgoru |
| #13 The relevance here, Lebron James, life unlikely shared. With the brain of a hare, A documentary, quite rarely faired. |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2021-10-07 22:49 |
| #12 ^And it's relevance? |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2021-10-07 17:19 |
| #11 No, in the 'Pfizer Scientists Say Natural Immunity Is Superior and Big Pharma Is Suppressing Info for Money' piece. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2021-10-07 16:48 |
| #10 ^In this tread? |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2021-10-07 16:46 |
| #9 /\ Did you see my cmnt on Sasha Polakow-Suransky ? |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2021-10-07 16:42 |
| #8 Why am I reminded of Ambrose Bierce's definition of "African"? |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2021-10-07 16:38 |
| #7 "We're all for freedom but not if it damages others ..." Unless of course you're stabbing your neighbor (nearly) to death. Go set your feral son straight, asshole, and then maybe you can think about preaching to us |
| Posted by: Diogenes 2021-10-07 16:23 |
| #6 And - Kareem thinks we're all a bunch of racists. A shocking revelation, I know... |
| Posted by: Raj 2021-10-07 15:28 |
| #5 Jabbar didn't write this and he certainly didn't do the 'research' on, say, seatbelt compliance. |
| Posted by: Lord Garth 2021-10-07 15:23 |
| #4 costs U.S. employers $5 billion a year, and those costs are passed on to us. Very interesting. Please, tell me your opinion on overtaxing, a shortage of workers, and the devaluation of the dollar due to Covid protocols as it affects the price of products. To be clear, products still available. The story here, if you are normal and don't give a tune for the NBA, is that a few weeks ago the official policy was that for the players, the shot was optional. Then some big names like Wiggins said publicly that he already had the covid so he didn't need the shot, and, in short, for his situation, it was an unnecessary medical procedure. Well, that is triple plus wrong think as we can't have non-binary decisions, make medical decisions based on your current condition, or bring light to the Black community's overall opinion on the matter. So now you have the NBA losing its shit and calling in favors, and working to make the shot mandatory for players on threat of penalties and bench time. It is interesting. Month ago it was shut up and play ball and we'll let it slide. Now that someone spoke out of line, NBA brings out the heavy fist. |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2021-10-07 13:16 |
| #3 Lew seems to have spent much of his life wildly successful and very unhappy. |
| Posted by: Crusader 2021-10-07 10:18 |
| #2 Why do people keep asking the POS opinion about anything? |
| Posted by: Chris 2021-10-07 09:42 |
| #1 I wouldn't take either one's advice on what to use to clean a cesspool. |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2021-10-07 07:49 |