Yesterday we stopped by a local park to do some training with our dog Bella. As we were leaving we saw Wawa and my very pregnant wife wanted a shake and some food (after my suggestion). As I went into the store, I noticed a sign asking patrons to be patient as they were short-staffed. As I got to the kiosk to order food I saw the same sign with a statement about supply chain issues causing them to be out of items in their cafe. What were they out of? Almost everything my wife wanted. Wawa did not have French Fries, shakes, and even the toppings of their burgers were limited because of “supply chain issues”. I ordered what I could, picked up the food, and made the trek back to the car only to notice that gas had gone up by almost 20 cents. Why? Why are we accepting any of this as normal?
Rorshach Test
We finally got a recliner chair at the beginning of the year but ended up having to wait almost 3 months to get it because of supply chain issues. We ordered our baby’s crib almost a month ago now and that was delayed because of the same reason. This has been ongoing for a while and to my surprise, as I started to look into it, I saw either apathy about it (usually expressed in articles with some form of “first world problems”) or political hand pointing. And as these issues escalated the political hand pointing has only intensified.
If one is on the political left the culprit for all of these issues is clearly the following:
1) Low worker wages and benefits.
2) The unvaccinated/misinformation.
Juxtapose that with the political rights culprits:
1) Vaccine mandates.
2) President Biden’s policies making it more profitable to remain unemployed.
3) Inflation
Our current predicament has served as a pretty clear Rorschach test for people’s innate political beliefs and as usual, I think there seems to be some truth in both (Low worker wages and pilots resist vaccine mandate). However, what’s been fascinating to watch is the jarring reaction of many cultural elites to the predicament. Case in point:
Why Are We Accepting This?
When legacy media is not blaming the unvaccinated for all of our current problems, they then jump to defending a malaise that seems almost completely self-inflicted. And what bothers me the most about it is how if the man in charge had an R after his name instead of a D, malaise would be replaced with “silence is violence”, and all of the supply chain issues would be framed as social justice issues. Yet, here we are. Why? Why is it that circumstances, context, or evidence rarely play a role in determining social justice problems; only whoever is in charge when those circumstances happen? Why are we accepting any of this?