The Washington Post Shows Its Eccentricity

I'm not always in sync with the diarists over at Daily Kos, but I'm in total agreement on their take of a Washington Post cover story this week that took up a sizable portion of its front page.  In that story, WaPo tells the tale of an unvaccinated Italian man—a professional chamber musician who, due to his refusal to abide by Europe's ever-growing vaccine mandates, can no longer "check into a hotel, eat at a restaurant or get coffee at a bar."  In what most people would consider a ridiculous waste of space, the WaPo provides a public service by offering a gentle and sympathetic view of the vanishing breed of over-eccentric chamber musicians.

The story is also an unintentional reminder that American anti-vax whiners have no fucking idea how pampered they are. We're in the middle of a new world war, this one against an emergent virus that has killed millions and which we probably could have stood a chance against, had a portion of humanity spent a little less time inventing new ways to be incompetent and ridiculous.   And we should pity Europe's poor chamber musicians who can't even get a measly cup of coffee without being asked to show their "Green Pass"-- the proof of vaccination required to get on public transportation, enter many buildings, or . . . get coffee.  American vaccine resisters can do pretty much whatever they want, and don't even need to wear a mask!

So it seems that "eccentric" cellist Claudio Ronco doesn't want to get vaccinated, and he has a lot of reasons for that (ranging from "hydroxychloroquine" to "alternative methods" to Nazi passport documents-- did I forget to mention that Claudio identifies as Orthodox Jew?).  But it all boils down to being an eccentric and thinking eccentric things about medical issues he knows nothing about.  Unfortunately, our front-page cellist hero lives in Venice, one of the top tourist destinations on the entire planet.  Venice has tight pandemic rules and you have to show your Green Pass to get on the city's water taxis no matter how talented or eccentric you pride yourself on being.  Our unfortunate Claudio has encountered so much difficulty getting around that he was forced to temporarily move to a home in the Italian hills where you don't need water taxis to get around.

By the way, everyone in Claudio's life is pretty damn sure he should just get vaccinated and get on with his life-- but Claudio appears to be oblivious enough not to care that he's been shedding fans and friends by the boatloads.  But because Claudio is Italian (and from Venice, no less) this is all much more artistic and sweeping and better-written than the American versions of the same story would be.  And thanks to WaPo, we get a slightly meandering story of an eccentric Italian cellist who can no longer take the water taxi through the Venetian canals-- cue the violins (oops, I mean the cellos)!

On the other hand, we get the American version of this story from the New York Times every couple of days--  except the person being profiled is typically a self-employed realtor from New West Bumblebrook who is incensed that she's not allowed into the town brewpub and who, when asked, says that it's because Bill Gates is putting nano-chips in all our medications and now has to go to the farm store to get the livestock versions of her medicine.  Doesn't sound nearly as ennui-filled or drenched-in-sunset-reds without the water taxis, does it?  I'm sure Europeans think our crowds of unmasked "Let's Go Brandon" shouters are pretty damn eccentric themselves, right?

So Italian guy doesn't want to get vaccinated and then finds out (during a WORLDWIDE PANDEMIC) that living your normal life is going to get increasingly uncomfortable if you're not willing to do the one single fucking thing that will help prevent you from dying.  But it is more than that!  Our cellist, being a cellist, wants to travel all around Europe for his concert gigs—without being vaccinated. Our cellist, being a cellist, wants to be able to gather paying crowds into chamber music places to hear chamber music things—without being vaccinated.

And he's living his current lonely and spartan life because "let's have unvaccinated traveling performers flit from city to city gathering new crowds of people in each place (during a WORLDWIDE PANDEMIC) sounds like one of the worst ideas anybody has ever had.  It is near the top of the bad idea pyramid.  Even with vaccination passports it sounds like a terrible idea that should probably just not happen until the surges stop surging-- but being allowed to do it while actively refusing to be vaccinated puts it up at the very top of that pyramid, in the place where the creepy glowing eyeball usually goes.

And the Washington Post, giving space to an eccentric eccentric who is eccentrically depressed about his eccentric life choices having consequences is sending weird signals, here. Did somebody just want to expense a trip to the Italian countryside or the Venetian canals? That can't be it-- can it?  Call me eccentric!