The Grim Reaper is a really nice touch:
Reminds me of that part in Mother Night (by Kurt Vonnegut, a must-read) in which a character chants, almost melodiously, the German phrase: “Leichenträger zur Wache!” (“Corpse-carriers to the guardhouse!”) He’s remembering Auschwitz, and how prisoners there were called upon to carry the bodies of comrades who had died (of disease, starvation, or worse) to the crematoria. These people aren’t carrying real corpses just yet, and this Bad German is hoping they will never have to.
And before anyone comes at me about how the US today, under lockdown, is exactly like a concentration camp, you can fuck all the way out of here with that noise.
Those places under lockdown are the OPPOSITE of Auschwitz, because at least in a lockdown state, where you get to stay safely at home, somebody cares enough not to just let masses of random people die of contagious diseases. By contrast, Auschwitz was a place where they dragged you from your home and locked you in, not to keep you well, but to virtually guarantee that you would sicken and die, en masse. And nobody gave a plague-ridden rat’s ass whether you lived or died. You know, like those “right to work” states in the US where they would rather work you to death than lift a finger to help you survive even a little bit?
One thing that heartens me is that at least two-thirds of US-Americans are, at least, aware enough of the danger that they don’t want lockdowns prematurely lifted. That leaves, however, the one in three who are insane…driven that way, no doubt, by not being able to go out drinking, golfing, or to get a friggin’ haircut. Maybe it’s no consolation to them to hear this..but really, nobody else cares about your pickled liver, your golf game, or your high-maintenance haircut. All those things can wait.
Why the hell can’t YOU?