I’m borrowing the title phrase from Bill Maher, who may have originated it. The instant I heard that phrase I felt it applies to pretty much every frequent poster on Nextdoor in my neighborhood, Pleasure Point. Although anyone can be a scold, Maher applies the term to a group he has christened “Whole Foodies,” people who have the resources and sensibilities to shop at/get deliveries from WF or its competitors, and who spend much of their copious spare time scolding people who aren’t Doing the Right Thing.

Full disclosure: I shop at WF and New Leaf. Also, I’m not a particular fan of Bill Maher. In fact, I would characterize him as a scold.

From the beginning of this pandemic I have expressed disappointment in my cohort, Baby Boomers, but that wasn’t fair. A lot of BBs are working in retail jobs in their 70s, or living in RVs and working seasonally in Amazon warehouses. Some are choosing between medications and food, and some are homeless. Many, including most of my friends, are very sympathetic to the majority of people who are forced to work in questionable settings, are laid off and therefore in danger of losing their financial security or even their domiciles, or are suffering from untreated illnesses ranging from depression to cancer due to pandemic care redirection.

The ones who disappoint me are well-heeled, although they would not say so; mostly retired, or working at home-based computer jobs; and, primarily, scolding everyone else for not taking Covid restrictions seriously, without considering others’ situations.

In advance of the Labor Day weekend, local headlines read, Beaches Closed for Labor Day. If you read the copy, you learned that the restriction extended from 5 am Saturday to 5 pm Monday, excepting 4 pm to 8 pm on Saturday and Sunday, and that crossing the beaches to participate in water sports was never prohibited. Utopia members nonetheless flooded Nextdoor with complaints about people doing things that people were allowed to do. We went to the beach Sunday afternoon ourselves and observed everyone conforming to social distancing rules.

Even worse, to me, are those who complain about ongoing social justice protests. Should we just let some more Black people be shot while we cower at home? It’s possible to take precautions while protesting, and most do. Black Lives Matter. If white BBs had been being shot by police at the same rate for the last several decades, well, that’s actually not possible, because it would have stopped a long time ago.

I’m finally reading Barry’s 2004 book The Great Influenza, about the flu pandemic in 1918-1919. I wanted to find out why transmission-reducing restrictions weren’t imposed on society for this disease that was much, much more contagious and deadly than Covid-19. The main reason was WWI. The US was among the governments running shockingly authoritarian propaganda campaigns to keep everyone focused on prosecuting the war at the highest level. That flu is known as Spanish flu here because Spain, being neutral, was the only country whose papers were accurately reporting it. It most likely started in the US.

US papers would not even publish appeals to take precautions, despite pleas from high-ranking public health officials and some municipal government leaders, because federal retaliation was so severe. I found it mildly comforting that we had another authoritarian administration so recently; perhaps that at least is a recoverable disease.

The 1918 flu had multiple forms, at least one of which was of Station Eleven level lethality: get infected in the morning and die before the day is out. Sadly, it co-opted the strong immune systems of younger people, turning them against their own bodies. For this form, most victims were between 20 and 40.

This single disease was responsible for 47% of deaths during that period, and on its own reduced the US life-expectancy by ten years.

Maybe the scolders are worried that Covid will take a lethal turn, or even if doesn’t, that something worse will come about. I can be sympathetic toward people who are filled with fear, which is surely a stressful way to live. As shaming scolders, though, they are not persuasive. Utopia for scolders is dystopia for the rest of us.