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trike's review
3.0
This is a story of our time, about a plague agency of Australia permanently locking down that country’s borders to prevent a pandemic, any pandemic, from getting a toehold. Except it’s about the abuse of that power, keeping people prisoners when there really isn’t anything to fear, other than the overreach of government power.
I don’t know how to feel about that, to be honest. I am, of course, suspicious about government power, but all this anti-science nonsense we’re experiencing now with anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers claiming their freedoms are being abridged when asked to do simple, common-sense things that keep them and everyone else safe is beyond aggravating. I truly do not care if an anti-vaxxer dies from COVID. But they’re selfishly endangering their kids, their neighbors, their fellow citizens, and me.
So a story like this makes me wonder if Coleman is likewise an anti-vaxxer/anti-masker. It’s hard to tell from this story, because the government *has* gone too far here with their quarantine procedures, but it’s absurdly easy to set up a straw man to make your story work and to emphasize those themes. On the other hand, the core of the story is about delivering a vaccine so that Australia can reopen safely, and the government trying to suppress that information. Australia has been far more strict and decisive in its lockdowns, and I understand that lots of people don’t like lockdowns, but there is no question they have saved lives. In the US we were late to that and to date over 620,000 people have died from COVID. Look at neighbors Sweden and Norway, or neighboring provinces in Italy, which have taken the two opposite approaches, and it’s plain as day that quarantines work to save lives.
So like a lot of good tales there is a certain ambiguity here and the message might be read both ways.
At the end of the day this is well-written but overlong. She could’ve accomplished her task in a third of the pages. I’m just afraid the wrong people will take the wrong message from this.
——
Edit: I’m happy to report that Coleman is decidedly pro-vaccine and all the other side-of-the-angels stuff that any common-sense-having person should be.
https://ibb.co/rd9zgPf
I don’t know how to feel about that, to be honest. I am, of course, suspicious about government power, but all this anti-science nonsense we’re experiencing now with anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers claiming their freedoms are being abridged when asked to do simple, common-sense things that keep them and everyone else safe is beyond aggravating. I truly do not care if an anti-vaxxer dies from COVID. But they’re selfishly endangering their kids, their neighbors, their fellow citizens, and me.
So a story like this makes me wonder if Coleman is likewise an anti-vaxxer/anti-masker. It’s hard to tell from this story, because the government *has* gone too far here with their quarantine procedures, but it’s absurdly easy to set up a straw man to make your story work and to emphasize those themes. On the other hand, the core of the story is about delivering a vaccine so that Australia can reopen safely, and the government trying to suppress that information. Australia has been far more strict and decisive in its lockdowns, and I understand that lots of people don’t like lockdowns, but there is no question they have saved lives. In the US we were late to that and to date over 620,000 people have died from COVID. Look at neighbors Sweden and Norway, or neighboring provinces in Italy, which have taken the two opposite approaches, and it’s plain as day that quarantines work to save lives.
So like a lot of good tales there is a certain ambiguity here and the message might be read both ways.
At the end of the day this is well-written but overlong. She could’ve accomplished her task in a third of the pages. I’m just afraid the wrong people will take the wrong message from this.
——
Edit: I’m happy to report that Coleman is decidedly pro-vaccine and all the other side-of-the-angels stuff that any common-sense-having person should be.
https://ibb.co/rd9zgPf
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