{"id":27157,"date":"2020-06-05T12:48:00","date_gmt":"2020-06-05T16:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/?p=27157"},"modified":"2020-06-05T16:35:07","modified_gmt":"2020-06-05T20:35:07","slug":"covid-karen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2020\/06\/05\/covid-karen\/","title":{"rendered":"Covid Karen"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Folks seem to be debating the best way to define “A Karen”<\/a>. What about this definition-by-example?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m generally not an activist, but I just wrote to the University of Colorado Dean of Students to tell her how I felt that the blatant lack of mask wearing by students on hiking trails reflected poorly on the university. I suggested that her office do an education campaign.<\/p>

I\u2019ve been hiking daily, and in north Boulder nearly everyone is wearing masks on trails, but near the university almost no student-age people are.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It was actually posted by someone who, I think, identifies as a “man” and is about 40 years old, but nonetheless can this be considered the quintessential Karen quote?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Of course, if they’re healthy enough to go for a hike, a 40-year-old Karen and a 20-year-old student are both more likely to be killed in a car accident on the way to said hike than they are to die from Covid-19<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What kind of political beliefs does Ultimate Karen espouse? Excerpts from his Facebook status just after the darkest day in U.S. history:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I voted for Clinton because I thought she was the more qualified candidate, and because I looked forward to our kids sharing the experience of electing the first female president. … <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

and because he’s also quite intelligent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To Facebook and much of social media: By enabling people to stuff their channels with self-selected and algorithmically filtered content sources as opposed to the free press of yesteryear, you essentially helped obscure the truth and mask the accuracy of what was really building.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

and because he cares about Planet Earth:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To Florida: … have fun under water. Your landmass will be 25% smaller by the time our kids are in college.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

and this one turned out to be unarguably correct! Florida is being smothered right now… by all of the New Yorkers who fled the 2018 tax law<\/a> and now by all of the rich New Yorkers who have fled the plague<\/a>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Why isn’t it insulting to “women” (however you want to define that term) if someone says “I voted for Clinton … because I looked forward to our kids sharing the experience of electing the first female president”? Did people who voted for Margaret Thatcher or Angela Merkel need to add anything to “I believed she was the best qualified person for the job”?)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Related:<\/p>\n\n\n\n