Please hate this
Quarantine has given us so much CONTENT. And, like a river of waste, most of it is shit. The cartoon above, shared on Facebook, really gets my girdle.
Grocery store workers are not superheroes. They are employees who do not have a choice but to go to work. And yes, they work hard, but they are helping grocery stores stay open. But they are not volunteering to be there out of some sense of duty. They do because the system around them has given them this job as one of only a few options. Because those that hoard the wealth are the ones who don’t have to go to work.
Superheros are not heroes, hence the super. Their power comes from some arbitrary power that they did not earn, giving them an on-the-nose metaphor for privilege. So don’t equate grocery store workers with them, because it’s not like these workers were just given their role at random. They are part of a system. See #1.
Please be nice and grateful to those still working in essential business. They deserve you respect, but let’s not suddenly create a story where they are suddenly our saviors when up until now they have been ignored.
Want to thank them? Give them PTO and benefits. They don’t have super-healing powers.
Just wait until you hear my hot takes on Tiger King!