Dispensing with empathy

Is our schadenfreude helpful? [View this email in your browser]( September 28, 2021 [Mail & Guardian]( [Mail & Guardian]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Instagram]( [YouTube]( Hi there, This is how the cycle goes: Step 1: Share the same handful of bullshit Covid-is-a-myth, don’t-let-fear-kill-you posts mixed in with anti-vaccination memes. Step 2: Contract Covid-19, develop severe symptoms quickly. Step3: Get hospitalised and intubated. Maybe get rolled over into the prone position because your lungs are filling up with fluid and you’re struggling to breathe. Step 4: Die painfully. Have family and friends set up a crowdfunding campaign to help your loved ones cope with the financial effects of your demise. Rinse and repeat. r/HermanCainAward, one of the fastest-growing subreddits on Reddit, awards the “Herman Cain Freedom Award” to people who have died from complications of Covid-19. According to the page rules, to be eligible for nomination a person must make a public declaration “of one’s anti-mask, anti-vaxx, or Covid-hoax views” and be admitted to a hospital with the disease. Should they perish, then the “award is granted upon the nominee’s release from their Earthly shackles”. The posts follow a pattern: some variation of how the coronavirus was either sensationalised and could do them no harm or was some plot to linked to something virulently racist [insert anti-semitism or yellow peril trope here]. It is named after Republican Herman Cain, once a US presidential primary candidate, who [succumbed to Covid-19 in 2020]( weeks after attending a rally in support of then president Donald Trump, at which he was photographed maskless. Befuddingly Cain’s Twitter account would continue to downplay the virus even after his death. According to researchers at the [Center for Countering Digital Hate]( just 12 people are [responsible for the bulk of the misleading claims]( and outright lies about vaccines that proliferate on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. “The ‘[Disinformation Dozen]( produces 65% of the shares of anti-vaccine misinformation on social media platforms,” says Imran Ahmed, the centre’s chief executive. Those of a certain generation might find in the subreddit a similarity to the Darwin Awards. These were a series of books and websites that celebrated people who removed themselves from the human genepool in creatively foolish ways. There was even a toe-snub of a film dedicated to it, starring [Winona Ryder during a lull]( in her career. For people who have taken Covid seriously, these awards are the kind of glorious schadenfreude some feel entitled to after 18 months of being careful and living with an overwhelming amount of anxiety and anguish. As journalists and news consumers alike, it might be time, however, to discuss the value of such systematic gloating. Last week, Lili Loofbourow excellently broke down the [“unbelievable grimness” of the r/HermanCainAward]( in Slate. The subreddit, she pointed out, provides very little in the way of constructive criticism or ideological battle. There’s no useful information or, indeed, much of an attempt to persuade denialists or fence-sitters. No one is changing their mind about anything based on the forum. Rather, it has become a haven for internet-goers to revel in the demise of those who got what was coming to them. We have, arguably, seen elements of the same mentality appearing in mainstream titles throughout the pandemic. How many times have we read the headline “Anti-vaxxer dies of Covid” or some such variation? In a case such as that of Cain, a public official, it is relevant. In most other cases, it is not. Especially if that person’s death would never have featured in the news if not for the “gotcha” angle. These are issues that all of us should give a great deal of thought to. It is possible to condemn the immense danger of the anti-vaxxer movement without celebrating the death of its acolytes. We’ll leave you with one of Friedrich Nietzsche’s immortal quotes: “Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster ... for when you gaze long into the abyss. The abyss gazes also into you.” Until tomorrow, Kiri Rupiah & Luke Feltham [Subscribe now]( Enjoy The Ampersand? Share it with your friends [Share]( [Share]( [Tweet]( [Tweet]( [Forward]( [Forward]( [Share]( [Share]( Copyright © 2021 Mail & Guardian Media LTD, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in to receive communications from the Mail & Guardian either at our website or by taking out a print subscription. Our mailing address is: Mail & Guardian Media LTD 25 Owl St BraamfonteinJohannesburg, Gauteng 2001 South Africa [Add us to your address book]( Want to change which mails you receive from Mail & Guardian? [Update your preferences]( to tell us what you do and don't want to receive, or [unsubscribe](. *If you are a paying subscriber, we recommend updating your preferences rather than unsubscribing, as you may miss important information relating to your subscription.