To me, it just boils down to treatism and ableism. A lot of the plague rats here got very very mad when I said that going to a movie theater is plague rat behavior. Imagine risking Covid by sitting in a crowded and poorly ventilated room just so you can watch slop that you won't even remember a month later when you could just wait 6 months and watch the forgettable slop on Netflix. Like, people would rather risk Covid for slop than wait 6 months or just watch a pirated version instead. This is how strong treatism is even here. There's no way this doesn't reflect what goes on in real-life orgs.

One of the greatest truths that the able bodied are completely in denial about is that all it takes is just one accident to become disabled. Every day is a dice roll for an able bodied person to finish the day as an able bodied person. But this world is an ableist hellhole where the disabled are treated like second class citizens at best and useless eaters that must be exterminated at worst.

The contradiction is that disabled people are in a world of shit, but there's nothing stopping able bodied people from becoming disabled themselves but for the grace of God. What should happen is able bodied people collectively going, "We will become disabled someday, so let's eradicate ableism so when we become disabled ourselves, we won't have to face this form of oppression." But instead, the able bodied choose to wallow in denial. This denial means denial of the able bodied being able to become disabled and the concept of ableism itself. In their delusional belief, they can't be disabled, so the disabled are obviously useless eater untermenschen who deserved to be disabled and who should know their place and not inconvenient their able bodied superiors by quietly dying in a ditch. Of course, as we are seeing and experiencing with Covid, this denial itself fuels the further creation of disabled people, people suffering from long Covid for this case.

This denial is not as strong for earlier generations. I believe part of it has to do with industrial jobs. If all the old-timers are missing fingers as the article gives as an example, it's a lot harder to fool yourself into thinking that they're just stoopid while you're super duper special who can make it with all 10 fingers. If all the old-timers have lung problems from inhaling too must sawdust or knee issues or a bad back, there's clear material incentive to fight against ableism. It takes less than a second of inattentiveness to lose a hand or a finger and this realization leads people to think about contingency plans in case they do lose a hand or finger. The delusion gives way to material reality.

Plague rats, quite simply, do not believe they'll die from Covid. They do not believe they'll get long Covid. They do not believe their loved ones will get long Covid either and the people who do get long Covid are inferior to themselves somehow, whether it's because of minor lifestyle differences or gender identity or whatever. They believe Covid is "just like the flu," which they also believe they won't die from.