Supreme Cognitive Dissonance
How the country's high court just displayed the logical breakdown that has been playing out around the world as a means to justify the unjust
For me, and presumably for many of the people reading this, the logic for vaccine mandates just doesn’t hold up, and never really has. But the thing I continue to find mind-blowingly fascinating, and completely and utterly maddening, is that the very behavior of the people who continue to argue FOR mandates serves as a demonstration that they don’t really believe what they’re saying, even if they think they do. They behave in a way that acts as a complete and total dismantling of their arguments. They’re displaying a Supreme Cognitive Dissonance.
Let us take one of the most high-profile debates to date on this topic as an example: The arguments before the Supreme Court yesterday regarding the OSHA and CMS vaccination mandates.
Let us put aside the glaring and terrifying reality that Justice Sotomayor made several false claims regarding things like child hospitalizations and omicron’s lethality, or that she, in all seriousness asked how a “machine spewing sparks” was any different than a “person spewing a virus.”
We could pretend that every fact and figure uttered by Sotomayor was completely accurate, AND we would could even ignore the strong Constitutional argument against these federal mandates.
We could do all of that, and still, the complete and utter lack of logic would be glaring.
Consider first that:
All 9 Supreme Court Justices have been fully vaccinated and boosted
Justice Kavanaugh had a breakthrough infection in October (Read: His vaccination did not prevent him from infection)
The Supreme Court has strict Covid protocols in place, including that:
Attorney’s arguing before the court must take a PCR test the morning before arguments
If that PCR test is positive, the attorney must make arguments remotely. (This demonstrates that, even though all of the Justices are vaxxed to the max, there is still fear that they may become infected. After all, this happened to Justice Kavanaugh, and that was BEFORE Omicron, which has been shown to be even better at evading the vaccines.)
Attorneys must wear an N95 or KN95 mask in the Court (because again, even though this Court has been vaccinated and boosted, they are worried about the infection/transmission, even from attorneys who have been shown not to be carrying the virus)
Now let’s consider the makeup of attendance on the day of the arguments:
8 of the 9 Justices were present in the courtroom
Justice Sotomayor listened to arguments from her chambers, out of caution and concern given her history with diabetes (So, despite her grade-A vaccination status, she’s worried about infection)
Ohio’s Solicitor General Ben Flowers made his arguments remotely because he tested positive for COVID-19.
Ben Flowers is fully vaccinated and boosted.
If you weren’t against mandates before, these facts are ALL YOU NEED to understand why mandates make zero sense and cannot be justified.
Even if Justice Sotomayor believes in the vaccine’s ability to shield her from the possibility of hospitalization and death, she cannot TRULY believe in mandates, because its clear — no matter what she says about their efficacy — that she does not believe they stop the spread of the virus (because they don’t). If she truly believed that they stopped the spread, she would not be conducting business in her chambers, separate from her fellow Justices, if she thought the vaccine would protect her from infection.
Furthermore, Ohio’s Solicitor General Ben Flowers was a walking, living, breathing example of why mandates are senseless garbage. He was vaccinated, boosted, and still COVID positive when it was time to show up for work.
The vaccine may reduce your risk of hospitalization and death. But it does NOT prevent infection or transmission. And if it DOES NOT prevent transmission or infection, then the justification for mandates—the “public good” argument about protecting others—simply doesn’t exist.
Whether or not you believe in these vaccinations, they have proven demonstrably that they DO NOT stop infection.
We all know that now. Even the people who are vaxxed and boosted know that.
Despite their cognitive dissonance, the Supreme Court Justices ALL know that. Even the ones in favor the of mandates. Maybe even especially them.