TL:DR: Neither of us is ignorant; we simply have different ways of making sense of the world.
We are all bombarded with tons of information, so we each come up with our own "theory of everything" to make sense of it all. What sort of theory we choose is correlated with differences in the brain structures of progressives vs conservatives. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/conservative-and-liberal-brains-might-have-some-real-differences/
A theory can focus on the individual, or on the community. One who is focused on the individual may feel that COVID is a hoax, a trial run at totalitarianism, because if it doesn't affect you and yours then it doesn't matter. One who is focused on the community may take seriously the reports of front line health care workers and treat COVID as a community threat. It's all in how one's brain is wired. Ignorance has nothing to do with it; we all make sense of the data that surrounds us by fitting it into our particular theory of everything.
As a progressive, I recognize that racism is a serious problem in this society. https://www.businessinsider.com/us-systemic-racism-in-charts-graphs-data-2020-6 Since my theory of everything is focused on the community, it obligates me to oppose racism. A white person with an individual-focused theory may choose to ignore racism for the same reason as they choose to ignore COVID -- it doesn't affect them.
That was quite a red herring you threw in at the end, about supporting riots and defunding the police. Let me address these separately.
Progressives don't support riots. We support community solutions to community problems. I'm talking about solutions such as the electric grid, the internet, food and water purity standards, worker protection laws, the highway system, social security, etc. We recognize ‘The true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members’ (a quote variously attributed to Ghandi or former VP Hubert Humphrey) We recognize that "riots are the voice of the voiceless" (M.L. King) and so realize that cracking down on civil unrest simply increases the violence and does not address the root causes of civil unrest. Thus, we seek to address these root causes.
As for de-funding the police, much has been written about how this statement doesn't mean what it sounds like it means. It does not mean the total and immediate cessation of all peacekeeping functions. It means the redirection of community resources from enforcement to preventive measures. I personally think it's an unfortunate choice of words, to make a public statement that doesn't mean what it sounds like it means, but I'm not the one who made it and I have no voice in the organization which made that statement.
Sorry for the snark in my initial reply to your message. I get that way when I hear people promoting a “theory of everything” which has little basis in fact, especially one which is not falsifiable. For example, belief that COVID is an experiment in social control rather than an actual disease is not falsifiable. There is no way to prove or disprove it. On the other hand, there is proof that COVID is a serious disease that has claimed many lives. One may deny this, or admit that COVID has claimed many lives but maintain that those lives don’t matter; either response is morally repugnant to one whose “theory of everything” places a high value on the well-being of the community. Hence, the snark. I suppose your snark toward the end has a similar motivation so I overlooked it. But we have a serious divide in this country, a divide not caused by ignorance but by differing value systems and “theories of everything.”
This country was based on a theory which prioritizes the individual, and we now see its end stages. We can continue on this path until the last person standing, or we can recognize the value of a meta-community of peoples and nations. Time will tell which one it will be.l
