vox--2020-07-27--The 2020 election calendar

The 2020 election calendar

Share All sharing options for : The 2020 election calendar With the presidential election less than 100 days away , presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden has long since pivoted to a general election campaign against President Donald Trump .
Still , there ’ s one presidential primary election — Connecticut , currently scheduled for August 11 — left on the calendar before both parties move onto their official nominating conventions .
The Democratic and Republican conventions are scheduled for successive weeks in August ( the Democratic convention was rescheduled from July ) .
Former Vice President Joe Biden is expected @ @ @ @ @ @ @ before the Democratic convention begins .
State and local primaries — not included in this calendar — will take place as late as September .
The presidential debates will also begin in late September and run through October .
Lastly , Election Day itself will fall on November 3 .
Read on for all of the most important events of the 2020 election cycle and bookmark this page to refer back to .
You can also add it to your Google Calendar by clicking the plus sign on the bottom right of this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ app of your choice .
This page and the calendar subscriptions will be updated as dates change .
Read all of our coverage from the June debates here .
Read all of our coverage from the July debates here .
Read all of our coverage of the September debate here .
• Second town hall on climate change on MSNBC Read all of our coverage from the October debate here .
Read all of our coverage from the November debate here .
Read all of our coverage from the December debate here .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Iowa caucuses here .
Read all of our coverage from the New Hampshire primaries here .
Read all of our coverage from the South Carolina primary here .
Read all of our coverage from Super Tuesday here .
Read all of our coverage from the March 10 primaries here .
Read all of our coverage from the March 17 primaries here .
• Wisconsin primaries ( D , R ; April 7 is the election date and mail-in vote postmark deadline following court rulings , as of 8 pm ET on April 6 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ vote-by-mail only ; results will be available no later than 11:59 pm on April 11 ) • Hawaii primary ( D ; vote-by-mail only ; results will be available “ late May , ” according to interim Hawaii Democratic Party Chair Kate Stanley )

Share All sharing options for: The 2020 election calendar
Vox answers your biggest questions about the 2020 US presidential election .
This story is part of a group of stories called
The 2020 presidential election is ramping into high gear.
Joe Biden announced his running mate, California Sen. Kamala Harris, and Democrats and Republicans held their first virtual conventions this summer. Biden and President Donald Trump accepted their parties’ official nominations for president, and the fall campaign season is upon us.
The presidential debates began September 29 and run through October, including the vice presidential debate on October 7. The second presidential debate, scheduled for October 15, was canceled after Trump tested positive for Covid-19, then refused to agree to debate virtually. One more debate is scheduled for October 22.
Election Day itself, of course, will fall on Tuesday, November 3.
Read on for the important events of the 2020 election cycle and bookmark this page to refer back to. You can also add it to your Google Calendar by clicking the plus sign on the bottom right of this page, or subscribe through a calendar app of your choice. This page and the calendar subscriptions will be updated as dates and information change.
And check out our guides on how to vote early and by mail.
September 2020
September 29
Presidential debate in Cleveland, Ohio, at the Case Western Reserve/Cleveland Clinic joint campus
October 2020
October 7
Vice presidential debate in Salt Lake City at the University of Utah
October 22
Presidential debate in Nashville, Tennessee, at Belmont University
November 2020
November 3
Election Day
Past 2020 election coverage
June 2019
June 26-27
Read all of our coverage from the June debates here.
July 2019
July 30-31
Read all of our coverage from the July debates here.
September 2019
September 4
September 12
Read all of our coverage of the September debate here.
September 19-20
October 2019
October 15
Read all of our coverage from the October debate here.
November 2019
November 20
Read all of our coverage from the November debate here.
December 2019
December 19
Read all of our coverage from the December debate here.
January 2020
January 14
February 2020
February 3
Iowa caucuses
Read all of our coverage from the Iowa caucuses here.
February 7
February 11
New Hampshire primaries
Read all of our coverage from the New Hampshire primaries here.
February 19
February 22
Nevada caucuses
February 25
February 29
South Carolina primary
Read all of our coverage from the South Carolina primary here.
March 2020
March 3 (Super Tuesday)
Alabama primaries (D, R)
American Samoa caucuses (D)
Arkansas primaries (D, R)
California primaries (D, R)
Colorado primaries (D, R)
Maine primaries (D, R)
Massachusetts primaries (D, R)
Minnesota primaries (D, R)
North Carolina primaries (D, R)
Oklahoma primaries (D, R)
Tennessee primaries (D, R)
Texas primaries (D, R)
Utah primaries (D, R)
Vermont primaries (D, R)
Virginia primary (D)
Democrats Abroad primary (through March 10)
Read all of our coverage from Super Tuesday here.
March 10
Idaho primaries (D, R)
Michigan primaries (D, R)
Mississippi primaries (D, R)
Missouri primaries (D, R)
North Dakota caucuses (D)
Washington primaries (D, R)
Read all of our coverage from the March 10 primaries here.
March 12
Virgin Islands caucuses
March 14
Guam caucuses (R)
Northern Marianas convention (D)
March 15
March 17
Arizona primary (D)
Florida primaries (D, R)
Illinois primaries (D, R)
Northern Marianas convention (R)
Read all of our coverage from the March 17 primaries here.
March 24
American Samoa caucuses (R)
April 2020
April 7
Wisconsin primaries (D, R; April 7 is the election date and mail-in vote postmark deadline following court rulings, as of 8 pm ET on April 6)
April 10
Alaska primary (D; vote-by-mail only; results will be available no later than 11:59 pm on April 11)
April 17
Wyoming caucuses (D; vote-by-mail only)
April 28
Ohio primaries (D, R; vote-by-mail only)
May 2020
May 2
Kansas primary (D)
Guam caucuses (D)
May 7-9
Wyoming state convention (R)
May 12
Nebraska primaries (D, R)
May 19
Oregon primaries (D, R)
June 2020
June 2
Delaware primaries (D, R)
District of Columbia primaries (D, R)
Indiana primaries (D, R)
Maryland primaries (D, R)
Montana primaries (D, R)
New Mexico primaries (D, R)
Pennsylvania primaries (D, R)
Rhode Island primaries (D, R)
South Dakota primaries (D, R)
June 6
Virgin Islands caucuses (D)
June 7
Puerto Rico primary (R)
June 9
Georgia primaries (D, R)
West Virginia primaries (D, R)
June 23
Kentucky primaries (D, R)
New York primaries (D, R)
July 2020
July 7
New Jersey primaries (D, R)
July 11
Louisiana primaries (D, R)
August 2020
August 11
Connecticut primaries (D, R)
August 17-20
Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Read our coverage of the Democratic convention here.
August 24-27
Republican National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina
Read our coverage of the Republican convention here.


vox--2020-07-27--Congress will finally grill Jeff Bezos. It’s about time.

When Jeff Bezos appears before a committee of US Congress members on Wednesday for an antitrust hearing , it ’ ll be a first on several fronts : The first time the Amazon founder and CEO will testify before Congress .
The first time Bezos will have to respond publicly to a damaging report alleging that Amazon uses data it collects from its own merchants to compete against them , which is something the company has told Congress it doesn ’ t do .
And the first time in a very long time that the world ’ s richest man @ @ @ @ @ @ @ critical line of questioning in a public setting .
Bezos is slated to appear — via videoconference because of Covid-19 — alongside three other kingmakers of the digital economy : Apple CEO Tim Cook , Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg , and Sundar Pichai , the CEO of Google and its parent company , Alphabet .
Over the last year , the House antitrust subcommittee , a bipartisan group of 15 lawmakers , has been investigating the dominance of these tech giants to determine if they ’ re abusing their power .
And , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ simply not effectively enforcing current antitrust laws or whether Congress needs to create new laws on competition .
After all , the core US federal antitrust law was created more than a century ago — many decades before the internet set the groundwork for a few industry titans to amass unprecedented power .
The leader of the subcommittee , Rep. David Cicilline of Rhode Island , has said from the start that he wanted to hear from these CEOs before he and his colleagues close the probe with a final report summarizing their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ can not charge the companies with antitrust violations nor break them up in any way .
But the lawmakers can recommend additions to existing antitrust law or suggest that new laws be crafted .
The committee ’ s investigation , and the ensuing final report , could also apply pressure to the antitrust regulators at the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice to more aggressively enforce current laws to rein in the companies .
Because the hearing will be virtual , it likely won ’ t carry the drama of other packed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ like Zuckerberg ’ s 2018 Facebook data privacy hearings in front of almost the entire US Senate .
But for Bezos , and Amazon ’ s critics , this is still a big moment .
The Amazon chief executive is the only one of the four CEOs who hasn ’ t had to face congressional questioning before .
Cook testified at a US Senate hearing in 2013 to defend Apple ’ s strategies to minimize tax liability .
Zuckerberg has testified in front of Congress on several occasions , about issues ranging from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Pichai appeared in front of the House Judiciary Committee in 2018 , as lawmakers grilled him on topics ranging from allegations of the company having an anti-conservative bias to its potential plans to launch a search engine in China that would have allowed its government to censor search results .
One likely reason Bezos hasn ’ t showed up before : Amazon has , for the most part , been a good thing for millions of online shoppers .
It offers buyers incredible convenience , good prices , fast delivery , and a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Congress members ’ constituents have a problem with that , especially in the US , where antitrust enforcers typically favor companies that treat consumers well ?
Instead , these enforcers typically target business practices or mergers that they believe will harm consumers , such as by raising prices for a product or service .
But the problem for Amazon and Bezos is that the company has grown so enormous and expanded into so many different industries — from online retail to cloud computing to brick-and-mortar grocery and more — that its business dealings @ @ @ @ @ @ @ other Americans , in many other ways .
Some of these people make their living by running small businesses as third-party sellers on Amazon ’ s marketplace .
They ’ re facing increasing competition from Amazon , which sets all the rules and frequently changes its policies and the algorithms that power its platform in ways that can make or break their businesses .
Other people impacted by Amazon policies work in Amazon warehouses and delivery centers , earning pay rates and benefits that are often superior to that offered by retail competitors @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they are asked to hit performance marks that some say are more suited to robots than humans .
And then there are Amazon ’ s competitors — big and small across a growing number of industries — that have been flattened in the tech giant ’ s wake .
When it comes to online retail , the pandemic has only accelerated the trend to online shopping and given Amazon a new leg up over many of its traditional retail competitors .
Increased media scrutiny of these issues is one reason this moment has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cap ( $ 1.5 trillion ) and Bezos ’ s staggering personal net worth ( $ 184 billion ) have probably played a role , too .
And then there ’ s Lina Khan , an antitrust scholar who wrote “ Amazon ’ s Antitrust Paradox , ” a widely read legal paper that argued that current antitrust doctrine is ill-suited to rein in internet giants like Amazon .
Khan is now a lawyer on the congressional antitrust subcommittee .
Despite this growing scrutiny from politicians and the public , Bezos ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the last few years .
In its hometown of Seattle , Amazon successfully quashed a proposed payroll tax meant to combat homelessness by threatening to pause construction on its massive new Seattle headquarters , which would have boosted commercial activity in the city ’ s downtown neighborhood .
Later , the company plowed funds into a local Seattle election to try to defeat those politicians who supported the payroll tax .
It has also sparred with its hometown US House representative , Pramila Jayapal , in a baffling move that has cemented her @ @ @ @ @ @ @ also serves on the very antitrust subcommittee investigating the company .
In 2017 , Amazon used its plan to build a second company headquarters , dubbed HQ2 , to invite hundreds of municipalities across the US to compete with each other in offering tax cuts to incentivize it to move to their cities .
After choosing New York City as one of two chosen HQ2 locations and garnering $ 3 billion in incentives , Amazon abruptly canceled its plans rather than negotiate with locals who criticized the move .
On the labor front @ @ @ @ @ @ @ country ’ s second-largest private-sector employer after Walmart , has alarmed some elected officials , including New York State Attorney General Letitia James and US Democratic senators like Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker , who have investigated or inquired about the company ’ s practices .
During the pandemic , Amazon has fired at least six of its own employees who either protested the warehouse conditions during the health crisis or spoke out about the company ’ s treatment of workers .
( Amazon has said all were fired for violating company policies @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ) And in its core retail business , the company has continued to promote its own branded products on Amazon in questionable ways , even though this type of competition with its own sellers is at the very center of the antitrust subcommittee ’ s concerns .
It didn ’ t help when the Wall Street Journal published a report this April citing former Amazon employees who say the company has used data to compete against its own sellers in ways that a top company lawyer previously said in Congressional testimony didn ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ these reasons , among others , Bezos ’ s time to answer to Congress is finally here .
The company touches tens of millions of people across the US in myriad ways .
And it has garnered even more business and labor power during the pandemic as brick-and-mortar shops either temporarily or permanently close their doors , and more shoppers take their shopping dollars online .
Bezos has said in the past that all large institutions deserve scrutiny and that Amazon welcomes it .
“ I say , ‘ Look , we are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be inspected .
It ’ s going to happen .
Don ’ t take it personally , ” Bezos said in 2018 .
“ Because when you take it personally , you start to do things that are counterproductive.
’ ” “ There ’ s only one way to handle it , ” he added , “ and that is that we have to conduct ourselves in such a way that when we are scrutinized , we pass with flying colors.
” On Wednesday , Bezos will need to do just that .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ to answer your most important questions and provide you , and our audience around the world , with information that has the power to save lives .
Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment : to empower you through understanding .
Vox ’ s work is reaching more people than ever , but our distinctive brand of explanatory journalism takes resources — particularly during a pandemic and an economic downturn .
Your financial contribution will not constitute a donation , but it will enable our staff to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and podcasts at the quality and volume that this moment requires .
Please consider making a contribution to Vox today .

When Jeff Bezos appears before a committee of US Congress members on Wednesday for an antitrust hearing, it’ll be a first on several fronts: The first time the Amazon founder and CEO will testify before Congress. The first time Bezos will have to respond publicly to a damaging report alleging that Amazon uses data it collects from its own merchants to compete against them, which is something the company has told Congress it doesn’t do. And the first time in a very long time that the world’s richest man will be subjected to an extended and critical line of questioning in a public setting.
It’s long overdue.
Bezos is slated to appear — via videoconference because of Covid-19 — alongside three other kingmakers of the digital economy: Apple CEO Tim Cook, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google and its parent company, Alphabet.
Over the last year, the House antitrust subcommittee, a bipartisan group of 15 lawmakers, has been investigating the dominance of these tech giants to determine if they’re abusing their power. And, if they are, whether regulators are simply not effectively enforcing current antitrust laws or whether Congress needs to create new laws on competition. After all, the core US federal antitrust law was created more than a century ago — many decades before the internet set the groundwork for a few industry titans to amass unprecedented power.
The leader of the subcommittee, Rep. David Cicilline of Rhode Island, has said from the start that he wanted to hear from these CEOs before he and his colleagues close the probe with a final report summarizing their findings and making recommendations.
The committee cannot charge the companies with antitrust violations nor break them up in any way. But the lawmakers can recommend additions to existing antitrust law or suggest that new laws be crafted. The committee’s investigation, and the ensuing final report, could also apply pressure to the antitrust regulators at the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice to more aggressively enforce current laws to rein in the companies.
Because the hearing will be virtual, it likely won’t carry the drama of other packed Capitol Hill hearings involving tech leaders, like Zuckerberg’s 2018 Facebook data privacy hearings in front of almost the entire US Senate. But for Bezos, and Amazon’s critics, this is still a big moment. The Amazon chief executive is the only one of the four CEOs who hasn’t had to face congressional questioning before.
Cook testified at a US Senate hearing in 2013 to defend Apple’s strategies to minimize tax liability. Zuckerberg has testified in front of Congress on several occasions, about issues ranging from data privacy to political advertising. And Pichai appeared in front of the House Judiciary Committee in 2018, as lawmakers grilled him on topics ranging from allegations of the company having an anti-conservative bias to its potential plans to launch a search engine in China that would have allowed its government to censor search results.
One likely reason Bezos hasn’t showed up before: Amazon has, for the most part, been a good thing for millions of online shoppers. It offers buyers incredible convenience, good prices, fast delivery, and a vast selection. How many of these Congress members’ constituents have a problem with that, especially in the US, where antitrust enforcers typically favor companies that treat consumers well? Instead, these enforcers typically target business practices or mergers that they believe will harm consumers, such as by raising prices for a product or service.
But the problem for Amazon and Bezos is that the company has grown so enormous and expanded into so many different industries — from online retail to cloud computing to brick-and-mortar grocery and more — that its business dealings impact its customers, and millions of other Americans, in many other ways. Some of these people make their living by running small businesses as third-party sellers on Amazon’s marketplace. They’re facing increasing competition from Amazon, which sets all the rules and frequently changes its policies and the algorithms that power its platform in ways that can make or break their businesses.
Other people impacted by Amazon policies work in Amazon warehouses and delivery centers, earning pay rates and benefits that are often superior to that offered by retail competitors — but some of these workers say they are asked to hit performance marks that are more suited to robots than humans. And then there are Amazon’s competitors — big and small across a growing number of industries — that have been flattened in the tech giant’s wake. When it comes to online retail, the pandemic has only accelerated the trend to online shopping and given Amazon a new leg up over many of its traditional retail competitors.
Increased media scrutiny of these issues is one reason this moment has finally come. Amazon’s market cap ($1.5 trillion) and Bezos’s staggering personal net worth ($184 billion) have probably played a role, too. And then there’s Lina Khan, an antitrust scholar who wrote “Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox,” a widely read legal paper that argued current antitrust doctrine is ill-suited to rein in internet giants like Amazon. Khan is now a lawyer on the congressional antitrust subcommittee.
Despite this growing scrutiny from politicians and the public, Bezos’s company has openly flaunted its power over the last few years. In its hometown of Seattle, Amazon successfully quashed a proposed payroll tax meant to combat homelessness by threatening to pause construction on its massive new Seattle headquarters, which would have boosted commercial activity in the city’s downtown neighborhood.
Later, the company plowed funds into a local Seattle election to try to defeat those politicians who supported the payroll tax. It has also sparred with its hometown US House representative, Pramila Jayapal, in a baffling move that has cemented her status as a company critic while she also serves on the very antitrust subcommittee investigating the company.
In 2017, Amazon used its plan to build a second company headquarters, dubbed HQ2, to invite hundreds of municipalities across the US to compete with each other in offering tax cuts to incentivize it to move to their cities. After choosing New York City as one of two chosen HQ2 locations and garnering $3 billion in incentives, Amazon abruptly canceled its plans rather than negotiate with locals who criticized the move.
On the labor front, the company, which is the country’s second-largest private-sector employer after Walmart, has alarmed some elected officials, including New York State Attorney General Letitia James and US Democratic senators like Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker, who have investigated or inquired about the company’s practices.
During the pandemic, Amazon has fired at least six of its own employees who either protested the warehouse conditions during the health crisis or spoke out about the company’s treatment of workers. (Amazon has said all were fired for violating company policies and not because of their dissent.)
And in its core retail business, the company has continued to promote its own branded products on Amazon in questionable ways, even though this type of competition with its own sellers is at the very center of the antitrust subcommittee’s concerns. It didn’t help when the Wall Street Journal published a report this April citing former Amazon employees who say the company has used data to compete against its own sellers in ways that a top company lawyer previously said in Congressional testimony didn’t happen inside the company.
For these reasons, among others, Bezos’s time to answer to Congress is finally here. The company touches tens of millions of people across the US in myriad ways. And it has garnered even more business and labor power during the pandemic as brick-and-mortar shops either temporarily or permanently close their doors, and more shoppers take their shopping dollars online.
Bezos has said in the past that all large institutions deserve scrutiny and that Amazon welcomes it.
“I say, ‘Look, we are a large corporation. We deserve to be inspected. It’s going to happen. Don’t take it personally,” Bezos said in 2018. “Because when you take it personally, you start to do things that are counterproductive.’”
“There’s only one way to handle it,” he added, “and that is that we have to conduct ourselves in such a way that when we are scrutinized, we pass with flying colors.”
On Wednesday, Bezos will need to do just that.


vox--2020-07-27--Tony Hawk breaks down skateboarding’s legendary spots

When Tony Hawk ’ s Pro Skater , the skateboard video game , was released two decades ago , it opened up skateboarding culture to an entirely new audience .
Kids all over the world who had never picked up a skateboard in real life , were spending hours attempting tricks like the McTwist , Madonna , Impossible , and the Stalefish , and they were doing it at some of skateboarding ’ s most iconic locations .
The developers of the game series recreated historical spots in skateboarding like Wallows , a drainage ditch in Hawaii , that were @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 1980s , and the Carlsbad Gap , a spot at a high school in Southern California that became famous in the 1990s .
In every game level , an ode to skateboarding ’ s rich history was hidden in plain sight .
In the video above , Tony Hawk and Iain Borden , the author of Skateboarding and the City , tell the story of skateboarding history through its most beloved spots .
You can find this video and all of Vox ’ s videos on YouTube .
If you ’ re interested @ @ @ @ @ @ @ can become a member of the Vox Video Lab on YouTube .
Every day at Vox , we aim to answer your most important questions and provide you , and our audience around the world , with information that has the power to save lives .
Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment : to empower you through understanding .
Vox ’ s work is reaching more people than ever , but our distinctive brand of explanatory journalism takes resources — particularly during a pandemic and an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not constitute a donation , but it will enable our staff to continue to offer free articles , videos , and podcasts at the quality and volume that this moment requires .
Please consider making a contribution to Vox today .

When Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, the skateboard video game, was released two decades ago, it opened up skateboarding culture to an entirely new audience. Kids all over the world who had never picked up a skateboard in real life, were spending hours attempting tricks like the McTwist, Madonna, Impossible, and the Stalefish, and they were doing it at some of skateboarding’s most iconic locations.
The developers of the game series recreated historical spots in skateboarding like Wallows, a drainage ditch in Hawaii, that were frequented by skaters in the 1970s and 1980s, and the Carlsbad Gap, a spot at a high school in Southern California that became famous in the 1990s. In every game level, an ode to skateboarding’s rich history was hidden in plain sight.
In the video above, Tony Hawk and Iain Borden, the author of Skateboarding and the City, tell the story of skateboarding history through its most beloved spots.
You can find this video and all of Vox’s videos on YouTube. If you’re interested in supporting our video journalism, you can become a member of the Vox Video Lab on YouTube.


vox--2020-07-27--Tech billionaire Peter Thiel is searching for new political allies. He’s found one in Kansas.

At his Park Avenue penthouse — 62 floors high and with a sparkling nighttime view of the Manhattan skyline — billionaire Peter Thiel last fall introduced to his friends an immigration hardliner who he would back with over $ 1 million to try and transform the Republican Party .
The guest of honor was not President Donald Trump .
It was Kris Kobach .
Thiel , a California venture capitalist , and Kobach , who is running in Kansas for the Republican nomination for the US Senate , were quite far from Kansas that evening .
But the alliance between @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in that state , giving Kobach a puncher ’ s chance to beat the GOP establishment — possibly upsetting Republicans ’ hopes to hold their Senate majority .
In the months since that fundraiser , Thiel has pumped $ 850,000 into a super PAC behind Kobach — and that could be just the start if he wins .
The investment in Kobach is Thiel ’ s most significant political bet since he risked his standing in Silicon Valley to support Donald Trump in 2016 .
And the wisdom of that bet will be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ faces the voters of Kansas in a race that polls show to be tight .
If Kobach is elected , it could give Thiel a loyal ally in the Senate because of how powerful he is proving to be in the race .
That alliance becomes all the more key if Trump loses this fall , which would weaken the Washington influence of Thiel , a board member at Facebook and a founder of Palantir , which has deep ties to the government .
Patrick Miller , a political scientist at the University @ @ @ @ @ @ @ primary , told Recode Thiel ’ s money was “ absolutely critical to Kobach being a viable candidate.
” “ I don ’ t want to overstate it and say that Kobach wouldn ’ t have a campaign without him .
But I think the money that that super PAC is putting into the race — primarily through this one rich guy — is absolutely the lifeblood of the pro-Kobach campaign at this moment , ” Miller said .
“ You take that money away and Kobach doesn ’ t have a lot @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , neither of whom returned requests for comment , are not personally close .
Friends of Thiel ’ s say his support of Kobach hasn ’ t come up in recent conversations .
But Thiel likes to “ collect ” politicians who he finds well-credentialed and intellectual , particularly those who fight with the elites or the media .
“ He has a really strong preference for people who stick their middle finger up to the status quo and conventional wisdom , ” said a person familiar with Thiel ’ s political thinking @ @ @ @ @ @ @ think was more obviously sticking his middle finger up at conventional wisdom quite like Kris Kobach.
” Both with a zest for the controversial , the litigious , and the troll , Kobach and Thiel have also each collected enemies in their political crusades .
They both inveigh against identity politics , the Washington establishment , and a globalism that doesn ’ t put America first .
Kobach has said Thiel first reached out to him in 2005 , which is when Kobach , then a lawyer , began challenging a California state @ @ @ @ @ @ @ immigrants .
A self-professed libertarian , Thiel , who was born overseas and is himself an immigrant , has long had sharply restrictionist views on immigration ; back in 2008 , he reportedly donated $ 1 million to NumbersUSA , a hardline immigration group which today is a prominent backer of Kobach ’ s .
Kobach , as Kansas ’ s secretary of state from 2011 to 2019 , emerged during the ensuing decade as one of the most polarizing figures in national politics , urging the GOP to more seriously investigate voter @ @ @ @ @ @ @ evidence ) and to crack down on illegal immigration .
He had , however , always been seen as a fringe player .
That was until Trump arrived .
Kobach has since advised Trump ’ s administration on implementing a “ Muslim registry ” that would have specifically tracked immigrants to the US from Muslim-majority countries .
He ’ s also weighed in for the administration on voting issues , was considered for Cabinet posts by a transition committee on which Thiel served , and earned Trump ’ s endorsement during his unsuccessful @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
That race was when the Thiel-Kobach bond was tied .
Thiel secretly put somewhere between $ 250,000 and $ 500,000 , delivered in two tranches , into an outside group backing Kobach ’ s gubernatorial bid , according to a person familiar with the gifts .
Some details of Thiel ’ s stealth donations in that race were previously reported by the Kansas City Star .
For Thiel , the Harvard graduate in Kansas fits in with a new crop of Ivy League-bred , pugilistic Republicans Thiel has cultivated as friends .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ 2016 , Thiel ’ s influence in Trump ’ s orbit has faded and he has reportedly soured on the president , not even yet making a donation to his campaign in the 2020 cycle , compared to the over $ 1 million he spent to back Trump four years ago .
Nowadays , Thiel has instead grown closer to rising stars such as Josh Hawley , the Missouri senator who has made a name for himself by fiercely going after Google , which the tech billionaire wants to investigate .
Thiel ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have gone to Tom Cotton , another ambitious , Harvard-educated GOP senator , and Kobach .
Unlike Hawley , though , Kobach has barely , if ever , weighed in on tech issues .
But part of their alliance can be explained by more personal reasons .
A key lubricant binding Thiel to his new candidate is Ann Coulter , the conservative provocateur who last week called Democrats the “ antifa party.
” She is close with Thiel , and is a Kobach super-fan .
Asked by Recode why she thought Thiel and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ took a dig at the GOP establishment and offered that “ it might have something to do with Kobach having twice the I.Q .
of Mitch McConnell.
” Coulter and Thiel have been fellow rabble-rousers in the conservative movement since at least 2010 , when Thiel introduced her to speak to “ Homocon , ” a conference for gay conservatives held at his apartment .
Coulter would even dedicate one of her books to him the following year .
The two remain close , attending Hollywood parties together .
It was Coulter who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s apartment last fall , an event that brought Kobach before wealthy people like GOP power broker Rebekah Mercer and Erik Prince , the founder of the military contracting firm Blackwater .
“ You couldn ’ t turn around last night without stepping on a billionaire , ” Coulter said of the Thiel event in one radio interview .
All that billionaire money has drawbacks , though .
While there is a history of rich out-of-staters spending big money to influence Kansas politics , Thiel ’ s involvement poses a vulnerability .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who don ’ t care about the people of Kansas .
He is relying solely on help from Democrats , Hollywood , and New York City , ” said Eric Pahls , the campaign manager for Rep. Roger Marshall .
Marshall , currently a US representative for Kansas , is the main Republican rival Kobach faces in the primary for the Senate seat .
Thiel made the decision to donate to the super PAC , called Free Forever , after meeting with its leadership in New York last year and hearing a pitch @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Senate race wouldn ’ t turn out like the governor ’ s race , according to a source familiar with the matter .
The tech billionaire has no direct decision-making power at the super PAC — he is merely briefed on the ads and other content it produces after it ’ s made .
But Thiel is pleased enough that he ’ s cut at least three successive checks to the group , the most recent for a half-million dollars last month .
The expectation that Thiel will sink in even more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about the precise size of Thiel ’ s budget — has kept rival campaigns on their toes .
The super PAC Thiel is backing has spent more than four times what Kobach ’ s campaign itself has spent on television and radio ads , according to data shared with Recode by the media tracking firm Medium Buying .
The heavy amount of mailers sent by the PAC have run the gamut of attacking Marshall as “ anti-American ” for being insufficiently tough on immigration , alleging that he voted to fund “ Rosie @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ global warming musicals , ” and “ transgender plays , ” and promising that Kobach will “ stop the next Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
” Thiel may not be making decisions , but the messaging feels Thiel-esque .
If Kobach wins next week , he ’ ll have a tough general election on his hands , too .
Even more Thiel money would almost certainly be needed .
And if Thiel does donate more in the fall , he will likely end up spending more money on Kobach ’ s behalf than he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : Trump .
Every day at Vox , we aim to answer your most important questions and provide you , and our audience around the world , with information that has the power to save lives .
Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment : to empower you through understanding .
Vox ’ s work is reaching more people than ever , but our distinctive brand of explanatory journalism takes resources — particularly during a pandemic and an economic downturn .
Your financial contribution will not constitute @ @ @ @ @ @ @ our staff to continue to offer free articles , videos , and podcasts at the quality and volume that this moment requires .
Please consider making a contribution to Vox today .

At his Park Avenue penthouse — 62 floors high and with a sparkling nighttime view of the Manhattan skyline — billionaire Peter Thiel last fall introduced to his friends an immigration hardliner who he would back with over $1 million to try and transform the Republican Party.
The guest of honor was not President Donald Trump. It was Kris Kobach.
Thiel, a California venture capitalist, and Kobach, who is running in Kansas for the Republican nomination for the US Senate, were quite far from Kansas that evening. But the alliance between the two iconoclasts has reshaped the race in that state, giving Kobach a puncher’s chance to beat the GOP establishment — possibly upsetting Republicans’ hopes to hold their Senate majority.
In the months since that fundraiser, Thiel has pumped $850,000 into a super PAC behind Kobach — and that could be just the start if he wins. The investment in Kobach is Thiel’s most significant political bet since he risked his standing in Silicon Valley to support Donald Trump in 2016. And the wisdom of that bet will be tested just next week, when Kobach faces the voters of Kansas in a race that polls show to be tight.
If Kobach is elected, it could give Thiel a loyal ally in the Senate because of how powerful he is proving to be in the race. That alliance becomes all the more key if Trump loses this fall, which would weaken the Washington influence of Thiel, a board member at Facebook and a founder of Palantir, which has deep ties to the government.
Patrick Miller, a political scientist at the University of Kansas who is closely following the primary, told Recode Thiel’s money was “absolutely critical to Kobach being a viable candidate.”
“I don’t want to overstate it and say that Kobach wouldn’t have a campaign without him. But I think the money that that super PAC is putting into the race — primarily through this one rich guy — is absolutely the lifeblood of the pro-Kobach campaign at this moment,” Miller said. “You take that money away and Kobach doesn’t have a lot of campaign left.”
Thiel and Kobach, neither of whom returned requests for comment, are not personally close. Friends of Thiel’s say his support of Kobach hasn’t come up in recent conversations. But Thiel likes to “collect” politicians who he finds well-credentialed and intellectual, particularly those who fight with the elites or the media.
“He has a really strong preference for people who stick their middle finger up to the status quo and conventional wisdom,” said a person familiar with Thiel’s political thinking. “There is nobody who I think was more obviously sticking his middle finger up at conventional wisdom quite like Kris Kobach.”
Both with a zest for the controversial, the litigious, and the troll, Kobach and Thiel have also each collected enemies in their political crusades. They both inveigh against identity politics, the Washington establishment, and a globalism that doesn’t put America first.
Kobach has said Thiel first reached out to him in 2005, which is when Kobach, then a lawyer, began challenging a California state law that gave in-state tuition to undocumented immigrants. A self-professed libertarian, Thiel, who was born overseas and is himself an immigrant, has long had sharply restrictionist views on immigration; back in 2008, he reportedly donated $1 million to NumbersUSA, a hardline immigration group which today is a prominent backer of Kobach’s.
Kobach, as Kansas’s secretary of state from 2011 to 2019, emerged during the ensuing decade as one of the most polarizing figures in national politics, urging the GOP to more seriously investigate voter fraud (of which there is limited evidence) and to crack down on illegal immigration. He had, however, always been seen as a fringe player. That was until Trump arrived.
Kobach has since advised Trump’s administration on implementing a “Muslim registry” that would have specifically tracked immigrants to the US from Muslim-majority countries. He’s also weighed in for the administration on voting issues, was considered for Cabinet posts by a transition committee on which Thiel served, and earned Trump’s endorsement during his unsuccessful bid for governor of Kansas in 2018.
That race was when the Thiel-Kobach bond was tied. Thiel secretly put somewhere between $250,000 and $500,000, delivered in two tranches, into an outside group backing Kobach’s gubernatorial bid, according to a person familiar with the gifts. Some details of Thiel’s stealth donations in that race were previously reported by the Kansas City Star.
For Thiel, the Harvard graduate in Kansas fits in with a new crop of Ivy League-bred, pugilistic Republicans Thiel has cultivated as friends. Despite his proud support for Trump in 2016, Thiel’s influence in Trump’s orbit has faded and he has reportedly soured on the president, not even yet making a donation to his campaign in the 2020 cycle, compared to the over $1 million he spent to back Trump four years ago. Nowadays, Thiel has instead grown closer to rising stars such as Josh Hawley, the Missouri senator who has made a name for himself by fiercely going after Google, which the tech billionaire wants to investigate.
Thiel’s only checks to candidates this cycle have gone to Tom Cotton, another ambitious, Harvard-educated GOP senator, and Kobach. Unlike Hawley, though, Kobach has barely, if ever, weighed in on tech issues.
But part of their alliance can be explained by more personal reasons. A key lubricant binding Thiel to his new candidate is Ann Coulter, the conservative provocateur who last week called Democrats the “antifa party.” She is close with Thiel, and is a Kobach super-fan.
Asked by Recode why she thought Thiel and Kobach felt such a kinship, Coulter took a dig at the GOP establishment and offered that “it might have something to do with Kobach having twice the I.Q. of Mitch McConnell.”
Coulter and Thiel have been fellow rabble-rousers in the conservative movement since at least 2010, when Thiel introduced her to speak to “Homocon,” a conference for gay conservatives held at his apartment. Coulter would even dedicate one of her books to him the following year. The two remain close, attending Hollywood parties together.
It was Coulter who co-hosted that Kobach fundraiser at Thiel’s apartment last fall, an event that brought Kobach before wealthy people like GOP power broker Rebekah Mercer and Erik Prince, the founder of the military contracting firm Blackwater.
“You couldn’t turn around last night without stepping on a billionaire,” Coulter said of the Thiel event in one radio interview.
All that billionaire money has drawbacks, though. While there is a history of rich out-of-staters spending big money to influence Kansas politics, Thiel’s involvement poses a vulnerability.
“Kris’s support comes from those who don’t care about the people of Kansas. He is relying solely on help from Democrats, Hollywood, and New York City,” said Eric Pahls, the campaign manager for Rep. Roger Marshall. Marshall, currently a US representative for Kansas, is the main Republican rival Kobach faces in the primary for the Senate seat.
Thiel made the decision to donate to the super PAC, called Free Forever, after meeting with its leadership in New York last year and hearing a pitch on Kobach’s chances and why the Senate race wouldn’t turn out like the governor’s race, according to a source familiar with the matter. The tech billionaire has no direct decision-making power at the super PAC — he is merely briefed on the ads and other content it produces after it’s made. But Thiel is pleased enough that he’s cut at least three successive checks to the group, the most recent for a half-million dollars last month.
The expectation that Thiel will sink in even more money — rumors swirl in Kansas politics about the precise size of Thiel’s budget — has kept rival campaigns on their toes.
The super PAC Thiel is backing has spent more than four times what Kobach’s campaign itself has spent on television and radio ads, according to data shared with Recode by the media tracking firm Medium Buying. The heavy amount of mailers sent by the PAC have run the gamut of attacking Marshall as “anti-American” for being insufficiently tough on immigration, alleging that he voted to fund “Rosie O’Donnell summer camp,” “global warming musicals,” and “transgender plays,” and promising that Kobach will “stop the next Ruth Bader Ginsburg.” Thiel may not be making decisions, but the messaging feels Thiel-esque.
If Kobach wins next week, he’ll have a tough general election on his hands, too. Even more Thiel money would almost certainly be needed.
And if Thiel does donate more in the fall, he will likely end up spending more money on Kobach’s behalf than he had on behalf of his previous bet: Trump.


vox--2020-07-27--Comic-Con 2020 was entirely virtual — but was it still magical?

No Hall H. No artist alley .
No cosplay .
No swank elite parties .
No endless convention exhibit space teeming with swag .
Without all the trappings , is Comic-Con still really Comic-Con ?
Geeks the world over asked themselves this question as they experienced Comic-Con At Home last week , the virtual pandemic-proof iteration of the nation ’ s biggest annual fan convention , San Diego Comic-Con ( SDCC ) .
Comic-Con has become a cultural juggernaut since its founding in 1970 ; this year was the first in the convention ’ s history that did not take @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a version of Comic-Con still happened : Stripped of most of its in-person events and spectacle , the virtual SDCC focused on presenting free livestreamed panels to guests , all of which are still available to view afterward through Comic-Con ’ s YouTube channel .
The con ran for its typical five-day stretch ( Wednesday , July 22 , through Sunday , July 26 ) .
But even this salvageable aspect of the convention was scrawnier than usual : Far fewer panels and participants populated the schedule , and none of them had @ @ @ @ @ @ @ star-studded Marvel panel in Hall H ( the San Diego Convention Center ’ s biggest and most famous panel room ) .
Many of the convention ’ s other events also moved online , from movie nights to staples like cosplay .
You might think this would all lead to a much less exciting convention .
But that might be underestimating the power of Comic-Con .
How do you recreate the important elements of the convention ?
Tony Kim would have been spending his 15th year at San Diego Comic-Con this year .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ store The Hero Within , brings his wares to the exhibitor ’ s alley each year .
“ There ’ s a million people and the booth ’ s typically super jam-packed , ” he told me .
“ For us , it ’ s this crazy whirlwind experience where we ’ re climbing all over each other and checking out customers and pushing inventory — so it ’ s such a crazy experience doing a booth at Comic-Con.
” This year , however , Kim ’ s exhibitor booth was entirely virtual @ @ @ @ @ @ @ exhibitor and artist alley experience for Comic-Con At Home , the convention built an interactive online version of its typical floor plan map .
“ They ’ re calling it a virtual exhibit hall , ” Kim explained .
The floor plan , which is still online after the con , lets you browse vendor booths , studio exhibits , and fan organizations , with an extra interactive component that links out to the websites of everyone who ’ s participating .
That way “ visitors ” can still shop their favorite booths @ @ @ @ @ @ @ art show also still happened .
But in 2020 , it was on Tumblr , not in a convention hall .
“ This is quite the change because we ’ re just looking at monitors , and I ’ m just sitting here in my backyard , ” Kim told me .
“ So it ’ s certainly more peaceful.
” It wasn ’ t the same , but it did seem effective : At one point on Wednesday , the day the virtual exhibit hall launched , Kim reported having 80 people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and several of his Comic-Con exclusives quickly sold out .
The boost was a much-needed boon to Kim ’ s business , which he says was “ decimated ” by Covid-19 .
“ Fortunately , we ’ ve had the internet , ” he told me .
“ You can imagine , 20 years ago if this happened , then no one would have had a chance to even survive .
The internet is what ’ s allowing us to keep pushing sales .
But with everyone driving all of their experiences online @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for a customer , it ’ s like trying to drink water out of a fire hydrant .
“ In reality , there ’ s no real difference between today and yesterday , ” he told me on the first day of the convention , “ because people can just go online ... the basic shopping experience is still the same .
We didn ’ t really expect it to be a tremendous change .
But [ so far at the convention ] , it ’ s been great — we had a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have been very responsive , very interactive.
” Kim said he had participated in other virtual events in the past and hadn ’ t really seen much impact on his business .
But there was something about Comic-Con in this pandemic , he told me , that made a difference .
“ You can tell that after being cooped up for five or six months , and the stress [ and ] anxiety of whatever is going on , you can just see that people are really just dying to engage in a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ much is clear just from thumbing through social media .
Across Instagram and Twitter , Comic-Con fans posted nostalgic photos from previous convention years — particularly cosplay .
Some people tried to recreate cosplay at home , in whatever creative ways they could : So , to some degree , the most familiar aspects of the convention — the panels and fan experiences , the cosplay , the artistry , the cool merch — were recreated .
For corporations and studios trying to bring their content to the con , however , things @ @ @ @ @ @ @ been odd this year anyway .
But the online component has made it even odder .
Comic-Con in 2020 probably would have seen a lull in main-event programming no matter what .
Last year , Marvel and Star Wars each wrapped up major franchise series , and both studios are in the middle of a regroup .
After a triumphant return to Hall H in 2019 , Marvel Studios opted to sit out this year ’ s Comic-Con , while the only Star Wars panel on the schedule was about audiobooks .
DC @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , perhaps saving its main movie programming for its own upcoming con , August ’ s DC Fandome .
Instead , at Comic-Con proper , Marvel ’ s and DC ’ s main panels focused on their comic books instead of any film and TV offerings .
In a year where movie premieres have been postponed and movie production has ground to a halt , there ’ s just not much else to talk about .
Disney ’ s non-Marvel , non-Star Wars panels were specific to original shows on its Disney+ streaming @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , which ostensibly have nothing to do with Comic-Con , were among the most visible aspects of this year ’ s convention , in part because everything was online .
Because they were at the mercy of the internet this year , many of Comic-Con ’ s biggest presenters were dependent on their streaming partners and platforms .
Did you want to participate in one of the convention ’ s group-watch parties for cult movies , TV shows , and anime ?
You could only join if you were subscribed to the right @ @ @ @ @ @ @ one of this year ’ s offerings , you ’ d have needed subscriptions to Netflix , Disney+ , Amazon Prime , and Funimation — and be located in the US or Canada .
Because Cartoon Network has a hub on the new HBO Max platform , for example , all of its main Comic-Con programming participation was in concert with HBO Max .
But that ’ s not a typical move for the network — and it created the open question of how Cartoon Network could deliver its more typical content , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s known for .
“ It ’ s very different .
It ’ s different for everybody , ” said Jill King , who ’ s been going to Comic-Con for years .
King , the senior vice president of marketing for Adult Swim and Cartoon Network , would have normally spent the middle of July running around San Diego to make sure things were in place for the networks ’ annual lawn exhibition , Adult Swim on the Green .
“ In normal Comic-Con time , we ’ d all obviously @ @ @ @ @ @ @ day and night setting up .
... Obviously when Covid hit , we immediately had to pivot like everybody else.
” That pivot involved figuring out a way for the network to still deliver some kind of Comic-Con experience to would-be attendees .
For Cartoon Network fans , King told me , the appeal of SDCC is about more than panels and big surprise announcements from the network .
It also involves events like meet-and-greets with creatives , fun swag , and especially the chance to hang out with fellow fans they only @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the convention .
“ We wanted to recreate our Adult Swim on the Green experience , ” she said .
“ In thinking about , okay , what does that mean , [ we realized ] we love bringing our talents to interact with our fans .
Obviously , as part of the convention programming , we would always do our panels and have Q & As , but we would also then bring our talent to the Green so they can have a more intimate interaction with our fans .
So that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ [ we asked ourselves ] , how can we recreate that in a virtual environment ?
” For Cartoon Network , like DC , the answer involved designing a special separate virtual con of its own : Adult Swim Con .
The separate virtual event also emphasized Toonami and the network ’ s partnership with anime titan Crunchyroll — all details that cater to its slightly more niche adult fanbase .
“ Virtual events now are dime a dozen because of this state that we ’ re all living in , ” King @ @ @ @ @ @ @ re trying to do is make sure that we ’ re really hooking up people .
So if they show up , they ’ re definitely gon na have a really cool experience.
” Amid a more subdued con , the panels were also less star-studded and dramatic .
Though there were some attention-getters , like Shudder ’ s queer horror panel featuring Hannibal showrunner Bryan Fuller , the scheduled lineup largely failed to make headlines .
The big surprise Comic-Con announcements and head-turner star appearances that the convention is known for seemed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s individual side con .
Adult Swim saved its big announcement — a partnership with Crunchyroll on an original Toonami series — for its own convention .
And a panel focusing on Zack Snyder ’ s infamous “ Snyder Cut ” of Justice League , perhaps the one true headlining event , didn ’ t take place at Comic-Con proper .
Instead , Snyder talked about his film ’ s upcoming re-release at a coinciding fan-run event , Justice Con .
Many of Comic-Con ’ s panels ended up being about the pandemic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ panel on building a geek brand .
This year , the panel was subtitled , “ Surviving a pandemic.
” “ There ’ s kind of a doom and gloom sort of cloud over all the content because of the unknown , ” he told me .
The benefits of a virtual Comic-Con may outweigh the gloom Still , for the most part , the virtual approach seemed to satisfy fans .
There was one striking , huge benefit to this year ’ s format that can ’ t be overstated .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ re able to continue with Comic-Con this year , even if it looks a little different , ” Sam Maggs , a frequent convention-goer and author of a novel titled Con Quest , told me .
The advent of virtual panels meant that for the first time ever , Comic-Con was ( and still is ) accessible to everyone , without having to book a costly hotel or pay for travel , or queue for hours in the event ’ s notoriously long lines .
“ The huge upside to this is that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ chance to experience Comic-Con otherwise now get to enjoy all the panels , merch , and art from wherever they may be in the world , ” she said .
“ No more Hall-H FOMO — which I love , too — I could never make it in there !
” Still , some people couldn ’ t stay away from San Diego last week , even if Comic-Con was DOA .
Kim told me that he and many of his friends had already bought their hotels and made travel arrangements before the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he and a group of friends decided to travel to the city anyway .
“ This would have been my 15th year to go , ” he said .
“ And so in an effort to support the city and small business and restaurants , myself and a few others are going to go down — we ’ ll stay in a hotel and just socially distance and be smart about it .
But also just try to , you know , visit and support as many local businesses that we can.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and fan meetups — social aspects of the convention that no virtual gathering can really replace — Kim told me they ’ d be doing their best to recreate that , too .
“ We call it the SDCCM , ” he said .
“ The Socially Distanced Comic Con Meetup.
” Every day at Vox , we aim to answer your most important questions and provide you , and our audience around the world , with information that has the power to save lives .
Our mission has never been more vital @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to empower you through understanding .
Vox ’ s work is reaching more people than ever , but our distinctive brand of explanatory journalism takes resources — particularly during a pandemic and an economic downturn .
Your financial contribution will not constitute a donation , but it will enable our staff to continue to offer free articles , videos , and podcasts at the quality and volume that this moment requires .
Please consider making a contribution to Vox today .

No Hall H. No artist alley. No cosplay. No swank elite parties. No endless convention exhibit space teeming with swag.
Without all the trappings, is Comic-Con still really Comic-Con?
Geeks the world over asked themselves this question as they experienced Comic-Con At Home last week, the virtual pandemic-proof iteration of the nation’s biggest annual fan convention, San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC).
Comic-Con has become a cultural juggernaut since its founding in 1970; this year was the first in the convention’s history that did not take place as planned.
But online, a version of Comic-Con still happened: Stripped of most of its in-person events and spectacle, the virtual SDCC focused on presenting free livestreamed panels to guests, all of which are still available to view afterward through Comic-Con’s YouTube channel. The con ran for its typical five-day stretch (Wednesday, July 22, through Sunday, July 26). But even this salvageable aspect of the convention was scrawnier than usual: Far fewer panels and participants populated the schedule, and none of them had the hooplah of, say, a star-studded Marvel panel in Hall H (the San Diego Convention Center’s biggest and most famous panel room).
Many of the convention’s other events also moved online, from movie nights to staples like cosplay.
You might think this would all lead to a much less exciting convention. But that might be underestimating the power of Comic-Con.
How do you recreate the important elements of the convention?
Tony Kim would have been spending his 15th year at San Diego Comic-Con this year. Kim, who runs the geek fashion store The Hero Within, brings his wares to the exhibitor’s alley each year. “There’s a million people and the booth’s typically super jam-packed,” he told me. “For us, it’s this crazy whirlwind experience where we’re climbing all over each other and checking out customers and pushing inventory — so it’s such a crazy experience doing a booth at Comic-Con.”
This year, however, Kim’s exhibitor booth was entirely virtual. In an attempt to simulate the exhibitor and artist alley experience for Comic-Con At Home, the convention built an interactive online version of its typical floor plan map.
“They’re calling it a virtual exhibit hall,” Kim explained. The floor plan, which is still online after the con, lets you browse vendor booths, studio exhibits, and fan organizations, with an extra interactive component that links out to the websites of everyone who’s participating. That way “visitors” can still shop their favorite booths — just online. The customary Comic-Con art show also still happened. But in 2020, it was on Tumblr, not in a convention hall.
“This is quite the change because we’re just looking at monitors, and I’m just sitting here in my backyard,” Kim told me. “So it’s certainly more peaceful.”
It wasn’t the same, but it did seem effective: At one point on Wednesday, the day the virtual exhibit hall launched, Kim reported having 80 people shopping his store at one time, and several of his Comic-Con exclusives quickly sold out. The boost was a much-needed boon to Kim’s business, which he says was “decimated” by Covid-19.
“Fortunately, we’ve had the internet,” he told me. “You can imagine, 20 years ago if this happened, then no one would have had a chance to even survive. The internet is what’s allowing us to keep pushing sales. But with everyone driving all of their experiences online now, with no live events, for a customer, it’s like trying to drink water out of a fire hydrant.
“In reality, there’s no real difference between today and yesterday,” he told me on the first day of the convention, “because people can just go online ... the basic shopping experience is still the same. We didn’t really expect it to be a tremendous change. But [so far at the convention], it’s been great — we had a really great day in sales. Fans have been very responsive, very interactive.”
Kim said he had participated in other virtual events in the past and hadn’t really seen much impact on his business. But there was something about Comic-Con in this pandemic, he told me, that made a difference.
“You can tell that after being cooped up for five or six months, and the stress [and] anxiety of whatever is going on, you can just see that people are really just dying to engage in a sort of time-and-space event experience.”
That much is clear just from thumbing through social media. Across Instagram and Twitter, Comic-Con fans posted nostalgic photos from previous convention years — particularly cosplay.
I miss #SDCC, so here’s a #tbt to last year’s. I can’t wait to wait in lines with everyone again next year! #cosplay #BlackPantherCosplay pic.twitter.com/kZ15B6hSFo — AlexisVictorious (@YesThisIsAlexis) July 23, 2020
This would have been my 15th #SDCC in a row
Since everyone else is sharing #SDCC memories this week, here are some of my favorites plus some cosplay in case you've been missing out Reply with some of yours! pic.twitter.com/LpgFV6BJGn — Trisha Hershberger (@thatgrltrish) July 21, 2020
Some people tried to recreate cosplay at home, in whatever creative ways they could:
The girl in the woods will be with you always. She is your destiny. ⚔ ⚔
I love @witchernetflix and Ciri, so for #SDCC/#SDCCOnline day one here is my closet cosplay! Witcher pin by @NickKremenek, vinyl by @SonyaBelousova highly recommended them both!https://t.co/lOhzlBm5eP pic.twitter.com/k3FGXfCSpk — Samantha (@SamanthaJo28) July 22, 2020
This week I should have been in San Diego with my friends for @Comic_Con . So each day this week I’ll wear a different cosplay on my island.
Thursday: Day 1 Catwoman
This is the closest thing to the Catwoman outfit that @KristinKoga made me that I wear to Sdcc #ComicConAtHome pic.twitter.com/rqQfqUdOs3 — Gabby (@gabby_jo_127) July 23, 2020
So, to some degree, the most familiar aspects of the convention — the panels and fan experiences, the cosplay, the artistry, the cool merch — were recreated. For corporations and studios trying to bring their content to the con, however, things were trickier.
Comic-Con programming would have been odd this year anyway. But the online component has made it even odder.
Comic-Con in 2020 probably would have seen a lull in main-event programming no matter what. Last year, Marvel and Star Wars each wrapped up major franchise series, and both studios are in the middle of a regroup. After a triumphant return to Hall H in 2019, Marvel Studios opted to sit out this year’s Comic-Con, while the only Star Wars panel on the schedule was about audiobooks.
DC’s movie branch also scaled back, perhaps saving its main movie programming for its own upcoming con, August’s DC Fandome. Instead, at Comic-Con proper, Marvel’s and DC’s main panels focused on their comic books instead of any film and TV offerings. In a year where movie premieres have been postponed and movie production has ground to a halt, there’s just not much else to talk about.
Disney’s non-Marvel, non-Star Wars panels were specific to original shows on its Disney+ streaming platform; indeed, the streaming wars, which ostensibly have nothing to do with Comic-Con, were among the most visible aspects of this year’s convention, in part because everything was online. Because they were at the mercy of the internet this year, many of Comic-Con’s biggest presenters were dependent on their streaming partners and platforms.
Did you want to participate in one of the convention’s group-watch parties for cult movies, TV shows, and anime? You could only join if you were subscribed to the right participating streaming platform. To watch every one of this year’s offerings, you’d have needed subscriptions to Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime, and Funimation — and be located in the US or Canada.
Because Cartoon Network has a hub on the new HBO Max platform, for example, all of its main Comic-Con programming participation was in concert with HBO Max. But that’s not a typical move for the network — and it created the open question of how Cartoon Network could deliver its more typical content, along with the quirkier con vibe it’s known for.
“It’s very different. It’s different for everybody,” said Jill King, who’s been going to Comic-Con for years. King, the senior vice president of marketing for Adult Swim and Cartoon Network, would have normally spent the middle of July running around San Diego to make sure things were in place for the networks’ annual lawn exhibition, Adult Swim on the Green. “In normal Comic-Con time, we’d all obviously be out to San Diego, working day and night setting up. ... Obviously when Covid hit, we immediately had to pivot like everybody else.”
That pivot involved figuring out a way for the network to still deliver some kind of Comic-Con experience to would-be attendees. For Cartoon Network fans, King told me, the appeal of SDCC is about more than panels and big surprise announcements from the network. It also involves events like meet-and-greets with creatives, fun swag, and especially the chance to hang out with fellow fans they only get to see once a year at the convention.
“We wanted to recreate our Adult Swim on the Green experience,” she said. “In thinking about, okay, what does that mean, [we realized] we love bringing our talents to interact with our fans. Obviously, as part of the convention programming, we would always do our panels and have Q&As, but we would also then bring our talent to the Green so they can have a more intimate interaction with our fans. So that was really important to us. So [we asked ourselves], how can we recreate that in a virtual environment?”
For Cartoon Network, like DC, the answer involved designing a special separate virtual con of its own: Adult Swim Con. The separate virtual event also emphasized Toonami and the network’s partnership with anime titan Crunchyroll — all details that cater to its slightly more niche adult fanbase.
“Virtual events now are dime a dozen because of this state that we’re all living in,” King said. “But what we’re trying to do is make sure that we’re really hooking up people. So if they show up, they’re definitely gonna have a really cool experience.”
Amid a more subdued con, the panels were also less star-studded and dramatic. Though there were some attention-getters, like Shudder’s queer horror panel featuring Hannibal showrunner Bryan Fuller, the scheduled lineup largely failed to make headlines. The big surprise Comic-Con announcements and head-turner star appearances that the convention is known for seemed to get moved to each studio’s individual side con.
Adult Swim saved its big announcement — a partnership with Crunchyroll on an original Toonami series — for its own convention. And a panel focusing on Zack Snyder’s infamous “Snyder Cut” of Justice League, perhaps the one true headlining event, didn’t take place at Comic-Con proper. Instead, Snyder talked about his film’s upcoming re-release at a coinciding fan-run event, Justice Con.
Many of Comic-Con’s panels ended up being about the pandemic itself. Exhibitor Kim annually moderates a panel on building a geek brand. This year, the panel was subtitled, “Surviving a pandemic.”
“There’s kind of a doom and gloom sort of cloud over all the content because of the unknown,” he told me.
The benefits of a virtual Comic-Con may outweigh the gloom
Still, for the most part, the virtual approach seemed to satisfy fans.
I love everything about comic-con but the things that I look forward to consistently are panels and artist alley and cosplay. #ComicConAtHome is giving me a bit of all of that — Dwight Grant (@DwightGrant) July 22, 2020
I’ve got all my browser tabs pulled up and ready to go for today’s #ComicConAtHome schedule! What’s everyone looking forward to most? pic.twitter.com/RfGvaWHGoT — ruinmysky (@ruinmysky) July 24, 2020
There was one striking, huge benefit to this year’s format that can’t be overstated. “I’m so grateful we’re able to continue with Comic-Con this year, even if it looks a little different,” Sam Maggs, a frequent convention-goer and author of a novel titled Con Quest, told me. The advent of virtual panels meant that for the first time ever, Comic-Con was (and still is) accessible to everyone, without having to book a costly hotel or pay for travel, or queue for hours in the event’s notoriously long lines.
“The huge upside to this is that people who never would have had the chance to experience Comic-Con otherwise now get to enjoy all the panels, merch, and art from wherever they may be in the world,” she said. “No more Hall-H FOMO — which I love, too — I could never make it in there!”
Still, some people couldn’t stay away from San Diego last week, even if Comic-Con was DOA. Kim told me that he and many of his friends had already bought their hotels and made travel arrangements before the live convention was formally canceled. So he and a group of friends decided to travel to the city anyway.
“This would have been my 15th year to go,” he said. “And so in an effort to support the city and small business and restaurants, myself and a few others are going to go down — we’ll stay in a hotel and just socially distance and be smart about it. But also just try to, you know, visit and support as many local businesses that we can.”
As for Comic-Con’s famed parties and fan meetups — social aspects of the convention that no virtual gathering can really replace — Kim told me they’d be doing their best to recreate that, too.
“We call it the SDCCM,” he said. “The Socially Distanced Comic Con Meetup.”


vox--2020-07-27--Coronavirus is making us all socially awkward

Over the span of a single week in June , Theresa , a mother of a 3-year-old in Pennsylvania , attended both a wedding and a funeral .
The funeral was respectful , safe , and socially distant .
The wedding was , well , not .
She arrived at the small barn to find that hardly any of the 150 guests inside were wearing masks .
People hugged and partied on the dance floor .
Food was served buffet-style , which meant guests were standing ( and breathing ) over the food as they passed through the queue .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ use the bathroom — contained no hand sanitizer or soap .
Because of asymptomatic transmission and official warnings about indoor events , she knew going could potentially expose her and other guests to the coronavirus .
But an already tense family dynamic made her feel that if she and her husband didn ’ t make the trip to the West Virginia border , “ it would be seen as an insult , a deliberate dig , ” she says .
( It ’ s because of that dynamic that she asked not to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . )
And yet the setup was even worse than she could have imagined .
The pandemic “ wasn ’ t even acknowledged , ” she says .
It was clear that the lack of precautions was intentional : “ The bride ’ s dad is very vocal on Facebook about how masks are bad and dumb , and he ’ s not wearing one , ” she says .
“ [ My husband ] has one cousin who put something on Facebook calling masks ‘ freedom muzzles.
’ ” She says she @ @ @ @ @ @ @ epidemiologist ’ s worst nightmare is just one example of the social awkwardness of leaving quarantine while a pandemic rages on .
As some states skip blindly toward indoor bars and office jobs and others frantically retreat from backfired reopening plans , every social interaction now feels fraught with a million unspoken tensions .
A simple ask to “ go get drinks ” instantly becomes a test of intimacy ; elevators , already predisposed to make strangers feel weird next to each other , are now an even more bizarre site from which @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is “ safe.
” Because asymptomatic young people are believed to be a leading cause of spreading the virus , our initial ideas about who is safe and who isn ’ t don ’ t hold up , and several months in , wearing a mask has become a political statement , and large swaths of the country don ’ t believe the virus is a threat .
Parties and reunions , for months understood to be virtual-only affairs , are now being rescheduled at restaurants , all with varying policies .
Jody @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in Brooklyn , says he ’ s had to have the “ pandemic talk ” several times .
“ I ’ ve tried to spark conversations with my friend group , saying , ‘ Hey , it would be good to get to a place where we ’ re forthright and normalize saying the risks we ’ re taking , our exposure , our behavior.
’ [ We have to ] be okay with it being part of regular conversation , especially if you ’ re seeing someone for the first time in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ only when he has a good excuse to bring it up .
“ I think it was easier for the parents at [ my child ’ s ] day care to say , ‘ What has everyone been up to ?
’ It was done through the proxy of our children , but when we do it directly with another person who you ’ re friends with or whatever , it ’ s just a little bit more direct.
” There ’ s a term for what Avirgan describes : insinuation anxiety .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ and psychology at the University of Pennsylvania , uses a common analogy to illustrate the concept .
“ Say someone is trying to sell something to another person , either advice or a product , and the adviser says , ‘ I have a conflict of interest .
Here ’ s my advice , but you should know , my advice reflects the fact that I ’ m doing my best , but I get paid more if you take this advice.
’ It turns out that in some cases , that actually @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s counterintuitive , but the person taking the advice , Wilkinson-Ryan says , often “ feels anxious about insinuating that the other person is untrustworthy.
” The direct correlation to a coronavirus-era situation could be walking down the street with your mask dangling around your neck , and then lifting it over your nose and face when another person walks by .
On one hand , it could show that you ’ re being respectful , but it also might come across as an insinuation of the other person ’ s hygiene @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the mask down or lifting it up — feels good for the decision-maker .
“ One thing that helps here is the ability to delegate the decision , almost like playing a social trump card , ” Wilkinson-Ryan explains .
It ’ s not exactly confrontational to say that you can ’ t hang out because you ’ re planning on seeing an at-risk family member soon .
“ It ’ s tougher to say , ‘ I just feel like you guys go to the park too much.
’ ” Every day @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cost of an invitation with the abstract possibility of exposing themselves or others to a disease that could feel like a regular cold or could kill you .
It ’ s a choice that seems easy until it isn ’ t , and it ’ s one that regular people never should have to make in the first place .
Since late last year , Riley , a video producer in New York , had been planning a group couples ’ trip to Mexico in August , but ultimately decided to cancel when @ @ @ @ @ @ @ had reopened quickly .
It was clear that bringing 10 people from different areas of the country together might be unsafe , regardless of what their local guidelines claimed .
( She didn ’ t want to be named to avoid the aforementioned awkwardness . )
One friend , however , continued to push for an alternative .
“ She was sending links to hotels in states where cases were starting to spike , places we couldn ’ t even drive to in a day , and just furiously fighting for some undead @ @ @ @ @ @ @ trip we had planned before we knew what 2020 would be , ” Riley says .
They ’ d never had a conflict before , but their opposing approaches to pandemic safety have caused a strain .
“ I felt like a jerk .
It felt weirdly hard to just say , ‘ I don ’ t want to go.
’ Who wants to go on a vacation where you ’ re just riddled with guilt , anxiety , and uncertainty the whole time ?
” On the other hand , Riley acknowledges @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the trip likely comes from the fact that she ’ d lost her job due to the coronavirus , and she wanted something to look forward to .
Wanting to travel with friends is a perfectly human reaction to being stuck inside for four months without a job .
Wilkinson-Ryan doesn ’ t blame the people who are being shamed on social media for not social distancing or attending events .
“ I actually think people who are making choices that are consistent with the rules in the jurisdiction that they are living @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of leadership , ” she says .
“ Those businesses should not be allowed to hold large gatherings .
The businesses can be held accountable in a way that the individuals can ’ t. ” In the absence of a coherent federal plan to deal with the still-growing threat of the coronavirus , everything — literally everything that matters , including the physical safety and economic security and future of human beings — is now determined by individual Americans ’ decisions .
You can see the problem here : In states where lockdown @ @ @ @ @ @ @ like restaurants have reopened , coronavirus cases and deaths are skyrocketing .
An analogous activity , she explains , is drunk driving .
“ It ’ s really risky to others , and so we don ’ t let people do it .
It ’ s a really unusual situation in which you are permitted to create enormous risks for others , and it ’ s reasonable for individuals to think the risks must be low if they ’ re allowed to do this.
” It ’ s not like the economies in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with them , either .
“ We managed to disrupt our economy [ and ] skyrocket unemployment , and we didn ’ t control the damn virus , ” said Jeff Shaman , an infectious disease modeler at Columbia University .
Now , regular people are left to sift through the mess with every restaurant reservation , business decision , and party invite .
The result is , essentially , anarchy .
Private businesses like restaurants and hair salons have now become ideological war zones , where patrons act out their frustrations on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be there .
Moments like these have had the potential to become national news , often in the form of angry “ Karens ” caught on video berating essential workers over having to wear a mask .
Some are intentionally coughing on bartenders or starting fights after being asked to wear a mask and socially distance , even as a single reopened bar in Michigan has been linked to more than 100 new cases of Covid-19 .
In Los Angeles late last month , one Mexican restaurant voluntarily closed its doors to give @ @ @ @ @ @ @ harassment .
Hugo ’ s Tacos announced that it would be temporarily closing its two taco stands after clerks were repeatedly verbally abused and , in one case , had a drink thrown at them .
Co-owner Bill Kohne told Vox that complaints about unruly customers had started to pick up just after Memorial Day , “ when a lot of people seemed to just shrug off what they ’ d accepted for a few weeks or months before , ” he says .
One day in June , he asked his facility @ @ @ @ @ @ @ stand , and in just one hour , he ’ d seen five confrontations .
“ They were defiant , calling him names , stepping 4 feet back after making an order with a mask , saying , ‘ See .
I ’ m on a public sidewalk , you can ’ t do anything to me now.
’ ” Kohne says that while he ’ s still paying their wages , he gave his employees two weeks off “ to give everybody some time to take a breath and stay home with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ vulnerable.
” “ Public health is not political , ” Kohne says .
“ It ’ s become a symbol of what you believe or who your support , and it ’ s just none of those things .
It ’ s really up to us .
We live in a state here with good leadership , but they can ’ t do it alone .
It ’ s a national problem and it needs a national solution.
” Walking into a business now and interacting with its employees feels stranger than ever @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on the others ’ safety habits and , now , political stance .
At a hair salon in Alexandria , Virginia , in late June , a masked stylist took my temperature and gave me a form to sign before I even sat in the chair .
The night before , the restaurant where my parents and I had a reservation seated us indoors .
We scanned uneasy looks around the dining room , which we shared with at least a dozen other people , but when a familiar song alerted that it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ room , everyone , tipsy on bottles of wine and a queasy facsimile of normal life , joined in to sing .
Each place was just as bizarre to experience as the other , but for completely opposite reasons .
It shouldn ’ t have to be our own responsibility to make the kinds of decisions that have life-or-death consequences that may be invisible to us , but it is .
“ It ’ s funny , ” Avirgan laughs dryly , “ Learning to set boundaries is probably a good life lesson @ @ @ @ @ @ @ shitty way to learn it.
” Rebecca Jennings is a reporter covering pop and internet culture at The Goods by Vox .
Every day at Vox , we aim to answer your most important questions and provide you , and our audience around the world , with information that has the power to save lives .
Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment : to empower you through understanding .
Vox ’ s work is reaching more people than ever , but our distinctive brand of explanatory @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pandemic and an economic downturn .
Your financial contribution will not constitute a donation , but it will enable our staff to continue to offer free articles , videos , and podcasts at the quality and volume that this moment requires .
Please consider making a contribution to Vox today .

Over the span of a single week in June, Theresa, a mother of a 3-year-old in Pennsylvania, attended both a wedding and a funeral. The funeral was respectful, safe, and socially distant. The wedding was, well, not.
She arrived at the small barn to find that hardly any of the 150 guests inside were wearing masks. People hugged and partied on the dance floor. Food was served buffet-style, which meant guests were standing (and breathing) over the food as they passed through the queue. Porta potties — the only place to use the bathroom — contained no hand sanitizer or soap.
Because of asymptomatic transmission and official warnings about indoor events, she knew going could potentially expose her and other guests to the coronavirus. But an already tense family dynamic made her feel that if she and her husband didn’t make the trip to the West Virginia border, “it would be seen as an insult, a deliberate dig,” she says. (It’s because of that dynamic that she asked not to be referred to by her real name.)
And yet the setup was even worse than she could have imagined. The pandemic “wasn’t even acknowledged,” she says. It was clear that the lack of precautions was intentional: “The bride’s dad is very vocal on Facebook about how masks are bad and dumb, and he’s not wearing one,” she says. “[My husband] has one cousin who put something on Facebook calling masks ‘freedom muzzles.’” She says she regrets attending at all.
Attending an epidemiologist’s worst nightmare is just one example of the social awkwardness of leaving quarantine while a pandemic rages on. As some states skip blindly toward indoor bars and office jobs and others frantically retreat from backfired reopening plans, every social interaction now feels fraught with a million unspoken tensions. A simple ask to “go get drinks” instantly becomes a test of intimacy; elevators, already predisposed to make strangers feel weird next to each other, are now an even more bizarre site from which to judge whether or not a person is “safe.” Because asymptomatic young people are believed to be a leading cause of spreading the virus, our initial ideas about who is safe and who isn’t don’t hold up, and several months in, wearing a mask has become a political statement, and large swaths of the country don’t believe the virus is a threat. Parties and reunions, for months understood to be virtual-only affairs, are now being rescheduled at restaurants, all with varying policies.
Jody Avirgan, a journalist and podcast host in Brooklyn, says he’s had to have the “pandemic talk” several times. “I’ve tried to spark conversations with my friend group, saying, ‘Hey, it would be good to get to a place where we’re forthright and normalize saying the risks we’re taking, our exposure, our behavior.’ [We have to] be okay with it being part of regular conversation, especially if you’re seeing someone for the first time in a while.”
It feels less weird only when he has a good excuse to bring it up. “I think it was easier for the parents at [my child’s] day care to say, ‘What has everyone been up to?’ It was done through the proxy of our children, but when we do it directly with another person who you’re friends with or whatever, it’s just a little bit more direct.”
There’s a term for what Avirgan describes: insinuation anxiety. Tess Wilkinson-Ryan, a professor of law and psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, uses a common analogy to illustrate the concept. “Say someone is trying to sell something to another person, either advice or a product, and the adviser says, ‘I have a conflict of interest. Here’s my advice, but you should know, my advice reflects the fact that I’m doing my best, but I get paid more if you take this advice.’ It turns out that in some cases, that actually increases compliance with the advice.” It’s counterintuitive, but the person taking the advice, Wilkinson-Ryan says, often “feels anxious about insinuating that the other person is untrustworthy.”
The direct correlation to a coronavirus-era situation could be walking down the street with your mask dangling around your neck, and then lifting it over your nose and face when another person walks by. On one hand, it could show that you’re being respectful, but it also might come across as an insinuation of the other person’s hygiene and safety. Neither option — keeping the mask down or lifting it up — feels good for the decision-maker.
“One thing that helps here is the ability to delegate the decision, almost like playing a social trump card,” Wilkinson-Ryan explains. It’s not exactly confrontational to say that you can’t hang out because you’re planning on seeing an at-risk family member soon. “It’s tougher to say, ‘I just feel like you guys go to the park too much.’”
Every day, people are weighing the immediate social cost of an invitation with the abstract possibility of exposing themselves or others to a disease that could feel like a regular cold or could kill you. It’s a choice that seems easy until it isn’t, and it’s one that regular people never should have to make in the first place.
Since late last year, Riley, a video producer in New York, had been planning a group couples’ trip to Mexico in August, but ultimately decided to cancel when cases began to spike in states that had reopened quickly. It was clear that bringing 10 people from different areas of the country together might be unsafe, regardless of what their local guidelines claimed. (She didn’t want to be named to avoid the aforementioned awkwardness.)
One friend, however, continued to push for an alternative. “She was sending links to hotels in states where cases were starting to spike, places we couldn’t even drive to in a day, and just furiously fighting for some undead zombie iteration of this great, tropical trip we had planned before we knew what 2020 would be,” Riley says.
They’d never had a conflict before, but their opposing approaches to pandemic safety have caused a strain. “I felt like a jerk. It felt weirdly hard to just say, ‘I don’t want to go.’ Who wants to go on a vacation where you’re just riddled with guilt, anxiety, and uncertainty the whole time?” On the other hand, Riley acknowledges that her friend’s excitement about the trip likely comes from the fact that she’d lost her job due to the coronavirus, and she wanted something to look forward to. Wanting to travel with friends is a perfectly human reaction to being stuck inside for four months without a job.
Wilkinson-Ryan doesn’t blame the people who are being shamed on social media for not social distancing or attending events. “I actually think people who are making choices that are consistent with the rules in the jurisdiction that they are living in, that’s the fault of leadership,” she says. “Those businesses should not be allowed to hold large gatherings. The businesses can be held accountable in a way that the individuals can’t.”
In the absence of a coherent federal plan to deal with the still-growing threat of the coronavirus, everything — literally everything that matters, including the physical safety and economic security and future of human beings — is now determined by individual Americans’ decisions. You can see the problem here: In states where lockdown restrictions have been lifted and gathering places like restaurants have reopened, coronavirus cases and deaths are skyrocketing.
An analogous activity, she explains, is drunk driving. “It’s really risky to others, and so we don’t let people do it. It’s a really unusual situation in which you are permitted to create enormous risks for others, and it’s reasonable for individuals to think the risks must be low if they’re allowed to do this.”
It’s not like the economies in those regions have suddenly shot back up with them, either. “We managed to disrupt our economy [and] skyrocket unemployment, and we didn’t control the damn virus,” said Jeff Shaman, an infectious disease modeler at Columbia University. Now, regular people are left to sift through the mess with every restaurant reservation, business decision, and party invite. The result is, essentially, anarchy.
Private businesses like restaurants and hair salons have now become ideological war zones, where patrons act out their frustrations on workers who are risking their safety to be there. Moments like these have had the potential to become national news, often in the form of angry “Karens” caught on video berating essential workers over having to wear a mask. Some are intentionally coughing on bartenders or starting fights after being asked to wear a mask and socially distance, even as a single reopened bar in Michigan has been linked to more than 100 new cases of Covid-19.
In Los Angeles late last month, one Mexican restaurant voluntarily closed its doors to give its staffers a break from the constant harassment. Hugo’s Tacos announced that it would be temporarily closing its two taco stands after clerks were repeatedly verbally abused and, in one case, had a drink thrown at them.
Co-owner Bill Kohne told Vox that complaints about unruly customers had started to pick up just after Memorial Day, “when a lot of people seemed to just shrug off what they’d accepted for a few weeks or months before,” he says. One day in June, he asked his facility manager to spend time surveying the taco stand, and in just one hour, he’d seen five confrontations. “They were defiant, calling him names, stepping 4 feet back after making an order with a mask, saying, ‘See. I’m on a public sidewalk, you can’t do anything to me now.’”
Kohne says that while he’s still paying their wages, he gave his employees two weeks off “to give everybody some time to take a breath and stay home with their families. Our staff is already vulnerable.”
“Public health is not political,” Kohne says. “It’s become a symbol of what you believe or who your support, and it’s just none of those things. It’s really up to us. We live in a state here with good leadership, but they can’t do it alone. It’s a national problem and it needs a national solution.”
Walking into a business now and interacting with its employees feels stranger than ever, with both customer and worker speculating on the others’ safety habits and, now, political stance. At a hair salon in Alexandria, Virginia, in late June, a masked stylist took my temperature and gave me a form to sign before I even sat in the chair. The night before, the restaurant where my parents and I had a reservation seated us indoors. We scanned uneasy looks around the dining room, which we shared with at least a dozen other people, but when a familiar song alerted that it was someone’s birthday across the room, everyone, tipsy on bottles of wine and a queasy facsimile of normal life, joined in to sing. Each place was just as bizarre to experience as the other, but for completely opposite reasons.
It shouldn’t have to be our own responsibility to make the kinds of decisions that have life-or-death consequences that may be invisible to us, but it is. “It’s funny,” Avirgan laughs dryly, “Learning to set boundaries is probably a good life lesson. But it’s a pretty shitty way to learn it.”
Rebecca Jennings is a reporter covering pop and internet culture at The Goods by Vox.