The politicization of Covid

[JohnG]

How did it happen? When did it happen?

There is a bit of horse-shoe theory happening here, but for the most part it's a right/left divide. Was it inevitable? Was it avoidable?

It is very polarized in my home country Canada and the USA, but is it the case in the rest of the world?

Very curious about this.

 

[bilby]

The first serious outbreaks in the USA were in major cities, particularly New York.

Trump and his cronies looked at that, and made a deliberate and calculated decision to let the infection rip, on the belief that the majority of those killed would be from those urban areas that largely vote Democrat. This is well documented and well known, though (of course) a lot of FUD has since been thrown at keeping it out of the public eye.

In pursuit of this strategy they made workable precautions out to be cowardly, leftist and effete; While simultaneously promoting ineffective precautions and prophylactics such as hydroxychloroquine.

Of course, their big mistake was twofold - firstly they underestimated the potential for the disease to take hold in areas of lower population density; And secondly they didn't account for the fact that their propaganda was going to have far more influence on their supporters than on their opponents.

The US, as the dominant force in social media propaganda, then infected the rest of the world with that foolish partisanship, and spread disdain for effective measures (and support for ineffective ones) globally. Internet propaganda knows no borders.

The Trump administration is almost entirely to blame; They committed premeditated genocide in the mistaken belief that the majority of victims would be their political opponents.

"Horseshoe theory" can get fucked. It's another cynical attempt by the guilty to project blame onto those who might accuse them for their crimes.

Donald Trump would, in an equitable world, face international trial for crimes against humanity including but not limited to genocide, and would be convicted and hanged.

But of course he won't be, because evil cunts usually don't get brought to justice if they're wealthy and influential, unless they lose a full blown war.

And the reason they get away with it is that their crimes are so awful that an honest and factual account of them comes across as hyperbolic partisanship - particularly in an environment where they themselves are constantly engaging in hyperbolic partisanship.

 

[Trausti]

The first serious outbreaks in the USA were in major cities, particularly New York.

Trump and his cronies looked at that, and made a deliberate and calculated decision to let the infection rip, on the belief that the majority of those killed would be from those urban areas that largely vote Democrat. This is well documented and well known, though (of course) a lot of FUD has since been thrown at keeping it out of the public eye.

Eh? Have you forgotten that Pelosi told people not to be afraid of the Rona and to visit SF Chinatown? DeBlasio did the same in NYC.

The honest answer to the OP is that Covid became politicized when the establishment said it was okay to gather in large groups for protests (so long as these were the approved righteous protests). The "experts" lost all credibility. From then on, all this shit is political.

 

[barbos]

Trump and his cronies looked at that, and made a deliberate and calculated decision to let the infection rip, on the belief that the majority of those killed would be from those urban areas that largely vote Democrat.

You honestly believe they that evil and that stupid?
US did not do particularly worse than the rest of the world excluding China and few smaller places.

 

[Trausti]

Trump and his cronies looked at that, and made a deliberate and calculated decision to let the infection rip, on the belief that the majority of those killed would be from those urban areas that largely vote Democrat.

You honestly believe they that evil and that stupid?

TDS needs its own DSM entry.

 

[prideandfall]

it's sort of an easy answer, but also a very complex one involving a lot of history over the last 80 years.
the TLDR version is: america is fucking stupid, culturally. americans are even more stupid, culturally and intellectually. shit like the US response to COVID is what happens when you have a country full of idiots who have elected a King Idiot to rule them.
everything else can be nit-picked over and parsed out and blame assigned to various people and places, but at the end of the day what happened is pure brute stupidity.

the long version would require me to write out a thesis paper, but the basic points are these:
* after WW2 the US was basically the only wholly functioning superpower left in the world, which was one of several factors leading to a huge economic boom alongside a massive increase in US global political power.
* this lead very quickly to the US thinking it was King Shit of the world and that it has both the right and the duty to impose its perception of the world on everyone else.
* when russia recovered in the mid 40s and started experimenting with communism moving into the late 40s, the US lost its absolute god damn mind over the concept of an economic system that didn't mirror predatory capitalism, leading to the decades long anal fingerbang that was the Cold War.
* during the Cold War, some dipshit decided that since Communism tended to lean towards non-theism, the correct response would be to amp up US cultural religious fervor, reversing what had been up to that point the general trend in the US of going the way of Britain: ie, that religion was a thing that you kept to yourself and didn't bother other people with, and it wasn't brought up in polite conversation.
* as the Cold War was coming to a close in the 80s, a new generation of religious zealots at least partially empowered by attitudes fostered by the government during the Cold War starting coming into local power and influence and decided to try to extend that to a national platform.
*a necessary aspect of marrying religious zealotry with politics is the suppression of all thought or expression that contradicts the notion of divine authority, and religious leaders being the only people who have it.
* the way you do this is to demonize and vilify anyone who says anything contradicting strict adherence to your religiously themed brand.
* thus in the early 80s began a decades long propaganda war against being smart, against knowing things, against being an expert - to be educated was to be untrustworthy, to to be pig-fucking-stupid was a virtue.
* this lead directly to a trend in the US of a vast swath of the population disbelieving anything a scientist says, and in fact actively denying anything said by anyone who isn't holding a bible and screaming.
* this reached the peak of its current incarnation in 2000 when people thought a drunk coke addict would be a better president than an elder statesmen, on the basis that they'd "like to have a beer with him"

so basically the US has shat itself into intellectual decay, and now (thankfully) moderate scale population death due to preventable illness just for the sake of protecting the sanctity of vulture capitalism and religious fundamentalism.

everything else we're seeing right now is nothing more than the inevitable result of the cultural zeitgeist of a massive country being bent towards self destructive idiocy.

 

[bilby]

The first serious outbreaks in the USA were in major cities, particularly New York.

Trump and his cronies looked at that, and made a deliberate and calculated decision to let the infection rip, on the belief that the majority of those killed would be from those urban areas that largely vote Democrat. This is well documented and well known, though (of course) a lot of FUD has since been thrown at keeping it out of the public eye.

Eh? Have you forgotten that Pelosi told people not to be afraid of the Rona and to visit SF Chinatown? DeBlasio did the same in NYC.

The honest answer to the OP is that Covid became politicized when the establishment said it was okay to gather in large groups for protests (so long as these were the approved righteous protests). The "experts" lost all credibility. From then on, all this shit is political.

Fuck your alternate reality.

Reality exists. And Trump and his administration deliberately allowed this drama to become a crisis.

Reiterating the propaganda is fucking evil. Fucking stop it.

 

[bilby]

Trump and his cronies looked at that, and made a deliberate and calculated decision to let the infection rip, on the belief that the majority of those killed would be from those urban areas that largely vote Democrat.

You honestly believe they that evil and that stupid?

Yes, because I watched it happen in real time.

US did not do particularly worse than the rest of the world excluding China and few smaller places.

So what? Internet propaganda influences the world, not just its intended targets.

 

[barbos]

Yes, because I watched it happen in real time

To me it looked like ordinary stupidity. They thought it would go away.

So what? Internet propaganda influences the world, not just its intended targets.

Yes, but to think that trumpers own whole internet is a bit presumptious.

 

[Bronzeage]

Trump and his cronies looked at that, and made a deliberate and calculated decision to let the infection rip, on the belief that the majority of those killed would be from those urban areas that largely vote Democrat.

You honestly believe they that evil and that stupid?
US did not do particularly worse than the rest of the world excluding China and few smaller places.

Being stupid makes being evil a lot easier. They are that stupid and stupid evil is never well aimed. As vaccine rates increase, the death rate among unvaccinated Republicans continues to climb.

Antivaxxers are especially stupid and are concentrated in Trump's base. Fear of alienating them kept Trump from making taking the steps which would actually curb the spread of Covid19 and worse, touted bullshit rumors about alternative drugs which were of no value in fighting the virus.

He is the man with the best healthcare in the world(no exaggeration) and he got Covid19, and spread it to a lot of people, including a Congressman from Louisiana, who died before taking office. It was a freakshow of shirked responsibility and incompetence.

 

[Swammerdami]

It's wrong to paint all Republican evil-doers with the same brush. For example, their top "intellectuals" — Hannity, Carlson and Alex Jones — are motivated primarily by continuing their multi-million dollar paychecks.

Recall the 2003 Iraq War. The seven most hawkish members of the Bush-Cheney cabal had seven completely different reasons for pursuing that adventure (though all seven reasons were evil).

The present Republican Party is an alliance of stupid people and evil people, and it's good to separate these two groups. However the distinctions become blurred. Many of the leaders are stupid, and some of these stupid Republican leaders are also evil.

Bilby's post can be seen as hyperbolic, since a Republican would have to be BOTH stupid and evil to wish disease on Democratic cities. However I do recall one Republican leader caught gloating that Covid victims were mostly Democrats — I can't remember who: Maybe Don Junior? And of course it's documented that Donald Senior used federal powers to divert tests and ventilators away from blue states.

The first serious outbreaks in the USA were in major cities, particularly New York.

Trump and his cronies looked at that, and made a deliberate and calculated decision to let the infection rip, on the belief that the majority of those killed would be from those urban areas that largely vote Democrat. This is well documented and well known, though (of course) a lot of FUD has since been thrown at keeping it out of the public eye.

In pursuit of this strategy they made workable precautions out to be cowardly, leftist and effete; While simultaneously promoting ineffective precautions and prophylactics such as hydroxychloroquine.

Of course, their big mistake was twofold - firstly they underestimated the potential for the disease to take hold in areas of lower population density; And secondly they didn't account for the fact that their propaganda was going to have far more influence on their supporters than on their opponents.

The US, as the dominant force in social media propaganda, then infected the rest of the world with that foolish partisanship, and spread disdain for effective measures (and support for ineffective ones) globally. Internet propaganda knows no borders.

The Trump administration is almost entirely to blame; They committed premeditated genocide in the mistaken belief that the majority of victims would be their political opponents.

"Horseshoe theory" can get fucked. It's another cynical attempt by the guilty to project blame onto those who might accuse them for their crimes.

Donald Trump would, in an equitable world, face international trial for crimes against humanity including but not limited to genocide, and would be convicted and hanged.

But of course he won't be, because evil cunts usually don't get brought to justice if they're wealthy and influential, unless they lose a full blown war.

And the reason they get away with it is that their crimes are so awful that an honest and factual account of them comes across as hyperbolic partisanship - particularly in an environment where they themselves are constantly engaging in hyperbolic partisanship.

There are many thousands of Americans just as despicable as Donald Trump or Ted Cruz; so blame should fall on the system that gets such scumbags nominated and elected. We need Republicans with integrity to lead millions of duped Americans back to sanity. But instead the GOP is rotten to the core and has become a willing tool of aspiring fascists.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I've quoted bilby in full partly because of his mention of "Horseshoe theory." Does he use this term in a non-standard way? I thought that an example of Horseshoe Theory would be how when the right-wing QOP-Koch axis attains political control, as seems likely, they will lead the U.S.A. to converge with the system and values of present-day China, which is supposedly under the control of an extreme left-wing party.

 

[bilby]

It's wrong to paint all Republican evil-doers with the same brush. For example, their top "intellectuals" — Hannity, Carlson and Alex Jones — are motivated primarily by continuing their multi-million dollar paychecks.

Recall the 2003 Iraq War. The seven most hawkish members of the Bush-Cheney cabal had seven completely different reasons for pursuing that adventure (though all seven reasons were evil).

The present Republican Party is an alliance of stupid people and evil people, and it's good to separate these two groups. However the distinctions become blurred. Many of the leaders are stupid, and some of these stupid Republican leaders are also evil.

Bilby's post can be seen as hyperbolic, since a Republican would have to be BOTH stupid and evil to wish disease on Democratic cities. However I do recall one Republican leader caught gloating that Covid victims were mostly Democrats — I can't remember who: Maybe Don Junior? And of course it's documented that Donald Senior used federal powers to divert tests and ventilators away from blue states.

The first serious outbreaks in the USA were in major cities, particularly New York.

Trump and his cronies looked at that, and made a deliberate and calculated decision to let the infection rip, on the belief that the majority of those killed would be from those urban areas that largely vote Democrat. This is well documented and well known, though (of course) a lot of FUD has since been thrown at keeping it out of the public eye.

In pursuit of this strategy they made workable precautions out to be cowardly, leftist and effete; While simultaneously promoting ineffective precautions and prophylactics such as hydroxychloroquine.

Of course, their big mistake was twofold - firstly they underestimated the potential for the disease to take hold in areas of lower population density; And secondly they didn't account for the fact that their propaganda was going to have far more influence on their supporters than on their opponents.

The US, as the dominant force in social media propaganda, then infected the rest of the world with that foolish partisanship, and spread disdain for effective measures (and support for ineffective ones) globally. Internet propaganda knows no borders.

The Trump administration is almost entirely to blame; They committed premeditated genocide in the mistaken belief that the majority of victims would be their political opponents.

"Horseshoe theory" can get fucked. It's another cynical attempt by the guilty to project blame onto those who might accuse them for their crimes.

Donald Trump would, in an equitable world, face international trial for crimes against humanity including but not limited to genocide, and would be convicted and hanged.

But of course he won't be, because evil cunts usually don't get brought to justice if they're wealthy and influential, unless they lose a full blown war.

And the reason they get away with it is that their crimes are so awful that an honest and factual account of them comes across as hyperbolic partisanship - particularly in an environment where they themselves are constantly engaging in hyperbolic partisanship.

There are many thousands of Americans just as despicable as Donald Trump or Ted Cruz; so blame should fall on the system that gets such scumbags nominated and elected. We need Republicans with integrity to lead millions of duped Americans back to sanity. But instead the GOP is rotten to the core and has become a willing tool of aspiring fascists.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I've quoted bilby in full partly because of his mention of "Horseshoe theory." Does he use this term in a non-standard way? I thought that an example of Horseshoe Theory would be how when the right-wing QOP-Koch axis attains political control, as seems likely, they will lead the U.S.A. to converge with the system and values of present-day China, which is supposedly under the control of an extreme left-wing party.

That's the classic definition. But it's rarely used that way today.

Today the phrase "horseshoe theory" is almost invariably a tu quoque, used to suggest that the fairly moderate positions of the left wing are indistinguishable from the extreme positions taken by the right.

Ultimately most right wing apologetics today boil down to "Sure, we're evil cunts; But all politicians are evil cunts, so you can't hold that against us".

Because left wingers irritating the right, by saying rude things about them, is completely indistinguishable from right wingers deliberately plotting to kill people who support the left.

 

[ZiprHead]

t's wrong to paint all Republican evil-doers with the same brush. For example, their top "intellectuals" — Hannity, Carlson and Alex Jones — are motivated primarily by continuing their multi-million dollar paychecks.

Profiting off the death and suffering of other Americans isn't evil???

 

[Rhea]

The honest answer to the OP is that Covid became politicized when the establishment said it was okay to gather in large groups for protests (so long as these were the approved righteous protests). The "experts" lost all credibility. From then on, all this shit is political.

One can see why you would try to change the subject away from the extreme and toxic politicization of COVID performed by the conservatives. You want to avoid talking about how you support something so immoral and so incredibly contrary to humane wisdom.

But it’s a pathetic attempt at swerve to take outdoor, masked, protests against serious civil rights issues and compare them to feckless, unmasked, unvaccinated deliberate abrogation of health and safety. The obvious data about the number of infections caused by the masked protests versus those caused by the maskless shows the difference.

So we can see Trausti here giving a live example of the dangerous deliberate politicization of COVID, at the callous cost of human lives.

 

[laughing dog]

Reiterating the propaganda is fucking evil. Fucking stop it.

Blaming Pelosi for the Covid outbreak is a consequence the intermittent drinking of the Trump Can Do Wrong Kool-Aid.

 

[Trausti]

One can see why you would try to change the subject away from the extreme and toxic politicization of COVID performed by the conservatives. You want to avoid talking about how you support something so immoral and so incredibly contrary to humane wisdom.

Wut? The wisdom that the "unimportant" people have to wear masks while the "important" people don't? TruSt ThE SciEncE! You may be easily fooled, but the rest of us aren't.

 

[laughing dog]

One can see why you would try to change the subject away from the extreme and toxic politicization of COVID performed by the conservatives. You want to avoid talking about how you support something so immoral and so incredibly contrary to humane wisdom.

Wut? The wisdom that the "unimportant" people have to wear masks while the "important" people don't? TruSt ThE SciEncE! You may be easily fooled, but the rest of us aren't.

Is it possible to get a response that is not some dumbass "whataboutism"?

Really, the fact that "important people" did not wear masks at some event while others has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the politicization of COVID.

 

[Trausti]

One can see why you would try to change the subject away from the extreme and toxic politicization of COVID performed by the conservatives. You want to avoid talking about how you support something so immoral and so incredibly contrary to humane wisdom.

Wut? The wisdom that the "unimportant" people have to wear masks while the "important" people don't? TruSt ThE SciEncE! You may be easily fooled, but the rest of us aren't.

Is it possible to get a response that is not some dumbass "whataboutism"?

Really, the fact that "important people" did not wear masks at some event while others has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the politicization of COVID.

No, it does. It demonstrates that the Covid hysteria is theater. If AOC and the rest of these authoritarian twits really thought that Covid was the plague, they'd act like Covid is the plague. But they don't. The lock downs, mandates, etc., are clearly not tied to science. It's pure politics. Which is why the Establishment media will criticize the Florida (Republican) governor when case counts rise; but use kid gloves on the New York (Democrat) governor when cases spike there.

 

[Bomb#20]

Wut? The wisdom that the "unimportant" people have to wear masks while the "important" people don't? TruSt ThE SciEncE! You may be easily fooled, but the rest of us aren't.

Is it possible to get a response that is not some dumbass "whataboutism"?

Really, the fact that "important people" did not wear masks at some event while others has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the politicization of COVID.

No, it does. It demonstrates that the Covid hysteria is theater. If AOC and the rest of these authoritarian twits really thought that Covid was the plague, they'd act like Covid is the plague. But they don't. The lock downs, mandates, etc., are clearly not tied to science. It's pure politics. ...

It doesn't demonstrate what you think -- AOC's behavior is perfectly consistent with her really believing Covid is a dangerous plague and masks are a necessary safety measure. You aren't taking into account the "My mask protects you; your mask protects me." principle. As long as the other people in the room are masked, she'll be fine. So your photo demonstrates only that AOC cares more about her own comfort and/or her own publicity than about not killing random strangers. You've heard of Hanlon's Razor, "Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.", yes? It has a partner razor: Never attribute to sinister conspiracy that which can be adequately explained by selfish pricktitude.

 

[laughing dog]

One can see why you would try to change the subject away from the extreme and toxic politicization of COVID performed by the conservatives. You want to avoid talking about how you support something so immoral and so incredibly contrary to humane wisdom.

Wut? The wisdom that the "unimportant" people have to wear masks while the "important" people don't? TruSt ThE SciEncE! You may be easily fooled, but the rest of us aren't.

Is it possible to get a response that is not some dumbass "whataboutism"?

Really, the fact that "important people" did not wear masks at some event while others has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the politicization of COVID.

No, it does. It demonstrates that the Covid hysteria is theater. If AOC and the rest of these authoritarian twits really thought that Covid was the plague, they'd act like Covid is the plague. But they don't. The lock downs, mandates, etc., are clearly not tied to science. It's pure politics. Which is why the Establishment media will criticize the Florida (Republican) governor when case counts rise; but use kid gloves on the New York (Democrat) governor when cases spike there.

As Bomb#20 points out, you are mistaken about AOC.

As for the rest of your partisan response, it ignores the important difference between the state of NY and the state of FL: NY took more actions to reduce the spread than FL. Effort as well as effectiveness counts in criticism. NY made a greater effort than FL. BTW, I wonder why NY has lower covid cases per capita than FL (FL per capita covid case greater than NY ).