# Fucking idiot coronavirus-loving rednecks in Michigan **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 16, 2020, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-idiot-coronavirus-loving-rednecks-in-michigan/851895 "2020-04-16T04:38:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-idiot-coronavirus-loving-rednecks-in-michigan/851895/21 "2020-04-16T13:55:34Z")
> [@Folacin](#): > > Saw somewhere where Betsy DeVos and family underwrote a lot of this, so yeah. I think she is THE #1 embarrassment to the state of Michigan. ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-idiot-coronavirus-loving-rednecks-in-michigan/851895/22 "2020-04-16T14:06:07Z")
We’ve had local cases of idiots ignoring stay home orders to go to church, but I don’t think we’ve yet had anything as bad as this. However, I can see it coming soon. We have local nutjob politicians agitating the mouth breathers: > **[Far-right politicians denounce government’s COVID-19 response in Washington,...](https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2020/apr/15/far-right-politicians-denounce-covid-19-economic-m/)** > > The economic shutdowns and social distancing measures ordered by governors of both parties have drawn heated reactions from far-right officials across the Inland Northwest, including members of the so-called “patriot” movement spearheaded by Spokane... ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-idiot-coronavirus-loving-rednecks-in-michigan/851895/23 "2020-04-16T14:07:07Z")
> [@Folacin](#): > > Saw somewhere where Betsy DeVos and family underwrote a lot of this… Perhaps the OP? 😉 > [@the OP](#): > > It was a car-honking protest organized largely by a conservative group funded by our esteemed SecEduc Betsy Devos and her family. ---
**Author:** ![excavating\_for\_a\_mind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e8c25b/32.png) [@excavating\_for\_a\_mind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/excavating_for_a_mind)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-idiot-coronavirus-loving-rednecks-in-michigan/851895/24 "2020-04-16T14:26:03Z")
> [@Happy\_Lendervedder](#): > > Today, [a bunch of mouth-breathing confederate-flag-waving neckbeards gathered in Lansing, MI, to protest the governor who has ordered people to stay home, stay safe and stop spreading the coronavirus in Michigan, which just recently went from being the third- to fourth-most infected state in the union.](https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/04/15/835250693/michigan-stay-at-home-order-prompts-honking-traffic-jam-protest?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=nprblogscoronavirusliveupdates) > … In following your link, the photo shows no confederate flags, nor mention of them in the article. All the males I could see in the photo were clean-shaven. You weren’t deliberately mis-characterizing your opponents in an attempt to make them appear less than human, were you? While Michigan does have high rates of CoVid-19 infections, compared to other states, most of those infections are in the Detroit area. Lansing is 80 miles away, and all of Ingham county has only 275 confirmed cases. Not to say that social distancing guidelines should be ignored, but that threat of transmission is not as great as it would be if this was in the middle of a “fourth-most infected” area. I get it. You want to shut down peaceful protests of your political opponents. But, it’s not like they shut down a major highway during rush-hour or were preventing people from getting to work. I think that was their point. People aren’t going to work, all over the state. There really is no justification for preventing landscapers and similar workers from being able to work in much of the state, where the rate of infection is very low. Yes, in hot-spots, like the Detroit area, keeping everyone at home seems to make sense. But, much of Michigan is rural and has low infection rate. You would think that a governor that cared for all the people in the state (not just those in the big cities) could come up with some rules that would allow people with jobs that had little or no contact with the public at large (like landscapers) go to work. Particularly in the spring, when such businesses make most of their money. From what I read in your linked article, that is what the protest was about. And, of course, it was backed by the political opponents of the ruling party. That’s the way politics work. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-idiot-coronavirus-loving-rednecks-in-michigan/851895/25 "2020-04-16T14:40:36Z")
> [@excavating\_for\_a\_mind](#): > > In following your link, the photo shows no confederate flags, nor mention of them in the article. All the males I could see in the photo were clean-shaven. You weren’t deliberately mis-characterizing your opponents in an attempt to make them appear less than human, were you? > > While Michigan does have high rates of CoVid-19 infections, compared to other states, most of those infections are in the Detroit area. Lansing is 80 miles away, and all of Ingham county has only 275 confirmed cases. Not to say that social distancing guidelines should be ignored, but that threat of transmission is not as great as it would be if this was in the middle of a “fourth-most infected” area. > > I get it. You want to shut down peaceful protests of your political opponents. But, it’s not like they shut down a major highway during rush-hour or were preventing people from getting to work. I think that was their point. People aren’t going to work, all over the state. [They shut down access to a hospital](https://www.wlns.com/news/health/coronavirus/capitol-protesters-snarl-streets-including-sparrow-hospital-area/) so fuck them. And this level of stupid is only ever done by conservative assholes getting their information from FOX News and the likes of Rush Limbaugh. Point to a serious liberal news site that is advocating for people to get back out there despite the threat of the virus. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-idiot-coronavirus-loving-rednecks-in-michigan/851895/26 "2020-04-16T14:51:48Z")
> [@excavating\_for\_a\_mind](#): > > In following your link, the photo shows no confederate flags, nor mention of them in the article. All the males I could see in the photo were clean-shaven. You weren’t deliberately mis-characterizing your opponents in an attempt to make them appear less than human, were you? > > While Michigan does have high rates of CoVid-19 infections, compared to other states, most of those infections are in the Detroit area. Lansing is 80 miles away, and all of Ingham county has only 275 confirmed cases. Not to say that social distancing guidelines should be ignored, but that threat of transmission is not as great as it would be if this was in the middle of a “fourth-most infected” area. > > I get it. You want to shut down peaceful protests of your political opponents. But, it’s not like they shut down a major highway during rush-hour or were preventing people from getting to work. I think that was their point. People aren’t going to work, all over the state. > > There really is no justification for preventing landscapers and similar workers from being able to work in much of the state, where the rate of infection is very low. Yes, in hot-spots, like the Detroit area, keeping everyone at home seems to make sense. But, much of Michigan is rural and has low infection rate. You would think that a governor that cared for all the people in the state (not just those in the big cities) could come up with some rules that would allow people with jobs that had little or no contact with the public at large (like landscapers) go to work. Particularly in the spring, when such businesses make most of their money. > > From what I read in your linked article, that is what the protest was about. And, of course, it was backed by the political opponents of the ruling party. That’s the way politics work. [Happy?](https://www.michiganadvance.com/2020/04/15/whitmer-stay-home-order-protest-turns-into-trump-celebration-with-confederate-flags-and-guns/) The “Heil Whitmer” signs with swastikas are real classy too. Listen, I own one of those landscaping companies in West Michigan, where there are very few cases right now. I’m frustrated at the situation right now too. But most landscapers won’t be hitting lawns until May anyway, hell I’m looking out my window right now and seeing fresh snow on my lawn this morning. These snowflakes were dancing among snowflakes falling around them yesterday. It’s an inconvenience, a pain in the ass, but you know what these landscapers can do? File for unemployment if it extends into the work season. That’s what I’m doing. Boo fucking hoo. These were shitbirds, plain and simple. You want to defend them? You’re a shitbird too, plain and simple. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-idiot-coronavirus-loving-rednecks-in-michigan/851895/27 "2020-04-16T16:14:38Z")
> [@solost](#): > > I think she is THE #1 embarrassment to the state of Michigan. It’s not Jim Harbaugh? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-idiot-coronavirus-loving-rednecks-in-michigan/851895/28 "2020-04-16T16:15:37Z")
it looks like they’re re-enacting the Outer Limits episode _A Feasibility Study_, but for all the wrong reasons > **[A Feasibility Study](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Feasibility_Study)** > > "A Feasibility Study" is an episode of the original The Outer Limits television show. It first aired on 13 April 1964, during the first season. It was remade in 1997 as part of the revived The Outer Limits series with a minor title change: "Feasibility Study". > A six-block suburban area –people and all– is teleported to Luminos. The Luminoids will study the feasibility of enslaving humans because Luminoids suffer from a genetic disease which condemns them to become as immobile as rocks as they ag... > **[List of The Outer Limits (1995 TV series) episodes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_The_Outer_Limits_(1995_TV_series)_episodes#ep61)** > > This page is a list of the episodes of The Outer Limits, a 1995 science fiction/dark fantasy television series. The series was broadcast on Showtime from 1995 to 2000, and on the Sci Fi channel in its final year (2001–2002). > Dr. Simon Kress's (Beau Bridges) research for the government on Martian life is aborted because one of his specimens almost escapes into the natural environment. However, Kress does not agree with the abandonment of the project and decides to continue his experiments in hi... [https://web.archive.org/web/20090815093243/http://www.davidjschow.com/limits/ol\_episodes4.html#feasibility](https://web.archive.org/web/20090815093243/http://www.davidjschow.com/limits/ol_episodes4.html#feasibility) ---
**Author:** ![Skypist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skypist/32/169_2.png) [@Skypist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skypist)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-idiot-coronavirus-loving-rednecks-in-michigan/851895/29 "2020-04-16T16:40:59Z")
> [@casdave](#): > > Trump’s position changes so much that it is hard to actually pin down a public health policy at all - the only policy I can see is a re-election policy, unless I am wrongly interpreting from across the pond I think you have it exactly right. ---
**Author:** ![chela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chela/32/21582_2.png) [@chela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chela)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-idiot-coronavirus-loving-rednecks-in-michigan/851895/30 "2020-04-16T16:45:06Z")
> [@Happy\_Lendervedder](#): > > [Happy?](https://www.michiganadvance.com/2020/04/15/whitmer-stay-home-order-protest-turns-into-trump-celebration-with-confederate-flags-and-guns/) The “Heil Whitmer” signs with swastikas are real classy too. > > Listen, I own one of those landscaping companies in West Michigan, where there are very few cases right now. I’m frustrated at the situation right now too. But most landscapers won’t be hitting lawns until May anyway, hell I’m looking out my window right now and seeing fresh snow on my lawn this morning. These snowflakes were dancing among snowflakes falling around them yesterday. It’s an inconvenience, a pain in the ass, but you know what these landscapers can do? File for unemployment if it extends into the work season. That’s what I’m doing. Boo fucking hoo. > > These were shitbirds, plain and simple. You want to defend them? You’re a shitbird too, plain and simple. I got a facebook invite to that group, i tuned in for a couple days to read the comments, the usual pathetic patriot ravings then I declined the invite. Yesterday a flag was raised in the neighborhood in solidarity with the march in Lansing I guess, but usually it’s a somber reminder of war but in this situation…POW/MIA? I admit a giggle escaped from me because it’s kinda clever but no it’s totally direspectufl to link the shutdown with a POW/MIA. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.winston_oboogie/32/2945_2.png) [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Winston_OBoogie)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-idiot-coronavirus-loving-rednecks-in-michigan/851895/31 "2020-04-16T17:04:43Z")
> [@excavating\_for\_a\_mind](#): > > There really is no justification for preventing landscapers and similar workers from being able to work in much of the state, where the rate of infection is very low. Yes, in hot-spots, like the Detroit area, keeping everyone at home seems to make sense. But, much of Michigan is rural and has low infection rate. You would think that a governor that cared for all the people in the state (not just those in the big cities) could come up with some rules that would allow people with jobs that had little or no contact with the public at large (like landscapers) go to work. Particularly in the spring, when such businesses make most of their money. But that is EXACTLY how you CREATE hotspots in other parts of the state. If one household is infected, it spreads to the landscapers who spread it to other households. When the order was first given in Illinois, I thought it was too soon and too stiff. After watching how things have progressed, I think the moves have been reasonable. Asshat moves like those in Michigan are what will cause the death toll to be over 250k. Then again, am I a bad person for thinking that this is an effective counter-move to Republican voter repression moves…? ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-idiot-coronavirus-loving-rednecks-in-michigan/851895/32 "2020-04-16T17:09:41Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > It’s not Jim Harbaugh? Lol. Are you talking about his record as coach, or stuff like this? > **[Jim Harbaugh stunningly brings up abortion during interview about coronavirus...](https://sports.yahoo.com/michigan-coach-jim-harbaugh-talks-abortion-interview-coronavirus-covid19-pandemic-222325390.html)** > > Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh switched the topic from the coronavirus pandemic to abortion, something he called “horrendous,” during an interview on Saturday. ---
**Author:** ![Skypist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skypist/32/169_2.png) [@Skypist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skypist)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-idiot-coronavirus-loving-rednecks-in-michigan/851895/33 "2020-04-16T17:39:41Z")
> [@excavating\_for\_a\_mind](#): > > In following your link, the photo shows no confederate flags, nor mention of them in the article. All the males I could see in the photo were clean-shaven. You weren’t deliberately mis-characterizing your opponents in an attempt to make them appear less than human, were you? It looked like all white males to me. I didn’t see confederate flags but did see a trump/pence sign. Looks like “his” usual fan base, the ones who cannot be convinced by any kind of facts that their chosen one is not perfect despite his insistence that he is. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-idiot-coronavirus-loving-rednecks-in-michigan/851895/34 "2020-04-16T17:52:59Z")
This is the start of what will be happening everywhere. [The Protests in Michigan Have Signaled the Nonsense Is Coming](https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a32160723/michigan-protests-coronavirus-lockdown-conservatives/) > [@](#): > > This nonsense is coming, and it’s going to be encouraged by the national government, and I don’t know how we avoid it. ---
**Author:** ![WolfpackJeep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpackjeep/32/2921_2.png) [@WolfpackJeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WolfpackJeep)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-idiot-coronavirus-loving-rednecks-in-michigan/851895/35 "2020-04-16T18:00:25Z")
Some of the nutters who pulled a very small scale version of this in Raleigh were waving “don’t tread on me” flags, wearing MAGA gear, and/or holding signs in support of Governor Cooper’s Republican opponent. They were supposedly out to demand the reopening of the state, but there was a definite political slant to their message. ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-idiot-coronavirus-loving-rednecks-in-michigan/851895/36 "2020-04-16T18:02:26Z")
The perfect opportunity to use dogs and fire hoses wasted. Bummer. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-idiot-coronavirus-loving-rednecks-in-michigan/851895/37 "2020-04-16T18:03:59Z")
Two things: 1. The virus doesn’t go anywhere by itself. It’s not a living thing. Other things have to move it around, and by ‘other things’ I mostly mean people. So when these bozos get together with their stupid protests, and then disperse, quite likely a few of them bring the virus with them, and more will leave with it, taking it back to their own communities, and will spread it further there. That’s how viruses _work_. So their group tantrum isn’t just endangering themselves, unfortunately. It will endanger others as well. 1. Pretty much everybody who knows what they’re talking about says reopening too soon would just cause the infection rate to spike, followed a few weeks later by the death rate doing the same thing. Which would necessitate another lockdown and more economic calamity _on top of a whole bunch more dead people_. So fuck these worthless whiners and the political party that seems to be siding with them. ---
**Author:** ![romansperson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/romansperson/32/17100_2.png) [@romansperson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/romansperson)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-idiot-coronavirus-loving-rednecks-in-michigan/851895/38 "2020-04-16T18:55:56Z")
> [@WolfpackJeep](#): > > Some of the nutters who pulled a very small scale version of this in Raleigh were waving “don’t tread on me” flags, wearing MAGA gear, and/or holding signs in support of Governor Cooper’s Republican opponent. They were supposedly out to demand the reopening of the state, but there was a definite political slant to their message. The really rich part is that the woman who founded that group is an anti-vaxxer. So she really believes in peoples’ right to die of preventable communicable diseases too! ---
**Author:** ![Toxgoddess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Toxgoddess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxgoddess)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-idiot-coronavirus-loving-rednecks-in-michigan/851895/39 "2020-04-16T19:13:13Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > It’s not Jim Harbaugh? DeVos beats out both Harbaugh and the Lions’ lifetime record. ---
**Author:** ![Toxgoddess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Toxgoddess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxgoddess)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-idiot-coronavirus-loving-rednecks-in-michigan/851895/40 "2020-04-16T19:14:53Z")
> [@romansperson](#): > > The really rich part is that the woman who founded that group is an anti-vaxxer. So she really believes in peoples’ right to die of preventable communicable diseases too! Other people’s right, that is. She’s rich so will be able to afford first-class health care. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-idiot-coronavirus-loving-rednecks-in-michigan/851895.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-idiot-coronavirus-loving-rednecks-in-michigan/851895.md?page=3)