And, of course, Trump is blaming the lack of supplies on the Obama administration.
I’m not even upset that I’m being called that. On the surface, yeah, what I’ve written is kinda fucked up.
But what’s even more fucked up is that it really does take a heavy does of reality (fatalities) before the legions of Fox News viewers stop thinking that a pandemic is a fucking hoax created in a lab to take down their beloved bigot in chief.
I know I’m not popular and I write shit that’s sometimes outrageous, but just put your disdain for me aside for a moment and think about the paragraph above. A lot of Trump voters think this is fake news – Sean Hannity is being sued right now for this very reason.
You know, sometimes puppies need to have their noses rubbed in their shit to get the message that it’s not okay to shit on the carpet. I wish the world didn’t operate that way, but it sure seems like it does, far more often than I’d like it to.
Except you’re not talking about rubbing a puppy’s nose in its mess. You’re talking about performing the Ludovico Procedure on the puppy while forcing it to watch millions of innocent people die.
asahi: I fully understand your need to see a certain element of our population to wake up finally and realize the outright harm that their choices have had and are currently having on the world population. However, and I hope you take this to heart, your manner of expressing that need is not healthy. It is tarring you as a a warped person with no concern whatsoever for your fellow humans. While I personally do not presently think you really are such a person, your posts for a while are starting to whittle away that image I have of you. Someone who is already aligned politically than you are will not have that image whittled at all; their image of you began as someone evil, without decency. And your posts are reinforcing that.
Yes, this pandemic is destroying a lot of good and decent things in the world now. That does not mean, by any measure, that it is okay to use such extreme–and, frankly, disgusting–hyperbole to get your point across. Consider that the people you are trying to reach are now legitimately in fear, as opposed to their asinine and bigoted fears which led them to make the choice they did at the ballot box in 2016 and 2018. Try reaching them on a human, humane, and compassionate level. Do so with facts, not apocalyptic and dystopian yearnings.
And, as one should always do, hope for the best from even the worst people in the public sphere. Sadly, what we have in America today, at the federal level, are some of the worst people. They have, though rarely, proven they can do the decent and right thing. Try to get their supporters to realize why your view (not the apocalyptic pronouncements) should be the prevailing one.
Okay so when Trump voters at megachurches (hundreds at a time, all over the country) refuse to stay at home, go out shopping later that afternoon, get other shoppers sick and killed, get first responders sick and killed, and get hospitals overwhelmed and get doctors, nurses, and orderlies sick and killed, because they believe that this is fake news and that this is a hoax…how am I supposed to feel toward them?
Okay.:rolleyes:
Have you considered basic empathy for human life?
Sure, I have empathy for the people who are victimized by stupidity, like the way people who believe in epistemology and a fact-based world are victimized by idiot conspiracy theorists and the elitist greedy sociopaths who have disproportionate influence on our society – I have empathy for the victims. But when perpetrators of thuggery or just plain recklessness become victims of their own misdeeds? My empathy is finite.
But back to the initial source of controversy, we collectively have responsibility, and by “we” I mean myself as well. We’re all little Eichmanns here, in some sense. We keep rewarding people who abuse power and predictably, they keep abusing us. It’s not that I want people to die a horrible death; what I want is for us to use this crisis as an opportunity, and I guess to phrase it differently than the blunt language I originally used, if we still don’t believe at the current time that this disaster is sufficient evidence that we really need to fundamentally change our society, or if not enough of the right people aren’t getting that message, then I want this crisis to continue until it does.
This is already a crisis. I want the crisis to mean something. I want young bartenders and Uber drivers (yes I’m generalizing, sorry, but stay with me) who think they’re bulletproof and don’t want to be forced to buy insurance or forced to pay taxes for it, to wake up and finally get it. And I want all of us to take some responsibility for constructing the kind of government that actually achieves something. An opportunity like this comes along about once a century - my father’s generation took advantage of it. I hope we can, because this country is finished if it doesn’t.
I think it was Andrew Dice Clay who said, “People are stupid. You guys know that, right? You’re people, right?” Well, we’re all people. Haranguing someone wth “You’re stupid! You’re dangerous! You’re going to get us all killed!”, no matter how true it might be, will not get them to change their mind or their behavior. If anything, it will reinforce their beliefs and attitudes. And people are going to continue to do what they are not punished for. Yes, catching–and dying from–COVID-19 is a kind of punishment, but that’s not the type I’m talking about here.
Do you want people to stop crowding together in churches or anywhere else? Punish them for it. Quarantine the building they’re in until everyone can be tested or the 14-day quarantine period passes. And arrest the host. Quarantine that top idiot in a prison hospital if need be.
Then say that. But don’t wish death on swathes of people just because they’re stupid.
And perhaps now we can get this thread back to the real issue, that jackass the Republicans (or Putin, definitely Putin) put in the White House and not the “asahi has completely lost it” thread.
Thoughtful post, Monty. It’s a bit late for a nuanced reply - I’ll try to remember to get back to this later.
But just to add a final point of clarification. My beef isn’t with stupid people - I don’t want people to die because they’re dumb. Being dumb is fine as long as you don’t make me pay for it. But I’m fed up with people who are willfully stupid and bigoted and…expect me to pick up the tab. I don’t feel I should apologize for resenting such people. I resent them like hell.
So what makes you any better than that Lt. Gov, who said we should let people die, for the sake of the economy? How is it any different to say we should let people die for the sake of politics?
What makes you any better? You only care about the people who agree with you – if someone is on the the side, to hell with them, basically.
Fuck no, you don’t have empathy. You’re a sick individual.
To asahi: Fine, resent them as much as you can. But don’t wish for them to die en masse, which obviously will take more innocent people with them. Hell, I resent them, too. Most of my immediate family and extended family are trumpeters/magats and that annoys me no end. Do I hate them? No. I know them better than to hate them for their current blind spot. Do I wish for them and other trumpters/magats to die? No. I like to think that I am a better person than to wish for that. What do I wish and hope for, then? For people to simply be better and to do better.
Aye; he’s not committing to it because it’s not his decision to make. Who the fuck does this jackass think he is? 
As I’ve said for, Loser Donald’s understanding of his job pretty much boils down to “the president is in charge of the whole country and everyone has to do what he says”.
Maybe repurpose the Valley of the Lepers from Ben-hur.
I like it! I like it! Mainly because that’s not in the beautiful Kalaupapa. I mean it’s one thing to isolate someone; it’s quite another to send them to paradise.
Seconded.
Talk about political gaslighting:
The U.S. was beset by denial and dysfunction as the coronavirus raged
Out of idle curiosity, is part of that “around the clock work” the phone call to his fellow bigoted moron in charge of a large country’s government to ask for a certain medicine, said bigoted moron who has apparently banned all export of said medicine?
New entry in my list of oxymorons: “Trump’s leadership”.
The problem with the Lt. Governor’s advice - and the difference - is that first of all, it was shitty advice that would have had even worse outcomes for public health and the economy, which he purportedly wanted to protect. But beyond that, his comments are just an attempt to divert attention away from Trump’s shitty handling of the crisis. He’s perpetuating the “COVID-19 is a hoax” theme, just packaging it differently.
I don’t think COVID-19 is a hoax. I’m listening to the science. Despite having strong urges to do otherwise, I’ve been staying inside my apartment for the past three weeks and I’ve gone out exactly once in the past month. Why? I want to protect myself, but given the highly infectious nature, I also don’t want to infect my family or members of the general public. That’s not what a sociopath does.
A sociopath says “This virus is a hoax to take down my racist hero who puts brown people and cages, and who gives billionaires huge tax cuts while taking away healthcare and welfare benefits for millions of people, and takes away nutrition and food stamps for people who are destitute.” That’s the fucking sociopath.
And you’re acting like an apologist for them. So fuck you, you fucking Nazi apologist.