Our narratives of COVID-19 are all lies.
They are lies of a particular sort, political narratives that have a nugget of truth within them, but are told with bad intent. They are told this way because it works. Because the nugget of truth hides a deeper, unpleasant truth. And a Big Lie.
Some are narratives of the political left. Some are narratives of the political right.
They are all narratives of betrayal, meaning that they seek to excuse or promote policies designed for institutional advantage rather than the common good.
Very glad to see your take on this. I was fearful you had fallen into the trap of the Lock It All Down! camp. The Open It All Up! camp is equally brimming with new recruits as well. Both are morons. There are so many more choices than the binary bullshit that this Widening Gyre presents as the only options for us.
Covid is not the flu. Covid is also not the Spanish Flu. Our models and behavior that are based on the flu are completely wrong and dangerous. Our models and behavior based on the Spanish Flu are equally wrong and dangerous. I don’t know why this is a left/right thing. Everything is today though. God I wish people would wake up.
I think a lot of the problem now is one of controlling the narrative. The fear of our sheepish sociopath “leaders” of having egg on their faces for overreacting will prevent them from telling the truth.
The Lock It All Down! camp are fearful of losing their jobs (and maybe heads) if they show how much unnecessary devastation they caused will slowly relax lockdowns and point to data and say “We saved lives!”. The Open It All Up! camp are fearful of losing their jobs (and maybe their heads) if they show how much unnecessary devastation they caused will slowly increase lockdowns and point to data and say “We saved jobs!”. Both camps will be simultaneously right, and wrong.
What is missing is information on how we can help ourselves strengthen our immune system which is being compromised by lockdown. The media is just fear fear fear when we could be taking vitamin C vitamin D and zinc supplements which will boost our immune systems. Expecting governments to tell us something useful like this is another snowballs chance given the cosy relationship with big pharmaceutical who don’t make money out of vitamins and have been lying about their efficacy.
Idiots, huh?
I can’t imagine why people who have been lied to over and over again wouldn’t believe what their told. I guess we should all go to Harvard so we can get smart too.
“as unemployment insurance typically is unavailable for people who “voluntarily” quit their job.” Noted.
On the vaccine front pharma has never been able to make a vaccine against any of the earlier Covid derivatives SARS / MERS or the common cold for that matter so we shouldn’t expect them to be successful this time either. Bill Gates can take his “vaccine” and shove it
Yes, I think COVID-19 deniers and truthers are idiots.
Agree with chudson - I’m glad you clarified your position with regards the role of government. Your highlighted suggestions are a good start e.g. additional words regarding those confined in some way.
As for ‘and implementing over time near-instant antigen tests as they are developed’ , you left out antibodies. Both antigen (virus) and antibody (host) tests have a way to go. The former (PCR) are indirect, so not definitive, and the latter will likely lead to ‘papers please’.
Morphing ‘flatten the curve’ to ‘stop the spread, save lives!’ will be an ongoing conundrum for which clear thinking like this article will be a must. So excellent!! Finally, among the governed, the ‘snitches’ and ‘shamers’ are terrifying; I never thought I would see that.
It was a rare treat to read something that differentiates between group “rights” and individual rights. That should be the starting point for any discussion of political solutions: can we first agree on the concept of individual rights, and can we agree that the purpose of government is to protect those rights?
Unfortunately I don’t think either the right or the left believes that the purpose of government is to protect individual rights.
As we slide and slalom down this slippery slope of believing an effectively articulated lie we ski off the edge of the sovereignty of our country. By the time we total up the cost of fighting COVID-19 we will be in free fall toward a different political economy- one we likely will detest.
My question for you Giggles is… make the case that it is a faux event without stating a political agenda or unfounded claim as your source.
Well you’ve got some policy prescriptions that you say are politically impossible; how much help is that to the policy maker?
And yet if we hadn’t made the decisions over decades to outsource so much to China and elsewhere we’d be in a better position to test.
As for the quarrels of human nature seeking power I could say your quarrel is with multi-party representative government and democracy, but I think your quarrel is with human nature itself. Politics and so policy is a power struggle and reflects human nature. The rest is how we organize. No dictatorship or King ever solved that problem. The closest we ever got was Stalin and Mao. Even Stalin had to feed Beria, even Mao had to fend off challenges.
Mao really did kill or imprison them all, he leaves Stalin in the dust that way. But what did Mao’s heirs do?
All policy Sir is a series of tradeoffs.
It cannot be otherwise. War, peace, prosperity, depression. This lesson is being taught now, and harshly.
The harshening has only begun.
It will be harsher that we forbade risk now and chose to postpone the consequences. These are Depression level unemployment levels, these are hyperinflationary levels of money creation. There is also a thing called immunity and yes herd immunity and we’ve spit in its face, because we run from death, we hide from it everywhere. We rage rage rage ragehead against the dimming of the light - and demand our government defend us - yet snarl in resentment when they do.
They who find unacceptable a 1~4% chance of death can perhaps reflect that its actually -100% certainty of death. So how do you want to live in that borrowed time we call life?
It isn’t just live free or die; its live free then die. To be free one will have to kill and die to hold off those who’d enslave us. To die knowing your sacrifice makes it freer for others.
Now if I want a proven government death program, if I want Logan’s Run (oh and we do Dear, Logan’s run is what we’ve been doing for decades) if I want to live well and safe in comfort, with the Illusion of freedom I’ll ask the government to save me - from myself, from neighbors, from CONSEQUENCES. That govt that comes to save you or to purify you will, will kill you. Its the history of the 20th century. Killing in great numbers with efficiency is a core strength of the State.
Maybe Obama was right ignoring SARS, maybe Trump’s question of letting it wash over us wasn’t so stupid.
As for SCIENCE meet the New Economists. Their time will pass.
As will our rotten elites.
But the new Boss will have the same choices as the Old Boss. His best course of action is to leave it alone, let us figure it out. Right or wrong we’ll have no one to blame but ourselves.
That’s Freedom, and Responsibility its price.
Now that’s the best boss.
The actual next boss worth mentioning is A Dictator. We’ll settle for nothing less. And by God we’ll get it good and hard.