The politicization of a pandemic

[lady_*nix]

So this was already apparent to a lot of us, but the Atlantic kind of puts a rubber stamp and some extra detail on it:

"Across the country, social distancing is morphing from a public-health to political act. The consequences could be disastrous."

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/ar ... re/609019/

So TBH I know a wide variety of people on the leftie side of the political spectrum, from center-left Democrats to state communists to anarchists. Many of them I get along well with; some I consider kind of gonzo, but wind up working alongside because hey, things are just that dire right now.

At the moment though, what I'm seeing is that basically every one of these people, including the actual anarchists, is taking the pandemic seriously and pleading everyone to socially distance, self isolate, find ways to help friends without exposing self, etc. Even the people who literally don't want governments to exist are all, "stay the fuck home and play it safe."

Meanwhile, a lot of the same people I used to see idolizing cops are now "LOL this is a hoax, it doesn't matter, it won't affect me! Fuck you libs trolololol," even while their beloved officers are all like "Hey no stay the fuck home."

IDK what this says exactly, but I think it says something important.

[SciFiFisher]

What it says is that a lot of people are ignorant and receiving their information from sources that deliberately keep them ignorant.

You know it's bad when the anarchists are saying "listen to the responsible government leaders".

[Rommie]

On the bright side, I noticed that even Trump has now said the restrictions should go to April 30 (so no more everyone go to church on Easter), and they arrested the preacher of a Tampa megachurch who held a huge service on Sunday. So I think this might have been the flavor of the week in denial; I don't know.

I suspect this will also be changing as numbers continue to increase in red states that haven't been taking this seriously.

[lady_*nix]

@Fisher

Yes, no kidding! When the "smash the state" crowd starts publicly and vociferously agreeing with the state, you know that the shit has really hit the fan.

@Rommie

Gods, I sure hope. Even if so, we've lost so much crucial time. And a lot of the country's food production is in red states that aren't taking shit seriously, and the farm workers there are often undocumented and super vulnerable to this pandemic... IDK, the US's particular issues might make a perfect storm of this pandemic, the kind of thing we're not used to seeing at all in the developed world. Things may get very, very bad here.

[Rommie]

I mean, there's always going to be people who don't take this seriously- there is a delightful set of videos by Italian mayors yelling at their population to stay at home, with emotions as only Italians can do. So I do think that context is important. I'm sure some will claim it's a Republican vs Democrat thing but I'm sure there are plenty of young Bernie bros not taking this seriously either.