Biden and the Big COVID Lie
You may wonder how it is that Biden (or those handling him) thinks he can get away with a lie such as this one:
Joe Biden is at it again with yet another lie about the vaccination plan, claiming President Donald Trump didn’t have a plan, despite the demonstrable fact that Trump was getting about a million people vaccinated a day by the time that Biden came in…
Here’s the Biden statement that’s being referred to:
BIDEN: "Just over four weeks ago, America had no real plan to vaccinate most of the country. My predecessor, as my mother would say, 'failed to order enough vaccines,' failed to mobilize the effort to administer the shots… That changed the moment we took office." pic.twitter.com/TVo4tBEKyb
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) February 19, 2021
The first point – an obvious one – is that there is no serious effort by the press to call Biden on anything he does or says. If Biden knows anything at this point (and he does still know quite a few things) he knows that. Here and there you may see some mild fact-checking, but the administration knows it has a general pass (what in one of my earliest blog posts I called a “press pass”) to make whatever claim it wants.
In addition, in the case of the COVID narrative, this idea – that Trump did nothing and had no plan, and Joe will do everything and has a plan – has long been a basic meme of the Biden campaign. And the American public appears to have bought it. I certainly know people who did, and most of them had been saying since last March that Trump was doing everything wrong regarding COVID. That’s what they read in the MSM, that’s what they heard their friends say, and everyone knew it was true. In vain I would point out certain facts – for example, I’d ask them when they thought Trump had appointed the Task Force on COVID. No one ever got it right, and they had trouble believing me when I told them that Trump had announced its formation quite early – on January 29, 2020 – and that Fauci and Birx were already onboard at that time.
But even learning that, or any other fact about what Trump had done early on to fight the disease, didn’t really change much in their minds. That’s because the media was relentlessly pushing another story, and to open oneself to the possibility that the media was lying was just a bridge too far and would require too great a reorganization of reality. If reality was that Trump was an incompetent liar, it would take a lot more than a few facts to change that idea, and why bother when all the smart people were on the “Trump is an incompetent liar” side?
So at this point it’s not all that hard for these same people to believe that Biden – or at least, the people under Biden who are really in charge – are finally going to fix everything that Trump did wrong. Declining numbers of cases will be used as proof. It isn’t really that hard to avoid the perils of cognitive dissonance because the MSM will guide and lead the way.
As for Joe Biden himself and the obvious indications that he’s cognitively challenged, I really haven’t had that particular discussion with any of the Democrats I know. But I think I can imagine what most might say: “It’s worth it just to get rid of Trump.” They also almost undoubtedly think that the people who will be running the show in the Biden presidency will be far better than anyone Trump appointed. Once Trump was successfully demonized, almost anything can be rationalized.
The same for the “insurrection” and the response of turning DC into an armed camp. The reasoning goes like this: Trump supporters are racist white supremacist fascists who want to take over the country, and January 6th was the tip of the iceberg. They must be stopped at all costs.
That message is reinforced by the MSM, Democrat politicians, academicians, people in the arts, and often a vast circle of friends and acquaintances (especially in blue states and cities). No one should underestimate the difficulty of thinking differently, or how hard it is to start doubting the story at this late date. Against the almost overwhelming force of the narrative, what potency do a few new facts have to change a person’s mind? It can happen, of course, but it’s not that common and it’s not that easy.
Half the country drinks the kool-aid, but half the country doesn’t … and largely keeps quiet about it.
Hard to say whether the other half is keeping their powder dry or cultivating their gardens.
____________________________________________________
“All that is very well,” answered Candide, “but let us cultivate our garden.”
–Voltaire, “Candide”
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He also claimed that no one (zero, zip, nada) would have died of COVID if Trump had handled it correctly. Obviously a laughable inaccurate statement but nothing.
All lies. Easily demonstrable lies. Biden* claimed to have a plan for Covid. He didn’t. Media could have asked what it was (why not save lives BEFORE the election). They didn’t ask.
The enemedia is the basic number one issue to be solved ahead of all others, I think.
There’s a conspiracy theory about conspiracy theory. If Authority is about to get busted for some mis or mal feasance, or wicked behavior, they label such speculation as “conspiracy theory” and all right-thinking people dismiss it. Even the most objectively valid fact is dismissed with sneering laughter. Supposedly a CIA idea. I have no way of knowing, but if it were, it’s worked a treat.
Same-same “That’s just Joe.” Nothing Biden does or says, no matter how corrupt, stupid, dishonest, self-dealing, matters once the magic phrase is uttered. “That’s just Joe.” As with “conspiracy theory”, there is no defense.
Well it certainly will be tragic and unexpected when the media realizes they have the same reputation as Bagdad Bob. Ben Rhodes was right about them, the only thing he was right about.
On the hypocrisy of the MSM . . .
I see a headline on BING that Biden has declared an emergency in Texas.
Imagine how the MSM would have been howling if Trump had waited so long. Not a peep of criticism of Biden.
Austin is 60 degrees today.
Thanks for the help, Joe.
You are entirely correct, Neo. I would only add one other significant component: the powerful emotional appeal of lefty propaganda (whether liberalism, progressivism or leftist). Leftism of all stripes fulfills a very visceral need in many of it’s adherents. And yes, I say adherents; leftism is a religion; not everyone with left leaning views adheres to them on faith, but many do, some of them as virulently fundamentalist as any snake handling Christian or Islamist imam.
What are theses visceral needs? There are many, but the two primary ones are: intelligence and compassion. Many, many people on the left are pathologically insecure about their intelligence (this includes people of all intellectual capacities). Presenting as brilliant, articulate, well-informed and witty is an insatiable desire for them. It informs a great deal of their social behavior and discourse. Lefty dogma slakes this thirst; it’s an easy shortcut, as it is easily accessible. Just listen to NPR, watch a little CNN, read a few articles (or even just the headlines) of the NYTimes, watch The Daily Show, watch Jimmy Kimmel (or Seth Meyers) before bed and you’ll have enough talking points down to present as brilliant to all your left-wing coreligionists.
The second is compassion. Other than sociopaths, most people have an innate sense of compassion and empathy. But, it is limited; we cannot constantly be looking out for others and trying to understand their pain. It also fails us at times; that’s part of being human. But that reality haunts many and leftist dogma fills the void. Again it provides an easy shortcut; if you’re worried you are not compassionate or empathic enough, just talk (whether in person or on social media) incessantly about the current social justice craze (be it refugees, MeToo, BLM, etc.). And, of course, bash Trump as a racist, misogynistic, homophobic troglodyte. Voila! You will be seen as boundlessly empathic by all of your lefty family and friends (which, for many, is their entire social circle).
In my opinion, this ‘seduction’ of leftism is the biggest problem, for which there is no clear solution. Facts, reason and logical (but civil) arguments have little if any effect on those who are attached to their beliefs due to a visceral need to believe them
Roosevelt did it with Hoover. Why change the playbook?
Anyone that thinks that Joe Biden belongs anywhere near the Oval Office has totally suspended his or her critical faculties. The man is fading fast, as it has been obvious he would.
We are seeing Kamala eased into the presidential space. Of course, she got nowhere in the Dem’s nomination process, but that doesn’t mean she wouldn’t have beaten Trump.
See how easy that was?
Neo has hit on the two main factors for our present decline in separate posts. Number 1 is the take over of the education system, and Number 2 is the takeover of the main information outlets. The numbering is not a rank ordering; each are about equal in effect. Once someone has those 2, then the control of the population is relatively easy. the rest of us can sit and bitch and moan about it, but until one of those changes we will continue further and further on the path we are on now.
I would go after the media first; they are more vulnerable to economic pressure and with alternative outlets. But with Big Tech fighting also on the left’s side getting those alternative outlets, as we have seen, is also problematic. Education is a long haul that would take many more years.
Not an optimistic outlook no matter what.
Neo, what you’re describing here is a group of people who have been persuaded. When you understand how persuasion works and how easily it is done, you can understand what we’re facing.
The best quick-and-dirty outline I have found is an essay by Anthony Pratkanis entitled “How to Sell a Pseudoscience” (1995). It’s available as a Google Doc here: https://tinyurl.com/h7qgwvm and at Penn State here: https://tinyurl.com/yaznu9zb (The formatting is better at Google.)
Pratkanis lays out the steps necessary to persuade people of something (he was talking about the paranormal and spirits) but his insights are applicable much more widely and they are universal because they tap into how the human brain works after millions of years of evolution.
Here’s a sample:
========================
2. Set a Rationalization Trap
The rationalization trap is based on the premise: Get the person committed to the cause as soon as possible. Once a commitment is made, the nature of thought changes. The committed heart is not so much interested in a careful evaluation of the merits of a course of action but in proving that he or she is right.
================
This is a very readable paper and not that long. Well worth the time to peruse it.
Oh . . . and Pratkanis’s work anticipates and dovetails very well with “The Coddling of the American Mind” by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt (2018). https://www.thecoddling.com That’s a must-read, too.
Griffin: I find it really amazing that people actually believe that Trump is personally responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths. Doesn’t the fact that the virus is a worldwide problem and people are still dying in other countries disprove that? What about the discovery of much earlier cases of COVID, from before people really understood what kind of virus we were dealing with? There was nothing anyone in any country could have done. Americans would have died no matter who was president.
“It was worth it just to get rid of Trump.”
I’m afraid people will justify their vote until the day they die for that reason. A lot of people are already displeased with Biden, but they just had to vote for him because Trump was so bad. My mother said she felt bad for voting for Biden the instant she walked out of the voting booth, but that she just needed to get rid of Trump so badly. How many people are in the same boat?
Neo. I was raised in New York City, got an advanced degree in DC, and worked for several years in San Fran. It was only when I went to live in Rush’s adopted home town of Sacramento, that I changed my wicked ways. The people you speak of are definitely out there, either not caring to hear another side, or with so much hate and envy in their heart that derision of the real America is the misery they love to keep company with. I still believe tho that 75 million voters are a potent force that will not go away, and that ultimately beats the haters and the apathetic. Add to that the fact that democrats always go too far, and create their own backlash (what was it that Chuck Schumer said about reaping the whirlwind? It’s definitely on its way!).
President Biden said that his predecessor had no real plan to vaccinate most of the country. He’s absolutely right. Vaccinating a million a day under Trump was inadequate.
I can’t wait to see gas price hits $5 and beyond
At least make attempts to flag these stories as “False News” when you see them. I know it will seem like worthless effort. I know you will think that you will just be dismissed or ignored. But you have to try. We cannot give up, we can’t just lay down and accept it.
like a liturgy of the mad
https://accordingtohoyt.com/2021/02/18/people-of-the-system/#comments
no it’s not supposed to make sense,
https://computingforever.com/2021/02/20/musings-from-dystopia/
Reality will have the final say and all the propaganda in the world will not prevent that confrontation.
Every single policy the democrats are pursuing guarantee that confrontation.
It will not end well for them.
Part of me wants to cut the old fella some slack.
It’s got to be hard waking up every morning & asking your wife, “Where the hell are we?!?!”
The other part of me is still wondering why we haven’t reached the kinetic threshold…
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What puzzles me is that the final vote margin in November was just not that large. Each of these provable untruths are individually not that significant, but even with blocking by the MSM, each will chip away some non-zero number of voters at the edges who held their noses and voted for the old guy to get rid of the rude tweets guy, while none of these will change any minds in the other direction (“I, voted for Donald Trump, but I’m really liking how this China Joe fellow puts over a bald faced lie, so I’m changing teams!”).
The MSM already published that just the Hunter story going wider would have changed the outcome of the general election, and yet these there-goes-Joe-again just keep on happening, with no apparent concern.
I know it sounds like a conspiracy theory (heh) but it’s almost like they don’t _care_ about the midterms or 2024.
physicsguy on February 20, 2021 at 4:53 pm: I don’t recall if you taught and worked at a public or private school, but I am beginning to see proposals that we citizen taxpayers can and should exert significant leverage at the local and state level based on not getting our money’s worth in K-12 (union’s selfishness, educrats awful performance – recall Art Deco’s many insights there), and today’s non-STEM university departments providing so little value for the large federal and state largess granted to them. Why should we pay the salaries of our devoted and devout enemies?
For the MSM we need to find ways to reject, ignore, and ridicule them, and also support those politicos like DeSantis that are skilled in doing so. It may also take a while to fix, but I suspect that Big Tech has seriously stubbed their toe against the spirit, if not the letter, of the 1st Amendment. People really do not like bullies and commercial competitors will make headway against them.
@GB: “Reality will have the final say … ” Agree 110%!
The Ivy Leagues reputations will decline with the decline in performance of their graduates who can’t or won’t be able and willing to face reality. And eventually the college loan program will break down as untenable, decrementing the academic gravy train.
Even the presstitutes have to compete with each other for viewers and subscribers so some truthfulness will leak out around the truthiness and religious dogma.
More and more parents will come to recognize that even if their child’s teacher seems to be a wonderful person, he/she is tied at the wallet to a thuggish public sector union that cares nothing for the children or their parents opinions.
Other examples might be provided but now I want to go check out the new Open Thread.
The bald-faced promulgating of unproven opinions as facts is just breathtaking. Such as:
Defunding the police will create less crime?
The police are systematically murdering people of color?
The country is ridden with systemic racism?
CO2 pollution is causing more breathing problems? (Yes, I saw that on the news just last night.)
The world will end in 10 years if we don’t address climate change? (How can anyone say that with a straight face?)
Illegal aliens are a gift to this country? (Yes, I actually heard Biden say that during the campaign.)
CO2 is causing disastrous climate change? (That has been a mantra since 1993. It simply hasn’t been proven. Yet people say it like it’s the same as 2 + 2 = 4.)
Homelessness is caused by heartless capitalism?
The polar vortex that struck Texas and surrounding states is the result of global warming caused by CO2?
You can read or see these and many other poorly informed/unproven opinions in the MSM. All presented as gospel truth, no dissent allowed. It is Pravda and Izvestiya reborn here in the USA. Unless you are skeptical and willing do some research, you will be misinformed. And that is their intent. I never believed it would or could happen here. Yet here we are.
@gary Miller: you are a slippery liar. First, Biden didn’t claim that Trump didn’t have a “real plan” as you say; he claimed he didn’t have a plan, period. That of course is a lie.
Yes, when Trump left office the vaccine distribution efforts in many states were still ramping up. There was a curve—an upward trajectory—of number of vaccinations per day that preceded the Biden administration, and the increasing rate has been based on manufacturing and state ramp ups, and have very little to do with any lately-modified policies from the federal government. The curve can be plotted on a graph starting at the number 0 a year ago when there was no vaccine and no vaccine doses and China had only just deigned to provide the virus sequence. Operation Warp Speed is responsible for the fact that multiple vaccines were successfully invented and produced in large numbers in record time. When Operation Warp Speed was announced it was criticized and called unrealistic by the Democrats, and Trump was mocked for claiming, and pushing for, the vaccine to be ready at the end of the year (Trump was right on policy and his prediction; they were wrong.)
Tell me Gary, what specifically has been changed by Biden in the last month to cause the increase in daily vaccination numbers? The states are the ones distributing the vast majority of vaccines (places under federal control like the military are having major problems getting adequate percentages of people (soldiers) vaccinated).
Just like the claim that Trump is responsible for all the Covid deaths in the US, the claim that there was no plan—sure, no plan, and yet the vaccine, and with it the entire solution to the pandemic, just happened to be ready and waiting for Joe on a silver platter when he took office—is a risible slander. It’s so odd that essentially every other country around the world—none of which has Trump as President—also contended with a rampaging pandemic and many infections and deaths, with many also having higher rates of both. Too, Trump had to contend with a federal system and the Bill of Rights, and millions of crazy leftists rioting in the streets in big Democrat cities throughout last year, and an implacably hostile and mendacious media (hydroxychloroquine anyone?) and Democrat governors, which meant that he had little control over critical levers of power which other countries’ national governments had recourse to. That notwithstanding, the US came through better than many countries. The early problems with testing were not Trump’s fault but of the scientists and assorted creatures of the CDC—Trump did yoeman’s work to push through their idiocy and red tape, and quickly turned the USA into a testing powerhouse.
In fact, Biden has never been able to point to any substantive ideas or policy differences he would have implemented differently from Trump which would have saved lives or led to a vaccine more quickly. Where Biden has differed in clear terms with Trump, it has been Biden who events have proved wrong. To wit, the ban on flights from China that Biden called xenophobic. And while Trump (and Pence) were busy dealing with the virus and taking quick action, such as to produce ventilators—which the Democrats and media—but I repeat myself (always happens)—panicked and claimed many states were going to run out of, and nonstop indicted Trump for the horrible possible disaster of scarce ventilators (arising partly out of Joe and Barry’s f-up depleting of stockpiles during their clumsy response to SARS in 2011) right until Trump, coordinating public/private consortia, solved the shortage and produced enough to ship extras around the world, at which point they promptly forgot about ventilators and pretended like the issue never existed and never mentioned the word ‘ventilator’ again. Trump worked day and night procure and allocate resources and collaborate with his science and medical advisors to push accurate info out to the public as it was being learned, according to what the ‘experts’ were saying. Meanwhile Biden and the Democrats were busy with their first idiotic impeachment and telling people to party in Chinatowns. Instead the Democrats and media—but I repeat myself—spent a year telling us all that Trump’s efforts to deliver a vaccine were unrealisticly optimistic and recklessly putting all out eggs in one basket. They also told us that the expected number of casualties was in the millions and then when it was far less blamed Trump for all of them anyway.
The fact is Biden inherited a situation in which the Trump administration had already delivered and begun to implement the solution to the pandemic. He has not needed to do anything but sit in the White House basement while the vaccination effort he inherited ramped up and proceeded on autopilot in the several states.
Gary, all that has happened this month is that the vaccination effort continued to develop according to the documented plans (and expected numbers) of the Trump administration and as implemented in the several states, and Biden has done nothing to change the rate of vaccinations per day. Gary, if you can’t identify specific substantive changes by Biden that are provably responsible for an increased rate of change (2nd derivative) of vaccinations per day, then you have to ask yourself, why do you hold these views that Trump screwed up the Covid vaccines? (which again would not have been produced without Operation Warp Speed.)
If you can’t show how the US is a specially bad case per Covid statistics and how specific Trump decisions (that were different from what either Biden/the Democrats/MSM and/or the policy advice he was getting from the federal government scientists) led to these worse Covid statistics—if you can’t do this, then you really have to ask yourself where your sincerely held beliefs are coming from? Are they being programmed for you by the media/Democrats? Do you just hate Trump so much that you can’t be objective and would rather live in blinded cognitive dissonance than actually look the facts in the face and draw fair conclusions?
What is this childish need of so many Democrats and Biden to refuse to give any credit whatsoever to Trump and to blame him in wild unreasonable terms for everything? I generally dislike arguments based on claims about people’s motives because none of us can see inside others’ heads, but it really seems to me as though there is some infantile psychological need to make Trump a boogeyman and act like it would all be wine and roses and no one would have died from Covid if he weren’t President. I mean, why else the strain to believe in such simplistic, ridiculous, utterly false, propaganda?
How did I know it was a lie?
I got my 1st shot BEFORE Biden was president.
Simple as that!
PS … can’t sleep …wide awake!
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Since delusional Joe doesn’t even know where he is, I want to know who is writing his little teleprompter speeches? HAS to be Obama. Joe sounds just like him. Hateful, bitter and lying his ass off.
J. J. and B. I’m not a pshrink. But maybe I can read “some” people.
When folks say the things you mention (lies), and there is some kind of covert/implicit defiance in their affect, I get the impression they know they’re lying. But The Cause requires them to do so. You will not convince a Biden fan to stop saying vaxxing didn’t start under Trump. You may not have to convince them they’re wrong, since they either knew it, or now that you insisted the look it up, know it now. But you will not convince them to stop saying it.
So while it’s probably useful to keep up the truth telling, it’s not going to have much, if any, short term result.
See Kavanagh’s accuser for an example.
J.J.:
The Democrats, including Fauci, are in total control. They have achieved that via Gramsci’s advice of 100 years ago, an approach they quickly adopted..
Our Capitol is the new Kremlin, surrounded by chain-link fence topped with razor wire, and thousands of NG troops who have been “vetted”, armed with live ammo with which to kill their fellow citizens should they dare to peacefully assemble and petition for a redress of grievances.
Merrick Garland, our new AG, has vowed the DOJ will pursue the Capitol trespassers; he has also asserted there is systemic racism in his prepared testimony for confirmation.
The Democrats’ oppressive rule is excused by COVID, and their intent is to crush the country while making its citizens dependent on federal handouts for survival. And make mail-in ballots mandatory–what could be wrong with that? Just ask Joe Stalin, the vote-counter-in-chief, who killed fifty million of his own people. “It not the vote count, but who counts the votes, that matters: , or words to that effect.
We need to face it: the Democrats are the new Communist Party. They have seized power (what vote fraud?) and will not relinquish it.
If the GOP does not see this and unite against them (Pence will not speak at CPAC!) there is no hope.
None.
“What is this childish need of so many Democrats and Biden to refuse to give any credit whatsoever to Trump and to blame him in wild unreasonable terms for everything?” Cuz he’s a “Nazi,” a “fascist,” a “racist,” a “white supremacist,” a “misogynist,” etc. and any credit given to him only emboldens the millions of closet “racists” and “Nazis” out there.
There is much to agree with here. Both Neo and physicsguy’s points in particular.
But I want to call attention to the growing case for optimism. The Daily Mail reports that in Israel, with 50% immunised, the country’s economy is being re-started. Infections, deaths and hospitalisations are all rapidly falling.
Great Britain has reached one-third inoculated, and over 50% in some areas in the most afflicted over 50 years old age groups, says the Daily Mail. Like in Israel, trends mortality and morbidity trends are favourable. And PM Boris Johnson is being urged to follow suit.
When will this trend come to the USA?
A Johns Hopkins University Med School prof makes the case in the WSJ (link works):
“As of this week, 15% of Americans have received the vaccine, and the figure is rising fast. Former Food and Drug Commissioner Scott Gottlieb estimates 250 million doses will have been delivered to some 150 million people by the end of March.
“There is reason to think the country is racing toward an extremely low level of infection. As more people have been infected, most of whom have mild or no symptoms, there are fewer Americans left to be infected. At the current trajectory, I expect Covid will be mostly gone by April, allowing Americans to resume normal life.”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/well-have-herd-immunity-by-april-11613669731?st=0298rcgx7vtk2r5&reflink=article_email_share
Reaching natural and artificially induced herd immunity is coming. Surely, this trend will soon arrive here. But when?
CORRECTION. I believe I misstated some key UK facts. One-quarter have gotten the vaccine jab, plus this, with virus exposure (and surviving it, naturally), and thus the one-third figure, I think.
What about Israel? Here’s the link
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9283395/Israel-reopens-economy-HALF-population-jabs-second-Pfizer-dose-cuts-Covid-risk.html
So many great comments. Ackler at 4:22 pm 2/20 nailed it. I couldn’t help but think of specific encounters with a number of people that are defined by that assessment.
I’m starting to see fewer masks here in Abq. The restaurants and cafes have opened with 25% seating. My cafe crew is getting back together.
Judging by the current infection graphs and the vaxx campaign I’d say this is going to be over by summer.
I’ll bet there will be some masking for the rest of the year. Maybe forever. I get it for the old and the compromised.
“My cafe crew is getting back together.“
EXCELLENT, huxley.
Bcorrectly writes:
“Operation Warp Speed is responsible for the fact that multiple vaccines were successfully invented and produced in large numbers in record time. When Operation Warp Speed was announced it was criticized and called unrealistic by the Democrats, and Trump was mocked for claiming, and pushing for, the vaccine to be ready at the end of the year (Trump was right on policy and his prediction; they were wrong.)”
LOOK AT THE FISSURES ALL OVER THE EU, operating without the benefit of Operation Warpspeed:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9281969/DOUGLAS-MURRAY-EU-tearing-apart-right-eyes.html
The question is what happens this coming winter when there is a respiratory disease spike, as there is every winter.
The Collective Amygdala is fried to a crisp. The Little Eichmanns have tasted power. The grifts and grafts are freshly built. Karen’s thumb is poised to tweet.
Stopping distance of an Ultra Large Crude Carrier is what comes to mind. Except it just has momentum — what we’ve got are cowardly bought and paid for politicians, perverse incentives and a hive mind that has gone insane. Too much inter-connectivity all round tops things off by making the system highly unstable and unpredictable. In short, a #@$%fest of systemic failure.
Zaphod:
There’s something to what you say. I believe there will be foot-dragging. But the clampdowns are economically and psychologically unsustainable. There’s been almost a year of this and people aren’t going to take much more of it, unless the “Bring out your dead” wagons start happening.
Here’s an amusing story about a school board which had to resign after they made stupid, vicious comments about parents wanting their kids back in school, while stupidly not realizing it was a public Zoom meeting.
____________________________________________________
“…they want their babysitters back,” she said. Other board members piled on, appearing to dismiss parents’ concerns.
“B—–, if you’re gonna call me out, I’m gonna f— you up,” one board member is heard saying.
“Entire California school board resigns after caught mocking parents over school reopenings”
https://www.foxnews.com/us/oakley-california-school-board-member-resigns
@Huxley:
That’s funny. Ideally school board would have been defenestrated into a dung heap salted with broken bottles.
I hope you’re right re people not being willing to tolerate much more. I’m not so sure through. I’m gob-smacked by just how much they have been willing to tolerate so far. I get that it differs from region to region in the USA and therefore mileage can vary.. but looking at (say) UK and Australia, I’ve had to massively update my priors for just how much freedom loss and propagandizing the herd will tolerate and go along with. Glass half empty here until some good news arrives.
Zaphod,
Defenestration was (is?) an assassination method particularly preferred by Czechs. I kind of get a kick out of that, since it’s such an oddly random thing, but I sometimes wonder what it was (is?) about Czech culture that led to this.
@Rufus:
Puts a new spin on Czech Your Privilege, doesn’t it?
The Good Soldier Švejk novel by Hašek is a hilarious look into the Bohemian Soul. As is Smetana’s Bartered Bride. I think, like a lot of smaller nations, they get very tired from time to time of being bossed around by officious outsiders and start inviting them up to the Third Floor for more in-depth negotiations.
In many nations, the secret political police have a fondness for windows. Gets the job done efficiently and quickly. Ask Jan Masaryk.
I think it’s pretty easy, actually. One third of the country is like us and knows Joe stole the election, is a completely incompetent puppet being run by unbelievably corrupt Democrats, so this is par for the course, one third of the country is completely on board with the corrupt Democrats, be it because they’re corrupt, power hungry, tyrannical wannabe leftists, or because they’re too dumb not to buy the media spin, and one third that has no idea what’s going on and doesn’t care. I don’t see the hardcore left changing their tune, nor do I see the sad, idiotic middle coming to their senses, and we’re not plenty enough to vote our way out of it AND beyond the margin of fraud.
dead… Darn spell check
Anyway, I think you’re right in your one-thirds. But I think I see a familiar addition to the first and second.
People don’t want to feel powerless, so they imbue some level of potency into….killing a chicken to break a drought. Or wearing a mask. It’s too scary to think one is powerless. So the Authority which decrees…something gets credit.
And some people just get off on being made to do stupid stuff.