Here is an AP timeline of just some of his lies about the coronavirus epidemic. Note a common quality of many of them, e.g.
Asked, for instance, by CNBC on Jan. 22 if there were worries about a pandemic, Trump said, "No. Not at all. And — we're — we have it totally under control. It's one person coming in from China, and we have it under control. It's going to be just fine."He believes his words have power over reality. This form of delusion is actually a common feature of conservative thought. Anthropogenic climate change means that the so-called Free Market™ must be constrained by public policy, and that conclusion is unacceptable, therefore it is not happening. Here is Anne Coulter tweeting "for people under 60, coronavirus is LESS dangerous than the seasonal flu," accompanied by a chart that shows the exact opposite, and by a lot. (Influenza death rate for people in their 50s is .06; Covid-19 death rate for that age group is .4. Note the location of the decimal point. And this is in South Korea where everybody got excellent health care. And of course for people over 60 the difference is extreme. Click on "show more replies" to get the full ratioing.) Something similar is going on here. She looks at the chart and sees what she wants to see, not what is actually there.
In February, he asserted that coronavirus cases were going “very substantially down, not up” and told Fox Business it will be fine because “in April, supposedly, it dies with the hotter weather. And that’s a beautiful date to look forward to.”
"It’s going to disappear. One day — it’s like a miracle — it will disappear,” he added on Feb. 27.
“It’s got the world aflutter, but it’ll work out,” Trump told a meeting of the National Association of Counties on March 3.
Spocko captures the essence of the new pronouncement that it will all be over by Easter.
Trump playing God will kill people in his quest to resurrect “the economy” which he sees as a reflection of his will.
Well, it isn't. But even as reality continues to collide violently with his endless torrent of lies, his cultists continue to worship him. It's a puzzle indeed.
Minor update: The person the Resident appointed as head of the CDC is a religious fanatic and a nutjob. Viz:
[Redfield wrote] "It is time to reject the temptation of denial of the AIDS/HIV crisis; to reject false prophets who preach the quick-fix strategies of condoms and free needles; to reject those who preach prejudice; and to reject those who try to replace God as judge. The time has come for the Christian community—members and leaders alike—to confront the epidemic.” Redfield named the breakdown of family values and increasing number of single-parent households as key factors responsible for the spread of AIDS.
In the 1990s, Redfield endorsed an unproven HIV vaccine as a huge breakthrough. It wasn’t, and Redfield was investigated for scientific misconduct for his role in continuing to push the vaccine. (He was later cleared of accusations of misconduct.) He also publicly lobbied for legislation sponsored by a conservative member of Congress that would force medical workers to get tested for HIV and AIDS and lose their licenses to practice if they were infected. More recently, in the early 2000s, Redfield remained adamant that the best way to contain the AIDS epidemic in Africa was to encourage abstinence, monogamy, and the use of condoms only as a last resort.
2 comments:
I haven't had time to process all this, but my initial thoughts are as follows.
Chock it up to denial and cognitive dissonance. There are still people in Russia who miss Stalin, greatest butcher in human history. Visit Germany and see the liberal awareness, but in Austria, where history has not been taught fully, there are many more people in denial--you can go visit Hitler's "Eagle's Nest" (where he met with generals). Some people there recall it as their "glory days." I played there with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra back in the '90s, and some folks in the orchestra hated being there because of the xenophobia. I felt it myself in the populace there, and my Austrian musician friends had nowhere near the historical awareness of my German musician friends, whose government sought to educate.
What will cause the Republicans' and Shitler's house of cards to tumble will be this: although many Americans backed bombing of populations in Iraq and elsewhere, this is us, we Americans. When Shitler wants to order people back into his resurrecting economy (NOT!) so they can get sick and die, self-preservation will kick in--an even greater drive than racism and projection. Yes, there will be the types of people who followed folks like Marshall Applewhite and Jim Jones. But that ain't most of us. I'm not sure the Hitler/Germany WW II model will apply here, because he had total control of that country. Shitler does not.
One caveat about Stalin:
I agree that Stalin was more of a monster than even Hitler; Hitler at least has principles, warped as they were. But our picture of the time comes from people who could write, and write well. Unluckily for them that made them a threat to Stalin. And for that he made their lives hell.
However, twenty years earlier the majority of the Russian people had been virtual slaves in czarist Russia. Bad as it was to live under, the Communist Party, i.e. Stalin, was a vast improvement over those days. At the very least people were told they had worth and were celebrated in the regime's 'art'.
Hard as it is to admit, I think that for many Russians life under Stalin was objectively an improvement over their previous lot.
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