Map of life expectancy at birth from Global Education Project.

Sunday, November 15, 2020

Brain rot

 This tweet from an ICU nurse in South Dakota:

 

I have a night off from the hospital. As I’m on my couch with my dog I can’t help but think of the Covid patients the last few days. The ones that stick out are those who still don’t believe the virus is real. The ones who scream at you for a magic medicine and that Joe Biden is Going to ruin the USA. All while gasping for breath on 100% Vapotherm. They tell you there must be another reason they are sick. They call you names and ask why you have to wear all that “stuff” because they don’t have COViD because it’s not real. Yes. This really happens. And I can’t stop thinking about it. These people really think this isn’t going to happen to them. And then they stop yelling at you when they get intubated. It’s like a fucking horror movie that never ends. There’s no credits that roll. You just go back and do it all over again.

The Cult of Orange Julius is truly inexplicable. I get the racism and the permission to be vulgar and stupid, but I don't get the denial of objective reality. This is literally murder. The man is a mass murderer.

7 comments:

Eddie Pleasure said...

Well, he didn't do it alone; he had/has lots of assistance.

Don Quixote said...

Again, so many Americans living in pain and ignorance; so many whose fathers and/or mothers beat them, raped them, neglected them ... as well as some clergy, coaches, relatives, siblings. Child abuse is endemic in the USA, and to people who never found a Twelve Step group or a therapist, who suffer in silence, abuse is "normal"--they know nothing else.

Along comes an insane demagogue, a pathological liar and rapist himself, a racist, an ugly, narcissistic monster who can't care about anyone, but tells them they're getting screwed--and they are, no matter who's president--and these people living in ignorance and pain vote for him, buy his evil, twisted, cruel shtick. And no one can tell them different; this is a death cult, like those of Jim Jones, Marshall Applewhite, and yes, Adolf Hitler. For these people to see that COVID is real would be an abandonment of their god.

Don't forget that hundreds of millions of people believe in the nonsense of Christianity. While there are many good Christians--and a hell of a lot of bad ones, too--if people can swallow that bullshit, and worship a guy who was actually a short, brown Jew--but to them he's a slender Caucasian guy, a "god"--they can believe anything.

I know some great Catholic people. I don't know many good Christians. Frederick Douglass famously illustrated how enslavers got even WORSE when they "got religion" because they used bible verses to justify their newfound cruelty. T

The point is, people have had their minds corrupted by racist founding fathers, enslavers, sexual abusers, physical abusers, emotional abusers, and parents who are themselves emotionally stunted. It's estimated that for every person who's found AA, there are a hundred who haven't. Donald Shitler feels like "daddy" to these people. And they never individuated, psychologically; to break ranks would be to abandon daddy, psychically speaking to kill him. Their identities depend upon their acceptance of the tribe's rules of lies, hate, and abuse of self and others. Their identities are more important to them than truth, love, or even survival.

This does not make these people bad or evil. It just makes them willing victims who can't see any other way than to latch on to our worst angels--our devils, alive in us all.

The answer is education, reprogramming, the same as with any cult survivors. The answer is: give everyone a decent place to live and a job, and they won't feel left out and abandoned. They won't be susceptible to evil demagogues. That's what allowed Hitler to advance his heinous plans: a nation in economic and emotional pain.

Daniel said...

What is your assessment of the Italian study that indicates SARS COV-2 was circulating in Italy in October 2019? I've only seen the executive summary, the source I looked at is on Sage behind a paywall.

Cervantes said...

You'll need to give me more reference info. Authors, journal, title?

Daniel said...


Here is the reference

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0300891620974755

Don Quixote said...

All that said ...

I can forgive my friends in the South, and here in Michigan, who voted for Shitler; but I can never see them again as I did.

For them to feel screwed by the government, not cared about, discriminated against because they're Caucasian (although this is a delusion), okay--I get it.

But for them to say, "I refuse to acknowldge this man is a rapist, a sexual predator, an ugly racist, a criminal, and now a mass murderer; I'll vote for him"--well, I see that all my friends share some things in common: a lack of critical thinking. A desire to be told where to go and what to do. A refusal to think as individuals. A fear of truth.

It's no crime to be afraid. It's no crime to be ignorant. It's no crime to be a conformist. But on at least a subconscious level, these friends of mine are saying, "I refuse to acknowledge truth."

If Tiger Woods had refused on Sunday to place the green jacket of Augusta National on Dustin Johnson's shoulders when he won the Master's Tournament, saying instead, "I concede nothing! I'll be the Master's champion still! Let's look at Johnson's play on the sixth and fifteenth holes--FRAUD!" ... well, wouldn't people have said, "He's insane!" And some would have pulled out the n word.

What's more important to your daily lives--a golf tournament or the killing of a quarter of a million people through neglect and denial? And yet you voted for this man.

On some level, you know what you're doing; on some level, you are a traitor to your country. And I can never be friends with you in the same way again.

Cervantes said...

Daniel -- I certainly find it plausible. Before Covid-19 was recognized, cases would probably have been assumed to be influenza. The virus could have been circulating earlier than we originally thought. The only reason this really matters, however, is if there were people who knew about this and concealed it. There was a report that the Administration received a warning in November; that would have to mean the Chinese knew and either U.S intelligence picked it up or they shared the information quietly. But who knows?