Posted on 03/22/2020 4:25:33 PM PDT by wlindhorst
My first post here and vanity, I hope it's in the right place. Be gentile. I can't contain my frustration any longer.
Rant on: The late, great George Carlin had a part in his skit where he said: "think about how dumb the average person is, half of those are dumber than that!" The quote is close enough for my illustration.
Anyone remember the great American lock down of the 2009 Pig Flu pandemic? No? Me either. There wasn't one. Obama eventually called a state of emergency after he got off the golf course. There was not wide breathless-media panting about how we're all going to die. I looked. The best I could find were the typical "estimates" that 100 million people could be infected and 4 million could die. Where did they get those numbers? Out of their ass, just like now. In reality, from April 2009 to April 2010, a very low number of 12,469 deaths. (per the CDC). H1N1 Pig flu is now just a regular flu just like all the other flues (flus?) floating around. SCARY!
We are currently in a crisis brought on our own collective doing. A media obsessed public willing to believe everything we are told. We sit in front of TV and listen to our media masters to tell us what to think for the day. Well at least most people do. So scary things will be scary to you if you're told to be scared! Quelle horreur!
So lets adapt this to the current public panic. A new unknown virus coming from China is running unabated around the planet due to our very well connected and prosperous nations. It spreads rather quickly to Europe and inevitably to the States. UNKNOWNS! DEADLY! COULD KILL MILLIONS! Read any of the sensational headlines and, if you are a pessimistic guy who watches the media with a critical eye, you might ask yourself: Really? Are you sure?
Those who may not be so critical of the media will indeed quickly panic. Who better to fix this than GOVERNMENT! So everyone who is in a mild state of panic because of the media's headlines start calling their local/state/federal officials and ask: WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO?! WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE! Rational government might start looking at facts. A dysfunctional government who wants to be elected this coming November starts coming up with "solutions." Solutions induce more panic, the media finds more cases of infections, ie: "WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!", and thus the populace who are now turned in to the media 24/7 (yay ratings!) are even more worked up over WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!.
Ok, so let me write about Italy. Again, I'm a logical thinker and a huge skeptic of government. ANY government. How well is that socialized health care going? How many new patients could they take in where they are likely at capacity to begin with? Yay socialized health care! But you say "LOOK HOW MANY DIED! OMG!" Yay, socialized health care. On this note also, if health care is "free" why not go to the hospital when you feel like it? Claim you're victim to the latest PANDEMIC and surely you'll get a room with another sufferer of the PANDEMIC. Hospital beds go pretty quick in this model. Lets put that on TV! mOaR FeAr!
So. Lets talk about facts as well as the media can bring themselves to report.
a) Yes, people have died
b) 99% of those who did die had pre-existing conditions, infirmed, or well-aged. Zero children under 9.
c) It does appear to be more contagious than other forms of flu
US as of my last googling it has claimed ~155 lives. Again, all who died had pre-existing conditions, at least those which the media reported on as having pre-existing conditions.
Our population is 305 million or so now? Someone better at maths can figure out the percentage.
Yes, shutting down our economy and subjecting the populace to spending more time watching more rotting media TV is a hysterical reaction. It is madness. And it won't work unless we become prisoners in our own homes. For how long? I'll come back to that.
But you may say: You heartless prick! Your child could go to school and then go home and hug grandma. Shut down all the schools and shut down all the restaurants and shut down everything where people may congregate!
To that I say, ok, take the inverse. If grandma is so afraid of getting a hug from little johnny because she may end up with pneumonia and die, grandma might want to stay away for a little while. Or if you're an asthmatic or if you have emphysema. Any of the other ALREADY potentially life threating ailments you might have, then quarantine yourself. Let the rest of us live our lives as we have been doing, and if you very small percentage of the population who may/potentially be at risk, then stay home. DONE.
Then you would say: YOU HEARTLESS PRICK, FLATTEN THE CURVE. Ok, I understand what you mean by this: don’t inundate emergency services. Have we had this yet in the US? Were all the critical cases in Italy so critical that they had to remain in the hospital? Can the vast majority of Americans return home and recover there? Will everyone who ends up infected go to a hospital need a respirator and overwhelm the system? Somehow I doubt it.
Back to shutting down the economy, which is essentially what the world is doing. They've gone mad.
Media loves big government, right? We can all agree on that. Solutions to this is more government. More hand-outs. People can't work because (government made) business shut down. Government hands out checks; yay government! Free money! Last look I was seeing $1 Trillion US dollars is about to be printed. This is insanity! Estimates of 10% of the GDP will be created out of thin air and given away. Well, maybe in some form of loans but either way it will be created and in the market. Anyone who took high school economics or is even paying attention will surely know that inflation with skyrocket. Not at first, perhaps, but if they ever let us out of our homes we're going to want to buy stuff again. It will be a **** load more expensive I'll tell you that. Lets hope oil doesn't spike, which would make recovery much worse.
What is the endgame? When will the madness stop? At the November election? Will people stay at home until November and keep following daily government reports on how they will take care of us? After Trump gets elected what will the media jump to next? Attempt to tank the economy for the next 4 years? I don't know how even the liberal elite would put up for it. They have multiple houses to maintain!
I don't know where this is going and I maybe the panic is justified. I just don't see it. Someone tell me, rationally, if my assumptions are wrong. If you're going to tell me I'm a racist/xenophobe/homophobe or whatever then stuff it. A lot of people are going to lose a lot of what they worked for all over a media induced panic.
If you read all this, congrats.
He’s off to a great start, stop being a stupid thug.
No! Don’t chomp! Things aren’t that series, yet.
Why doesn’t anyone in the federal government care about influenza deaths and hospitalizations?
Why did they not shut down the entire country when flu season started last October?
Here is the catastrophe that goes unreported...
USA Influenza - October 2019 to March 2020
All numbers are CDC estimates:
USA Influenza Hospitalizations: 390,000 to 710,000
USA Influenza Deaths: 23,000 to 59,000
https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/preliminary-in-season-estimates.htm
Yes, shutting down our economy and subjecting the populace to spending more time watching more rotting media TV is a hysterical reaction. It is madness. And it won't work unless we become prisoners in our own homes. For how long? I'll come back to that.
CDC drove this reaction, with the help of a complicit press.
As you say, we don’t know the real facts, and my experience tells me that if th ereaction was overblown, we will NEVER learn the real facts. Governments never admit error, and everything they do is for the purpose of increasing control.
The press, like the government, is in the pocket of the globalists. Do not look to the press or the government for honest information.
Killjoy.
"Flatten the curve, has now morphed into "save every life". No exit strategy, no plan. Who would dare call and end to the madness, and cause all the deaths? Actually, it may not be that many deaths, but which politician would want to go out on a limb to end this. Even if just a few deaths, no one would want to face the hysterical and sensational media, who would flood that decision with sob stories.
Sorry to be a pessimist, but I don't see any politicians ending this mess without doing colossal damage to the economy.
This is my take — the left in general worked themselves up into a frenzy over their largely fictitious climate emergency, went as far as inflicting Greta Thunberg on the world, and the world more or less yawned and went on. So that deep-seated fear and angst about an end to the human race if we don’t radically change our ways has jumped over into this business, spinning up what appears to be a rather medium sized health challenge into another “we will surely all die” panic. Since two-thirds of elected governments are now of the progressive variety, this has quickly risen from the shadows to become the new normal.
Trump has been stampeded into going along, although I don’t think he would go as far as some of these maniacs are suggesting. When that moment comes, and he has to decide, the situation is going to jump back from the media panic stage to the political battle that was going on before this started. And it’s going to be a fight between realists who know this can’t be sustained very long, and crazy people who think there is some unlimited amount of government aid available, combined with a zeal to prevent every human illness or death, in itself an impossible task.
I expect this will lead to a full-scale political crisis in America some time in mid to late April.
Re: Florida COVID-19 Cases Now Over 1,000
How many influenza cases does Florida have?
How many influenza deaths does Florida have?
*hugh!*
/so much relief
Lighten up, Frances. Just having a little fun. Sheesh. Whatever happened to that good ol’ FR sense of humour? I didn’t expect the Spanish Inquisition.
Ok, but IMO vanities are a good thing. Don’t scare the neewb.
It is going to shift from a war on a mild virus infection to a war on the people and their freedom. I say after this week it will shift.
April 1st the ChiComs, Bill Gates, the CDC, and MSM will turn to President Trump and say “April fool!”
If I had it all to do over again I probably would've posted something like:
Be gentile.
O, the irony.
How many influenza cases does Florida have?
How many influenza deaths does Florida have?
Nobody does.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.