It’s funny how this illness has become like every other argument. Everyone has staked out their positions and there is no more thinking, just insistence that they are right.
Intrinsic in the applied solution (shutdown) is the paradox of the impossibility of proving a negative. If the Wuhan was as bad as advertised and we did effectively combat it via the shutdown then lots of people who would have gotten sick didn't but how do you prove that? Its like crimes that didn't happen because of the would be victim used a gun, kinda like that -anyhow.
I do know the the effects of all this both the pandemic and the shutdown have had real effects and presented us all with unique challenges most haven't ever considered.
The whole red team blue team thing at all levels of this makes a confusing and difficult set of things even more unfathomable. Especially if the pathogen deserved the level of mitigation the world has attempted to exercise. I've been on calls with then co-workers all over the global - It seemed to me as though the concern was warranted. Watching the daily briefings was both encouraging that pragmatic solutions were being implemented and disgusting in how the media was still engaged in the daily DC soap opera.
You can have your conformation bias served up to in so many different ways to make your thinking fit reality in ways that justify your existing political proclivities.
Also there is the challenge of re-engaging the economy at full capacity again - perhaps its all there in Locke or Burke but it seems rather complex and regional to me.
So many levels of fear and prejudices to exploit its a poop crap stack - on top of itself, unless one makes a deliberate attempt to try to look at things objectively with the hindsight of history - no argument from an outside influence is going to convince people or at least most
I agree, very funny but also very sad. There are three groups:
1) Those that want the truth, no matter what it is. I want to hope that these are the majority, but unfortunately I may be wrong. These people are taking caution because they are prudent, but are not evangelizing to others one way or the other.
2) Then you have those that are fearful that this virus may result in massive negative health outcomes. However, as bad as it can get it is not an end of days situation. Even in a worst case outcome though, looking at the example of Brazil, Ecuador and Italy/NYC, as bad as the morbidity and mortality of the disease is it is not killing most of the people. Not to say that it has not killed many - it has, for example in the US equivalent to the Americans lost in Vietnam. But most people outside vulnerable groups who get sick many of them don’t even get that sick.
3) Finally you have those that believe it is either nothing (including some who specifically said this news article about Brazil is fake news’ - unfortunately there is footage of the government there using backhoes to dig thousands of graves) or think it is Liberal bias or think it is at the very least exaggerated (eg those who start threads asking if ‘any FReeper knows anyone who has it’). The interesting thing about this group is it will often use ad hominem attacks on those they consider to be ‘fearpers.’ I think many of these people are driven by how the economy has been significantly impacted by COVID (and reactions to COVID), and thus lash out at anything (or anyone) they consider to be helping propagate what they consider to be the fuel (fear) that is supporting the reactions they believe are resulting in actions taken that are massively affecting the economy. I thus understand their reactions - unfortunately they use ad hominem attacks to support their point, and also willfully close their eyes to anything that goes against their position. For example, on a thread a couple of weeks ago that referred to many dead being left on the streets of towns in Ecuador, one evening said that was footage from the past (without offering any evidence). They want to be so right that it’s ‘nothing’ that they end up looking like the kooks in the movie Contagion that claimed it was all a hoax and that some placebo would cure things.
So, that’s what we have. Three groups. Those who just want the truth to come out, don’t want to be sick but don’t want to hide forever and want things to come back to normal. Those that fear this pandemic is far worse than people know and could become even worse when second waves come through. And those that are angry at how the economy has been impacted and thus lash out at anyone and keep saying anything said about the virus that goes against their views is a ‘hoax’ and/or fear mongering.
And thus, you have people unwilling to look at the truth. They just want to be right.
“Everyone has staked out their positions and there is no more thinking, just insistence that they are right.”
Yes, you are right. I saw someone somewhere say: this is the problem when you politicize things, you are left just defending your position. But what is required in a situation like this is flexability.