[skimbell]

Apocalypse Fatigue: Why Won't At-Risk Boomers Panic About the Wuhan Virus? [Buck Throckmorton] —Open Blogger In the past week, a story that keeps getting written and re-written by young journalists is the stubborn refusal of older Americans to panic about the Wuhan Virus. Pretty much every story reads: “Why is it that a healthy young American like me - in the demographic most likely to survive Coronavirus – is panicking right now, while my Boomer parents/grandparents, who are highly vulnerable to death by Coronavirus, refuse to panic or radically change their lifestyle?”

Here are just three examples. No need to click – they all read the same.

BUSINESS INSIDER: “Frustrated Millenials Say They Can’t Get Their Aging Parents to Cancel Their Cruises, Stop Going To Church, And Take Coronavirus Seriously”

VOGUE: “Why Are So Many Baby Boomers in Denial Over the Coronavirus?”

BUZZFEED NEWS: “How Millennials Are Talking To Their Boomer Relatives About The Coronavirus”

Although I’m a little too young to be considered a Boomer, I am over 50, and I’d be glad to explain why the over-50 demographic is not panicking in the fashion that our young, know-it-all journalists would like. It’s simple. We’ve been through a lifetime of media-hyped hysterias and apocalyptic predictions. If not complete hoaxes, they were falsely reported or over-hyped. Here are a few:

Overpopulation and Global Famine: This was promised not just globally, but domestically too. We were supposed to have run out of food and descended into global starvation a long time ago. All the experts agreed.

Day Care Center Child Molestations: This hysteria sent many innocent people to jail. Local and national media fanned the flames with accounts of “numbers growing daily” and videos of anguished parents. It was a fraud perpetrated by highly credentialed “experts” who believed that pretty much every child exposed to an adult had been molested. The children just needed help remembering it. Those of us who saw through the hysteria were muzzled, because to question the veracity of the hysteria invited accusations that you too were a child molester. It was like Salem in 1693. The bravest journalist I’ve ever read is the WSJ’s Dorothy Rabinowitz, for daring to unravel the terror and how it spread.

Killer Bees: We treat it as a joke now, but we were promised an invasion of swarming “Africanized” bees that would kill livestock and children. It was soon going to be unsafe to even go outside in the southern US without thick layers of protective clothing. All the experts agreed.

Killer Mold: Toxic mold in the ‘90s was kind of like radioactive waste, only deadlier. Or at least that’s what the media had us believing. The terror of discovering mold in schools was met with media alerts, school shutdowns, and local TV stations filming panicked parents as they picked up their crying children, just moments before the tikes were engulfed by the attacking mold.

Global Cooling: A “consensus of scientists” assured me this was real, and that its impact on agriculture would probably lead to my death by starvation.

Global Warming: According to “scientific” predictions from yet another “consensus of scientists,” the Arctic should now be ice free, snowfalls a thing of the past, and New York’s West Side Highway under water.

It goes on and on. Acid Rain. Peak Oil. Ozone. Alar Apples. Y2K.

Maybe the Wuhan Virus is finally “The Big One.” But after decades of the media fraudulently screaming “APOCALYPSE IS IMMINENT!!!” it is not irrational for Boomers to dismiss the latest hysteria. In Aesop’s fable about “The Boy Who Cried Wolf,” the moral of the story isn’t that the townsfolk should have believed the boy, the moral is that the boy shouldn’t have destroyed his credibility by falsely screaming wolf time and again.

Thirty years from now, the millennials who are currently aghast at their parents for not panicking, will themselves be jaded by decades of hysteria, and they too will be just as skeptical of “Apocalypse 2050!!!.”

Should seniors – and everyone - be super vigilant about hygiene and sanitizing right now? Absolutely. But should they engage in hair-pulling hysteria as demanded by young know-it-alls? Of course not.

Close it up

[WKUHilltopper]

Because we’ve just about seen it all, kid.

[AF_Blue]

Yep, same age range, same perspective. It was Hurricane Fatigue for me. I'm a Florida native, and also spent more than half of my military career in Florida (go figure, I didn't request it). As soon as it peeled off of Africa, and classified as a Tropical Depression, it was 24/7 HURRICANE DISASTER and projected path reporting, even though it would be a week or two before it got near.

Keep the car filled with gas for a bug-out, keep some cash handy, and keep the charcoal dry so you can grill whatever's in the freezer after the power goes out.

[Paladin2]

Now that Trump has kicked Rump and all the gov’t TLAs are in line to let those old Malaria drugs be prescribed for the China Virus there is now a reason to get everybody tested and put on a drug regimen for both prophylactic purposes and as an effective treatment, the risk has greatly fallen for boomers were were used to American exceptionalism including exuberant innovation.

[outofsalt]

Nervousness is when your wife is pregnant.

Fear is when your girlfriend is pregnant.

Panic is when they both are.

[LouieFisk]

"Apocalypse Fatigue"
--
And it ain't even here - yet:
"Coronavirus: 'They call it the apocalypse' - inside Italy's hardest-hit hospital"
Masked, gloved and in a hazmat suit, my team and I are led through corridors full of gasping people who look terribly ill.
I ask what ward I am in.
"This isn't really a ward, it's a waiting room, we just have to use every bit of space," my guide, Vanna Toninelli, head of the hospital press office tells me.
The medical teams are fighting a war here and they are losing.
We have all heard what has been going on here, but no journalist has been allowed in here to see it, until now.
It's crippling - here they call it the apocalypse.
Bergamo wanted us to see this, as I have said, and they want to send a simple message: "Get ready".

[BradyLS]

There have been a lot of Chicken Littles and Boys Who Cried Wolf in my life. And I’m only in my mid-50s!

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Because you are boring us.

Not a boomer but the 24 hour "running around screaming" thing that the media and political class is indulging in is wearing a bit thin.

[El Cid]

Because we are all going to die.
Panic if you are going to meet death without being in Christ. That is worthy of panic for those without Christ - and should cause one to repent and to seek the Lord with all their heart while they are on this side of the grave.

[Boomer]

Full Discloser: This is not mine, I saw it on FB and it moved me so much that I wanted to share it.

I talked to a man today

I talked with a man today, an 80+ year old man. I asked him if there was anything I can get him while this Coronavirus scare was gripping America.

He simply smiled, looked away and said:

"Let me tell you what I need! I need to believe, at some point, this country my generation fought for... I need to believe this nation we handed safely to our children and their children...

I need to know this generation will quit being a bunch of sissies...that they respect what they've been given...that they've earned what others sacrificed for."

I wasn't sure where the conversation was going or if it was going anywhere at all. So, I sat there, quietly observing.

"You know, I was a little boy during WWII. Those were scary days. We didn't know if we were going to be speaking English, German or Japanese at the end of the war. There was no certainty, no guarantees like Americans enjoy today.

And no home went without sacrifice or loss. Every house, up and down every street, had someone in harm's way. Maybe their Daddy was a soldier, maybe their son was a sailor, maybe it was an uncle. Sometimes it was the whole damn family...fathers, sons, uncles...

Having someone, you love, sent off to war...it wasn't less frightening than it is today. It was scary as Hell. If anything, it was more frightening. We didn't have battle front news. We didn't have email or cellphones. You sent them away and you hoped...you prayed. You may not hear from them for months, if ever. Sometimes a mother was getting her son's letters the same day Dad was comforting her over their child's death.

And we sacrificed. You couldn't buy things. Everything was rationed. You were only allowed so much milk per month, only so much bread, toilet paper. EVERYTHING was restricted for the war effort. And what you weren't using, what you didn't need, things you threw away, they were saved and sorted for the war effort. My generation was the original recycling movement in America.

And we had viruses back then...serious viruses. Things like polio, measles, and such. It was nothing to walk to school and pass a house or two that was quarantined. We didn't shut down our schools. We didn't shut down our cities. We carried on, without masks, without hand sanitizer. And do you know what? We persevered. We overcame. We didn't attack our President, we came together. We rallied around the flag for the war. Thick or thin, we were in it to win. And we would lose more boys in an hour of combat than we lose in entire wars today."

He slowly looked away again. Maybe I saw a small tear in the corner of his eye. Then he continued:

"Today's kids don't know sacrifice. They think a sacrifice is not having coverage on their phone while they freely drive across the country. Today's kids are selfish and spoiled. In my generation, we looked out for our elders. We helped out with single moms who's husbands were either at war or dead from war. Today's kids rush the store, buying everything they can...no concern for anyone but themselves. It's shameful the way Americans behave these days. None of them deserve the sacrifices their granddads made.

So, no I don't need anything. I appreciate your offer but, I know I've been through worse things than this virus. But maybe I should be asking you, what can I do to help you? Do you have enough pop to get through this, enough steak? Will you be able to survive with 113 channels on your tv?"

I smiled, fighting back a tear of my own...now humbled by a man in his 80's. All I could do was thank him for the history lesson, leave my number for emergency and leave with my ego firmly tucked in my rear.

I talked to a man today. A real man. An American man from an era long gone and forgotten. We will never understand the sacrifices. We will never fully earn their sacrifices. But we should work harder to learn about them..learn from them...to respect them.

[Conservative4Ever]

Oh yeah, i had forgotten about alar apples. Yeah, I’m a boomer and I’m just shaken my head.

[Charles Martel]

Hang on now, whose generation is currently ignoring the social distancing recommendations at Spring Break? Just sayin’.

[Oatka]

[Sidebar] had to get a VA blood test at a local hospital. Was met at the door by a young nurse who swiped my brow to take my temperature, then gave me a shot of hand sanitizer. I mentioned to her there was a lot of hysteria going on and she just nodded "yes".
Inside, I talked with another young nurse as she drew blood and mentioned that I was sick and tired of all the Media hype about the virus. She replied "Me too." That was encouraging as it's telling me the younger generation recognizes what is going on.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

The wolf is here, and nobody gives a shit. Thanks for the decades of fun, panic-mongers. Y’all now have blood on your hands.

[This I Wonder32460]

Back in the early 1970s, the earth was suppose to have run out of fossil fuel in 30 years. It’s almost 50 years later & we still are using fossil fuel.

[nutmeg]

Bookmark

[JustaTech]

We know panic never helps. Panic is the opposite of thinking.

[Prince of Space]

My adult son and his wife, both late 30s, are more concerned about my health than I am. They also believe the Global Warming hype. It must be the water.

[ez]

1. Its an election year.
2. Democrats and media haven’t been able to destroy Trump
3. It’s the flu.
Conclusion : They are weaponizing a flu outbreak to defeat Trump in Nov
Yawn.

[9YearLurker]

Because they’re misguided Freepers.