— Musings —04.10.2020 08:46 AM
I’d say let them all drop dead, but this virus isn’t into irony
The new conservative thing is to protest lockdowns, because they apparently know better than the doctors and the experts. So, as they trumpet “freedom,” they’ll have the freedom to get everyone else sick.
What a time to be alive! (But not for long.)
— Warren Kinsella (@kinsellawarren) April 10, 2020
yeah, annoying as hell when cons start acting like libs… seriously, for every con that ‘knows better than the doctors and experts’ there’s a precious little snowflake with a collection of magic stones or cupboard full of tinctures.
https://www.realclearscience.com/journal_club/2014/10/20/are_liberals_or_conservatives_more_anti-vaccine_108905.html
As good a time as any for this classic quote
“Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge. ‘”
There are just as many covidiots on the left as on the right side of the political spectrum – please don’t tar all conservatives with the same brush.
I get your point, but when you arrest a man who is watching his autistic son kick a soccer ball around in the middle of an empty field, there’s a problem. When you arrest a woman driving alone in her car, there’s a problem.
(to mention just two such incidents)
There has to be some balance.
As someone who considers myself centre-right, I am disgusted at what I have been seeing coming from “my” side of the aisle. Makes me embarrassed to describe myself as “conservative”. One of the central pillars of conservatism used to be to use reason and rationality. Now it’s gaslighting, what-aboutism, and anti-intellectualism disguised as “standing up for the common man”. If this insanity seeps into conservative politics any further, I will have to consider myself politically homeless.
It’s way way worse in the US than in Canada, for a whole slew of reasons. Doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen here but IMO the US body politic is sick these days. People who support Trump will take any position and say anything just to “own the libs.” “Owning the libs” has become their sole mission. It has nothing to do with policy or governance or anything like that. It’s deeply cultural and it’s gotten completely insane.
So what risk of death would you good reader accept to be allowed to go back to work?
a) 1 in 100?
b) 1 in 1000?
c) 1 in 10,000?
d) 1 in 100,000?
The reason I ask? At some point that decision will have to be made.
Conservative Finance Critic Poilievre should really complain to Premier Ford regarding the emergency shutdown of the economy instead of griping on CTV or CBC.
If the HarpyCONs were in power they would be saying the same thing as the Liberals.
Medical martial law has been imposed without the rubber stamp of the feds being necessary. Poilievre et al. seem to think fence sitting red tories will buy in when in fact the epidemiologists have made a reasonable case for isolation even though we don’t know the incidence & prevalence figures as of yet.
RW
One point that a lot of people are missing on this is that you can’t just magically open the economy back up and assume that everything will be normal again. Just on a micro level, do you think if we opened bars and restaurants tomorrow people would suddenly flock there? Particularly if our covid numbers are still significant? People will need to have some confidence that we have the medical and public situation reasonably under control; otherwise, they’ll be too inhibited and scared to really go out and meaningfully engage in vigorous economic and consumer activity.
Doc,
This should be all about percentages: percent of the general population that’s ill and the other that have died. Context and prevention should be everything in this fight.
Swedish doesn’t have a conservative government, but there is no lockdown. It’s not only the people on the right who are against lockdowns.