Mankind is the most brightest creature on the planet, but also the most dumbest.
President Donald Trump fueled confusion and conspiracies from the earliest days of the coronavirus pandemic. He embraced theories that COVID-19 accounted for only a small fraction of the thousands upon thousands of deaths. He undermined public health guidance for wearing masks and cast Dr. Anthony Fauci as an unreliable flip-flopper.
But the infodemic was not the work of a single person.
Anonymous bad actors offered up junk science. Online skeptics made bogus accusations that hospitals padded their coronavirus case numbers to generate bonus payments. Influential TV and radio opinion hosts told millions of viewers that physical distancing was a joke and that states had all of the personal protective equipment they needed (when they didn’t).
It was a symphony of counter-narrative, and Trump was the conductor, if not the composer. The message: The threat to your health was overhyped to hurt the political fortunes of the president.
Meanwhile, the coronavirus has killed more than 300,000 in the United States, a crisis exacerbated by the reckless spread of falsehoods.
Also, K, the "Hypocrisy of the Year":
ReplyDeleteRemember the US Republican Senator from Iowa Joni Ernst who earlier in the year made the outrageous statement that doctors were inflating Covid-19 deaths so that they could make more money? What do you think she's up to now?
Joni Ernst, who accused doctors of inflating Covid deaths for money, criticised for jumping vaccine queue
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/joni-ernst-covid-vaccine-backlash-b1777981.html
The Good News: Only 28 days to go until Trump is tossed out of the WH.
The Bad News: That's 28 days to many!
'No humanity': Trump pardons Blackwater war criminals who massacred Iraqis
Who said the orange shithole Trump was human?
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/iraq-blackwater-trump-pardon-war-criminals
PS: George Papadopoulos was also pardoned. He's the guy who claimed to be a Trump campaign advisor but was really nothing more than an errand boy, or coffee boy if you prefer.
"too many," not "to many" :(
ReplyDeleteNo pardon for Snowden or Assange :(
ReplyDelete28 days to go until a new dung heap is installed. Flies are excited.
ReplyDeleteI could be wrong, PP, but I don't think Trump knows who they are.
ReplyDelete"28 days to go until a new dung heap is installed. Flies are excited."
ReplyDeleteThanks for the scoop on poop.
Poop scoop - what the modern media is all about.
ReplyDeletesadly, yes
ReplyDeleteI think the false change of a massive Russian cyber attack is a bigger lie, as well as the MSM refusal to acknowledge the many instances of voter fraud and electoral fraud directed against the Trump campaign. Note that I am not saying that Trump won, just that the lies about the fraud will forever undermine any confidence in democracy in the US.
ReplyDeleteMarian Ruccius: I think the false change of a massive Russian cyber attack is a bigger lie
ReplyDeleteThat's old hat - Biggest lie of 2016-2019, but not 2020.
the MSM refusal to acknowledge the many instances of voter fraud and electoral fraud directed against the Trump campaign.
Weren't any that scads of Republican judges could accept. Surely if they could rule for Trump with a straight face, many would have. But those charges don't pass a giggle test.
Note that I am not saying that Trump won, just that the lies about the fraud will forever undermine any confidence in democracy in the US.
No, the undermining was the old Democratic Russiagate lies and the new Republican lies about nonexistent voter / electoral fraud in this election, that for some weird reason you believe.
Would be nice if people just stopped. Trump won 2016. Biden won 2020. Both clearly, fair and square, with no more than the usual skulduggery. Nothing worth writing about. The Republican silliness will hopefully and likely be forgotten a month from now. I wish I could say the same with about the Dems - but they are dangerously more likely to believe their own lies.
@ Calgacus
ReplyDeleteRight.
An observation.
Nothing worth writing about. The Republican silliness will hopefully and likely be forgotten a month from now. I wish I could say the same with about the Dems - but they are dangerously more likely to believe their own lies.
I am not so sure that the GOP will be much different from the Dems in this, the reason being that the Internet's "democratization of information" and the social media phenomenon of going viral has resulted in a memetic culture as a transmitter of propaganda and other forms of persuasion.
Persuasion has a long history and has grown exponentially since Bernays published Propaganda in 1928. PR, marketing and advertising, and political propaganda reinforced the mimetic culture based on using studies and testing. The Internet and social media blew it wide open. Memes are now such a thing, "meme" has become a buzzword.
"Russian collusion" and "Democrat voter fraud" are now party memes that determine party allegiance. The Democratic establishment created the first to distract from their loss in 2016, and Trump singlehandedly created the second, significantly using tweets in the process.
I doubt that either meme will go away soon.
For the Democrats it's a political ploy to keep the establishment in power through distraction.
But owing to demographic shifts controlling the vote is vital for the survival of the GOP based on its big tent coalition of interest groups. So I expect the GOP to seize an opportunity here.
It's not even sure that Trump won't win in the end since if the GOP challenges the electors, the issue could be decided in the House, and Trump wins. Bold, but politics isn't beanbag, being essentially about power and the US is now deep in a power struggle. So I would not be surprised to see it happen.