On a forum called “AgTimes” I was told to “be nice, everyone is coming around to this at their own speed.”
Waiting to come around can kill. 60% of Republicans believe it’s not a significant problem. For weeks and weeks their glorious leader fed them that message, that it was a hoax, fake news, that “like a miracle” (just those words) it would go away, or it would go away with a warming April. Just ten days ago Trump was dismissing it as not as bad as the common flu.
All of that was dangerous rhetoric. It amplified the problem with have now, and destroyed any chance of controlling this early.
We have gone through years of vicious attacks on our media and press. You know, “enemies of the people” and all that. All calculated to create distrust for ANYTHING said by the press, by CNN, by WAPO, by the NYTs. Those sources were dead right on this issue all while Fox News, the President, and foolish Republican politicians, who bragged about going to restaurants with their family, were wrong.
That’s why 60% of Republicans continue to believe this whole coronavirus thing is just a scam. They’ve been told it was for weeks, and they’ve been trained to distrust the “lame stream media” that told them otherwise. Thus, as a statement of political pride they ignore the guidance, refuse to social distance, and brag about defying it all, as the Governor of Oklahoma has done.
But at least we have government institutions, like the CDC, to give all the straight facts that all Americans will accept, right? Well, no. Many Americans will not accept such facts because they have been similarly conditioned to believe that every government bureaucracy is their enemy, nothing but agents of the “Deep State” acting to undermine all they love.
Trump, and this whole conspiracy nutter cabal, has convinced many Americans that science is lying to us about climate change, doctors are lying to us about vaccines, the CDC lied to us about Ebola, and so on and so on. A significant number of Americans don’t trust science (and scientists), the media or anything to do with the government because of this. That’s going to kill people. There is no source for any truth now in the minds of too many.
Trump continues to pander to this, calling it the “Chinese Virus,” which just affirms in the minds of some that it’s not an American problem.
Sure, Trump has finally reversed course (though he is still calling it the “Chinese Virus”). But it is too little too late. We can’t get the lost weeks of this disease spreading back. And reversing the course of years takes time for the new message to sink into the collective psyche of those already tainted, time that kills.
By the way, you will not find these words on AgTimes. They were “censored” as not “positive” enough.
