
I often appreciate the consistency of conservatives. They’ve been against minority rights for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. They’re still stuck on running the country like it’s 1776 and don’t get why we don’t teach the Bible and Latin in schools. (I almost said public schools, but yikes, there’s an idea that’s still too fresh.)
But, and I say this only as a true fan of the movement, they’ve been all over the map when it comes to reacting to death tolls, and I really need some guidance on how many deaths is too many when it comes to coronavirus.
See, four deaths in Benghazi is widely considered one of most disgraceful moments in American history, and a dark stain on our honor. It was so bad that we had to investigate it for several years and spend more than $7 million to find out, in a shocking reveal, that Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State. (Sorry if that’s a spoiler!)
Same with 9/11, when just shy of 3,000 people died and we launched several stonking little wars that killed 100 times that number in a country that had nothing to do with 9/11. We also created the Department of Homeland Security, a worrying-sounding thing that, luckily, thankfully, would never be used against American citizens here at home.
Conservatives are big on statuary celebrating the lives of the ~350,000 brave and noble and NOT FIGHTING FOR SLAVERY AT ALL WHY WOULD YOU EVEN SAY THAT YOU SOY BOY SNOWFLAKE confederate troops lost to war and disease during the Civil War (of Northern Aggression that was actually about economic dominance and federal overreach and uppity you-know-whos.)
Heck, these are people who are OK with taking their kicks off at the airport because Richard Reid killed exactly 0 people with a shoe bomb, which again suggests a real respect for the dignity of human life.
But when it comes to coronavirus, it’s harder to get a handle on where that line is. I get it, the terrorists have won if abortion is legal (obviously) but also if you have to wear a mask to the Piggly Wiggly? Communism is the abolishment of private property and not being able to eat at a restaurant? Not reopening schools is fascism, right?
So, it’s not 0, or 4, or 2,997. Maybe it’s the 350,000 mark — or at least they’ll demand a coronavirus statue? Is it 500,000? A million? A billion?
I just want to know how many grandmas and cancer patients and immunocompromised people and disabled and the unlucky and children need to die before this gets taken as a bigger threat than the erasure of Robert E. Lee from history’s statuary garden.
Because I’m a reasonable American, I’m not necessarily opposed to endangering lives so the economy can reopen. Not my family members, of course, that would be tragic. But if Little Christian gets Covid at school with his friends, maybe he’ll get to learn some hard life lessons they don’t teach in soft liberal places, like how to manage collection agencies when his father dies and he’s kicked off his Cigna plan.
Conservatives definitely like that idea, toughening up the next generation of workers/disabled veterans from President Shapiro’s Mexican Border War of 2033. (Ooh, again, spoilers. Sorry.)
I just want to know how many more people have to die so we can start taking this seriously is all.
im pretty sure the answer is always one more
kind of the same answer as with gun control
9/11 tho… now that was a non standard response…. murica completely lost its shit and never recovered from that one…and they made flying even more sucky than it was before..
not to make light…or anything like that… but holy shit..that was one hell of an over reaction
You also forgot that it’ll be an issue the second there’s a Democrat as president. If Joe Biden wins, it’ll be his fault there’s no vaccine and there are deaths the instant he takes office. (Heck, they might not wait. If Trump continues to be 10-15 points down in September they’ll probably start talking about it being Biden’s fault by then.)
But 9/11 was a two-fer that I dunno if we can ever fully repeat: We thought we were invulnerable in the post-Cold War era AND the people in charge realized right away it was a get out of jail free card to do whatever they wanted with policy and the majority of Americans wouldn’t say shit because they were so freaked out.
yeah… thats true…i did completely forget that as soon as trump is out (and…he fucking better be….) everything will be the dems fault
tbh…anyone gets in after him is not going to be having a fun time of it
welp…good thing biden is halfway senile already…he’ll probably forget most of the shit thatll get flung at him
…I don’t like to say “it was this thing right here…that’s it, we’re done – that’s the answer”…although lord knows enough people who know me have been known to wish I would…but
…it always felt to me that what really nudged it over the tipping point into some stuff I’m pretty sure was neither smart nor effective in national interest terms (for actually a pretty broad spectrum of definitions both nationally & interest-wise) was the “war on terror” thing
…quite apart from seeming a whole lot like it ran on the same basis as the actual terror stuff in terms of “be afraid…be very afraid…we’ll tell you when you can stop being afraid & it ain’t now” it was always a hopeless endeavor on its face
…you just can’t wage any kind of meaningful conflict against an abstract concept
…it’s not like there was a clear plan with achievable outcomes whereby terror would sue for peace & henceforth nobody would need fear anything more perturbing than a vague misgiving…at least if their taxes were up to date or whatever…terror is fundamentally an instinctive & largely arational emotional response…& in my experience extremely difficult to lay hold of…much less expensively immolate with high-grade military munitions in a part of the world the terrified people the phrase had in mind barely like to acknowledge exists in the first place?
…it’s like nobody even remembered the whole military-industrial-complex thing
…well, except the military-industrial-complex, obviously
As long as more brown/black/poor people are being killed, or they are convinced as much, they will never do anything about it.
Moving a car on the lot just now, the radio was on a local Reich-wing propaganda station and the asshole moving his face-anus was going on about how Obama and Joe didn’t do that… Record black employment numbers, stock values, etc. None of that was due to Obama and Joe.
They are deliberately ignoring all eight years of Obama’s presidency and also blaming him for whatever is bad right now.
If schools opening this fall goes as expected, then you might see some change in messaging. But again, see my first point. The only people calling for a change in operation will be those who do actually lose children or family members. And even then I do not believe they can be de-programmed enough to vote accordingly.
There is no number too high.
There’s no one to declare war on.
Most Rs don’t know anyone with COVID, so it doesn’t affect them.
Similar to gun control, they don’t know any victims of mass shootings, so, not their problem.