Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/05/06/is-anyone-surprised-reopen.html
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No, thank you for the moment. I think it would ruin my day. Or more than one day.
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No, not surprised. I’m also not surprised that these conservative and Libertarian astroturf campaigns are attracting, if not locally run by, white nationalists and fascists. Historically, “free”-market fundies and conservative greedheads always get into bed with right-wing populist bigots when unregulated capitalism becomes visibly unsustainable.
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Hmm so you’re saying that the professional “conservatism” industry is sort of like a snake eating its own butthole, existing only to react against swivel-eyed boogeyman fantasies of its own creation? How silly!
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I am surprised.
I really figured that this would be the Russians.
I mean, killing Americans, destroying our economy, making us the laughing stock of the world, messing with our war fighting ability… it is just win win win for them.
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The Russians are in bed with these groups, so your hunch is still correct.
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It’s like the monster from the ST:TOS episode “The Day of the Dove.” It feeds on fear and anger so it creates as much fear and anger as possible. The most obvious example is the NRA which rather than an organization promoting marksmanship has become a agitprop wing of the GOP promoting fear of gun confiscation by hyperventilating over ANY kind of gun regulation as a first step towards government tyranny. By stoking and encouraging that fear they encourage donations and also the votes that make them an important political player within the GOP. This sort of thing is also true of Fox news, Breitbart, and many other parts of the Right Wing Media fear machine.
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This is also fueled by the systematic defunding of public schools. A dumber, less critical populace is much easier to control using primitive “bogeyman” tactics. It’s all connected, folks. It would be one thing if these people were genuinely concerned for their (and everyone else’s) rights, but clearly they are not.
They are protesting for the right to get a haircut. (edit) And that right trumps other people’s rights to be safe, not get sick, etc.
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In Canada, less evidence of plutocrats, but a shadowy group recruiting far right wingnuts.
(If those “5G bracelets” actually did anything, they’d be illegal.)
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This.
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I like the analogy. ST:TOS had a couple of those, well basically, “Space Aesop’s Fables”. Tribbles anyone?
CGP Grey has an explainer about emotional appeals and idea catchyness (aka memetic warfare):
This Video Will Make You Angry
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Thank you for being the first person I have ever seen on the internet who doesn’t misspell “populace” as “populous”
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This is happening in the UK too. Useful idiots like the execrable Allison Pearson, Toby Young and the Telegraph are all suddenly publishing right-wing talking points which amount to:
- Kids can’t get or transmit it in any way
- Not being in school is permanently damaging them
- No one under 40 is at meaningful risk
- Why should we all suffer just to extend a handful of geriatric lives by two meaningful years?
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No, everything else you’ve read previously was referring to the world building game.
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If at 42 I am geriatric, pay me my social security and let me retire; and keep your damn government hands off my Medicare!!1!!
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Kind of a shame that people that will suffer from the most from attending the protests, and a too-early easing of restrictions, will be the gullible yahoos, not the billionaires and ideologues who stir this shit up.
You can bet that THEY are safe working at home in their gated neighborhoods, getting groceries delivered and insisting visiting workmen get their temps checked and wear EVA suits.
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Maybe we could arrange to get their delivered produce licked - just a thought.
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They’re not going to get what they want, which is a booming economy by November 1st. The economy won’t ‘boom’ again until the pandemic is over, or we at least develop some kind of coherent plan for living with it.
I also think the protestors probably don’t have much personal experience with the illness, they don’t know anyone sick or dead. Yet.
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