Member- Aug 21, 2014
- 5,049
- Tinnitus Since
- 1999
- Cause of Tinnitus
- karma
The American electorate on the whole is poorly educated, does not really understand our political system's basic inputs and outputs, and is incredibly easy to sway with propaganda. This is why incumbent presidents generally get blamed for long lists of things which had nothing to do with them, and were a result of the previous 3-4 administrations. I can give you examples of Clinton either taking the blame or credit for stuff GHWB had done, GWB getting blamed or taking credit for stuff Clinton had done, Obama getting blamed and taking credit for things GWB did, and Trump getting blamed or taking credit for stuff the Obama admin set up. "The economy" is always a huge one here because boom / bust cycles don't really have anything to do with political cycles but on the other hand anyone with a 401(k) probably knows whether it's up or down over the last 4 years and that becomes a convenient mental shortcut, even if it leads you to completely incorrect ideas about how the economy works.
The inability to track long running issues and look beyond the current year's political horserace has become a mainstay of American politics; this may be one of the reasons our (shitty) founding fathers didn't want normal civilians to have the vote, didn't want permanent political parties, didn't want a permanent standing army etc. Too bad, tough titty, doesn't matter, we are where we are and so we've just got to move forward as best we can.
I have a relative who's studied infectuous diseases globally for 50 years. They consider COVID-19 a "fire drill event" even though they also project eventual death tolls well into the millions. Their point with the "fire drill" comment is, really -- if and when the "big one" comes, there's nothing we can do that will matter.
If there was a virus which had the transmissibility and incubation period of SARS-COV-2 but had the mortality of SARS-COV-1... that would lead to an apocalyptic situation where billions of people would die and all world governments would break down. There isn't really anything we can do about that.
On the other hand, just wearing masks in flu season does save lives and is... a pretty normal thing in large parts of the world and has been since the 1918 pandemic
The inability to track long running issues and look beyond the current year's political horserace has become a mainstay of American politics; this may be one of the reasons our (shitty) founding fathers didn't want normal civilians to have the vote, didn't want permanent political parties, didn't want a permanent standing army etc. Too bad, tough titty, doesn't matter, we are where we are and so we've just got to move forward as best we can.
I have a relative who's studied infectuous diseases globally for 50 years. They consider COVID-19 a "fire drill event" even though they also project eventual death tolls well into the millions. Their point with the "fire drill" comment is, really -- if and when the "big one" comes, there's nothing we can do that will matter.
If there was a virus which had the transmissibility and incubation period of SARS-COV-2 but had the mortality of SARS-COV-1... that would lead to an apocalyptic situation where billions of people would die and all world governments would break down. There isn't really anything we can do about that.
On the other hand, just wearing masks in flu season does save lives and is... a pretty normal thing in large parts of the world and has been since the 1918 pandemic
