I assume by now everyone has seen or heard this extraordinary description by a nurse of her experiences with desperately ill patients who believe that COVID is a hoax and refuse to accept the proposition that that is what is killing them even as they lie in an emergency ward close to death. I do not think I have ever heard anything quite like this.
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As you know, I was struck by this video as well.
I have a friend whose extended family hails from North Dakota. He says his evangelical relatives live in a large, warm, tight-knit welcoming extended family. His wife, a physician, says that the women don't seem to know anything about birth control.
Meanwhile, the stats on North Dakota and South Dakota are remarkable. In tiny Eddy County, ND, nearly 15% of the populace has tested positive. In Bismarck, 11% have tested positive. In North Dakota as a whole, over 9% have tested positive.
Because the level of denial is so widespread and unshakable, I wonder how many people will actually get vaccinated when a vaccine becomes available.
After all the "experts" and "scientists" said Covid started in Wuhan, because of all this evidence, now the "experts" are saying it started in Italy late 2019. So basically its believe the experts because of this and you are ignorant if you don't, then the experts change the game. Its no wonder we're all screwed up. Technology has brainwashed us no one whats whats up or down. The internet is an incubator for confirmation bias. Don't blame the people, humanity has gone down the wrong road, and are not turning back.
"Technology has brainwashed us no one whats whats up or down. "
This is part of the plan. Keep everyone scared and confused. Then we'll accept anything that makes things seem safe and sensible again.
"I do not think I have ever heard anything quite like this."
Well, there's always this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3KlBeJq-xM
aaall,
Thank you for that. It brought tears to my eyes. The injustice of it all.
Any predictions on how long it will be before Melania files for divorce? I suppose it may depend on how much she gets under their pre-nup.
Here's hoping that the Republican party becomes a suicide cult. Yes, I'll drink to that---even at eight o'clock in the morning.
True, some people will die because of Trump, isn't that hyperbole though? It is a moronic personality cult which will make you feel entertained and it will ruin your country and lower your quality of life.
I mean Christianity is a death cult in a way too, but it's a family oriented death cult and stirs up lots of great art
Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew
And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true
That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two makes Four
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.
As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began.
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool’s bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;
And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!
Rudyard Kipling (1919)
I wanted, Sanders, voted for Biden, but my democrat tendencies stop there. Democrats have their head up their asses. As soon as they can stabilize, I will consider them, but right now they bat-shit crazy....as crazy as Trump. Pelosi is the last normal democrat. AOC? No thank you I'll pass.
Nancy Pelosi is the stammering, stuttering avatar of Democratic cluelessness. Chuck Schumer, in the Senate, isn't far behind her. I'm a Democrat to the bone, yet I always vote the straight Republican ticket---the better to hasten our demise.
There are well-understood cases in the neuropsychological literature (that is, study of the behavior of patients who have had physical injury to specific portions of the brain) who have indelibly false convictions about themselves or the world (e.g., denying that they are injured while being almost completely paralyzed, believing that their parents or spouse are impostors) but here we are presented with an anecdotal report of cases of individuals who present with arguably similar cognitive deficits, but who have apparently only come to this state through a constant diet of propaganda and right-wing social media.
We are also presented with reports of surveys that a large majority of Trump voters (something like 80%) believe, in contradiction to much available evidence, that Joe Biden did not legitimately win the election.
We are in a crisis of authority, not only of the rule of law, but of the rule of reason.
I am reminded of the crisis that western civilization endured when the authority of first the pope and then of the bible were challenged and then replaced by civil authority and science. But the transition (arguably still ongoing) occurred only through a very long period of social disruption.
There is a very rough comparison to be made here between the invention of the printing press and the growth of the internet. As is well known, the printing press allowed each individual to read and be their own judge of holy texts. This, alongside the rise of science, remade how the common man thought of the world. (There is obviously much more to this story, but technological change and the at least partial destruction of existing authority were clearly large driving forces of social upheaval.)
With the rise of the internet, whole libraries are now available at a fingertip. What might have taken days or weeks to search out can now take only minutes. Literally anyone can call up information on almost any topic at will. And with this torrent of new information comes an even more rapid spread of speculation, entertainment, nonsense, disinformation, and deliberate propaganda, which in quantity easily swaps out reliable sources of knowledge.
Now everyone can become their own expert. And that would be bad enough, in and of itself, but we now also have bad actors using artificial technologies to amplify propaganda and disinformation. The Christian schisms and European wars of religion were bad enough, but imagine how bad they could have been if there had been someone who had the ears of the populace and could continually whisper in their ears whatever might continue to enrage them against those with opposing beliefs.
I trust I am only stating the obvious if I note that our complex western societies require millions of highly skilled and disciplined individuals to function. Apart from the appalling social consequences of right-wing policies, our society will structurally degrade and eventually collapse if the ongoing corruption of reason and legitimate civil authority is not reversed.
Again, I expect I am just stating what we all know. I do so because my conviction is that all of us together form our society, and the only solution is for enough of us, collectively, to stand up for what we need in order to survive as a society.
Philosophical Walker,
Well said and I couldn't agree more. But in this society their is no "collectively". Everyone is standing up for what they need, but is so fragmented its also a big part of the problem. My estimate is we are at about 15 percent capacity for working together. Thats a long way from 100. With no reasonable solution in sight. So much for intelligence, technology, and harmony.
Jeffrey,
My mind boggles at the thought process of a person who professes to be a “Democrat to the bone,” and therefore votes the straight Republican ticket in order to hasten the demise of the party which he supports “to the bone,” to be replaced by what?
Philsoophical Waiter and Anonymous,
Oliver Sacks’ book, “The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat,” is replete with true stories of people with abnormal perceptions that are traceable to neurological cognitive deficits. They have an organic explanation for their aberrant views; Trump’s supporters’ ignorance, on the other hand, may have an organic genesis, but it cannot be traced to a specific location in their brains. It is a far more generalized cognitive deficit.
Regarding the lack of evidence to support their cockamamie ideas, I rely on Hitchens’ razor, “What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.”
Anonymous,
Regarding the future, I think we can take solace in the fact that, although some 70 million people voted for the aspiring dictator for life, which is, I agree, a disturbing fact, some 6 million more came out to vote for his more sane opponent, and once Il Duce is gone – and I predict prosecuted by Cyrus Vance Jr. - and if not imprisoned, politically disabled – that 5 million segment, with the help of Republicans like Mitt Romney, Ben Sasse and Jeff Flake, and other Republicans released from Il Duce’s serfdom, the country will gradually return to a measure of normalcy. Cut off the viper’s head and the body will eventually die. It will not be the radical progressivism which some would prefer, but a form of normalcy as compared to what might have been will, for me, be a welcome homeostasis.
Anonymous,
I submit that, in practice, in our daily lives, we are almost always working together, although we don't characterize it as that: That is, if you have any kind of job that has any kind of constructive function for society, no matter how remote, then you are part of all of us "working together". But we have multiple personalities when it comes to our personal and political selves--we may work for companies who politically support causes we disagree with, and we may espouse political views that are caustic to the overall functioning and health of our society.
But we ultimately cannot function as a society if too many of us deny basic reason and science--in the manifestly obvious current example, people get sick, fill up the hospitals, and 10's of thousands die. So yes, with no reasonable solution in sight, the cliff approaches.
MS,
I don't think GOP conservatism is a snake ruled by a corrupt head, I think the GOP is a diseased body riddled with cancers that have erupted into a corrupt head. And it's not at all clear that this corrupt head can be severed from that diseased body merely by removing him from office.
The only republicans who reliably speak out are those who are no longer in office, are about to retire, or have a voter base that will support them even if they disagree with Trump. So I do not share your optimism over the possibility that the GOP can be guided back to something approximating a normal, functioning political party.
I think the only real question is, which will die first, the GOP or American democracy? This is the horror movie we are all living, with the very real possibility that both the GOP and American democracy are headed for their demise and some vile mutant republican offspring will stand astride its corpse.
Wow, that's a dark image. I think I should stop commenting now and go and enjoy the afternoon! Enjoy the day, everyone.
Thank you for your posts, PhilosophicalWaiter.
To back up a little, I wonder whether the anecdotal patients who deny they have Covid-19 really don't know they have Covid-19. Are they ignorant or self-deceived, and is there a meaningful difference between the two? And if they are self-deceived, does this mean that they know and don't know simultaneously? Is there some kind of "epistemology of ignorance" at work here?
Your reference to, for example, the Capgras delusion is, of course, metaphorical. So let me try out a different metaphor. People who get lost in the wilderness can roughly be divided into those who know they are lost, and those who don't know or won't admit they are lost. But people in all three categories can end up in the same place, so to speak: if they suffer severe hypothermia, they may suddenly feel their body burning up and take off their clothes, thus hastening their deaths. The person with severe hypothermia is no longer in such a condition as to be able to evaluate the true status of their own whereabouts or their own condition. Likewise, someone in the latter stages of Covid-19 may not be cognitively capable of evaluating their own condition or how they came to be in that condition. It is too late for that.
Philosophical Waiter, et al.
It’s always darkest before the dawn.
Walk on the sunny side of the street
.
It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness
.
April showers bring the flowers that bloom in May.
Laugh and the whole world laughs with you; cry and you cry alone.
When all you have are lemons, make lemonade.
Smile though your heart is aching
Smile even though it's breaking
When there are clouds in the sky, you'll get by
If you smile through your fear and sorrow
Smile and maybe tomorrow
You'll see the sun come shining through for you.
The sun will come up tomorrow; Tomorrow, Tomorrow, Tomorrow is a brand new day!
Let me reiterate my recommendation of the the work of the US-Canadian social psychologist Bob Altemeyer on the authoritarian personality which is that of many Republicans. One of their striking features is that they are extra-good at compartmentalisation making it much easier for them than for most people to entertain and subscribe to contradictory, or potentially contradictory, beliefs Thus they can think that Covid is hoax while all around them people are getting sick or dying from a disease with Covid-type symptoms. The nurse's dying patients are extreme instances of this phenomenon.
Since we're directed to the subject of death, remember "the trumpet shall sound . . ."
But consider this:
https://www.christianpost.com/news/is-donald-trump-the-last-trump-before-jesus-christs-return.html
The GOP is dead. It's now Trump's party... even after a transition no Republican will dare speak against him...
Even capital is now evaluating whether more profits can be attained in a liberal democracy, state directed economy like China, fascist nation, or just a splintered state...
The U.S. could split up, Gundlach says. Here’s how he’d invest for that.
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-u-s-could-split-up-gundlach-says-heres-how-hed-invest-for-that-11604352902
Top CEOs met to plan response to Trump’s election denial
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/13/top-ceos-met-to-plan-response-to-trumps-election-denial.html
It looks like many CEO's are starting to figure out the other systems will pick the economic winners and they won't be it.
I remember this story... maybe some people saw the writing on the wall and did the right thing
https://wsvn.com/news/local/fort-lauderdale-man-moving-from-us-after-trump-win/
https://www.news4jax.com/news/2016/11/11/south-floridian-moving-over-american-hitler-trump/
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