The Lieutenant Governor of Texas is happy to sacrifice the lives of old people for “the economy.” A Congressman from Indiana doesn’t discriminate; he’s willing to let anybody lose their life to maintain what he calls their “way of life.” How they can have a way of life without a life becomes clear when he explains that by “way of life” he means the economy. The President of the United States is afraid that the cure of isolating ourselves is worse than the disease, even though the latter is deadly for some who get it. Trump also tries claiming, though nobody believes him, that protecting ourselves from a deadly disease will result in more deaths, not fewer.
This is how U.S. politicians have talked from the very beginning of the United States and prior to it about human beings outside the United States, about Native Americans, about enslaved people, about minority groups and immigrants. Yet, many have been able to avoid recognizing the evil. Now do you get it?
Trump openly says he wants troops in Syria for oil, Bolton openly says he wants a coup in Venezuela for oil, Pompeo openly says he wants to conquer the arctic for oil (with which to melt more of the arctic into a conquerable state). But the general rule, prior to these fits of honesty, has been to claim that wars were meant to spread democracy and happiness. Pointing out that every war is based on lies runs into great resistance from people who know governments lie but who don’t want to believe governments are quite that evil.
Believe it. When Pompeo talks about crushing Iran (or Venezuela or Syria or Cuba or North Korea, etc.) with sanctions, he’s talking about imposing death on numerous people. When Obama and Trump target people around the world with drone murders, and then target some U.S. citizens too, they’re valuing non-U.S. lives at their usual nonexistent level and devaluing U.S. lives to the same. When Trump and Biden compete for who can hate China the most, they’re talking about a significant percentage of the world’s population.
Locking immigrants up in cages is just as evil as locking U.S.-born children up in cages. People who will do the former are unlikely to draw the line at the latter. Don’t you get it? Evil sadistic politicians will be cruel to the People Who Matter just as they’ve always been cruel to everyone else. Truth be told, they were never nice to the majority of U.S. workers, but their cruelty was often too slow to be recognized as murderous.
What we need is not a little tweaking. We need the revolution of values that many tried to find an approximation of in Bernie Sanders. We need a society that empowers and rewards kindness instead of viciousness, decency instead of outrageous evil.
Right now we have a sick parody. The U.S. is badgering Mexico to reopen factories, cramming workers in together to produce parts for U.S. weapons that can be sold to the world. Mexicans must die like U.S. “essential” weapons builders must die so that the weapons can be shipped off to the world’s worst governments so that people everywhere can die. We’re all in this together!
We could all be in something else together. We could all be in a world utterly transformed. We could quite easily end all human suffering with absolutely zero new scientific developments. But we have to want to do it. And we have to start by refusing to stop being outraged by evil.
don’t go out, stay home…be safe
Please David, labeling the Lieutenant Governor of Texas as “evil” is not helpful to the debate of which businesses can be reopened without significant risk of overwhelming our health systems. For example here in Santa Clara County, California we have a powerful health care system, about 20% of businesses have allowed to remain open, the rest of us have been cooperating with “shelter in place” for 3 weeks. Covid hospitalizations have been declining for 2 weeks. There are hundreds of empty acute, ICU and surge beds available and 670 unused ventilators. Allowing some nurseries, construction and elective surgeries is certainly not going to overwhelm our health care system. Evil does not need to be part of this debate.
“…without overwhelming the healthcare system.” By all means, don’t overstress a system. How about the additional deaths and crippling illness, most in people my age (76). But that’s ok. We’re retired and no longer productive. That’s where it’s at, right?
Rich, People of our age like you and I can, and should, stay comfortably quarantined because we can. Open some businesses and let some of our 22 million young folks back to work in situations that will not overwhelm our medical systems. Also consider that this lock down of hospitals is preventing us old folks from getting some cancer and heart treatments.
Sorry, but when the Lt. Governor of Texas – where I live – says HE is willing to sacrifice the lives of seniors so our kids will have a better economy… what do you call him? He doesn’t actually care who dies from this virus. As long as the $$ signs work for him. I’m 68. I don’t plan on letting him push me to my death.
Heidi, You have the option of protecting yourself by self quarantining. We have been doing that and plan to continue.
Wear a mask, wear gloves, social distance, don’t go out and Stay at Home. You are perfectly safe from people like me who a constitution protects as I roam free. And when this is over and my immune system is kicking ass, while yours is weakened…I will shrug my shoulders and say “Oh well”
Stupidity and meanness make unpleasant partners.
Wow
Nice.
Empathy deficit like Trump.
So Kate is ‘free’ to roam around and cough on everyone and everything… while the elderly, the sick and the intelligent must forever be locked away, sanitizing everything that comes near them? Why can’t they be ‘free’ to walk around too? If we ALL stay home, for a short amount of time, track down and test everyone that has had contact, isolate THEM! and then we can ALL get back to out lives!!! tRump is pushing this to cover the fact he has NO plan to test and treat those that are infected now… and to get the slaves back to work so the masters can begin
counting their coins again
Here’s some simple math. There are 300,000,000 people in the US. If 1/3 of them get the virus and 99% recover, that’s a MILLION DEATHS!
We can’t control the mortality rate, but maybe we can affect the number who contract the illness.
Yes, these people are evil, but they can’t see beyond the system. Neither can their supporters.