Pretty sure she’s a liberal or a demsoc, but that is a pretty good materialist analysis.

  • loathesome dongeater
    17•2 years ago

    I don’t like to see this problem phrased as “a subset of chud lunatics are waging a war on masks”. The war would have been instantly shut down if the American government enforced mandated masks and enforced them. But there has been bipartisan reluctance in doing this even if Democrat politicians performatively wear masks in front of cameras despite catching covid left and right.

    It’s not a war if masks were dead on arrival. American government dropped the pretence that they cared to curb covid as soon as people started accepting COVID as normal. They really do not care about pestilence. I’m sure that US will become a monkeypox haven soon enough. This is even clearer when you look at the constant barrage of disdain and criticism towards countries that enact measures to prevent people dying from completely preventable causes.

      • FossilPoet
        11•2 years ago

        Only thing I would add is that social media companies 100% backtracked on their permissive attitude toward antivax and critique of containment measures last year, primarily as a means of helping to disappear the discussion and make it easier to create unanimity amongst the entire populace on the “return to normal.”

        Caitlin Johnstone had analyzed the situation as government censorship, which I didn’t want to agree with and I still don’t agree entirely with her analysis of the motives or why she said it was bad (she takes this really weird free speech stance without saying the words and it’s just…weak). Where I think she was particularly cognizant of the future and where I ended up agreeing with her was in pointing out how this unprecedented open cooperation between government and social media would continue to develop, and it did…exploding with the “state-affiliated” labels and particularly after the Russian SMO began.

        Ex-intelligence, ex-military, and other ex-government have all been embedding themselves in news media, social media, and other forms of media (looking at all the GOP officials going to Activision Blizzard), so this was a natural development. However, I think the social media one became of more urgent concern with the Biden administration due to the GOP’s astroturfed efforts on social media under Trump, almost like a Hail Mary for the Dems. Maybe better analyzed as beneficial for both sides in preventing populism and protecting empire in the face of collapse (notably in defense against “foreign interference,” as we saw all the hubbub about Russiagate and constant fearmongering re: China). Knowing how the Dems have enabled the GOP however, it’s about to get real scary when the latter takes back government.

      • @Beat_da_Rich@lemmygrad.ml
        10•2 years ago

        Not only that but if COVID did leak from a US lab as Jeffrey Sachs hypothesized, then it will go down as the worst imperialist war crime in history if we’re judging purely by bodycount.

          • @Beat_da_Rich@lemmygrad.ml
            2•2 years ago

            Whether it was an intentional leak or a blunder (which I think is more likely), the sheer fact that the US has not only obstructed investigations but deliberately encouraged the leak to develop into a pandemic is so goddamned depraved.

      • @redtea@lemmygrad.ml
        8•2 years ago

        I’m glad you followed through and still posted this. Very useful to have all these ideas laid out and synthesised.

      • Amicese
        5•1 year ago

        deleted by creator