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In less than a week, Trump will have caused more American *civilian* deaths than the US Civil War (50,000).
And yes, I am using he caused with intent. The White House was repeatedly and thoroughly briefed on covid19 in December. Not only did he not do *anything* to mitigate the pandemic, he espoused numerous tactics to make it worse - e.g. calling it a hoax.
At the same time 40% of Americans approve of his actions, and a disturbing number of people want to re-open Cheesecake factory and get on with the unnecessary killing of their fellow citizens. And yes I am using killing over deaths. Deaths make it seem like an accident. But here we are killing people. Including first responders and their children are being killed because of this administration's actions.
These 40% disturb me. I lived in South Korea for 6 years and I saw and lived first-hand what it means to be an actual country that has shared goals of progress for all. And Taiwan has absolutely smashed covid-19. I am struggling to be proud to be an American.
We need to get to the bottom of this anti-science, anti-progress political hacking. In my view it is simple, there are cynical, powerful people that are happy to exploit the fears, bigotry, and hate of people and have them work against their own interest. I am convinced that these people consider themselves post-nation-state and are simply smug individualists.
It is a clever form of psy-ops designed to chop up our country in a cold-civil-war and cause desperate crisis and scoop up bailouts and other war booty. These powers do not care if there is a USA or not. Just more money/power.
I try to sympathize with the 40%, we have the most advanced propaganda technology ever created - getting better every day. We evolved to live in small tribes and we only needed to be able to sort fact from fiction on the order of 50 to 100 people.
So, I am been feeling a bit helpless here. I think it is [too] easy to "hack" the 40%.
I have been relatively quiet on this front, because I am having trouble of thinking of something positive to say. But here I will try:
Some positives:
We are getting a "bonus" A/B test of what our skies and waters would look like if we took aggressive action to address climate change.
Many of us are getting more time with our family and I see the reddit DIY forums blowing up with people having more time to make their own stuff. Gardening too.
It *seems* like for the majority of rational people C19 has finally made universal healthcare mainstream and those that defend employer-sourced healthcare seem to be in the minority.
It *seems* like now that we have seen mega-UBI for the too-big-to-fail in 2008 and again now that the mainstream is open to the idea that the citizens' might need UBI as well.
SpaceX is sending humans to space next month! Huge, huge, milestone that repairs the misadventure of the Space Shuttle and humanity's whole progress vector in space lost over the last 40 years.
Plant-based meals are now mainstream and I think we will see the corner turned here.
Oil went negative $ yesterday! We will see the collapse of the fossil industry.
But back to the 40%. We need a way to reach across the aisle into that 40%. We need to give them hope and joy about a rational future that includes them...*
Originally posted on Facebook on April 21, 2020.
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Published: April 21, 2020 4:46 PM
Last updated: March 6, 2026 10:21 PM
Post ID: 1724c221-7fbc-41f9-bde8-230b9b692f41