COVID: a case study on stupidity
I’ve had 2 friends die of COVID and 3 friends recover, one is still in recovery (knock on wood). Being outside the States observing the hellscape of COVID in the USA, it seems to me there are two categorically opposed camps re: COVID.
The first camp, let’s call this one the “Anti-Science/Conspiracy” position. This camp holds that anything POTUS says is unquestionably true and to oppose this “truth” means you have bought into the “deep-state” peddled by mainstream media that’s out to get POTUS at all costs. In this sense, the “anti-science” camp functions epistemologically like a religion that believes the “words of their leader” even if reason shows the opposite to be the case.
The second camp, let’s call this one, the “Sheep” camp. This camp is controlled by fear; indeed they crave fear and actually desire to be paralyzed by an apocalyptic narrative that the entire world is either going to hell fast, or is already in hell. This camp believes in science and reason (good), but they have little or no resources to actually deploy epistemological outcomes that will liberate them from the tyranny of fear peddled by mainstream media who, it should be mentioned, make their money selling fear and terror to the public. The lack of resources to overcome fear is a result of the weakening of social institutions designed to offer a world in which risking democracy through social involvement is possible.
About 30% of the population are POTUS worshipers who actually celebrate their own stupidity the majority of which own a gun. Yes, stupid people, who worship a fraud own guns!
But is there a way out of this impasse? One way around it would be to observe case studies about how other countries handled and addressed COVID. I’ve been in France, so I’ll use this country as an example.
Now France is neither immune to stupidity nor to people who crave to be traumatized into fear via media to deal with their own insecurities. But about 92% of French people actually believe that science and reason should be authoritative measures taken seriously in the decision making process.
Early on in March, France installed a compulsory lockdown to the degree that if you were out of your house and didn’t have a document stating your business you could be fined. I had to fill out a declaration every time I went out. There was even an APP for it. This went on until June 15 , and the result was a dramatic flattening of COVID cases and deaths. Kids safely went back to school, and recently bars were reopened with required social-distancing measures in place. The economy has returned here in France.
By contrast, POTUS dismissed COVID saying it will go away by April when it gets warm in the northern hemisphere. POTUS clearly didn’t take COVID seriously and even dismissed the scientists’ warnings as if he, and he alone were, the sole arbiter of truth (i.e., a certain god to be worshipped). Friends started dying and getting sick. The medical infrastructure was overwhelmed in New York (and is again recently in the South of the USA) thus directly leading to more deaths and more cases. Anti-science conspirators who worshipped POTUS took their guns out to protest that their right to shop was being usurped by a “made-up” COVID campaign peddled by the deep-state, for which now scientists were included. POTUS held anti-science worship services for himself in Tulsa and on July 4th and his followers celebrated ignoring basic social skills (mask wearing) as a basic human right. Dr. Fauci (who served in 4 previous POTUS administrations) was not only sidelined but smeared and denigrated because he didn’t fold to POTUS but followed what science and reason dictated.
Meanwhile, POTUS’ anti-science/anti-reason position framed and articulated science itself as a conspiracy against his will and sovereignty and so COVID became a political issue which could be “spun” so the fat-cat media magnets and other billionaires stakeholders increased their wealth exponentially. The result is the creation of more “sheep” and more fear notwithstanding COVID outbreaks, more deaths, and more stress on the medical sector, which just perpetuates the cycle all over again. This is what happens when you have a leader who isn’t held in check by reality as such.
Who knew that philosophy and critical thinking was so vital as it is today, esp. when the difference between reality and what is outlandishly false is undecidable within a social domain. Does 2+2=4 for POTUS or is it what he wants it to be, when he decides? Are you part of a deep-state conspiracy against POTUS if you think 2+2=4 if the latter doesn’t agree? Epistemological authority has been ripped asunder in the USA under the current administration and this is a brilliant tactic in the overall strategy of a dictator who wants to seize control of power in the wake of confusion, social unrest, and economic recession/depression with massive unemployment. To top it off, now people are afraid (even one’s who believe in reason) to be around other human beings altogether further fracturing society into a dīvide et imperā (divide and conquer) vortex of total isolation.
The recent uprising the the wake of George Floyd’s murder is a result of the inability of social institutions to sufficiently address basic human welfare and security especially those in the minority.
The USA is a tinderbox right now. Will the November election spark an explosion?
Here are some facts (not a conspiracy)
France’s population: 66.99 million (total COVID cases: 173K)
Florida’s population: 21.48 million (total COVID cases: 302K)
There’s a lot of work to be done. Using one’s intellectual powers to confidently arbitrate between what is true from what is false is key to preserving one’s freedom from being hijacked by a dictator. But more than just deploying one’s intellectual powers, social institutions need to be reinstalled including colleges and universities that don’t put students into massive economic harm, precarity, and are enslaved to banks.
Creston Davis, PhD
