Day of Chaos 2: a.Covid-19 thread.

[MacabreMagpie]

Brilliant, yep that's good now.

I feel like I'mfighting a running battle with people I know in all walks of life over ridiculous conspiracy crap regarding C19. It's like everybody has completely taken leave of heir senses, emptied their heads and is prepared to believe whatever nonsense reinforces their very personal fears.

I had it today with my mum and dad- my father, 83, is refusing to self isolate. Despite my mother having copd, half a lung and receiving a letter from her hero Boris pleading her to stay home, my dad doesnt see the need to protect her. Hes "a trained soldier", you see. When he was in the army, he received injections and was told by the medic "you boys getting these jabs, you'll never get ill". Despite that being 64 years ago and the intervening years bringing cancer, rheumatoid arthritis and continual shits (thanks for that, dad) he somehow sticks by this anonymous cretinous army doctor's word. "I'm still alive" he says, "so he was right".

Sorry, one for the "life sucks" thread really.

SBT

Sorry mate. I've tried to console myself on occasions when the overwhelming stress and fear of it all gets to me that my parents and loved ones are about as safe as they can be given the circumstances, when I've heard of people with folks who aren't listening to the advice or are stranded abroad. I can't imagine how stressful that must be.

[paddykafka]

Sorry to hear of your troubles, SBT. It's little consolation, I know, but you've done what you could and are deserving of respect for that. Take care.

[shaolin_monkey]

With government trying to do a damage-control PR job after the brutal expose from the Sunday Times, here's the Byeline Times exposing EVEN MORE disaster from Boris and his lot.


https://bylinetimes.com/2020/04/20/weekly-update-20-april-a-national-scandal-timeline-of-the-uk-governments-response-to-the-coronavirus-crisis/

[Professor Bear]

The British government, via the Department of Health and Social Care, has been stealing the identities of NHS staff to create social media accounts in order to spread fake science supporting Johnson's "herd immunity" claims.

[shaolin_monkey]

Fuck me.

[Professor Bear]

Looks like they already have.

[TordelBack]

Even after EVERTHING, I'm struggling to beIieve this story is what it seems: it's like the denouement of a Robert Harris alternate history thriller. I'm so sick of saying this, but if it can be proven without room for doubt, that.must be the end of this UK government. And if not, the absolute end of your current iteration of democracy.

[shaolin_monkey]

Even after EVERTHING, I'm struggling to beIieve this story is what it seems: it's like the denouement of a Robert Harris alternate history thriller. I'm so sick of saying this, but if it can be proven without room for doubt, that.must be the end of this UK government. And if not, the absolute end of your current iteration of democracy.

The current iteration of democracy ended with the EU vote and Cambridge Analytica. We're well and truly through the looking glass now.

Time will tell on this one, but it's very hard to trust a government where:

"88% (5,952) of the party's most widely promoted ads [during the election] either featured claims which had been flagged by independent fact-checking organisations (including BBC Reality Check) as not correct or not entirely correct."

(For contrast Labour inaccuracies were at about 7%).

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-50726500

[Professor Bear]

They'll just gaslight their way out of this: it didn't happen, or if that doesn't work, it was one man who no longer works for the party behind it all - also known as the "BBC doesn't need to be reformed as the people responsible have moved on" defence.

[TordelBack]

Completely agree about CA, incessant bald-faced lies and elaborate deniability etc, but if the electorate will accept, ignore, excuse or forgive this, then there is no functioning democracy, or hope of same.

[shaolin_monkey]

I can't help wonder if it is all part of an elaborate scheme of hypernormalisation to pit one against another, keeping society and politics off balance -  creating different factions based on different ideologies, and get them to war it out with one another via social media, normal media, or actual protests -  claim/counterclaim, push/pull, science/ideology etc etc - while in the background the powers that be who set it all in motion get on with doing what the hell they want.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/HyperNormalisation

[shaolin_monkey]

The US appears to be a fantastic example of the above right now.

Different states are going different things, Trump flies in the face of scientific advice, and different groups driven by social media cry either "stay at home" or "protect your fundamental rights!" or "march on the governors house" or even "COVID-19 IS A LIE".

It all appears to be heading towards a bloody civil war, while the death toll from the virus in the US is at 40,000 and rising.

Let's face it, outside of a nuclear war, Putin couldn't have destabilised the US more.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/us-lockdown-backlash-sees-gun-toting-extremists-warn-of-bloody-revolution-amid-fears-of-all-out-war/ar-BB12WQaA?ocid=spartanntp

[The Enigmatic Dr X]

If you were an unscrupulous superpower with great financial strength.

And if you released a contagious but low fatality novel virus.

And if you and your cronies shorted the markets.

You could make a lot of money while destroying rival economies.

Just saying.

[shaolin_monkey]

I would suggest that the virus is entirely natural, and that the unscrupulous superpower has been opportunistic.

The 'superpower' luckily already has the things in place to cause massive upheaval across the globe through misinformation, as evidenced by the EU referendum, Trump getting in etc etc.

[TordelBack]

The only problem with the 'deliberately created' theory is why China would start things off in its own territory, even allowing that it could use its vast totalitarian reources to control spread internally once the virus has spread globally. It's not like it would work to divert blame, as we have seen.

China could easily have got the ball rolling elsewhere and further advantaged its economy - no-one would have been surprised to see an instant hardening of its borders in response to an exernal outbreak.

EDIT: Wait, I'm being fecking thick. You're not pointing the finger at China, are you. The problem with the Putin scenario is how would you ever tell.