Andrew Nikiforuk at "The Tyee" talks about a German study and a Canadian study that says we should fuck right off with the "flatten the curve" "mitigate the damage" half-measures and try to destroy COVID-19 and thereby avoid the [almost] worst of all possible worlds scenario we're in now. (Mega-Incompetent Boris Johnson's UK was the worst of all possible worlds it seems.)
By now every Canadian knows what COVID mitigation looks like: imprecise lockdowns with no real targets followed by ill-timed openings that result in more exponential grief.
And then politicians, who look as dazed as Bill Murray in Groundhog Day, call for another round of lockdowns with no strategy and no goals.
It’s a policy of constant déjà vu — all pain, no gain and more COVID-19.
Y'know, ... a couple of things: If a fire breaks out in your kitchen, you don't make a commendable effort to put out "some" of the fire. And then moan and bitch about letting the rest of it "play itself out." (And let Grandma die of smoke inhalation because you're too lazy to go upstairs and open a window.)
Also, ... if anything, this pandemic has exposed capitalism, both economically and politically, as heinous. When it isn't complete assholes like Doug Ford thinking that seniors and front-line care workers (including hospital staffs and long-term care staffs) suffer and die to preserve the financial well-being of vermin like Mike Harris, it's greedy, grasping pharmaceutical companies limiting production and seeking to maximize profits at the cost of humanity in general.
The thing is, read Nikiforuk's piece. But, also, .... what the fuck is the problem with our governments coddling these COVID-denying imbeciles???? If the virus is real (and it is) allowing them to congregate in their super-spreader rallies only serves to prolong the agony of everyone who is being made to subsidize the goddamned banks.
We needed a massive information/education drive to push-back against the myriad of conspiracy theories these morons excrete. Also, there should have been a crackdown on the FIRST anti-mask "Hugs Over Masks" (or whatever the fuck their slogans were). And, given the fact that cops (being authoritarian, right-wing idiots) are often anti-maskers themselves, concerted efforts to expose THEM to reality should have been made.
And what the fuck??? In wartime, taxes are raised on the wealthy. To help pay for the collective good. In this crisis, the wealthy not only expect to be left unscathed, they're actually profiting to the tune of billions of dollars.
I sure hope the genius left that has proposed literally NOTHING for decades brainstorms about the post-pandemic society that needs to be built.
7 comments:
This is the best article written on the pandemic and exposes why we are still dealing with terrible outbreaks almost a year later. The anti mask protests took hold and are not slapped down for the violations of public health orders they are. Half measures don't work and I hear Ontario is heading for yet another "re-opening". what nonsense. BC Waterboy
Hi BC Waterboy,
Thanks for commenting. Nikiforuk's piece is important and his way of writing really captures the stupidity of our leadership.
But yeah, these anti-maskers! Today some idiot on social media was saying that it starts with a cloth mask, but it ends with microchips being inserted into our foreheads.
That's the thing with these lily-livered conservatives. We're always one centimeter away from being taken over by the Jewish-Reptilian-Space-Alien-Commie-Faggot conspiracy.
It would help if media and the government didn't lie so goddamn much. But I suspect these anti-maskers would only behave marginally different were we to live in an honest, democratic society.
Great to see you're still blogging. It's been a long time since I perused the Canadian blogscape. There were some excellent Canadian progressive blogs back in the day, but you and Canadian Cynic are among the few that are left. Speaking of which, I was just telling CC how much I miss Ti-Guy. Remember him? He could mix profanity and profundity like nobody else. His suicide left a hole in the blog comment sections that could never be filled. I often wonder if the savagery of the right wing nut jobs who flooded the comments sections back then contributed to his mental health crisis. He never shied away from confronting them head on, and that had to take a toll. --Old Skool Blogger
Hi Old Skool Blogger,
I'm blogging infrequently, but still doing it because I need to vent about the insanity I witness on a daily basis. Once upon a time I thought that collectively, progressive bloggers could change things. But you can follow my growing despair as the stephen harper regime got away with numerous violations of the basic principles of parliamentary democracy, up to and including electoral fraud.
But activists do accomplish things. They do change the conversation. (I'm not identifying as an "activist.") At the very least the voices in our culture and the bodies in the streets and at the protests do shift perceptions and sometimes policies. We're losing. But we'd lose more and faster if we all just gave up.
Occasionally I post here and sometimes show up at a rally or write to a politician.
OSB,
Strange day. Unexpected day. I forgot to acknowledge your comments on CC and Ti-Guy.
I think CC would rather be on twitter. I never got on twitter. I'm happy to see him blogging again. Ti-Guy and I got into it a few times in the comments at CC's place but overall I respected him and admired his way of trashing right-wing troll/idiots when they showed up there.
Did people know him in real life? Beyond his pseudonym?
Ha! I know what yo mean by getting into it with him. I don't think he ever visited my own feeble and short-lived attempt at a blog (nor anyone else), but he skinned me more than once in other comments sections. I don't know anyone who knew him personally, and I don't know who he was. I don't even remember who it was who first told me what had happened to him, but it was spring 2010, shortly after he suddenly disappeared from the blogosphere. My old emails from a decade ago were all lost when I switched providers, so I can't even look it up.
Those of us who knew agreed to keep it quiet at the time, to prevent the right wing trolls from gloating over his demise. I do believe Marty (aka Red Tory) knew who he was, and exchanged personal emails with him. Over the last few years of Ti-Guy's life, it was clear he wasn't well. His posts became erratic, angry and vitriolic, and telling off the righties descended into protracted flame wars that would last for days. He would often post right through the night, several nights in a row. Even his grammar and sentence structure - at one time impeccable - got sloppy during these episodes. And I'm pretty sure that "episode" is the right word for it. He wasn't well.
In retrospect we all should have seen the danger signs. But how the hell do you help someone when you don't even know who they are? He was always careful about keeping his identity a secret.
I'll drink a toast to him tonight.
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