Corona Virus

[Sour Masher]

I'm sure this post will not come across how I intended it, but the most enlightening thing about 2020 is just how incredibly dumb large portions of our population are. Seriously just flat dumb. Be it political views that don't make sense, or a lack of basic common sense in wearing a mask. I didn't realize how stupid large portions of the population were. We've now all put our cards down on the table, and it's ugly.

So to me, the question of *how* we let this happen is now self evident. The revelation is how ignorant I was to that reality.

Clear,y you needed to watch more late night hosts mocking our population over the years. You would not be so surprised if you saw more clips like this one asking people to find any country on a map of the world. Any country including the US, which many could not find, even after multiple guesses. Also, way too many people not only do not know where Africa is, but think it is a country:

[Ken]

Clear,y you needed to watch more late night hosts mocking our population over the years. You would not be so surprised if you saw more clips like this one asking people to find any country on a map of the world. Any country including the US, which many could not find, even after multiple guesses. Also, way too many people not only do not know where Africa is, but think it is a country:

No I've seen those, but I always assumed that these were just the 1% dumbest that got chosen/edited into these jokes. I'm realizing that these are representative of ~40% instead of 1%.

Anyway I'm off topic and hate to take it further that direction. Yes, it's appalling that we've reached 5mm, more than the 2nd and 3rd countries combined.

[GwynnInTheHall]

Ignorance is Bliss, until it's elected and brings all it's pals with it...............

[Sour Masher]

No I've seen those, but I always assumed that these were just the 1% dumbest that got chosen/edited into these jokes. I'm realizing that these are representative of ~40% instead of 1%.

Anyway I'm off topic and hate to take it further that direction. Yes, it's appalling that we've reached 5mm, more than the 2nd and 3rd countries combined.

Part of the problem is we have one of our two major political parties that is largely invested in downplaying this thing. When half the country responds to this milestone by thinking, "well, we only have so many cases because we test too much," we end up where we are. When the solution half of us have for making sure we don't get to 10 million reported cases is to stop testing, what can we expect but more of the same?

[Ken]

Part of the problem is we have one of our two major political parties that is largely invested in downplaying this thing. When half the country responds to this milestone by thinking, "well, we only have so many cases because we test too much," we end up where we are. When the solution half of us have for making sure we don't get to 10 million reported cases is to stop testing, what can we expect but more of the same?

What I didn't grasp was the inability for those people to think for themselves without the direction of their political party.

It's like we have so much to do now that we've outsourced critical thinking, and we've outsourced it to perhaps the worst option available.

[umjewman]

Ok, now just make a fake video slowing down his speech to make him sound drunk like they did with Pelosi and we have ourselves a political ad to share on FB for millions to believe.

Except that anyone supporting Trump at this point would not believe it and/or think he's correct in his statements, so it would really not sway a soul.

[GwynnInTheHall]

Except that anyone supporting Trump at this point would not believe it and/or think he's correct in his statements, so it would really not sway a soul.

They have no souls.........

[DMT]

I'm sure this post will not come across how I intended it, but the most enlightening thing about 2020 is just how incredibly dumb large portions of our population are. Seriously just flat dumb. Be it political views that don't make sense, or a lack of basic common sense in wearing a mask. I didn't realize how stupid large portions of the population were. We've now all put our cards down on the table, and it's ugly.

So to me, the question of *how* we let this happen is now self evident. The revelation is how ignorant I was to that reality.

I have long "known" it, but it's still infuriating that one of them was elected President.

[The Feral Slasher]

What I didn't grasp was the inability for those people to think for themselves without the direction of their political party.

It's like we have so much to do now that we've outsourced critical thinking, and we've outsourced it to perhaps the worst option available.

over the last 6 months what troubles me the most is how clear it is that we are a country with two different realities based on where we get our news. Tell me what channel someone watches and I can tell you what they think about nearly every issue. I think the next 5 to 10 years are going to be really painful, even once we get past this virus.

[rhd]

over the last 6 months what troubles me the most is how clear it is that we are a country with two different realities based on where we get our news..

This has become clear to me as well. IMO, Fox has always been slanted towards the right. I didnt used to think that sources like CNN and MSNBC were all that slanted but over the past few months I've changed my mind. They are just as slanted the other way. I dont know whether they've really changed or whether I just hadnt noticed before - I like to think it's the former. Personally, I watch news from as many different viewpoints as I can: CNN, Fox, BBC Al Jazeera, NHK, Indian News, Russian news, as well as citizen journalists, who can be the least biased of all. The problem is most people have neither the time nor the inclination to listen to a bunch of different news sources so in order to try to distill the truth from all the spins and slants. So they end up picking a media outlet that most closely agrees w their viewpoint and listen exclusively to that. Consequently, the populace is becoming more and more divided.

[Ken]

Tell me what channel someone watches and I can tell you what they think about nearly every issue.

Can't imagine it would work well on me. I don't remember the last time I watched a particular news channel consistently. And my political views don't match any party honestly.

[madducks]

over the last 6 months what troubles me the most is how clear it is that we are a country with two different realities based on where we get our news. Tell me what channel someone watches and I can tell you what they think about nearly every issue. I think the next 5 to 10 years are going to be really painful, even once we get past this virus.

It's their party and they'll lie if they want to.

[nullnor]

I'm sure this post will not come across how I intended it, but the most enlightening thing about 2020 is just how incredibly dumb large portions of our population are. Seriously just flat dumb. Be it political views that don't make sense, or a lack of basic common sense in wearing a mask. I didn't realize how stupid large portions of the population were. We've now all put our cards down on the table, and it's ugly.

So to me, the question of *how* we let this happen is now self evident. The revelation is how ignorant I was to that reality.

I've been thinking about this alot the last 2 years. there's tons of factors.
1) you have to differentiate moronity and change. as we get older we get experience so things that change might look stupid to us. but it's no different from how the previous generation saw us.
2) social reasons- this almost covers everything. politics, economics. for example, watching TV was a passive action. I played video games when I was young had a Atari 2600 and Apple2. but the internet and cellphones are active actions. it makes people inattentive and impatient. also, a dual income family, still living in debt, chasing the American dream doesn't have time to read 3 different newspapers or opinions a day.
3) it could just be a location thing. I used to call it the twilight zone. suddenly the conditions around you change and everyone seems weird, but it's only like that where you live and everyone else in the world is normal.
4) nobody really understood us anyways. and as you get older you realize we were too hopeful; and we were just young and thought everyone saw the world the same and had similar perspectives.
5) the upside to that is they'll still see things fucked up and you can tell them NASA Solar images reveal 'campfires' on the Sun. and they'll think it's signs of alien life.
6) it's a feature of nature. she makes every kind of peoples to hedge her bets on survival. remember, those that are most confident are least competent and vis versa. for example, the people that would tell don't know, and the people that know won't tell.
7) look at Covid-19 from the perspective of a conventional war. in war you have a defined enemy or bad guy. it's easier to get 300 million people on the same page. that might be a bad example as very rarely does a war like WWII happen where everyone agrees. but Covid-19 is a single organism. it's hard to literally point a finger at something 0.12 microns.
8) global warming. trash, plastic, overfishing, environment. I am just as guilty as everyone else. collectively we produce more per capita than anyone else. this is the elephant in the room and the mother of all problems.
9) denial. again, this falls under metaphysical things. when you are over 50 years old, you've realized that it's hard to talk to people in real life. they interrupt you and get impatient and repeat stories they are good at telling, which is in the nature of our species to do. there's so many factors. I think it's bisphenol and pesticides. no really.
10) I blame Corgi's. they are cute with small legs. they are slowly taking over the world and they have a Corgi master plan. I discovered there is a movie called a Very Corgi Christmas, and suddenly I thought what a great shirt that would be.

[madducks]

New merchandise from Guns n Roses:

The shirts are available for pre-order at $25 and are for a charitable cause. According to their website, 100% of new proceeds will be donated to MusiCares, a charitable foundation that provides resources to music people in times of need that has set up a fund to help with COVID relief efforts.

The jab at Trump comes a week after the president visited a factory making face masks in Arizona, where the song "Live N' Let Die" played loudly in the background. Trump was not wearing a mask himself.

[The Feral Slasher]

Can't imagine it would work well on me. I don't remember the last time I watched a particular news channel consistently. And my political views don't match any party honestly.

ok, but it works for the other 330,000,000 people....



I actually dont know how many people it works for. I guess I am trying to understand how someone's beliefs on scientific issues (global warming, Coronavirus...) are very different between members of the two major parties. And how divided the two are on what seems like every topic. I suspect it is largely influenced by the media, but I am sure there are other factors as well.