Originally Posted by
steelreserve
I'll bite on that one. All these crazy ideas that it is a bioweapon attack, or a financial ploy by oligarchs, or some "New World Order" bullshit are just that - crazy bullshit. However, there are a few groups of people who would have an interest in seeing a disaster unfold, because they generally benefit from things like fear, discontent, and misery and use them to their own advantage. And those groups have been pumping the shit out of the story until it forced more and more drastic official action.
#1 on the list would be activists of various stripes. There are countless politically-motivated factions who would love to see the current administration unseated, and that is much more difficult to do if people are mostly happy and prosperous. Sowing chaos offers a chance to upset that situation, and these activists were the challengers who had little to lose. So if you can throw a monkey wrench into the whole thing by pumping it up into a full-blown crisis, why not do it; it's a Hail Mary that might turn things around for you. This does not mean it was a "planned" or "coordinated" activity, but there were many like-minded people putting in a lot of effort to amplify the fear. Many members of the media, as well as the leaders of social media platforms, are also activists these days - an incredible number, actually - and their abuse of their public voices and platforms had a devastating effect.
#2 would be the self-important or self-absorbed. People for whom tearing down others, seeing others miserable, and complaining about how awful the world is, adds meaning to their lives. Many members of the media are also in this category, as well as an appalling number of social media users. This might also include people who are normally out of the spotlight, but in light of the unusual circumstances, were gifted the ability to throw their weight around, and liked it. Both of these amplified the fear and panic even more, to devastating effect. But both of these first two groups must be absolutely giddy that they were able to create something that surpassed their wildest expectations. It is like when someone got a hold of a tape of Bin Laden shortly after 9/11, where he said something to the effect of, "Holy shit, I just thought we were going to scare people by putting holes in the buildings or blowing the tops off them - I never imagined it would actually succeed all the way." Same idea.
#3 on the list of "they" is a group of people who did not really have anything to gain, but were forced to act defensively to protect their own necks from groups #1 and #2. A domino in the chain. That would be things like the NCAA, Disneyland, NBA, and other very large, public entities that would face a tremendous backlash, both in terms of liability and of public shaming, if they didn't shut down. It then follows that the absence of such large, public events creates a new layer of fear. "When was the last time they canceled this? They'd never even THINK of doing that! Holy shit!" So that starts to snowball, and goes on down the chain to everyday things, creating more fear; government officials are forced to react to the fear or face the same backlash; now things like schools and libraries are closed, creating even more fear - "When was the last time they canceled this? They'd never even THINK of doing that! Holy shit!" and so on.
#4 are the politicians who, once the drumbeat was going and things were in motion, thought they could spin the crisis to their own advantage. "Things are bad, big government to the rescue!" This is, with all due respect, a core plank of the Democratic Party platform. People are miserable, angry, and desperate, and the light at the end of the tunnel is that the government might fix it? Great news for us! So while that may not quite be the reason for the initial shutdowns (that was #3), it is the reason why it is almost all left-leaning governors and mayors who are now trying to milk the crisis as long as possible and show their "strong leadership," and continue to push the fear. I think those people have badly miscalculated, because except for their hardcore supporters, people are increasingly angry at them, not scared of the virus, and that only grows more pronounced the more time passes. Maybe some are realizing that now, but in either case, all they can do is try to change public sentiment by banging their fists on the podium. So they have to dig in and double down on that, because it's their only way out, even if it's not a very likely one (as another member put it: sunk cost).
Please do not take this as an interpretation of who was justified medically or scientifically and at what point, simply the way that fear dictated the course of action, and who benefited from creating fear and chaos. It is not an organized effort, more like a loosely affiliated coalition of interests who coincidentally benefited from the same goal. And so here we have a crisis where there isn't one.
Reply With Quote
