The Cool Guy Virus

Swine flu (H1N1) – 60.8 million cases, 12,469 deaths, 1 year

Coronavirus (COVID-19) – 391,475 cases, 12,552 deaths, 3 weeks later, 42 state lockdown

Since we are evaluating the prophecies of Dissident Right flu truthers, what did they see in their crystal ball on St. Patrick’s Day when they compared the coronavirus to swine flu? If we want an accurate comparison, we would end the lockdown now, life would return to normal and we would come back next St. Patrick’s Day in 49 weeks and see where we are at with total infections and deaths.

Ramzpaul and other people in the Dissident Right seem to be taking their cues from Zman who recently said that “Greg Cochran has completely lost his marbles over this thing.” He also said that “Steve Sailer, a man not known for excitability, is calling this virus a great adversary of the human race” and that “geneticist and HBD enthusiast Razib Khan is in hiding, convinced the end times are upon us. In fact, the whole HBD community is a click away from fleeing to Antarctica to wait out the end of civilization.” Zman’s latest take is that coronavirus is “a piker” compared to the 2009 swine flu.

Here is Zman doing his best impression of the mayor in Jaws:

More people have died from coronavirus in the last three weeks than from swine flu in a year. The deaths were also concentrated in just four states. 38 states are still mostly in the clear with less than 5% of tests coming back positive. The two viruses are not remotely comparable in their lethality.

Zman:

“That said, this pandemic is a piker compared to the past. The Swine flu, which hardly anyone remembers, despite happening just a decade ago, had twice the body count of the Chinese flu in the United States. There’s still time, but in the grand scheme of things, this pandemic is never going to be on the list of great plagues. The best chance of it being remembered is if the economic fallout is such that people remember for generations that we tried shutting down the world over a virus.”

Zman:

“Current events offers some insight into why we may never meet space aliens. The panic over the virus is something new to modern society. This virus is not a threat to humanity, but it is treated as one. We know there was no panic over the Swine flu, the Asian flu, the Hong Kong flu and so on. There was no panic over the great influenza outbreak of 2017 that killed 80,000 Americans. Yet with the death toll soaring to 4,000 with the Chinese flu, America is paralyzed with fear.”

Zman:

“Imagine a variant of the flu that is four or five times more lethal than the common flu and it is spreading quickly. The experts are not sure exactly how lethal this new flu variant will be, other than it will be considerably worse than the common flu that hits every fall and winter. Further, they are unsure of the origin or how to combat it with drugs and therapeutics. Before long, it is a serious problem. This new influenza is a pandemic spreading rapidly all over the world

Now, you don’t have to imagine it, because you lived through it. The Swine Flu pandemic of 2009 infected about a billion people worldwide, according to most estimates. As is always the case with these things, the number of infected is always a best guess, as many are infected but are never confirmed. The death toll is a little easier to grasp, as it is hard to ignore a corpse, but many flu deaths are classed as other things. It probably killed half a million people. …

In fairness, the doomsday fan spawns an on-line adversary that gets a similar emotional rush from these events. The dismissive cynic relished these times, because he gets to pretend to be the cool, level-headed guy when everyone is panicking. These guys show up in comment sections and in response to twitter posts. They take pleasure in telling the doomsday types that they are a bunch of hysterical sissies. These are great times for the dismissive cynic. It’s their time to shine too.”

Imagine picking flu truthism as your hill to die on.

Just to be clear, the coronavirus isn’t a doomsday virus, but it is nothing to dismiss or compare to the ordinary flu either. Even in the worst case scenario, millions of people would die but life would continue. The virus is a serious threat to American life that demanded a quick and decisive response. It demanded leadership from the president and Congress. Instead, it was laughed off by mainstream conservatives, libertarians and most of the Dissident Right, which dismissed it as the common flu. Instead of picking up a million dollar bill, our enemies are extremely fortunate we lost the plot on this.

April 6:

March 17:

About Hunter Wallace 12392 Articles
Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Occidental Dissent

48 Comments

    • Yeah because it’s the governments master plan to lower the profits of Q2, have people stay inside for 3 months away with their families away from the degenerate slave work culture and movie theaters, inconveniencing the U.S. election primaries for the Democrats, risking the lives of police, national guardsmen potentially, medical personnel grocery and store clerks, and weaken the U.S. projection of power globally.

      It’s almost as if your inconvenience of not being able to go to Buffalo Wild Wings is going to bring about the New World order. Buffalo Wild Wings and March Madness were the only thing keeping the Illuminati and Jews from achieving ultimate power!

      M.O.M. and Cui Bono? rules do not apply to this conspiracy. This in no way helps the system that the conspiracy theory is trying to pin this on except potentially to try to pin blame on China which barring a war (which is impossible), actually has a better chance to benefit the population at the expense of hurting the oligarchs. I deem this conspiracy, Q-level of retardation.

    • With some exceptions (that, in hindsight, may have foreshadowed her current out-sperging), I liked his takes for years and found them sensible.

      But he’s gone off the bend with this from the very first. Either his ego is so massive that he simply cannot admit the fact that he was colossally wrong about the virus from the get go (“People will forget about it in two weeks and go on to the next distraction from their drudgery”), or, well, there are any number of reasons.

      And the funny thing is, if he actually is sincere in his Jeremiads and isn’t just trolling to generate “heat” (and clicks), like a heel wrestler does, then if he’d presented his beliefs in a more sensible, rational manner, he might have actually persuaded some people to consider a middle ground.

      But he’s been so over-the-top hysterical and contradicted himself so many times (“Japan and South Korea never shut down their economies” [They wore masks and tracked patients’ cell phones.] “Masks are for soy boys!” “Cell-phone tracking is an assault on muh liberty!), that he threw away even a trace of credibility and just became a troll, and worse.

  1. In fact, the whole HBD community is a click away from fleeing to Antarctica to wait out the end of civilization.”

    Most of ’em are a bunch of uber-beta, yellow-fever, philosemitic spergs anyway

    They can STAY THERE FOREVER, for all I care

  2. France is in bad shape.
    Only 1/5 the population of the US and almost the same number of deaths, today 4/7/20.

  3. Ramz Paul’s entire chimpout the last month has been inspired by his fear of economic uncertainty, so any accusations of cowardice are just projection on his part.

    • That’s as plausible a theory as anything.

      Ultimately, all that he’s done is given libertarianism an even worse name than it already had and made people even more allergic to “muh liberty” takes.

      It smacks of the anarchy of “youths.”

  4. The Catholic nuts, including Zman are out in force, maybe they can tell us about the infallible Pope, confession to a Priest, worship of the Holy Mary, Holy Water, the earth being the center of the universe, saints, the rosary beads, and why COVID-19 isn’t dangerous.

    Brad, if you and I were mean spirited we would probably agree with them on COVID-19 being just like the flu, because it’s the Catholic areas that are bearing the brunt of the COVID-19 outbreak. Heck, why should we Protestants care if a bunch of anti-White totally goofy Catholics die.

    I know we should feel sorry for you because you are White?

    • Why does Hunter allow this obvious troll to post here? Every other post is off topic Catholic bashing.

      • Two points:
        “Why does Hunter allow this obvious troll to post here? Every other post is off-topic Catholic bashing.”

        Because Brad is only a convert to a form of religion, denying the power thereof- i.e., his professed LCMS membership. That only came about due to his father in law (now deceased) being a part of the League of the South, I believe. As a former atheist, and a racial supremacist (let’s use the J-Left’s terms, here, just for the record) Brad saw his ‘conversion’ as a means to make sense (one can only hope) for his White views- that, and marrying his wife. (Let’s be honest; many a man will ‘convert’ to smooth over the desire for a woman’s approval, but not have a deep fidelity to the Faith, as she more often does- just watched the “Evidence for a Verdict” movie with the wife last night, so that is where that observation arose from….)

        Secondly, Krafty is nothing less than a “Romeaphobe.” He’s Romeaphobic, because deep down (like most atheists and reductionistic Prots) he longs for the security of a True faith, and must therefore, denigrate all those who have that peace of mind.

        Now, having said that, I must also state that I believe Rome to be not only currently aberrant, but historically in error, for at least a millennium. Most RC’s I know- (apart from the Trad Caths, who love Latin, the Tridentine Mass, etc.) are no more valid/deep/religious, than “Methodists with Mass” in their fideism… a hollow husk of a faith, that once gave life, but does so no longer.

        Moving on……

        Brad’s own fear being exhibited:
        “More people have died from coronavirus in the last three weeks than from swine flu in a year. The deaths were also concentrated in just four states. 38 states are still mostly in the clear with less than 5% of tests coming back positive. The two viruses are not remotely comparable in their lethality.”

        As a number of posters (myself included) have said, time and time again, we don’t DOUBT that this virus is Different, nor do we doubt its’ lethality, WHEN IT IS SHOWN HONESTLY.

        But that’s the point.

        This pandemic is being used for COVERT CONTROL OF THE WORLD’S POPULACE. Coupling deaths of those with pre-existing conditions (such as heart disease, emphysema, gross obesity, diabetes) etc., as if “Chinese Origin VD” [C.O.-VD] is the culprit for those deaths, is disingenuous in the extreme.

        And FEDGOV is doing so, to help increase power among the PTB, and that is nothing but pure EVIL.
        We would like to have someone of Brad’s skills and historical acumen documenting all of this, rather than the death stats of those who (and I am in this age group) may merely have their time come up with the Almighty, and were going to die, anyway. I’m trying to be brutally honest, here…

        But Brad is freaking out over this thing, and is returning to his DeepState programmed sheeople status, as his fears of dying (either that, or he’s run out of T.P. in Eufala) seem to be motivating his empty arguments, with the few of us who still find him worthy of our attention.

        As Denise has said, ‘Brad, write about something else other than the Chink Flu.”
        She’s correct.

        Russia Insider has been posting both Fash the Nation and Daily Stormer posts, showing that others in this arena are thinking of the long-term attempts by the Enemies of the White Race [Jews, et al.] – who are scurrying- like the vermin they are- to CONTROL MORE during this epidemic, not less!!!
        “Never let a crisis go to waste” is the M.O. of these ENEMIES OF THE WEST.

        But HW seems only to see, ‘Folks, it’s not just the flu’ as his Mantra du jour.
        We get it. Now, move on……

    • Yet another in the long list of reasons Roman Catholics need to be deported. They can go live in trad-Catholic paradise Brazil.

  5. Half of all the deaths in human history were caused by…..malaria. Carried by mosquitoes.

  6. Everyone who was saying in March “Only x number of people died so far! X number of people died of flu or H1N1 over the course of the year of x” should be told to stay at home and given a disability check while not allowed access to a computer. These are mentally retarded people, who are just going to hurt themselves and others.

    RamZPaul is still getting BTFO’d by his co-host over this whole “compare numbers now at the beginning of a pandemic to numbers of an entire year of another illness.” mentality. I get how someone maybe could believe in the whole “It’s not as bad as the cure” macro argument, even though I believe it is totally wrong, but when someone makes that specific argument mentioned above as a reason for their macro argument, they’re just incapable of rational thought either brought on by their emotional investment in the macro argument or just a general mental lack of ability. For Zman I think it’s the former, for RamZPaul, it’s more the latter.

    At least Dick Masterson had the courage to say “Yeah it’s deadly, but I want to maintain my freedoms. Fuck Grandma”. The people trying to argue it’s not dangerous as more and more people are dying are people who are on levels of denial that shouldn’t even be possible.

  7. This pestilence did indeed reveal our “side,” such as it is, to be riddled with bizarre nutters, which probably explains why it never managed to get anything like a serious nationalist party off the ground.

    • Focusing on party politics is the perfect way to get rid of those people. They are not interested in that kind of boring, structured activity. We need to imitate nationalist movements in Europe more. Notice that conspiratards or boomerish types are not really part of the nationalist scene over there. It’s only here that we get these people, but it’s our own fault for not excluding them.

  8. As usual, my post deserves a careful read:

    HW states: “the coronavirus isn’t a doomsday virus, but it is nothing to dismiss or compare to the ordinary flu either”

    The panic was overblown, the virus was overblown, all for political purposes. We cannot be certain of these death counts because, as you point out, “the deaths were also concentrated in just four states” again for political purposes. Eventually, the death certificates will be analyzed and I am predicting that cause of death for other maladies (cardiac arrest, respiratory failure) will have dropped in those four states in near proportion to corona (I know, call me crazy right! New York is an island of virtue in a rotten world! They would NEVER LIE!)

    The case for the lock down was secondary deaths. That isn’t happening. Not even close. So why the lock down? You simply haven’t addressed why Alabamans cannot go to church on Easter, or why my kids can’t go to the park. Or why 10s of millions have to lose their jobs. Shame.

    Even primary deaths are low (remember that during H1N1, which was also overblown like this, there was also the regular flu(s)* which actually killed much more than H1N1… oops, small oversight there) but even given these exaggerated and politicized numbers, this is not as bad as the actual flu.

    Razib Khan has shamed himself because, early on, his wife was following Chinese Twitter. Why would she do that? That’s odd in-and-of itself, correct? And what is Chinese Twitter comprised of, anti-regime intellectuals lying their keisters off about Wuhan (which is open by the way, and when is Beijing going to open? Oh yes it was NEVER CLOSED). So Razib, who I like generally, got emotionally caught up in this via his wife and family and was fanning the flames of the panic amongst his crowd who then gave it an air of scientific gravitas on top of the already existing political goal of “hurting Trump” – he will never live this down (until they memory hole the whole affair).

    * PS Influenza is “the flu” and there are multiple sub types of influenza

    PPS Corona virus is a common cold – not as Anglin calls it “another flu” – and I guess folks don’t understand, but the common cold ALSO kills thousands every year!!! If you are old and frail or have serious comorbidities, the common cold can kill you – just like it is doing right now!

    PPPS Here is a table I got today: “Viral cause of the common cold” from Uptodate.com, a very reliable source of professional medical information:

    Virus Estimated annual proportion of common cold cases
    _________ ___________________________________________
    Rhinoviruses 30 to 50%
    Coronaviruses 10 to 15%
    Influenza Viruses 5 to 15%
    Respiratory syncitial viruses 5%
    Parainfluenza viruses 5%
    Adenoviruses <5%
    Enteroviruses <5%
    Metapneumoniavirus unknown
    Unknown 20 to 30%

    – taken from Heikkinen T, Jarvinen A. The common cold. Lancet 2003; 361:51

    PPPPS Like Razib Khan, I like you Brad, you could be a force for good in this world (if you had the right leadership…) but like the WHO, the CDC, and Fauci – you don't know what you are talking about – and you got this WRONG.

    • Alright, well I’m going to break down your post so Brad doesn’t have to.

      ” The panic was overblown, the virus was overblown, all for political purposes. We cannot be certain of these death counts because, as you point out, “the deaths were also concentrated in just four states” again for political purposes.”

      What political purpose? The main problem with the “muh rights” argument is that no one seems to know exactly what the government gains from it. I’ve heard everything from dragging people away in the night to passing the middle of this thing that allows them to arrest you for anything. Exactly what and why has never be ascertained, in fact, it seems like it’s more painful to the system to have to go through this period.

      Additionally, the death count isn’t even over. Don’t be like RamZPaul and call “the top” quite yet.

      “Eventually, the death certificates will be analyzed and I am predicting that cause of death for other maladies (cardiac arrest, respiratory failure) will have dropped in those four states in near proportion to corona.”

      Actually, don’t be surprised to find the opposite to happen as government officials don’t want to risk losing face and will chalk up Coronavirus related deaths to other things. They are already doing this in countries like Germany.

      “So why the lock down? You simply haven’t addressed why Alabamans cannot go to church on Easter, or why my kids can’t go to the park. Or why 10s of millions have to lose their jobs. Shame.”

      Yeah heaven fucking forbid you can’t go to a Church or a park during a pandemic. We’re only a month into it in the U.S., death and infections are going up, and you MUST go to Church and MUST go to a park. Ever heard of prudence? You can’t spend 2 or 3 months without any disruption in your life? Are you a real dissident?

      As for job loss, people were calling for a recession a year ago. The Coronavirus has made things worse as factories closed down in China and the supply chain was disrupted on top of the quarantine. The major problem isn’t the temporary or permanent lay offs (some of which were inevitably going to happen as financial problems in 2020 were already in the cards) but that there has been no relief from obligatory bills. So people like yourself who are calling it a nothing burger are actually responsible for making things worse for your average person economically as well as physically

      “Even primary deaths are low (remember that during H1N1, which was also overblown like this, there was also the regular flu(s)* which actually killed much more than H1N1… oops, small oversight there) but even given these exaggerated and politicized numbers, this is not as bad as the actual flu.”

      Trying to say it’s no big deal because you want to split hairs whether or not it is a primary or secondary cause of death is stupid. COVID acts more like a severe case of Bronchitis than Influenza. Yeah it can kill you out right, or it can make it so that if you have it as well as the flu, you can die. Either way, acquiring the virus is what killed you for you wouldn’t have died if you didn’t have it. The difference between this and H1N1 is that H1N1 was approached as a potential threat. Whereas COVID has morons in government dismissing it and morons on the street dismissing it until it’s too late.

      “(which is open by the way, and when is Beijing going to open? Oh yes it was NEVER CLOSED)”

      Don’t follow Khan so have no idea, but Beijing was closed off if not closed. I remember that was around the time in January/Feb that people started taking shit super seriously over there.

      “Coronavirus is a common cold”

      This is a bit of a misnomer, while sometimes the Coronavirus family is phrased as “Common cold”, what constitutes the colloquial Cold is a collection of viruses and is a colloquial term. So yes, while the Coronvirus family does fall under that branch, it is not what you would claim is a “Cold” when used colloquially. Most people think of the Rhinovirus when they think of the cold (mucus build in nose and throat, coughing, headaches, phlegm, etc.) Comparing the COVID strain to the “Cold” is dangerously incorrect. While COVID is a Coronavirus, it is deadlier than your standard Coronavirus and doesn’t act like a Rhinovirus at all but more like an extreme case of Bronchitis.

      I don’t mean to fall too hard on you, but I don’t think you as a father are taking this as seriously as you should. Even if you have your doubts, you should take it a little more serious that you can miss Church and going to the Park for a little while. I’m not sure if you got H1N1, but I did and it was the worst flu of my life. If someone said all I had to do was not go out for a couple months to avoid it, I would have. I even indulge in a couple of conspiracies as well that I think the government faked to try to take people’s gun’s away, so it’s not even about government trust. It’s just that there zero risk in quarantining yourself and the government doesn’t need the virus to harm one’s perceived rights if it wanted and in fact the rich and powerful are hurting as a result of this.

      And as I said earlier, if you can’t even accept a change in environment while claiming you’re a dissident, I have no idea what to tell you. Whether you’re a Libertarian or a WNist, or anything in between, there is NO WAY the U.S. government is going to change without inconvenience so consider this a test of your will and ability for when the real thing comes along.

      • “no one seems to know exactly what the government gains from it.”

        What, aside from, like, the multiple trillions of dollars they just stole from the public while everyone was hiding at home?

        • And, we have a winner!

          As a “Sovereign Man” email sent to me by a parishioner stated, of that TRILLIONS- dollar behest of FEDGOV,

          “…Amazingly enough, the US federal government is starting to realize this too.

          Ten days ago they passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (“CARES”) Act with the aim of putting cash in people’s pockets.

          As I wrote to you a week ago, the law includes $350 billion in emergency funding for small businesses. It’s specifically aimed at helping entrepreneurs retain and pay their employees.

          A week and a half later, the government seems to have realized just how difficult it is to give away $350 billion to tens of millions of businesses.

          Sure, the Defense Department blows hundreds of billions of dollars all the time. They make it look easy. But they’re acquiring really expensive stuff– bombs, aircraft carriers, fighter jets, etc.

          But similar to Brewster’s Millions, the Small Business Administration isn’t buying anything. They have to spend the money, sprinkling hundreds of billions of dollars across the economy as quickly as possible…..

          Wells Fargo (of course it had to be Wells Fargo…) announced yesterday on Twitter that they had already “reached lending capacity” for small businesses under this program, and they subsequently took down the application form.

          Then the Federal Reserve reacted by announcing a new facility to ‘buy’ small business loans from the banks, which gives banks like Wells Fargo more ammunition to keep lending.

          The problem, of course, is that a good chunk of these loans will never be repaid. Ever.”

          • Nor will those loans help small businesses remain afloat and retain their employees. But have no fear, for we have a debt-driven economy.

        • BannedHipster

          The government didn’t need to create a virus scare to do quantitive easing. In fact, that was the predicted strategy for the 2020 recession is that they were going to do that. Unless there are other trillions you were talking about, the 2020 recession would have been QE’d without a virus scare and no one would have done anything other than complain.

          John Bonaccorsi

          I’m not going to go through the internet finding the opposite to be true, if you’re interested you can find one yourself, but this idea that the government “wants” COVID deaths instead of wanting to prevent it doesn’t make sense and we’ve had reports of the opposite occurring where earlier on, deaths were being ascribed to other conditions that were brought on by COVID.

          Anyway, don’t nitpick my response because the overall argument that Afterthought posted was incorrect in so many ways.

          • You made a statement, Outlander, and I provided evidence that it was inaccurate.

      • From https://www.faz.net/aktuell/gesellschaft/gesundheit/coronavirus/neue-corona-symptome-entdeckt-virologe-hendrik-streeck-zum-virus-16681450.html?printPagedArticle=true#pageIndex_2

        “In Heinsberg, for example, a 78-year-old man with pre-existing conditions died of heart failure without a lung involvement by Sars-2. Because he was infected, it appears naturally in the Covid-19 statistic. The question, however, is whether he would not have died anyway, even without Sars-2.” — Hendrik Streeck, Institute of Virology, University Hospital Bonn

        N.B. “without a lung involvement by Sars-2”

      • “Yeah heaven fucking forbid you can’t go to a Church or a park during a pandemic. We’re only a month into it in the U.S., death and infections are going up, and you MUST go to Church and MUST go to a park. Ever heard of prudence? You can’t spend 2 or 3 months without any disruption in your life? Are you a real dissident?”

        Yep…mewling weaklings. I can’t go to Church! I can’t go out to eat! I can’t go to the bar! My sportsball games aren’t on! MUH FREEDUMBS!!!!!
        These people have no idea what things are like when it’s REALLY bad. Food is still plentiful. The power is still on. Go take a hike or a bike ride! Get a kayak! Go birdwatching! Buncha damn babies.

  9. The irony is that the flu bros are psychologically at home on the boomer right, but uncomfortable among the sort of “paranoid survivalists” who have always made up the “far right” in America.

  10. Even if the pandemic were a fraud (which I don’t think it is), it would still be useful to treat it seriously as a sort of training run for a future pandemic that could be even more deadly. We were woefully unprepared prior to the Wuhan virus, and we must change that.

    • It’s not a simulation not doomsday but it is a live fire exercise. It’s basically been a good thing for border advocates and race based political analysts.

  11. Folks get this before it disappears! Black people in Little Rock had a Corona Virus Parade. Go to you tube. Look up The Real Underground Radio and the video “Parade in Little Rock causes concern amid COVID19 crisis KTHV. It is unfeaking believable

  12. IF the “cure” for this cov19sar2aids . Is a shot mandated by the be state and a chit explaining you are safe to goto markeY. (Chip, paper sticker on car window… )will you get in line and get the shot/ chip and present your children to the man for mandatory vaccination?

    Asking for my jehovah witness frenz…

  13. IF this latest scourge is a natural occurence, then you may want to try and see why it’s a scourge
    To be alert to the fact that it’s not over as long as we continue along the paths we travel as humans

    Food production, food consumption, lifestyles is going to continue to kill us.

    The soil is tainted by factory farms run by big pharma.
    Your water is tainted.
    Your food is tainted by big pharma.
    A yuge percentage of the world’s population is sick with chronic metabolic disease, obese, addicts.
    There is not enough gdp to pay for the tsunami of costs coming to treat these diseases. CAUSED BY OUR SOIL DEGRADATION.

    This maybe a warning shot over the bow or God acting in the world.

    Fat, sick and stupid is no way to live this life.

    Adamic man is not supposed to live like this.

    Quit eating garbage Quit listening to “guidelines ” from a cdc, fda who, etc.

    Fix yourself, fix your family fix your soil.

    And pray to the as almighty for guidance, if you want the help, its there!

    For you anti god ppl, I dont care your outbursts, you can be saved if you want. I’m not going to be troubled by your admonishments.

    I know from where I come and where I’m going.

    En arche een ho logos…

    Praise Jesus!

    • I don’t recall anyone having asked you about your crackpot religious beliefs. Why don’t you tell us about your bowel movements as well?

  14. “Flu Trutherism?”

    What next, complaining about anti-semites who hate “Joos?”

    In NYC, 70% of the Covid deaths were people over 70 with serious health problems. Less than 10% were under 40.

    Imagine THIS is the hill some people want to die on and not, I don’t know, say, the TRILLIONS of dollars Jewish Wall Street is stealing while everyone is on “lockdown.”

    I’m glad everyone is choosing sides and going on the record, because we’ll see who was right and who was wrong in a couple of weeks.

  15. In what world is a 60 year old Boomer extra from Revenge of the Nerds, replete with tape on his coke bottle classes, considered “the cool guy”. Ramz Paul has always been the side of cheese grifter on the dissident Right. Edgy enough to pull in those donation sheckles while never really going hard enough to get taken down from YouTube. A creepy old man sitting in his one bedroom hole with access to a 240p phone camera does not a sage make. And as for anyone in here writing obvious dissension comments, whether against Catholics, the Chinese or in favor of throwing caution to the wind and your families health to make the cosmopolitan elites a few more points on the stocks….

    It is fair to say they have an agenda. And not one which benefits you or yours

  16. “Instead, it was laughed off by mainstream conservatives ….”

    Are you sure about that, Mr. W.? My impression, before the disease hit the U.S., was that it was liberals who were dismissing it. That was based on what I was encountering at Slate …

    “Violating People’s Rights Is Not the Way to Address the Coronavirus – Many of China’s actions to date are overly aggressive and ineffective in quelling the emerging outbreak.”
    https://slate.com/technology/2020/01/coronavirus-2019-ncov-china-quarantine.html

    “The Coronavirus Quarantines, From Bizarre to Heartbreaking”
    https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/01/coronavirus-quarantine-cruise-international-panic.html

    In the Slate comment-section at at that time, there seemed to be quite a bit of mockery of “hysteria” and “panic.” I’m sure I saw a comment or two–and maybe more than that–to the effect that the flu kills many thousands of each year and nobody panics about that.

    Now–do I know for a fact that that mockery and dismissal were being posted by liberals? Well, no–but the usual Slate dynamic seemed to me to be at play. The few commenters–or at least, it seemed to me at the time to be only a few–who were expressing concern about the infection, while it was still far off in China, seemed to me to be the usual conservatives who fare poorly in the Slate comment section, like the ones who are told, by the liberals there, that Islamic terrorism is less of a danger than lightning or whatever.

    Only when the disease reached America and, as it seemed to me, the Democrats used it as a stick with which to batter Trump did the script flip–or so it seemed to me. I’d imagine you consider Andrew Anglin, for instance, a flu truther–but he was quite the opposite early on. Even until quite recently, in fact, he was regularly condemning Trump’s failure to block flights from China as soon as the virus was making news, and he all but screeched that Trump was foolish to be bringing into the U.S. passengers from the cruise ship where the virus was spreading before it (the virus) surfaced in the U.S.

    Personally, I think the jury is still out on this thing, even though we’ve seen, as you’re pointing out, more putative COVID-19 deaths in a single day than in the worst week of even the worst of the recent flu seasons. I can see why you might think me crazy for thinking that, but there it is.

    Somewhere back in those Slate comment sections–maybe in the comment section of one of the two articles I linked above–there’s a comment from me. In response to a person whom I took to be a liberal and who was dismissing the need for quarantine, I posted the following: “You and your ilk, who condemn prudence as hysteria, would be the first to condemn the lack of it as carelessness if a problem were to break out.” That was posted before the first identification of a U.S. case and even before those cruise-ship passengers were brought into the U.S.

    I’ll mention, on the other hand, that I am not at all in sympathy with your apparent view that these “lockdowns” are no big deal unless all one cares about is the stock market. They amount to asking a political organism–a polity–to hold its breath, and no organism can hold its breath long.

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