Doug's Darkworld

Election four months away. Anything could happen. Winter is coming. Trump and company are still basically trying to claim Covid-19 is no big deal, even going so far as to claim the CDC and everyone else is lying about it to make Trump look bad. No Mr Trump, they’re just trying to do their job. And an accusation like that could only have come from someone who habitually lies about everything. So far Trump’s lies about how great his fight against Covid-19 is going aren’t actually helping get Covid-19 under control, so he’s fallen back on claiming everyone who disagrees with his lies is lying. Disturbed preschooler crap basically. Granted Covidiocy is not limited to America. As I am increasingly fond of saying these days, humans aren’t really an intelligent species.

Trump did wear a mask for the first time in public. Good for him is my first reaction, this will encourage mask compliance, fewer people will die. Maybe he’s had an epiphany, and has realized if he listens to the experts he can still get the country, and his fortunes, out of the nosedive they are in. Snort. Don’t hold one’s breath gentle reader. I think the plan is to just throw waves of victims at Covid-19 until we win? First we sacrificed the elderly and the sick. Health care workers. Meat plant workers. Fast food workers. Now Trump’s plan is to send in children and teachers. OK then.

So some late breaking bad news. Basically looking like herd immunity isn’t very likely. Basically because looking like Covid-19 immunity doesn’t last very long. Herd immunity is something only achieved with a vaccine anyhow. Letting a disease spread through the  population to achieve herd immunity is like letting one’s house burn down to make it fireproof. That’s what we’re doing though. Crazy times.

Topic change. Let’s review the statues. (Are they even in the news anymore?) We have all sorts of statues glorifying, get this, Confederate personages. People who took up arms against the United States because they wanted to preserve the institution of chattel slavery. This is slavery where the slaves are the same as cattle, and bought and sold and bred as such. Where human beings are property because of the accident of their birth. This isn’t debatable, every single state when it seceded and joined the Confederacy stated that preserving the institution of slavery was why they were rebelling against America.

So wait, the Confederates were traitors? Yes. Criminals? Yes. Monsters? Some of them. The point is that their cause was not just, the Confederacy is one of the (if not the) greatest blemishes on the American ideal of one nation for all. There’s absolutely no reason their “heroes” should be accorded public monuments, it’s not only an affront to the people they killed and victimized, it’s an affront to the actual heroes who fought to put down their revolt. Flying a Confederate flag is no different than flying a Nazi flag. One is flying the flag of an enemy of the US, a defeated enemy at that. Convince me otherwise.

Moving along, the historical evidence is overwhelming. In any complex civilization the end finally comes when the ruling class due to corruption and human cognitive failings becomes detached from reality. While climate change and ecocide were sure to kill us, Covid-19 has compressed the timeline so to speak. America is collapsing because our leaders live in a fantasy world, will America’s failing bring the world down with it? Damned if I know, but the world Americans grew up in is dead. I’m all for tearing down statues of traitors and moving forward, can’t hurt.

And last a bit of context. Some morbid calculations. In absolute numbers Covid-19 is the 4th worst mass death event in US history, surpassed only by WW2, the Civil War, and the 1918 pandemic. In relative numbers, Covid-19 is probably tied for fourth with Korea and Vietnam, but pulling away. So to get to number three, topping 675,000 would be the absolute number. In relative numbers it would have to top 2 million. Let’s hope it’s not as bad as the 1918 flu.138,000 and counting as I write.

So yeah, been preparing myself mentally for something like Covid-19 all my life. As my friend Steve said to me once, “You freak out about the world ending every spring Doug.” He was more or less right. This time, not freaking out, the world I grew up in is dying. I just never expected that the US government and a third of Americans  would pretend it was all a hoax and try to BS their way out of it.

Stay safe and stay sane everyone. I did get started on the book today. My swan song. Comments, likes, shares appreciate. #StaytheFHome

Copyright © 2020 Doug Stych. All rights reserved.

(Image: A cat with a mouse in its jaws, a public domain Snappygoat pic. I thought about making a meme of it. Trump is the mouse, the cat is Covid-19. Maybe I will. OK. I did. Oddly enough, now that Trump has tens of thousands of preventable deaths on his hands, I see no reason to respect him no matter his office.)