Do you remember the early days of coronavirus? It was only two months ago, but it seems like years. Maybe our perceptions of time change when we’re under house arrest.
If you are like me (and you’re probably not), you’ve been searching high and low for some variation on what’s been the equivalent of fear-mongering and propaganda by the mainstream media. I’ve used the term “fear-fogging” on this blog to connote the idea of fear being spread like the way fog rolls in off the ocean and envelopes everything in its path, reducing visibility to zero. The media’s kind of like that these days.
Unfortunately, despite my best intentions, I’ve internalized some of this propaganda and groupthink, too. As hard as I fight it, sometimes when I go out in public, I’m scared that the ‘krona might get me, too.
Speaking of internalization; how about the idea that the last time there was a major pandemic in the U.S. (and across the globe) was the great pandemic of 1918. That’s actually wrong. The U.S. had pandemics in 1949 to 1952 (polio) and 1957. I got this from the website for the Centers for Disease Control (for you scientists lurking out there, fact-checking any alternative storytelling) re: the 1957-58 global pandemic::
In February 1957, a new influenza A (H2N2) virus emerged in East Asia, triggering a pandemic (“Asian Flu”). This H2N2 virus was comprised of three different genes from an H2N2 virus that originated from an avian influenza A virus, including the H2 hemagglutinin and the N2 neuraminidase genes. It was first reported in Singapore in February 1957, Hong Kong in April 1957, and in coastal cities in the United States in summer 1957. The estimated number of deaths was 1.1 million worldwide and 116,000 in the United States.
The current death toll in the U.S. stands at just slightly over 100,000.
For Boomers (the group that seems most obsessed by Coronavirus), their lodestar event was Woodstock. I’m sure they (and all but a few of you) didn’t know that when Woodstock was happening in 1969, the U.S. was in the throes of another pandemic.
Spreading memes about Woodstock and pandemics.
The Hong Kong Influeza (H3N2) pandemic killed 100K in the U.S. and more than 1 million worldwide. Until this week, I was clueless about this information. Why? Maybe because since March, the New York Times, Washington Post, Atlantic Monthly, Mother Jones, and a host of other left-leaning sites supposedly practicing journalism didn’t think it was important to stem their flow of hysteria and propaganda to actually advance some actual investigative stories that tracked beyond the most narrow of ditches for news about Covid-19. TPTB have done a great job of shutting dialogue down, other than what’s “official.” FB and Twitter have been especially virulent with their supposed “fact-checking.” Okay. Let’s be fair, here. The New York Times did publish this story. But these types of pieces about the pandemic have been few and far between.
Speaking of said checking of facts: some guy who went to Hofstra and has been rooting around the bottom of the media’s barrel with Vice and now, Buzzfeed, tells us all that the stories I’ve linked to (like the Woodstock one) are dubious. He calls them “memes,” which is just another technique for calling something that does’t align with his own bias, a “lie.” Because of course this arbiter of truth (have you ever spent any time on the Vice site with its myriad of clickbait?) tells us so. Thanks but no thanks, Mr. Broderick. I can think for myself and I plan to. But I realize that others require their “truth” fed to them in convenient thimble-sized (and approved) bitefuls. Because thinking is hard and it’s much easier to stand on your soapbox and repeat a bunch of things someone else told you to say.
But back to my main point, here. If none of these previous pandemics resulted in lockdowns and social distancing, then why now? That’s a question I’d think someone in the media might be interested in writing about. I’ve been waiting for 2+ months. Instead, we keep getting the same useless narrative from all the mainstream sources, foisting their never-ending fogging of fear upon the masses. “Bueller,Bueller, Bueller.” [crickets].
What’s different in 2020 that made shutting down everything necessary? It’s been 50 years since Woodstock. We haven’t had improvements in public health that might allow for selective quarantining of high-risk groups, but allowing life to continue, like it did in 1968 and 1969? Honestly—I’m curious if anyone out there can answer that question without an ideologically-oriented response, or with the usual incessant virtue signaling passing as concern for others. I’m calling “bullshit” on that tack, if that’s where your thinking of going with me.
I have my own theories, but I’ll keep them to myself for now. I’m sure you mask-shamers and moral superiors will think, “Jim’s a covid-denier” or some other term used to marginalize (and shutdown) thought. That’s fine. I have come to care less about most of you. You’ve all disappeared over the past three years following my son’s death and I’ve stopped missing you. But honestly, when I see one of your updates on Facebook, pissing and whining about wearing a mask (or those not wearing one), I think, “what a fucking tool.”
But seriously—rather than spending all my time on this shit, I’ll go back to playing the guitar and living my life, in whatever version General Mills tells me I’m permitted to. And btw, I do wear a mask when necessary and when required. But I’m not sold that it makes any difference.