Watch out for the Chicken Littles
gleefully pushing panic and doom
by
John Podhoretz
Original Article
Posted By: Pluperfect,
3/26/2020 4:41:46 AM
We are living through what may be the worst and most elemental fear human beings can experience — the fear of invasion.
And the invader isn’t a human aggressor that can be repelled with military force — but an invisible and not-exactly-alive viral contagion that somehow gets inside your body or the body of your loved ones and attacks from within even as it continues to spread its damage from without. This is the horror of the novel coronavirus.
For Americans especially prone to that specific fear, there is almost no piece of coronavirus news that doesn’t trigger a renewed sense of panic.
Reply 1 - Posted by:
bnrmusa51 3/26/2020 6:24:01 AM (No. 358278)
John Podhoretz has encapsulated what needed to be said. Very concise, indeed.
12 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
DCGIRL 3/26/2020 6:39:39 AM (No. 358288)
If we (U.S.) fall for another manufactured crisis then we are real idiots and I'm moving to the mountains forever. This should not have happened. Only people that can count, have common sense, and have an average intelligence knew this was a not a crisis. I'm still scratching my head wondering how something so stupid and unreal got out of control. If you look which Governors are still trying to create panic.....it's the democrats.
51 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
lakerman1 3/26/2020 7:30:33 AM (No. 358321)
early on with this Kung Flu stuff, I posted that there is way too much touching, hugging, physical interactions in modern society.
I watch The Price Is Right, for some unknown reason - maybe its the female models, i suppose - but if you people would take a look at the behavior on that show, where everyone in the audience is a potential contestant, and crazy with excitement, you would see a distillation of what our culture has become. everyone has to slap hands with everyone else, every female contestant who makes it on stage with Drew Carey has to physically molest him,...
it has spun out of control. (current epsiodes of the show pre-date the arrival of Kung Flu, I guess.
In my faith, ELCA Lutheran, everybody has to hug, touch, otherwise contaminate everybody else, during the 'sign of peace' which should be named the 'sign of sickness.' Catholics link hands for no known reason. sing way too much, sometimes drinking from the same chalice. I don't know what the Baptists do, but I probably would find them wrong.
I clicked on Jimmy Swaggert's Wednesday evening service, and the singers were appropriately separated, and the congregation was absent.
at the ended of this hyped-up Kung Flu pandemic, it would be a goo0d time to reconsider social behavior. a little bit of germaphobe conduct might be good for the public health. and selfies, which have disrupted the campaign process, could be abolished.
13 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
worried 3/26/2020 7:42:14 AM (No. 358328)
What has happened to this country? Fear of invasion? How about December, 1941, when there was the real possibility of invasion. Did the people panic? No, they buckled down and called everyone capable of defending the country to be ready to fight. Civilians took over many of the jobs of the military to free them for fighting. Almost every block had air raid wardens, who made sure when the sirens started that all lights were out so as not to guide enemy bombers. People learned to identify both our planes and the enemy's. (Radar was in its infancy at the time.) Food, gas and many other things were rationed to provide for the military. Yet people didn't panic. After came the Cold War and the threat of nuclear destruction, yet we didn't panic then. Now a little germ, not as deadly as the flu, has caused a panic unheard of in our time!
25 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
gone2pot 3/26/2020 7:51:29 AM (No. 358337)
What 2 said on steroids with one caveat. We've gone way past being real idiots for falling for this Chicom flu hysteria. According to the CDC, there have been between 23,000 to 59,000 deaths due to the 1918 strain of the Spanish flu (no, Rio Lindans, calling it the Spanish flu is NOT racism) between Oct 1, 2019 and Mar 14, 2020 with not one square of toilet paper hoarded. Today, the total deaths, albeit tragic, in the US from the Chicom flu is 1052. Five hundred thirty five "leaders" and one president just printed six, that's SIX TRILLION dollars out of thin air to assuage the lunacy and complete absence of perspective over this. For Rio Lindans, that's 4 trillion dollars the Fed just printed sans votes and 2 trillion dollars with a vote. And, they promise that 6 trillion is just the beginning. There's more where that came from. The reaction to the Chicom flu is going to kill more people than the flu itself and it probably already has.
I know, 2 and I are so doggone un-"caring." BUT, in our defense, some of us are "victims" of three tragic flaws; 1-can't play poker, 2-can't sell used cars, and 3-ALWAYS tell the emperor that he's bare ass naked and usually use the word ass when we tell him.
18 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
planetgeo 3/26/2020 8:01:41 AM (No. 358352)
So let's recap...and analyze.
1) Where are the most number of cases and deaths? Answer: blue states, and particularly in the sanctuary cities. Analysis: there is a clear correlation between unrestricted migration and increased vulnerability to communicable diseases.
2) Which states/governors/mayors are imposing the most repressive measures regarding personal sheltering and lockout of businesses? Answer: blue states/sanctuary cities. Anaysis: duhhh, see analysis #1, a bit late.
3) Why are they doing this? Answer: ostensibly, to slow down the contagious spread of the epidemic, but... Analysis: By locking out business, they will incur even worse financial damage in their states/cities, for which they will then demand that MOST of the stimulus money/resources, etc. should go to their states/sanctuary cities. In other words, they will want the rest of the country to bail them out for their years of extremely bad jodgment and policies. Thus Cuomo, Newsom, Pritzker, etc. whining incessantly that SOMEBODY ELSE is to blame so they deserve to get mo money, ventilators, etc. Also see the Pelosi Porkulus bill.
4) Summary: Cloward-Piven Strategy (look it up) on steroids. Full speed ahead.
39 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
Hermoine 3/26/2020 8:39:33 AM (No. 358398)
The Andy Slavitt guy who was a former "top" official in the CDC (I think), needs to be held accountable at the end of all of this. He has been all over twitter scaring the crap out of people by telling them that briefings in the Senate estimate 1.7 to 2 million people in the US ALONE are going to die. That was an old briefing and those numbers were based on the worst-case scenario of us doing NOTHING to combat the virus. He's a fear monger of the first order and needs to be shutdown.
12 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
Dodge Boy 3/26/2020 8:49:30 AM (No. 358416)
I'll say it again. Let's roll on that national msm boycott and tune them out...for good. And to those companies who operate the social media websites...you are not immune from this.
13 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
Strike3 3/26/2020 9:29:11 AM (No. 358453)
You mean like the inch-high CNN banner that our host put up top here to blare out the ONE PERCENT of the US population filing unemployment claims after most of the businesses of the country have been shut down by law? THAT kind of Chicken Little reaction?
10 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
LC Chihuahua 3/26/2020 9:43:22 AM (No. 358463)
We have been hit by three pandemics: The corona virus pandemic, the panic pandemic, and the economic pandemic. This has been entirely self-inflicted by our media and many people in our government at all levels.
The corona virus has been treated like some super bug but it is not. It should have been treated like H1N1. Instead we have enforced social distancing and the mandatory closure of EVERYTHING. Trump will likely correct how corona virus is being handled, but will everyone else?
The general public saw the media and the government treating corona virus like some super bug and panicked. A large portion of the population will stay in a state of panic until the media and the government back down. Its an election year. They won't. This is going to be the hardest part to fix. People will stay home even if not required. Businesses will have fewer customers, and many will be closed or running at reduced capacity.
The panic pandemic lead to the economic pandemic. It likely had help with some deliberately tanking the stock market for political reasons. Again, its an election year. We need to get back to work. People need to get back out of their houses and do things. They won't while panicked.
The corona virus response has been the equivalent of a dictatorial takeover. We are seeing how many in our government operate. All because they are obsessed with getting rid of Trump or don't know what they are doing. We all should be asking ourselves and watching what are they going to do next. Seriously, is every Presidential election going to be like this from now on? They have really jumped the shark.
11 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
Strike3 3/26/2020 9:49:29 AM (No. 358475)
Totally agree with #3. When I was a kid, nobody hugged anybody else except my Italian half of the family on holidays. Most of it today seems forced and to the TV nonsense you can add Family Feud, Helen Degenerate, Oprah, Tamron Hall, and every other giveaway show with jumping, squealing idiots who act like kids on Christmas morning. The Catholic Church made that change sometime in the eighties and there was an old Easter custom that had the whole congregation lining up to kiss the same cross or the same picture of Jesus, behavior like that which recently killed a big chunk of the population in Iran. All I could think of was the millions of germs and viruses that had to be crawling on those objects. I like a good hug like anyone else but it should be between very close friends and family members, flu season or not. Hand shaking was originally practiced to demonstrate the absence of a weapon in one's hand, not to greet salesmen and customers. High-fiving and chest bumping completely ruined professional sports for me long before the Social Justice movement.
11 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
jeffkinnh 3/26/2020 10:12:29 AM (No. 358504)
I would argue that the highly excitable Left is the most vulnerable to the Chinese virus hype & fear but that pales in comparison to their hysterical fear of Trump, ginned up by dems/media. Irrational people will respond to everything irrationally. Someone only has to light their fuse.
The answer to "How bad is it?" is "As compared to what?". 1000 Chinese virus deaths (so far) is small compared to 12,000 - 61,000 (CDC) generic flu deaths annually in the US.
How bad could it get? We do NOT know yet.
Did the shutdown "work"? We can never really know because you can't prove a negative. 3000 deaths that never happen cannot be attributed to a cause for them not happening.
Was the shutdown worthwhile? Because of the last two answers we don't know and can never know to a certainty. If millions more got sick, 10s of thousands died, hospitals were overwhelmed, enough treatment was not unavailable, consumer suppliers were disrupted because people were out sick, and it all dragged on for 6+ months, then yes, most people would think it would have been worthwhile if that could be prevented or significantly muted. Would it have gotten that bad? A few weeks ago there were hints from other countries that it might. Italy is in pretty bad shape. Since then, that fear has decreased somewhat. We still don't KNOW but the balance is swinging toward "acceptable damage" to get the economy restarted. Not for businesses sake, but for PEOPLE's sake.
Just because there are fear mongers out there doesn't mean you have to purchase their wares. Unfortunately, there are always those susceptible to false messages and hype.
8 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
planetgeo 3/26/2020 10:38:25 AM (No. 358526)
Sorry for the second post, but I'd like to add the following.
As a mathematician who understands statisics, probability, and modeling/projections, I have been closely following multiple sites and sources for daily statistics on this epidemic. I will flatly state that (a) the standards for the data collected are clearly not universal nor reliable, and (b) regardless, the results tabulated when compared with prior major epidemics clearly do not justify the extreme measures taken (when other reasonable measures were available). In short, the models being used to support these draconian measures are hopelessly unreliable and subject to manipulation for any chosen desired interpretation.
In any event, even IF I conceded that there was some value in a temporary flattening of the curve for the express purpose of restocking inventories, confirming and strengthening supply lines, and expediting production of medicines and vaccines, that process has already begun and the value of continuing to do so beyond a few more weeks (not months) is unlikely to be worth the continued delay.
7 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
Aubreyesque 3/26/2020 10:59:39 AM (No. 358547)
Eensie weensie quibble here: ie Catholic practice of drinking from the same chalice at Communion. Unlike using grape juice which was never a thing in Biblical times, but wine which WAS an actual thing (if being literal is YOUR thing) - studies have found that the alcohol in the wine actual cleanses the germs from the cup. No Catholic I know, including myself, has EVER gotten sick from taking a sip from the Eucharistic cup.
So there.
I dont see anything wrong with shaking hands. It has become a cultural means of determining character. Etiquette and standards should always include that if youre going to be in a situation where you shake hands, make sure your hands are clean. Considering that a lot of men do NOT wash their hands when they are done with the toilet, maybe change that habit instead of not shaking hands? Better for you that way, I think. Bumping elbows looks...ridiculous. Not a change Id be glad to see.
The media stinks. I cant think of words scathing enough that would shame them. They are shameless. All I can ever think whenever I see the bobbleheaded dimwits is "Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be Journos..." (apologies to Willie Nelson...)
7 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
mc squared 3/26/2020 11:14:19 AM (No. 358556)
Seems like the same models are being used to forecast CV19 as are used to forecast Climate Change.
7 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
NotaBene 3/26/2020 11:34:05 AM (No. 358590)
John Podhoretz is not a credible person. He is one of the writers of the unforgivable “Against Trump” issue of The National Review.
We must get back to work.
5 people like this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
EQKimball 3/26/2020 12:46:24 PM (No. 358714)
In 1952 there were 50,000 cases of polio in the United States. Even after the Salk vaccine was invented, by 1985 there were still more than 365,000 new cases reported world-wide every year. It has taken an international effort for the past 35 years to vaccinate almost all of the world. No one panicked. Panic and irrational behavior can kill more people in less time than whatever may have been its cause. A nation's economic security must not be jeopardized by a shutdown of its industries and its jobs. If we foolishly respond to this crisis by creating a great depression, we will be vulnerable to foreign threats and more. Trump must Put America Back to Work. A theme, a cause, an imperative. He must start today.
8 people like this.
Reply 18 - Posted by:
Chuzzles 3/26/2020 12:57:42 PM (No. 358735)
This is happening because the media is so darn desperate for a cudgel to damage Trump with. None of their efforts his entire term have worked, so they are reduced to exploiting a virus to damage Trump with. The proof of that exploiting is when they jump nasty on him for offering hope and commonsense instead of pushing their panic. Trump is gradually calming the panic in this nation, and I do hope that he can manage to get at least a large part of the country back to work by mid or late April.
5 people like this.
Reply 19 - Posted by:
RedWhite&Blue2 3/26/2020 1:39:23 PM (No. 358796)
Cloward - Piven
Alinsky
Soros
Obama
Marxism
Socialism
Pelosi
Schumer
Schiff
Nadler
Cuomo
Cuomo
Pick one you like
6 people like this.
Reply 20 - Posted by:
Timber Queen 3/26/2020 3:35:38 PM (No. 358933)
#14 - Thank you for your explanation on receiving the Blood of Christ. Ministers of the Cup also have a linen napkin with which they wipe the rim and turn the cup slightly before each recipient. Communion by the Cup is regularly suspended during flu season. The kissing of the Cross of Christ on Good Friday is also attended by the priest or an acolyte with a linen napkin. In this tradition worshipers kiss many different parts of the Corpus, those that have special meaning to them; His hands, feet, side wound or the crown of thorns.
As to the the national China virus shut down: I believe this is the Deep State/Communists last ditch effort to stop President Trump and the MAGA movement. I wouldn't put it past them to have coordinated it with China. This is their Blitzkrieg and they're targeting the world. Once again, the American people stand in their way - personified by Donald J. Trump.
If there is anyone that can turn this shiite sandwich into sirloin steak its President Trump. This is the final round; Capitalism and freedom v. Communism and slavery. I also truly believe that our Lion is the champion God chose for us, for this moment. As we have witnessed over the last three years President Trump is the master of using the tools of the enemy to defeat the enemy. I trust his intelligence, experience and judgement to lead our country out of this "manufactured" yet very real existential crisis.
President Trump needs our prayers. He needs our trust and support. All the criticisms and worries about this Stimulus bill being like the Obamanation on steroids are well founded on our past experiences. But last time the Deep State was in total control. This time there is a new variable, a very significant variable; Donald J. Trump.
MAGA:KAG - Pray, pray hard. Trump is playing for all the marbles.
4 people like this.
Reply 21 - Posted by:
jerrodmason 3/26/2020 4:11:16 PM (No. 358965)
Follow the money and the metaphorical money (attention, influence, power, prestige, self-importance). Never fails.
0 people like this.
Reply 22 - Posted by:
XCenturion 3/26/2020 7:12:35 PM (No. 359131)
It's actually a very simple equation. Who do you trust? Trump of the main stream media?
0 people like this.
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