There's a consensus about who the "covidiots" are: anti-vaccionists and other stripes of science deniers, hoarders, people who flaunt safety rules, etc. Dragging covidiots puts you on the responsible side, but also denying systemic issues still makes you the real covidiot. 1/? 13 atbildes
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Reinis Ivanovs (2020-05-21 20:03:17) |
There's a consensus about who the "covidiots" are: anti-vaccionists and other stripes of science deniers, hoarders, people who flaunt safety rules, etc. Dragging covidiots puts you on the responsible side, but also denying systemic issues still makes you the real covidiot. 1/? | |
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Reinis Ivanovs (2020-05-21 20:03:17) |
The individual actions of anti-vaccine cranks and reckless people can't have harmful consequences on a comparable scale to when the system itself is set up to exacerbate a crisis. 2/? | |
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Reinis Ivanovs (2020-05-21 20:03:18) |
The depth of structural inequities determines how many people will be pushed close or over the edge of poverty in a crisis; it also determines how well equipped are the institutions responsible for responding to it, like the health care or social welfare systems. 3/? | |
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Reinis Ivanovs (2020-05-21 20:03:18) |
The global society is still picking up the pieces after the last financial meltdown, and its causes are well understood to be directly related to neoliberal deregulation, while the neoliberal response of austerity has placed the most burden on those least responsible. 4/? | |
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Reinis Ivanovs (2020-05-21 20:03:18) |
Austerity doesn't even work; it can't be shown to produce the positive outcomes it's supposed to, but it does lead to, for example, not having enough nurses and equipment in case a pandemic hits. 5/? | |
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Reinis Ivanovs (2020-05-21 20:03:19) |
You can't predict when a pandemic would happen, but you can predict that it could happen, and you can prepare for it happening. It's akin to speeding: you don't know when exactly you'll crash, but going at highway speeds in narrow streets means that you will. 6/? | |
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Reinis Ivanovs (2020-05-21 20:03:19) |
The so called "systems thinking" already has the problem that exercising it makes the average person go "you must be fun at parties"; it really doesn't need two-bit "optimistic" takes from people vested in "normalcy" above all. 7/? | |
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Reinis Ivanovs (2020-05-21 20:03:19) |
Systemic problems require systemic solutions, but even before that, you can't start solving a problem if you don't recognize it as a problem, so obscuring the cracks in the walls and foundations prevents actual repairs. 8/? | |
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Reinis Ivanovs (2020-05-21 20:03:20) |
Meanwhile, the current neoliberal regime has no intention of stopping, and the demobilizing effect of physical distancing gives great cover to implement even more "the market knows best" reforms, and the gears are already in motion to settle societies with even larger debts. 9/? | |
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Reinis Ivanovs (2020-05-21 20:03:20) |
The economic precarity that austerity creates is also straightforwardly corrosive to democracy; as the "American Dream"-style promise becomes more hollow, part of the people affected will scapegoat already disadvantaged groups and look to "strongman" politics for fixes. 10/? | |
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Reinis Ivanovs (2020-05-21 20:03:20) |
In light of all this, the people who try to block even discussing changes within the existing parameters (like those who try to beat social democrats over the head with anticommunism), and who reel from the current economic regime even being named, are actually depraved. 11/? | |
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Reinis Ivanovs (2020-05-21 20:03:20) |
I also don't use the word "depraved" lightly; the "no need to even discuss structural reform; just wait it out" type of covidiocy comes from lacking skin in the game; it's not the front line workers, for example, who could afford to be so glibly optimistic. 12/14 | |
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Reinis Ivanovs (2020-05-21 20:03:21) |
Instead, the fundamental covidiocy comes from structural issues being abstract compared to personal day to day experience, and from a lack of solidarity. The systemic flaws and mis-incentives haven't manifested to your personally enough, so you can dismiss them. 13/14 | |
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Reinis Ivanovs (2020-05-21 20:03:21) |
It's not as bad as someone denying that Covid-19 is real, but that's actually part of the issue: the existence of lesser covidiots as easy targets saves the fundamental covidiots from having to self-reflect where they really stand. 14/14 | |