The further to the left or the right you move, the more your lens on life distorts.

Thursday, March 19, 2020

A Flu by Any Other Name

I thought (well actually, I had hoped) that the mainstream media would recognize that their COVID-19 scoreboards, their hyperventilating use of words like "skyrocketed" and "soared" when referring to an absolutely predictable increase in COVID-19 cases and yes, deaths, their consistent use of worst case scenarios and provably incorrect statistics (like the canard that COVID-19 has a 6.35% morbidity, and their uber-partisan treatment of Donald Trump's handling of this crisis (e.g., that he called COVID-19 a hoax—and outright lie, or that he told Governors they were "on their own" in getting ventilators—another outright lie) would abate, and these so-called "journalists" would recognize their responsibility to our nation and tone it all down. Nope.

Conservative firebrand Kurt Schlichter is not impressed:
This was the media’s time to shine, a moment when we needed clear, objective information delivered by intelligent people who asked the important questions people care about so Americans could protect themselves and their families. It was a critical juncture when the media could step up and show us all that yes, the media is still important. It still matters. It still deserves our respect.

Instead we got, “Mr. President, isn’t accurately pointing out that the coronavirus originated in China racist?”

Really.

That was a thing.

Pointing out that the Wuhan flu came from Wuhan is racist?

Oh, and then literally shaking that someone made an amusing funny joke by calling it the “Kung Flu.”

I wish I was joking.

I wish I was exaggerating. I wish my ability to generate hyperbole in the pursuit of critiquing our failed establishment was so great that I could construct a sublime image of allegedly serious reporters, in a time of national crisis, forgoing the chance to disseminate lifesaving 411 to the masses and instead, and on purpose, choosing to pursue the fevered SJW obsessions of daddy-issued Wellesley sociology sophomores.
Schlichter is not wrong.

But then again, it appears that political correctness has pervaded much of the media's treatment of COVID-19. If you have the temerity to ask intelligent questions, or suggest fact-based decision making, or question whether shutting down the economy is the right option given the reality of COVID-19, you're a "DOUBTER" or a "DENIER."

And when PC takes over, common sense and rational decision making goes out the window. We're seeing that on a daily basis. I don't fear COVID-19 half as much as I fear the ramifications of some of the decisions that are currently being made to combat it.