The Virus Chronicles (continued)

The right wing noise machine says “let us out” and “restore Americans' freedoms.” It began two days ago with tweets by Laura Ingraham, but now it's a coordinated symphony of rage. They are all saying the same thing, in slightly different ways, as if they have a giant conservative staff meeting each morning to ensure they are all on the same sheet of music. There might have been a time when we naive folks thought the noise machine was echoing the opinion of the Donald, but now we know that the President has very little mind beyond what he 'feels'. It is the job of the noise machine to shape his views. From Fox and Friends when he first awakens, through Rush Limbaugh, and on to Mark Levin, then the all important Hannity, whom the President is just as likely to call as not. The noise machine is there to insert the proper ideas into the Presidents mush filled head, then describe the President as brilliant for having spit out its ideas.

“Know your enemy,” we are reminded, and so an aggregation of the President's Twitter feed pops into my email box each morning, and occasionally throughout the day. He thrashes the “lamestream media” for its fake news, citing the TV ratings of his daily news conference as proof that he is superior. It doesn't occur to him that people are shut in, mostly unable to work. Citizens are listening all day to broadcasters who can get paid to work from home while they try to collect from a strapped unemployment system. What the hell else are they going to do, Don, except tune in to find out how close to redemption they are from the National Carnival Barker?

And finally, the scientists recommending that we keep the country buttoned up until “the virus says it's OK to come out” are also still getting paid through all this. I don't mean to be disrespectful of their expertise, but at a certain point, the ordinary citizen will break, and come out of his and her own accord. So a wise government would plan for it instead of shooting for the moon. (see my The Limits of Efficacy in the 6 April entry).