03-08-2023, 06:45 PM
(03-05-2023, 08:53 PM)michaelsean Wrote: Trump and Covid ruined it. Anything not about Trump was deemed irrelevant. Then people kept yelling about authoritarianism while ignoring what was going on during Covid. Even cheering it. The most authoritarian time in my life. But there was a good reason for this authoritarianism in their opinion so it was ok. It was science. Which of course it wasn’t. The definition of science was redefined so people could justify the authoritarianism they pretend to hate. They don’t hate it. They hate it when it doesn’t support their views. That was enough for me. If an interesting topic comes up that doesn’t involve straight political ideology or maybe a religious topic I’ll jump in. Otherwise no thanks.
Sounds like you've said your piece here. But I would like to register one small complaint--
I don't see how "what was going on during Covid" falls under any definition of "authoritarianism" I am familiar with.
Mask mandates certainly don’t. Politicians in various states and the federal government tried to respond to a pandemic with existing laws, protocols, temporary measures, and expert knowledge at hand—to stop people from dying. As knowledge of Covid and how it spread increased, recommendations changed as the science changed; science itself was not "redefined." It is inevitable that during a pandemic, a government might have to take (temporary) measures the populace does not like. That's why we need to plan ahead for them, and maybe understand the process ahead of time as well. But taking lawful emergency measures during a health emergency is not itself "authoritarianism." One has to overgeneralize the term to cover most any government action to get the double standard you claim here.
Meanwhile, certain news organizations created as much pro-"freedom" counter buzz as they could, from the get go: the government (except Trump) was “lying,” attacking our “freedoms” incrementally to train us into obedience. Rather than explaining how science is supposed to work in the process and appreciating the difficulty of "getting it right," those organizations preferred to embed double standards, hypocrisy and incompetence into every policy shift. Personal attacks on medical experts abounded, as these hesitated to support Trump pronouncements; at the same time they gave quack treatments/doctors a national platform.
I suspect that most of the "yelling about authoritarianism" that you didn't like concerned actual authoritarianism--a certain president placing himself above rule of law with party protection, attempting a coup, and his party afterwards doing their damnedest to pass "election integrity" laws in swing states to protect against fraud that never occurred. Yet Trump's final year was NOT "the most authoritarian time" in your life?
That millions want to re-elect him is why Trump continues to be not only "relevant," but makes authoritarian Trumpism the primary problem in our current politics.
