The virus is likely to surge again this fall, if not sooner. This may trigger a new cascade of overreactions by politicians and more panic by their followers. Maybe people got smarter from experience and won’t fall for the hype this time, but don’t bet your life on it. Be ready, just in case.
Tag: blame
Rowdy Kids, Historical Moral Judgments, & Legacy Media Sensationalism (26m) – Episode 299
Episode 299 has Skyler giving his commentary on the following entries to r/unpopularopinions: Larrysbirds writes, “If you can’t control your kid at a public place, then go home”; SatoshiSounds writes, “Criticising historical figures by today’s moral standards is like criticising 70s computers for being slow”; and pathemar writes, “US mass media should carry some of the blame for contributing to this culture of fear.”
It’s Time to Change the Status Quo
This is a painful time for so many of us. There is anger, outrage, pain, fear, racism, injustice, sadness, exhaustion — and it’s not just a recent thing, it goes back generations, as far as our country has existed. It’s heartbreaking.
The Banality of Evil, COVID-19 Edition
Cuomo’s usual “large and in charge” act seems to be crumbling under the weight of the body count. Suddenly, he was “just doing his job,” maybe even “just following orders.” Sound familiar?
Curiosity: The Master Impulse
Curiosity is the greatest threat to concentrated power and prestige, so those who have power and prestige labor endlessly to create the mind-killing opposite of all curiosity. Consensus. Obedience. Being seen as “normal”, “in the know”, “respectable”.
What We Would Now Know, If Demagogues Didn’t Rule Every Country on Earth
About six months after the rise of COVID-19, humanity still doesn’t know the answers to a long list of critical questions. Yet amazingly, we have a straightforward and ethically unimpeachable way to decisively answer all of these questions – and countless more. The method is: paid voluntary human experimentation.
State Priorities, Not State “Capacity”
In the last few years, social scientists have started heavily appealing to “state capacity” to explain the wealth of nations. Why do some countries prosper? Because they have great state capacity. Why do others flounder? Because they have crummy state capacity. What do floundering countries need to do in order to prosper? Build state capacity, naturally.
Concern Troll is Concerned, Elbe Day Edition
What’s inherently controversial about the Trump/Putin statement that wasn’t controversial about the similar 65th anniversary message from Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev?
“China Lied, People Died?” Look Who’s Talking!
If a government lies and people die as a result, that government and its functionaries should be held responsible, right? Good enough for me. But sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, so if we’re having Peking Duck this week, I’d like to know when Thiessen plans to cough up his share of US government’s tab.
COVID-19: Resist Much, Obey Little, and Never Forget
The COVID-19 outbreak isn’t over yet, but we’ve reached a turning point: American politicians and bureaucrats are beginning the tricky process of trying to simultaneously walk back their predictions of catastrophe, while awarding themselves the credit for those predictions not coming true, and avoiding the blame they deserve for inciting headlong irrational panic.