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Comment by TomSwirly | Hacker News Reader

I'm so sick of this "both sides" garbage. I'm not R or D, I'm not even an American, but one side, the R side, has simply gone insane, and the other has barely changed at all, except to move to the right.

> They will actively try to ruin your life over wrongthink.

In most cases, the wrongthink is someone saying something so horrible that most people are disgusted.

A small number of these cases are definitely an overreach.

On the other hand, the Republicans have allowed 140,000 people to die horribly, with hundreds thousands more on the way, and most of these deaths were completely avoidable: https://www.statnews.com/2020/06/19/faster-response-prevente...

This is what baffles me about Americans. "Well, the Ds were rude to some people, and the Rs killed a hundred thousand American. I can't see the difference!"

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Since you're not an American, I'm curious where you get your information. Here in the United States the states have their own rights. Of the top ten states for per capita deaths, eight have Democrat governors. Some of those Democrat governors decided to place COVID-positive patients into facilities with the elderly, killing thousands. New York government agencies are even fighting the release of information about their actions regarding the nursing homes.

Democrat officials in multiple states encouraged people to attend large gatherings in Asian neighborhoods to "fight racism" when the pandemic was getting started. So it goes far beyond being "rude to some people". Both sides have made huge mistakes, and it appears that the foreign press is giving one side a pass.

> Of the top ten states for per capita deaths, eight have Democrat governors.

This is going to change rapidly over the coming days, as the virus is rapidly growing the south.

According to JHU, for confirmed cases (not deaths, as in your comment): AZ (#3), FL (#5), MS (#8), AL (#9), SC (#10). (50/50) In approx. another week, GA (currently #11) will probably also become #10.

I've been deriving this data from the JHU data (which is on GitHub) myself for a while now: https://imgur.com/a/RpjEm9Z ; the full chart is remarkably busy, and not that great. I mean to try to clean it up into something more usable, but I've been swamped with my day job all week.

I expect deaths will generally follow in the coming weeks, regrettably. There might be some variance, of course, between states in deaths-per-captia, and that is a graph I've been meaning to make (since that might show something interesting about which states are better dealing with infections), especially after Chris Wallace's interview with Trump, and the remarks the President made there.

Apparently LA (#1) has a Democrat. Huh.

The idea that taking away health coverage (during a pandemic even!!!) and doing everything possible to let the most amount of people die in a pandemic is comparable to political correctness or sending people extra unemployment so they don't have to work in a pandemic is unbelievably absurd. It's beyond stupid. But you can see this twosideism play out in society at large. The news interviews experts who know what they're talking about and alongside them gives equal coverage to whackos with insane ideas that have no base in reality.

The problem isn't giving both sides the chance to speak, it's pretending that the ideas are equal and giving them equal weight. For example, wearing masks, washing hands, and social distancing as ideas for fighting the pandemic are not similar to drinking bleach and bathing in UV light. Yet both ideas get equal coverage and equal weight, as if they are both valid methods of dealing with the pandemic. This is why we cannot discuss politics and why Americans have to hide their views. People who can think will not put up with the stupidity of the idiotic ideas people who can't think put forward. How can you have a conversation with an idiot who thinks it's a good idea to drink bleach? Or one who thinks corona is spread by 5G towers. There is nothing to talk about. And the idiot cannot converse back either. They are likely unable to actually understand the situation so any evidence provided goes above their head.

Eventually, the idiots move to one side, the rest move to another, and it becomes an intractable problem. That's what we're seeing now in America. The institutions that are led by idiots have failed horribly, often on purpose: White House, Senate, CDC, FDA, Florida, Texas, Arizona, etc. But of course, this is all taboo to discuss in the first place. Politics are taboo in America. That's why no one talks about any issues and why we truly are a "shithole country," as the president called it.

Ny view is like this. We are entering into narratives which are not only abhorrent but also, largely idiotic and they're being called political beliefs.

It's a very difficult bind, because the media has fully bought in.

> I'm so sick of this "both sides" garbage. I'm not R or D, I'm not even an American, but one side, the R side, has simply gone insane, and the other has barely changed at all, except to move to the right.

I feel identical, but apparently mirrored politically to you. So in the spirit of charity, how do you feel the R side has gotten more conservative? I don't even need sources, just your perspective.

The Republicans under Eisenhower, and pretty much until Nixon's Southern Strategy, supported social programs, civil rights, fighting income inequality, investments in infrastructure, education, etc. Even under Nixon, they still supported a Basic Income.

Since Reagan, the Republican Party has moved very far to the right, focused primarily on lowering taxes for the rich, undermining the social programs they used to support, creative gerrymandering, and suppressing votes they don't like (often black votes).

Under Reagan there was still some sanity and reason behind it and especially under George HW Bush, but since Newt Gingrich, the party seems to have abandoned all common sense, embraced lies to justify war under Bush jr, and with Trump, it's just all lies for the sake of lies, with every remaining principle they used to have thrown out of the window, with the lone exception of power for its own sake, and hurting people they disagree with.

McCain and Romney seem(ed) to be the last of the old guard that still care (somewhat?) about basic honesty.

Though I guess the move towards the current insanity has nothing to do with anything resembling conservatism or "right" anymore. But the party has definitely changed beyond recognition. And I do think it started with Nixon's Southern Strategy, which was already about sacrificing principles for power. The first step on a very long slide down.

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