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Comment by neartheplain | Hacker News Reader

For the doubters:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_COVID-19_nursing_home...

>In January 2021, Attorney General of New York Letitia James released a report finding that Governor Andrew Cuomo had understated the toll of COVID-19-related deaths in state nursing homes by as much as 50 percent. The scandal was made public on February 11, 2021, when the New York Post reported that Melissa DeRosa, a secretary and aide to Cuomo, privately apologized to lawmakers for the administration withholding the nursing-home death toll in fear then-President Donald Trump would "turn this into a giant political football".

>U.S. Attorney Seth DuCharme of the Eastern District of New York and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have launched an investigation into New York state's handling of nursing home deaths.

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> withholding the nursing-home death toll in fear then-President Donald Trump would "turn this into a giant political football".

When will the left calm down and realize this isn’t a war?

Conservative Trump voter here: Everyone who is watching the news thinks they're in a war with people who have slightly differing opinions than they do.

Liberal Biden voter here: Totally. Everyone is absorbing media that spends 90% of its energy encouraging them to think that they're being attacked by the other half of the country. Both ends of the spectrum are encouraged to have a victim complex that makes them feel totally justified in their heinous behavior, because in their minds they're just defending themselves against the aggressor.

It's kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy. I consume no media directly, but I get exposed to the victim complexes quite thoroughly here on HN. And from that I do indeed get the impression that I'm under attack.

Not (necessarily) a Trump voter, but a conservative nonetheless. I think it's a little more complicated. There's a style of propaganda that seems uniquely tuned to how technology has changed the way we engage with news. It goes something like "this thing you are saying is happening isn't, but if it was it's actually good, and if it's actually bad you deserve it". This formulation absolutely drives engagement numbers across the political spectrum, regardless of the "truthiness" of any of the preceding claims. That particular progression just didn't happen when we all dutifully read our newspapers with our morning coffee because it takes a few cycles to formulate. A lot of conservatives I know just don't engage with news anymore because once you notice these kinds of rhetorical patterns you can't un-see them.

> A lot of conservatives I know just don't engage with news anymore because once you notice these kinds of rhetorical patterns you can't un-see them.

CNN and WaPo both engage in word association type brainwashing. Anything negative one republican does, they associate it with all to help build that unconscious bias. In other sentences they'll associate proud boys or other extremist groups with the republicans to help build that idea that all republicans are extremists. It's a big part of why there's a huge divide these days. And yes, it gets old and sickening.

When one side basically denies the virus exists, it kind of is.

It only becomes a war when people are willing to do anything to “win”

I don't think any serious person denies the existence of the virus. Even if you go to the ('ultra' far right?) patriots.win, you'll find very few COVID deniers. The bulk of the sentiment is about rejecting the government's response to the virus and being left alone to make their own choices (good or bad).

Oh no, it was called a "hoax" for a long time, people were claiming doctors were faking death certificates. Trump said Covid is "their new hoax.” People on facebook were saying covid would "disappear" after the election.

Don't gaslight people.

Some examples:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politic...

https://www.insidenova.com/headlines/congressman-elect-bob-g...

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politic...

Trump did not call COVID itself a hoax: https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-virus-outbreak-ap-f...

Do you have any links that’s not just news about someone calling it a hoax getting the virus, but one of the actual quote of them saying it’s a hoax? Because one of the supporting links you provided shows one quote and it’s not calling the virus a hoax, it’s calling the pandemic a hoax.

“It's a serious virus, but it's a virus. It's not a pandemic ... You get it. You stand up against tyranny. Thank you for being here today. Thank you for saying no to the insanity."

> it’s calling the pandemic a hoax.

I find that distinction odd. The definition of a pandemic is "a disease prevalent over a whole country or the world."

Is your claim that they are really saying is that there is a virus, but it is not "prevalent over a country or world"? For the pandemic to be a "hoax", there needs to be either no virus, or it isn't worldwide. That's a strange hill to die on to defend denialism.

If you're going to say "well really they are referring to something else when they say the pandemic is a hoax" then you're arguing about what you think they meant, not what they said.

> For the pandemic to be a "hoax", there needs to be either no virus, or it isn't worldwide.

Or it isn’t as widespread or dangerous as being made seem. That’s the other way. And this quote was mad what, July 2020?

Further if you look at the stats for global population lost, COVID claimed about 0.06% to 0.1% lives. It’s barely on the list of the top 18 pandemics by deaths. It got beat out by pandemics which we have no or incomplete data on.

So while you may think the world is ending, it’s really not.

The media once again attempting to control people and keep them indoors and vaccinated has caused mass panic.

In the US, more people died than US soldiers in WWII, which in any common parlance was "dangerous." Rationalize harder. Ready, Go!

Cause viruses and war are the same right? WWII also took 3% of the world population. So using your own example COVID is less deadly than WWII. But go ahead and cause more panic. It seems to be working well right? /s

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