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The Sick Society

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130 pointsghukill27 comments

Excellent article and interview.

Jack London helped me see how those in control (here the New Orleans owners of enslaved people, the merchants, and/or the politicians—author says many were all 3) would likely respond to an event (including disease) so as to preserve their own position and then claim that as moral and scientific:

In The Iron Heel, referring to owners of northern factories with child labor and other ghastly working conditions, Jack London wrote,

“When they want to do a thing, in business of course, they must wait till there arises in their brains, somehow, a religious, or ethical, or scientific, or philosophic, concept that the thing is right. And then they go ahead and do it, unwitting that one of the weaknesses of the human mind is that the wish is parent to the thought.“

I try to stay personally vigilant in remembering how my mind can trick me this way. The trick works in so very many contexts.

This is classic advertising. Evoke a desire then provide a solution.

And yes, the victim will happily accomodate any inconsistencies between the solution and reality/morality/etc.

The takeaway is : reason serves desire.

Fascinating article:

> But they counter the pushback by essentially denying disease, both as an epidemiological reality and as a social reality too. Increasingly by the 1850s, you see people saying, well, yellow fever is not that big of a problem. It’s not that serious of an illness, and anybody who’s temperate and well-mannered and courageous and manly will survive. It only kills the immoral, the drunk, the unfortunate. Your cousin in Philadelphia or your niece in Sligo who thinks of New Orleans as a “necropolis,” they don’t know what they’re talking about, these northern critiques of New Orleans’s health situation are a proxy for abolitionists attacking slavery

Yes, this is an incredible article. Historians must weep at our idiocy. We are exactly as those New Orleans rich slave owners were then, such a terrible synchrony between yellow fever and covid. We are just the same, even though we think we are different. So similar, even to the call to be manly and not let covid keep you down.

> It’s actually a miraculous demonstration of just how effective martial law can be in stopping diseases, I guess, and how effective quarantine could be when properly instituted and rigorously upheld.

In case of endemic disease the question is "Do I want to live under martial law till the rest of my life?"

It was never martial law in the US. It was make basic sensible choices like wearing masks and if possible not being in large groups to reduce the chance of covid. Then it later became all about macho people ignoring it. Imagine if covid had come during Bush 1 or Bush 2.

Regarding Trump and his immunocapitalist behavior: I understand the position of the "Great Barrington Declaration" would be to make a majority of the population "acclimated" as soon as possible. Only lock down the vulnerable population. This could be effective because covid is not as deadly as yellow fever and not dangerous to a significant portion of the population. Setting aside all the Fauci political piss matching, I do wonder what might have happened with that approach.

> Regarding Trump and his immunocapitalist behavior: I understand the position of the "Great Barrington Declaration" would be to make a majority of the population "acclimated" as soon as possible. Only lock down the vulnerable population. This could be effective because covid is not as deadly as yellow fever and not dangerous to a significant portion of the population.

Hindsight 2020 (pun intended)

> I do wonder what might have happened with that approach.

2022 would have happened in 2020: we would have saved 2 years.

Right now in 2022, as most people have stopped caring, don't wear mask etc, I'd say the majority of the population has acclimated, while a minority is trying to hold back and use FUD for favor their preferences.

I don’t think if we went fully uncaring of the pandemic in 2020 we would have the same results in 2022. We didn’t have vaccines, antiviral drugs, knowledge of how to treat, a less pathological strain in circulation, etc. in 2020.

The Great Barrington declaration did not suggest "going fully uncaring" just that our efforts should have been targeted rather than generalized to the whole. I too wonder what this would of looked like. Children would've absolutely had an easier time of it if we did.

it didn't even require a "great declaration" to realize, as a thinking layperson, in ~april 2020 that this pandemic was serious but not nearly as deadly as the bubonic plague or the spanish flu, and that the elderly and unhealthy were disproportionately affected. that in turn made it obvious that targeted efforts were the right approach, but both parties were unwilling to do the right thing and let the opportunity pass for wielding and centralizing political power.

Amazing case of newspeak. To call involuntary detainment at home "caring".

>And I always think of that picture as an image of the 21st century’s first immunocapitalist.

I make the opposite argument - while huge numbers of ordinary citizens were kept under effective house arrest (or other restrictions), the wealthy and powerful became ever more wealthy and powerful while no-one was looking. We were turned into obedient, house-bound consumers of social media, low-grade TV, and mail-order rubbish.

> We were turned into obedient, house-bound consumers of social media, low-grade TV, and mail-order rubbish.

Nothing forces you to be a consumer of social media, low-grade TV or mail-order rubbish. Take responsibility for your own actions.

I did not. I have a young child, and refused to follow the herd and just sit everyone in front of a tablet or Netflix. It made my life incredibly hard and lonely - have you tried occupying a 1-year-old for a year, when you are under effective house arrest?

However, I am not talking about my personal choices, or who needs to take responsibility for actions. I am just pointing out that certain people have benefited enormously from lockdowns.

That’s pretty dark. Immunocapitalism is a new word for me but we have a much longer history of using disease in North America… at least all the way back to the first Europeans coming across the ocean. Even with all of our technology and knowledge, our species is still easily recognized as the same thing that existed 1000s of years ago. True change is hard.

Those Europeans were themselves on the receiving end of foreign disease when the Black Death was brought to Europe from somewhere in Asia. Strange how for some plagues, their foreign origin is emphasized, while for others it is ignored, despite how neither were introduced deliberately.

A maturing society is hard, as those exploiting the immature really want to maintain their profits, while all the wannabe yes-people around them support their systematic abuse in the hopes they'll be in the driver seat 'soon'.

Yes, these fellows who oppose us. They are not evil, they are just immature. And we must help them to achieve maturity. For their own good and for the good of our society.

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