D&D and the rising pandemic

[Janx]

This is mind boggling.

Why is the US acting like this (or parts of it).

The most effective thing to get the US to change right now I think is for every other location in the World to ban travel to and from the US, but more than that...ban ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING coming and going from the US until the virus is under control. That would probably change their tune within 1 or 2 months (hard heads are hard to convince).

If the US says it's about the economy, then shut the economy down and that argument no longer has any legs to stand on.

I'm not sure how to make the US see more sense, and I am unfortunately in the heart of it (as many of us are).

Why?

Because entities internal and external to the United States benefit from chaos, infection, fear and divisiveness.

It's not hard to be further divided once you see a % of the populist is bigoted nutjobs. Kinda hard to ignore that.

Meanwhile, cutting off the US. What do you hope to achieve? Mask wearing? Self isolationing?

Don't forget that the USA fought WW2 on two fronts using all its own supplies and manufacturing. We have tons of resources. Not much manufacturing anymore, but a world quarrantine of the US would encourage us to spin up all that stuff again and make people go to work. Exact opposite effect.

Add to that, resentment against the world. Worked great for Germany post WW1. By great, I mean that's how evil starts. Got good.

 

[Nebulous]

I also share the sentiment that my sacrifice was seemingly for nothing. I'm sure it helped a bit, but my area is so screwed that it sucks. I'm going to keep doing all the right things, but it just sucks that so much of my country seemingly cares nothing about the lives of other people.

I know. Beaches are filled, lakes are packed, people not wearing masks left and right. I don't understand what's going on. It's out of control and growing worse every day. I've had a lot of health problems this past year, I almost died in November, I do NOT want this thing as a new health problem, so I'm still quarantined and going stir crazy.

 

[Umbran]

Why is the US acting like this (or parts of it).

The answer to this is heavily lodged in US politics since the 1960s, and is thus not really appropriate for these boards.

 

[Cadence]

Why is the US acting like this (or parts of it).

The answer to this is heavily lodged in US politics since the 1960s, and is thus not really appropriate for these boards.

If anyone is looking for some off-the-boards summer reading... In spite of some errors here or there in its 900-or-so pages, I thought Lepore's "These Truths: A History of the United States" gave a fairly lively read through how America came to where it is. Following up with what various critics have to say about it can probably be used to fill another decent chunk of being-stuck-at-home time.

 

[Umbran]

If the US says it's about the economy, then shut the economy down and that argument no longer has any legs to stand on.

The problem being, of course, that the number of people who would become destitute and homeless before action actually had an effect would be very large.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

This is mind boggling.

Why is the US acting like this (or parts of it).

The most effective thing to get the US to change right now I think is for every other location in the World to ban travel to and from the US, but more than that...ban ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING coming and going from the US until the virus is under control. That would probably change their tune within 1 or 2 months (hard heads are hard to convince).

If the US says it's about the economy, then shut the economy down and that argument no longer has any legs to stand on.

I'm not sure how to make the US see more sense, and I am unfortunately in the heart of it (as many of us are).

You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it wear a surgical mask to protect the rest of the herd.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

A world-wide trade boycott will turn into a US drive for more Made in USA products: we can take care of our needs ourselves.

Yeahhhh, but that would take a LOT of time, and there are certain resources we really don’t have a lot of, relatively speaking, like lithium (see China) and titanium (see Russia).

Sectors like textiles might turn around quickly, but not high tech.

Don't forget that the USA fought WW2 on two fronts using all its own supplies and manufacturing. We have tons of resources. Not much manufacturing anymore, but a world quarrantine of the US would encourage us to spin up all that stuff again and make people go to work. Exact opposite effect.

Currently, we manufacture more in this country than ever before. Thing is, our factories are extremely automated, so we’re doing that with millions fewer employees.

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

we can take care of our needs ourselves.

We can't even get spring breakers and "freedumb fighters" to do something as simple as wear masks, so I seriously doubt the US could get its shizzle together enough to divorce itself from the world in any way that is even remotely civilized.

 

[Cadence]

We can't even get spring breakers and "freedumb fighters" to do something as simple as wear masks, so I seriously doubt the US could get its shizzle together enough to divorce itself from the world in any way that is even remotely civilized.

We seem to be very good at tribally reacting when we feel attacked. Which is great in coming together in WWII and bad when your politicians weaponize 24 hour news and social media to harness lower level tribalism for their own goals.

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

We seem to be very good at reacting when we feel attacked. Which is great in coming together in WWII and bad when your politicians weaponize 24 hour news and social media to harness that for their own goals.

That's exactly what's so disheartening about this pandemic: effectively we are being attacked, and so we are in this together. But for whatever reason, the powers that be seem intent on pulling us apart instead of pulling us together to deal with it.
Maybe it would be different if the virus caused us to explode in spectacular gory fashion or something.