• frank
    15.7k
    Chinese authorities welding the doors of apartment buildings so residents couldn’t leave was effective;NOS4A2

    That didn't happen. The disdain of Chinese authorities for human rights is well known. The propensity of the West to focus on Donald Trump rather than the crimes of the Chinese government (even to the point of approving of Chinese methods), is on display. There's really no need to distort the facts.
  • praxis
    6.5k


    It makes me wonder how things would go if Trump were re-elected into a depressed economy in 2020. I understand that Democrats are often elected in bad economies because they employ effective methods like Keynesian economics. This worked out for Obama, for instance. So maybe the Trump administration simply isn’t equipped to deal. Lowering taxes for the wealthy further, if that’s even possible, and slashing away more vigorously at regulations and entitlements won’t work, I understand.
  • NOS4A2
    9.2k


    That didn't happen.

    From your link: “ Police have welded doors shut in order to monitor who enters and leaves buildings.”
  • ssu
    8.5k
    Of course. You can be like the Philippine dictator who orders to shoot people.



    Ah yes, one of the leaders that Trump likes.
  • NOS4A2
    9.2k


    Of course. You can be like the Philippine dictator who orders to shoot people.

    Yes, very effective. Perhaps effectiveness isn’t the best principle to be utilizing here.
  • ssu
    8.5k
    Actually that kind of rhetoric simply shows the inability of the regime to do anything about the pandemic, that the people don't have any rights and that the regime is far more afraid of it's own people than the virus.

    But some people like "strong" leaders.
  • frank
    15.7k
    From your link: “ Police have welded doors shut in order to monitor who enters and leaves buildings.”NOS4A2

    Yep. You can tell that Americans have a lot of respect for the Chinese, thus Trump's attacks. He believes China is what the US once was. The racism is just coming from a need to be underhanded.

    Russia? No respect. They're too weak and economically crippled to be worthy of respect (per American mythology).
  • NOS4A2
    9.2k


    Racism? China is a country, not a race. In fact it’s racist to imply otherwise, and such a charge is an underhanded political ploy to absolve a totalitarian regime of guilt.
  • frank
    15.7k
    Yea, American whites and blacks are known for using "Chinese" and "Asian" interchangeably.
  • Benkei
    7.7k
    Race is a sociological construct, not a biological.
  • Benkei
    7.7k
    OK then. You can stop the "Chinese aren't a race" complaint forever.
  • Baden
    16.3k
    China is a country, not a race. In fact it’s racist to imply otherwise, and such a charge is an underhanded political ploy to absolve a totalitarian regime of guilt.NOS4A2

    So, your theory is there is a conspiracy to insist China is a race not a country in order that people don't believe the CCP is guilty of... something. Please explain how that works and what evidence you have to support the assertion. Also, who do you suspect is involved and what do they have to gain by helping the CCP in this way?
  • Baden
    16.3k
    Race is a sociological construct, not a biological.Benkei

    I also tried to explain that to nobeer by PM before he self-imploded.
  • NOS4A2
    9.2k


    OK then. You can stop the "Chinese aren't a race" complaint forever.

    If the Chinese are not a race, how can it be racist to criticize the Chinese response to this pandemic?
  • NOS4A2
    9.2k


    So, your theory is there is a conspiracy to insist China is a race not a country in order that people don't believe the CCP is guilty of... something. Please explain how that works and what evidence you have to support the assertion.

    I said the charge of racism for criticizing the Chinese response to the pandemic is used to suppress criticism of the Chinese. I say this because Chinese propaganda makes the same claim, and this from a country that puts ethnic minorities into concentration camps.
  • Baden
    16.3k
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-coronavirus-china-republicans/2020/04/03/baa149de-74fc-11ea-a9bd-9f8b593300d0_story.html

    You can turn off javascript in Chrome to get around the paywall.

    tl;dr: We fucked up. Let's blame China.
  • Benkei
    7.7k
    Because biological qualifications aren't relevant as history has quite clearly shown. The usage of the term racism historically and contemporaneously refers to both race and ethnicity (either common ancestry or shared culture).

    Biological race is something different from how people use the term race.

    So yes, your usage of the "Chinese virus" was a racist remark. And no, that's not a conspiracy but how the word had been used for a century now.
  • Punshhh
    2.6k

    It's pure fabrication, let's say the Chinese shouted it from the rooftops right at the beginning, no administration in the west would have done anything to mitigate the pandemic. We know this because they had the opportunity to halt its spread after the Chinese did alert the world and they didn't take it. If they had grounded all flights at the beginning it could have been stopped. But they were caught napping, just as they would have been if the Chinese hadn't tried to cover it up.
  • Baden
    16.3k


    Trump spent about a third of February playing golf, a third at Mar a Lago, and the other third giving rallies. Yet it's the Chinese and the Dems' fault he couldn't figure out that COVID was a threat. Sounds like the Republican governor of Georgia, who just discovered a few days ago that COVID is infectious before symptoms show and finally issued a stay at home order on that basis. Feckless, intellectually lazy, self-serving parasites.
  • NOS4A2
    9.2k


    No, using the adjective “Chinese” is not racist by any stretch of the imagination, save for perhaps in the pliable brains of the politically correct. Your European (oops, racist) double-speak doesn’t translate well over here.
  • Punshhh
    2.6k
    And so I talk to myself also, living out my own myth.
    So you are a mystic after all ;)

    There is a popular myth in the UK, that the EU is the enemy, that Britain is great and that we must take back control immediately whatever the cost. Indeed the team assembled to fight for the leave vote during the EU referendum in 2016, namely, Vote Leave, is now in power in No10.

    In fact this myth was so important that it was going to be worth the loss of a million or so people from Corona so that we could stay on track with Brexit and surge ahead with a strong economy. Hence the herd immunity debacle, which was the official UK policy at the beginning of March. Even now this myth is so strong that the government is still insisting that the UK will leave the EU come what may in December, after the transition period, even though there evidently won't be any reasonable opportunity for an amicable trade deal to be agreed during this period. So even now that we are going into a recession equal to the Great Depression, we are still going to jump of a cliff afterwards, because the EU is so bad.

    The only reason why we are not continuing at full pace with unfettered heard immunity strategy is that the experts told the government that if the hospitals become overwhelmed the death toll would be much higher than if measures were taken to reduce the peak. Something which they couldn't live down when it became exposed in the media.

    Fortunately they have finally woken up to reality, Dominic Cummings has run away and they are beginning to knuckle down to dealing with a serious crisis.

    Myths are powerful indeed.
  • Benkei
    7.7k
    Over here for the American who isn't an American. :lol:
  • NOS4A2
    9.2k


    Uh oh, Benkei has run out of arguments again. Surprise surprise.
  • Benkei
    7.7k
    oooh, trying to goad me now? I told you I don't take you seriously. The day you have a consistent thought I'll grace it with more attention than a smiley. Until then: :lol:
  • Benkei
    7.7k
    All the nationalists must be wringing their hands at the moment. They gain popularity after each recession.
  • NOS4A2
    9.2k


    You’ve said that before, abruptly left debates, then kept coming back for more. Hilarious.
  • ssu
    8.5k
    In fact this myth was so important that it was going to be worth the loss of a million or so people from Corona so that we could stay on track with Brexit and surge ahead with a strong economy. Hence the herd immunity debacle, which was the official UK policy at the beginning of March.Punshhh
    I don't think that the reason had anything to do with Brexit. Besides, I think Johnson hasn't been a similar early denier like Trump was on this issue. If you've followed the discussion here we've talked about the similar policy that Sweden is still following on herd immunity option. They aren't leaving the EU.

    The only reason why we are not continuing at full pace with unfettered heard immunity strategy is that the experts told the government that if the hospitals become overwhelmed the death toll would be much higher than if measures were taken to reduce the peak. Something which they couldn't live down when it became exposed in the media.Punshhh
    It's quite obvious that the rising cases of infection and the death toll did scare the UK administration to change course. And the example of Italy is shown on the television. With a polarized political environment, it's would have been a very risky gamble.

    Likely we would know the answer which is more better, lock down or trying to get a herd immunity with more lax approach (still with social distancing) only let's say in the summer. Assuming there would be still then a country still with a "let's keep the shop open, have lax rules and hope people follow social distancing guidelines" policy. I think that the lock down option is better, but then again this pandemic could go on for a year and a lock down isn't so great for one year.
  • Baden
    16.3k
    I think that the lock down option is better, but then again this pandemic could go on for a year and a lock down isn't so great for one year.ssu

    We've got over the major hump though, which is convincing the vast majority of people that this is serious. And to the point where not taking it seriously is likely to result in pariah status, i.e. we've got a "trained" public. That leaves open the possibility of a weaning off lockdown on a shorter timescale as long as we've got proper systems in place, such as an ongoing publicized option of a return to lockdown at a given threat marker, married with mandatory masks, widespread test and track, constant public awareness campaigns on effective social distancing techniques etc. And governments should be preparing this strategy now or, yes, we could find ourselves still stuck in limbo in a few months and with no good options going forward.
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