It’s hard to argue against his Ninety Thousand Dead assertion that Americans don’t care about the COVID-19 death toll. Even if you’re thinking, “I care about the American COVID death toll!” our news headlines show the truth. Do they scream every morning how many people died the day before or what the current total number of American COVID deaths is? No. Our headlines scream about El Idiota’s latest buffoonery, what states are re-opening too soon, how badly the economy is doing, and the latest Supreme Court activity. Are any American death tolls in there? Not on the front page.
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| Armed protesters call for New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu to open the state 5/2/20. JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images |
For a few weeks the top stories did include how many had tested positive and how many were dying, but then we apparently lost interest. Online news sites don’t highlight the most urgent news. They highlight what gets the most clicks and that’s how we know American death tolls no longer interest Americans. Those articles don’t float to the top of curated news pages.
We also don’t seem to care that these are deaths that could have been prevented if El Idiota and his administration had acted more responsibly. Thousands of people should be alive right now who aren’t because this president fucked up.
Where’s our outrage? Why have our daily conversations already turned to what the new normal will look like? Americans are still dying in shameful numbers and that’s not going to stop, but we’re more focused on re-opening businesseses and getting a haircut (I admit, I’d love a haircut).
Haque says we ignore the death toll because El Idiota keeps us distracted with his “press conferences” and daily stupidity (El Idiota is my nickname for our prez, not Haque’s). Haque says El Idiota’s apparent missteps are actually calculated to keep us from thinking about how many are dying horrible, suffocating deaths that he could have prevented.
I believe this is what happens after decades of Americans becoming increasingly polarized, politically and culturally. Generations ago the right and left sides of Congress were able to put aside differences in crisis. Now they can’t. Generations ago we were able to keep politics from getting personal. Now we can’t. We on the left see those on the right as stupid and destructive. Those on the right see us on the left as stupid and destructive. We hate each other so much we can’t take our eyes off each other. We are dying of the coronavirus, in numbers that would stagger us if we noticed them, while we’re unable to tear our attention away from our judgment of and desire to destroy each other.
Maybe those of us on the left are more to blame since many idiots on the right don’t even believe people are dying of COVID-19 (yes, I disrespectfully call them idiots because I’m no better than the people I’m writing about). We non-right-wing people know that tens of thousands have died. In fact, we know the stats leave out people who are dying from COVID at home, in prison, in shelters and on the street. Why aren’t these facts at the center of our left-wing, educated, well-informed conversations? Why do we fixate on the daily tantrums and destructive ramblings of a baby-man instead of demanding accountability for the thousands who have died and keep dying?
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| White man in charge of people of color. Image wasn’t hard to find in stock photos. ID 142076235 © Milkos | Dreamstime.com |
I think it shows how jaded we left-leaning have become. I know I no longer see the point of political action. I’ve gotten out there, but I’m done. Also, I watched my parents pour themselves out for the Mexican American community when I was growing up. They fought the good fight and sure, it made a difference, but my dad is in his 80s and I don’t know how he manages the disappointment of the world not being better than this. After the effort and hope of the 1960s and 70s it was supposed to be better than this.
What happened is that all that hope and progress activated the worst of American white fear. White Americans became so frightened they elected a demogogue to save them from foreigners and communists, and they even accept a hideous death toll that includes their own friends and family.
Also, keep in mind that there are countries and cultures that are thousands of years old. Thousands of years old. Now consider that many countries are at least several hundred years old, but the United States is going to be 244 years old in July. That’s all: two hundred and fourty-four years. Compared to our Asian and European peers, we’re a toddler nation. How can we be expected to behave well? How can we be expected to know who we are as a country and stand by each other in the worst times?
For all our hubris that we’re the best country on earth, we do NOT stand by each other in the worst times. We actually treat each other like shit all the time. I believe we’ll eventually go through a period of dictatorship, and it might be closer than we fear. We’re already heading into an American apartheid: a majority of people of color will be governed by a minority of whites who will retain the most powerful government offices and industry positions. That will go on for generations because culture changes very slowly.
But on the bright side…well, there isn’t one. Americans were naive to think we could found a nation where all men are equal and have it become more fair and inclusive from there. We’re a young country with centuries of growing pains ahead. The next pandemic might see us in an even worse political situation. We’re going to have to figure out over hundreds of years what the United States really stands for, who we really want to be, and what it takes for us to feel like a cohesive society and not a patchwork of people who hate each other.
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