COVID-19

Heretic wrote:

There's even less data suggesting preventative hydroxychloroquine use than there is treatment. Did that dumb shit test positive? Is that why he's taking it?

Heretic wrote:

Kill a hundred thousand Americans with an avoidable plague, reopen without any safeguards in place and kill more, and burn the future of the planet.  There's no pile of dead Americans too big and no economy too devastated for conservatives so long as it "owns the libs."

Quote :

Just when it appears Bexar County Republican Chairwoman Cynthia Brehm can't crawl any further down a rabbit hole of conspiracy theories, she manages to burrow deeper.

Case in point, the controversial chairwoman and a handful of faithful gathered Friday in front of City Hall to decry local leaders' dangerous, liberty-crushing suggestion that folks might want to protect themselves with masks during a deadly pandemic.

Not only are face coverings an infringement on folks' constitutional rights, she said, but the whole coronavirus panic is something cooked up by Democrats to make President Donald Trump look bad.

"Why is this happening today? And I'll tell you why: all of this has been promulgated by the Democrats to undo all the good President Trump has done for our country — and they are worried," Brehm says in video shot at the rally. "So, take off your masks, exercise your constitutional rights. Stand up, speak up and vote Republican."

As the gathering concludes, the clip shows Brehm and her cronies shaking hands and hugging, as if to prove that all this social distancing stuff is just another tool to oppress God-fearing, freedom-loving Americans.

A woman draped in a "Qanon" flag screaming at a reporter to take his mask off feels like peak 2020. The cough heard at the end of the video is the chef's kiss. pic.twitter.com/Vcd6CzU5E0

— The Sparrow Project (@sparrowmedia) May 23, 2020

Quote :

North Carolina reported its highest number of new confirmed cases in a single day Saturday, as the state enters phase two of reopening.

The state saw 1,017 new confirmed coronavirus cases reported, according to a press release by the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, bringing the total confirmed cases to 22,725.

"This is a notable and concerning increase. As we head into a holiday weekend, please practice the three Ws – wear a face covering, wait six feet apart, and wash your hands frequently. When it comes to our health, we need to work together to protect our families, friends and neighbors," the state's health secretary, Dr. Mandy Cohen, said in the press release – which also indicated that "epidemiologists are analyzing the data to determine if there were any significant contributing factors."

Quote :

Several people who attended a high school swim party in Arkansas have contracted Covid-19, Gov. Asa Hutchinson told reporters on Saturday.

"A high school swim party that I'm sure everybody thought was harmless. They're young, they're swimming, they're just having activity and positive cases resulted from that," Hutchinson said.

The case described by the governor highlights the threats of community spread in the United States as cities and states continue relaxing social distancing measures and businesses reopen.

Quote :

A Missouri hairstylist may have exposed 91 customers and coworkers to coronavirus, public health officials said, after the state’s governor allowed businesses including salons to reopen on 4 May.

The stylist who tested positive for Covid-19 worked at a salon in Springfield on eight different days while experiencing coronavirus symptoms.

Because the stylist and the customers wore face coverings, health officials said on Friday, they hoped the interactions would lead to “no additional cases”. Those potentially exposed would be contacted and offered testing, officials said.

The potential exposures started little more than a week after Missouri allowed salons to reopen.

Quote :

A person who later learned they were positive for Covid-19 attended a Northern California religious service on Mother’s Day, exposing 180 other people to the novel coronavirus, according to local health officials.

The individual got a positive diagnosis for COVID-19 the day after the service at the Palermo Bible Family Church and is now in isolation at home, Butte County Public Health said in a statement Friday.

People who attended the service have been notified about their exposure and received instructions from health officials to self-quarantine, the statement said. Officials are working to get testing for everyone who was in attendance.

Quote :

In North Dakota on Friday, the Republican governor, Doug Burgum, decried a “senseless dividing line” between US citizens over whether masks should be worn in public during the coronavirus pandemic.

As he pleaded with citizens of his state to “try to dial up your empathy and your understanding”, Burgum was moved to the brink of tears.

“We’re all in this together and there’s only one battle we’re fighting,” he said. “And that’s the battle of the virus.”

. . .

Some rightwing protesters have attracted publicity by refusing to wear masks, while some shopkeepers have reportedly sought to deny service to people wearing face coverings.

Speaking to reporters at the state capitol in Bismarck on Friday, Bergum said he “would really love to see in North Dakota that we could just skip this thing that other parts of the nation are going through, that they’re creating a divide. Either it’s ideological or political or something around mask versus no mask.

“This is I would say a senseless dividing line and I would ask people to try to dial up your empathy and your understanding. If someone is wearing a mask, they’re not doing it to represent what political party they’re in or what candidates they support.”

As he continued, Burgum struggled not to break down in tears.

“They might be doing it because they’ve got a five-year-old who’s been going through cancer treatments,” he said.

“They might have vulnerable adults in their life who currently have Covid-19 and are fighting.

“So again, I would just love to see our state, as part of being ‘North Dakota smart’, also be ‘North Dakota kind’, ‘North Dakota empathetic’, ‘North Dakota understanding’, to do this thing. Because if somebody wants to wear a mask, there should be no mask shaming.”

Heretic wrote:

North Carolina Reports Highest Daily Coronavirus Infection Increase as State Enters Phase 2 of Reopening

Quote :

North Carolina reported its highest number of new confirmed cases in a single day Saturday, as the state enters phase two of reopening.

The state saw 1,017 new confirmed coronavirus cases reported, according to a press release by the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, bringing the total confirmed cases to 22,725.

"This is a notable and concerning increase. As we head into a holiday weekend, please practice the three Ws – wear a face covering, wait six feet apart, and wash your hands frequently. When it comes to our health, we need to work together to protect our families, friends and neighbors," the state's health secretary, Dr. Mandy Cohen, said in the press release – which also indicated that "epidemiologists are analyzing the data to determine if there were any significant contributing factors."

A cluster of coronavirus cases was reported in Arkansas after a swim party

Quote :

Several people who attended a high school swim party in Arkansas have contracted Covid-19, Gov. Asa Hutchinson told reporters on Saturday.

"A high school swim party that I'm sure everybody thought was harmless. They're young, they're swimming, they're just having activity and positive cases resulted from that," Hutchinson said.

The case described by the governor highlights the threats of community spread in the United States as cities and states continue relaxing social distancing measures and businesses reopen.

Missouri hairstylist may have exposed 91 people to Covid-19, officials say

Quote :

A Missouri hairstylist may have exposed 91 customers and coworkers to coronavirus, public health officials said, after the state’s governor allowed businesses including salons to reopen on 4 May.

The stylist who tested positive for Covid-19 worked at a salon in Springfield on eight different days while experiencing coronavirus symptoms.

Because the stylist and the customers wore face coverings, health officials said on Friday, they hoped the interactions would lead to “no additional cases”. Those potentially exposed would be contacted and offered testing, officials said.

The potential exposures started little more than a week after Missouri allowed salons to reopen.

180 Exposed To Coronavirus During Mother’s Day Service At Defiant NorCal Church

Quote :

A person who later learned they were positive for Covid-19 attended a Northern California religious service on Mother’s Day, exposing 180 other people to the novel coronavirus, according to local health officials.

The individual got a positive diagnosis for COVID-19 the day after the service at the Palermo Bible Family Church and is now in isolation at home, Butte County Public Health said in a statement Friday.

People who attended the service have been notified about their exposure and received instructions from health officials to self-quarantine, the statement said. Officials are working to get testing for everyone who was in attendance.

Stay home. If COVID needs to kill people for a functioning economy, let it be willing Republicans.

Scorpion wrote:

Heretic wrote:

Kill a hundred thousand Americans with an avoidable plague, reopen without any safeguards in place and kill more, and burn the future of the planet.  There's no pile of dead Americans too big and no economy too devastated for conservatives so long as it "owns the libs."

I hear you brother... "owning the libs" is all that matters to these fucking petty assholes!  

Heretic wrote:

 There's no pile of dead Americans too big and no economy too devastated for conservatives so long as it "owns the libs."

That's kind of confusing - which one scares you more?
The big pile of dead Americans?
Or the devastated economy?
And how was the plague "avoidable"?
You two, apparently, hold the solution to the problems that we are all facing, but that no one else has been able to solve.
Share, please.
For the sake of those fucking petty assholes.



I think that, for everyone's well-being, you two should continue to post here if you choose, but otherwise, you should both continue to hide beneath your covers and leave the normal people alone.

Quote :

Democratic lawmakers in Pennsylvania's are calling for answers about why they were not informed for nearly a week that a GOP colleague had been diagnosed with the coronavirus.

“Whoever knew this in the Republican leadership and did not inform the broader membership and staff, they need to resign immediately. This is outrageous and immoral," state Rep. Kevin Boyle (D), who chairs a committee on which State Rep. Andrew Lewis (R) sits, said Wednesday, according to Spotlight PA, adding that numerous Republican lawmakers have not been wearing masks in the capitol.

“I am livid,” said Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta (D), another member of the same committee, adding: “They were derelict in their duty when they did not alert us to this immediately. ... They put our health at risk, they put our families at risk, and Speaker [Mike] Turzai [R] should resign, period.”

Rep. Brian Sims (D) also noted that as a kidney donor he is immunocompromised.

Quote :

Being a Republican now requires believing in a jaw-dropping series of claims that, if true, would almost necessitate anti-democratic revanchism. One has to believe that a cabal of evil scientists is making up climate science in exchange for grant money; that there is rampant, widescale voter impersonation fraud carried out by thousands of elections officials nationwide; that the “Deep State” concocted a scheme to frame Trump for Russian collusion but chose not to use it before the 2016 election; that shadowy forces are driving migrant caravans and diseases across American borders in the service of destroying white Republican America; that the entire news media is engaged in a conspiracy against the Republican Party; that grieving victims of gun violence and their families all across America want to take away guns as a pretext for stomping the boot of “liberal fascism” on conservative faces; and so on. That and much more is just the vanilla Republican belief system at this point (not even touching less explosive academic fictions like “tax cuts pay for themselves” or “the poor will work harder to better themselves if you cut the safety net.”)

But things have gotten even worse in the few years short years since the Trump era began. Once a far-fringe conspiracy theory relegated to 8chan and neo-nazi filled knockoffs of Reddit, the QAnon conspiracy theory (which, among other things, posits that a wide swath of prominent Democrats, celebrities and assorted rich people are engaged in pedophilia and adrenochrome harvesting of children, and that the Trump Administration is always just a few weeks away from conducting mass arrests and summary executions–but only once QANON followers have awakened enough of the “normie” public) has become so pervasive that not only do “Q” signs pop up at almost every major conservative rally or protest, but a true believer is now the GOP nominee for Senate in Oregon.  When her campaign attempted to backtrack, she doubled down, saying “”My campaign is gonna kill me…How do I say this? Some people think that I follow Q like I follow Jesus. Q is the information and I stand with the information resource.” This conspiracy theory is destroying families, relationships, and the mental health of its adherents. A healthy and normal political party would inoculate itself from it and debunk it quickly. But the GOP is not a healthy or normal political party.

It doesn’t stop there. Almost half of Fox News viewers–the core of the GOP–believe that Bill Gates is using the COVID-19 pandemic to microchip them.  And Donald Trump has been promoting a series of conspiracy theories on twitter each more outlandish than the last, from old debunked accusations against cable news hosts he dislikes to concocted accusations against former president Barack Obama.

Go to any conservative event and you’ll notice a shift from even the raucous detached weirdness of Tea Party rallies. They feel less like political events than cult rallies. Cult experts like Steven Hassan have taken note of this, calling it exactly what it is: a cult built around manufactured realities, shared grievances and us-against-them insular extremism. The increasing dependence of Republican politicians on a shrinking, embattled white evangelical base already given over to faith-based belief systems and racism-tinged “city on a hill” ideology has only exacerbated the phenomenon.

It’s long past time for even the venerable pages of the New York Times and the Washington Post to start calling this what it is, and stop normalizing it as standard partisanship. It is deeply dangerous in a democracy whose constitution functionally guarantees a two-party system, for one of those two parties to become a conspiracy cult.

But that is exactly what has happened. And the first step to fixing it is to call it what it is, no matter how uncomfortable that might be for institutions and journalism professionals who find that sort of language loaded with unprofessional bias. The truth is what it is, even if it requires rethinking the role of a responsible press in an era of white anxiety and mass social-media-fueled disinformation.

Quote :

Wisconsin health officials reported the state's largest single-day increases in coronavirus deaths, cases and tests on Wednesday.

Twenty-two deaths were added to the state's count, bringing it to 539, after it had increased by just 10 between Sunday and Tuesday. The previous single-day high was 19, on April 4 and 28.

Newly confirmed cases totaled 599, breaking the record of 528 set a week earlier. But the percent of Wednesday's newly reported tests that came back positive for the coronavirus was lower, at 5.8%, whereas on May 20 it was 8%.

The state reported 10,330 new test results Wednesday.

Current hospitalizations due to COVID-19 have also steadily risen in recent weeks after dipping below 300 in early May.

Quote :

The Trump administration with no advance notice removed warnings contained in guidance for the reopening of houses of worship that singing in choirs can spread the coronavirus.

Last Friday, the administration released pandemic guidance for faith communities after weeks of debate flared between the White House and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Those guidelines posted on the CDC website included recommendations that religious communities “consider suspending or at least decreasing use of choir/musical ensembles and congregant singing, chanting, or reciting during services or other programming, if appropriate within the faith tradition.”

It added: “The act of singing may contribute to transmission of Covid-19, possibly through emission of aerosols.”

By Saturday, that version was replaced by updated guidance that no longer includes any reference to choirs or congregant singing and the risk for spreading virus. The altered guidance also deleted a reference to “shared cups” among items, including hymnals and worship rugs, that should not be shared. The updated guidelines also added language that said the guidance “is not intended to infringe on rights protected by the First Amendment.”The Trump administration with no advance notice removed warnings contained in guidance for the reopening of houses of worship that singing in choirs can spread the coronavirus.

Last Friday, the administration released pandemic guidance for faith communities after weeks of debate flared between the White House and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Those guidelines posted on the CDC website included recommendations that religious communities “consider suspending or at least decreasing use of choir/musical ensembles and congregant singing, chanting, or reciting during services or other programming, if appropriate within the faith tradition.”

It added: “The act of singing may contribute to transmission of Covid-19, possibly through emission of aerosols.”

By Saturday, that version was replaced by updated guidance that no longer includes any reference to choirs or congregant singing and the risk for spreading virus. The altered guidance also deleted a reference to “shared cups” among items, including hymnals and worship rugs, that should not be shared. The updated guidelines also added language that said the guidance “is not intended to infringe on rights protected by the First Amendment.”

. . .

Earlier this month, the CDC issued a report warning about “superspreader” events where the coronavirus might be “highly transmissible in certain settings, including group singing events.” That report described a choir practice in Washington state in March at which one person ended up infecting 52 other people, including two who died.

Quote :

President Trump said Friday that the U.S. will be terminating its relationship with the World Health Organization, saying it had failed to adequately respond to the coronavirus because China has “total control” over the global organization.

He said Chinese officials “ignored” their reporting obligations to the WHO and pressured the WHO to mislead the world when the virus was first discovered.

He noted that the U.S. contributes about $450 million to the world body while China provides about $40 million.

The U.S. is the largest source of financial support to the WHO and its exit is expected to significantly weaken the organization. Trump said the U.S. would be “redirecting” the money to “other worldwide and deserving urgent global public health needs,” without providing specifics.

Quote :

De-funding the WHO is especially dangerous for those low-income countries in which the agency’s work is crucial to maintaining standards of public-health infrastructure, and also to tackling killer diseases. The WHO’s epidemiologists, clinicians and logistics personnel are right now overseeing more than 35 emergency operations, including a measles outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and a cholera outbreak in Yemen.

On top of its emergency operations, the WHO handles ongoing efforts to treat tuberculosis and diabetes; eradicate polio; and study tropical diseases. This is all on an annual budget of roughly $2.4 billion. Of this, the WHO’s emergency-response budget is approximately $280 million. By contrast, the agency that tackles public-health emergencies in the United States — the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — has a total budget of around $12.7 billion this year.

Heretic wrote:

We Need to Speak Honestly About the GOP’s Evolution Into a Conspiracy Cult

Quote :

Being a Republican now requires believing in a jaw-dropping series of claims that, if true, would almost necessitate anti-democratic revanchism. One has to believe that a cabal of evil scientists is making up climate science in exchange for grant money; that there is rampant, widescale voter impersonation fraud carried out by thousands of elections officials nationwide; that the “Deep State” concocted a scheme to frame Trump for Russian collusion but chose not to use it before the 2016 election; that shadowy forces are driving migrant caravans and diseases across American borders in the service of destroying white Republican America; that the entire news media is engaged in a conspiracy against the Republican Party; that grieving victims of gun violence and their families all across America want to take away guns as a pretext for stomping the boot of “liberal fascism” on conservative faces; and so on. That and much more is just the vanilla Republican belief system at this point (not even touching less explosive academic fictions like “tax cuts pay for themselves” or “the poor will work harder to better themselves if you cut the safety net.”)

But things have gotten even worse in the few years short years since the Trump era began. Once a far-fringe conspiracy theory relegated to 8chan and neo-nazi filled knockoffs of Reddit, the QAnon conspiracy theory (which, among other things, posits that a wide swath of prominent Democrats, celebrities and assorted rich people are engaged in pedophilia and adrenochrome harvesting of children, and that the Trump Administration is always just a few weeks away from conducting mass arrests and summary executions–but only once QANON followers have awakened enough of the “normie” public) has become so pervasive that not only do “Q” signs pop up at almost every major conservative rally or protest, but a true believer is now the GOP nominee for Senate in Oregon.  When her campaign attempted to backtrack, she doubled down, saying “”My campaign is gonna kill me…How do I say this? Some people think that I follow Q like I follow Jesus. Q is the information and I stand with the information resource.” This conspiracy theory is destroying families, relationships, and the mental health of its adherents. A healthy and normal political party would inoculate itself from it and debunk it quickly. But the GOP is not a healthy or normal political party.

It doesn’t stop there. Almost half of Fox News viewers–the core of the GOP–believe that Bill Gates is using the COVID-19 pandemic to microchip them.  And Donald Trump has been promoting a series of conspiracy theories on twitter each more outlandish than the last, from old debunked accusations against cable news hosts he dislikes to concocted accusations against former president Barack Obama.

Go to any conservative event and you’ll notice a shift from even the raucous detached weirdness of Tea Party rallies. They feel less like political events than cult rallies. Cult experts like Steven Hassan have taken note of this, calling it exactly what it is: a cult built around manufactured realities, shared grievances and us-against-them insular extremism. The increasing dependence of Republican politicians on a shrinking, embattled white evangelical base already given over to faith-based belief systems and racism-tinged “city on a hill” ideology has only exacerbated the phenomenon.

It’s long past time for even the venerable pages of the New York Times and the Washington Post to start calling this what it is, and stop normalizing it as standard partisanship. It is deeply dangerous in a democracy whose constitution functionally guarantees a two-party system, for one of those two parties to become a conspiracy cult.

But that is exactly what has happened. And the first step to fixing it is to call it what it is, no matter how uncomfortable that might be for institutions and journalism professionals who find that sort of language loaded with unprofessional bias. The truth is what it is, even if it requires rethinking the role of a responsible press in an era of white anxiety and mass social-media-fueled disinformation.

happy jack wrote:

Heretic wrote:

We Need to Speak Honestly About the GOP’s Evolution Into a Conspiracy Cult

Quote :

Being a Republican now requires believing in a jaw-dropping series of claims that, if true, would almost necessitate anti-democratic revanchism. One has to believe that a cabal of evil scientists is making up climate science in exchange for grant money; that there is rampant, widescale voter impersonation fraud carried out by thousands of elections officials nationwide; that the “Deep State” concocted a scheme to frame Trump for Russian collusion but chose not to use it before the 2016 election; that shadowy forces are driving migrant caravans and diseases across American borders in the service of destroying white Republican America; that the entire news media is engaged in a conspiracy against the Republican Party; that grieving victims of gun violence and their families all across America want to take away guns as a pretext for stomping the boot of “liberal fascism” on conservative faces; and so on. That and much more is just the vanilla Republican belief system at this point (not even touching less explosive academic fictions like “tax cuts pay for themselves” or “the poor will work harder to better themselves if you cut the safety net.”)

But things have gotten even worse in the few years short years since the Trump era began. Once a far-fringe conspiracy theory relegated to 8chan and neo-nazi filled knockoffs of Reddit, the QAnon conspiracy theory (which, among other things, posits that a wide swath of prominent Democrats, celebrities and assorted rich people are engaged in pedophilia and adrenochrome harvesting of children, and that the Trump Administration is always just a few weeks away from conducting mass arrests and summary executions–but only once QANON followers have awakened enough of the “normie” public) has become so pervasive that not only do “Q” signs pop up at almost every major conservative rally or protest, but a true believer is now the GOP nominee for Senate in Oregon.  When her campaign attempted to backtrack, she doubled down, saying “”My campaign is gonna kill me…How do I say this? Some people think that I follow Q like I follow Jesus. Q is the information and I stand with the information resource.” This conspiracy theory is destroying families, relationships, and the mental health of its adherents. A healthy and normal political party would inoculate itself from it and debunk it quickly. But the GOP is not a healthy or normal political party.

It doesn’t stop there. Almost half of Fox News viewers–the core of the GOP–believe that Bill Gates is using the COVID-19 pandemic to microchip them.  And Donald Trump has been promoting a series of conspiracy theories on twitter each more outlandish than the last, from old debunked accusations against cable news hosts he dislikes to concocted accusations against former president Barack Obama.

Go to any conservative event and you’ll notice a shift from even the raucous detached weirdness of Tea Party rallies. They feel less like political events than cult rallies. Cult experts like Steven Hassan have taken note of this, calling it exactly what it is: a cult built around manufactured realities, shared grievances and us-against-them insular extremism. The increasing dependence of Republican politicians on a shrinking, embattled white evangelical base already given over to faith-based belief systems and racism-tinged “city on a hill” ideology has only exacerbated the phenomenon.

It’s long past time for even the venerable pages of the New York Times and the Washington Post to start calling this what it is, and stop normalizing it as standard partisanship. It is deeply dangerous in a democracy whose constitution functionally guarantees a two-party system, for one of those two parties to become a conspiracy cult.

But that is exactly what has happened. And the first step to fixing it is to call it what it is, no matter how uncomfortable that might be for institutions and journalism professionals who find that sort of language loaded with unprofessional bias. The truth is what it is, even if it requires rethinking the role of a responsible press in an era of white anxiety and mass social-media-fueled disinformation.

And what is the flavor of the Kool-Aid you are drinking this week?

Scorpion wrote:

happy jack wrote:

Heretic wrote:

We Need to Speak Honestly About the GOP’s Evolution Into a Conspiracy Cult

Quote :

Being a Republican now requires believing in a jaw-dropping series of claims that, if true, would almost necessitate anti-democratic revanchism. One has to believe that a cabal of evil scientists is making up climate science in exchange for grant money; that there is rampant, widescale voter impersonation fraud carried out by thousands of elections officials nationwide; that the “Deep State” concocted a scheme to frame Trump for Russian collusion but chose not to use it before the 2016 election; that shadowy forces are driving migrant caravans and diseases across American borders in the service of destroying white Republican America; that the entire news media is engaged in a conspiracy against the Republican Party; that grieving victims of gun violence and their families all across America want to take away guns as a pretext for stomping the boot of “liberal fascism” on conservative faces; and so on. That and much more is just the vanilla Republican belief system at this point (not even touching less explosive academic fictions like “tax cuts pay for themselves” or “the poor will work harder to better themselves if you cut the safety net.”)

But things have gotten even worse in the few years short years since the Trump era began. Once a far-fringe conspiracy theory relegated to 8chan and neo-nazi filled knockoffs of Reddit, the QAnon conspiracy theory (which, among other things, posits that a wide swath of prominent Democrats, celebrities and assorted rich people are engaged in pedophilia and adrenochrome harvesting of children, and that the Trump Administration is always just a few weeks away from conducting mass arrests and summary executions–but only once QANON followers have awakened enough of the “normie” public) has become so pervasive that not only do “Q” signs pop up at almost every major conservative rally or protest, but a true believer is now the GOP nominee for Senate in Oregon.  When her campaign attempted to backtrack, she doubled down, saying “”My campaign is gonna kill me…How do I say this? Some people think that I follow Q like I follow Jesus. Q is the information and I stand with the information resource.” This conspiracy theory is destroying families, relationships, and the mental health of its adherents. A healthy and normal political party would inoculate itself from it and debunk it quickly. But the GOP is not a healthy or normal political party.

It doesn’t stop there. Almost half of Fox News viewers–the core of the GOP–believe that Bill Gates is using the COVID-19 pandemic to microchip them.  And Donald Trump has been promoting a series of conspiracy theories on twitter each more outlandish than the last, from old debunked accusations against cable news hosts he dislikes to concocted accusations against former president Barack Obama.

Go to any conservative event and you’ll notice a shift from even the raucous detached weirdness of Tea Party rallies. They feel less like political events than cult rallies. Cult experts like Steven Hassan have taken note of this, calling it exactly what it is: a cult built around manufactured realities, shared grievances and us-against-them insular extremism. The increasing dependence of Republican politicians on a shrinking, embattled white evangelical base already given over to faith-based belief systems and racism-tinged “city on a hill” ideology has only exacerbated the phenomenon.

It’s long past time for even the venerable pages of the New York Times and the Washington Post to start calling this what it is, and stop normalizing it as standard partisanship. It is deeply dangerous in a democracy whose constitution functionally guarantees a two-party system, for one of those two parties to become a conspiracy cult.

But that is exactly what has happened. And the first step to fixing it is to call it what it is, no matter how uncomfortable that might be for institutions and journalism professionals who find that sort of language loaded with unprofessional bias. The truth is what it is, even if it requires rethinking the role of a responsible press in an era of white anxiety and mass social-media-fueled disinformation.

And what is the flavor of the Kool-Aid you are drinking this week?

Are you saying that this piece isn't an accurate portrayal of the truth?  Can you point to any parts that you disagree with?

Quote :

A Missouri citizen who attended a crowded pool party at the Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri over Memorial Day weekend has tested positive for the coronavirus, local outlet KMBC reported.

The Camden County Health Department said one person who attended Backwater Jack's began to develop symptoms on Sunday and was likely "incubating illness and possibly infectious at the time of the visit," according to KMBC.

. . .

"This reckless behavior endangers countless people and risks setting us back substantially from the progress we have made in slowing the spread of COVID-19," Sam Page, the St. Louis County executive said in a statement on Monday.

happy jack wrote:

First, worthless Leftist scumfucks sow panic, lock people down, and refuse to allow them to support themselves and feed their families.
Then, when it seems that these people are finally on the verge of being able to re-open their businesses, resume their livelihoods, and once again have the ability to feed their families, their businesses are burned down or otherwise destroyed, and curfews are put in place.
I don't believe in coincidences.

Scorpion wrote:

happy jack wrote:

First, worthless Leftist scumfucks sow panic, lock people down, and refuse to allow them to support themselves and feed their families.
Then, when it seems that these people are finally on the verge of being able to re-open their businesses, resume their livelihoods, and once again have the ability to feed their families, their businesses are burned down or otherwise destroyed, and curfews are put in place.
I don't believe in coincidences.

Yeah... It's all part of a far left conspiracy!

Scorpion wrote:

happy jack wrote:

First, worthless Leftist scumfucks sow panic, lock people down, and refuse to allow them to support themselves and feed their families.
Then, when it seems that these people are finally on the verge of being able to re-open their businesses, resume their livelihoods, and once again have the ability to feed their families, their businesses are burned down or otherwise destroyed, and curfews are put in place.
I don't believe in coincidences.

Yeah... It's all part of a far left conspiracy!