Carnival of idiots

So it’s April 2020, and the world has been thrown into chaos. For once, the instigating act wasn’t something stupid that world leaders did, but instead was a viral outbreak of an infection. This was inevitable. With a heavily globalized world comes a rapid risk of community spread. All post-war policies from the 20th century tightly interlinked the economies of the world to rely on trade, communication, and commerce through travel and movement of goods and services.

And then it happened. The coronavirus outbreak has reached almost all countries and is spreading fast. Health experts warned about this exact situation for decades. And we are absolutely not in a place politically to deal with it right now, which is a true shame. Even before any of this happened, there was an ominous feeling that the rise of autocratic and authoritarian leaders in many countries around the world, from Bolsanaro to Trump to Modi to Boris Johnson, was setting our species up for some dramatic showdown against the combined stupidity of humanity’s collective consciousness. It was bad enough with people like Putin, Xi Jinping, and Duterte continuing to hold on to their reins, but now we’ve got more idiots on the frontline fooling us into saving ourselves from non-existent threats.

As soon as it was revealed that Wuhan was trying to contain the spread of real cases back in December 2019, I knew we were screwed. There is absolutely no way of stopping the spread and the world is not prepared to handle it. And then it started happening. It spread to Iran and Italy. Then to other parts of Europe and the west coast of the United States. What’s sad is that all these countries had ample time to prepare for it. Guidelines and lockdowns could have been set in place months ahead of time. Yet we have incompetent morons like Trump in office who refuse to believe in science and would rather not stop the economy for anything.

Some states in the US have enough sense to operate under their own common sense despite federal guidelines. California, Washington, and Oregon all went under shelter-in-place lockdowns just in the nick of time as it was starting to get dire on the west coast. But many US states, especially the southern ones, continued to operate in the business-as-usual fashion, ignoring advice from the CDC and health experts. This caused the virus to spread rapidly to all states in the country within just a few days, with the situation escalating to uncontrollable levels in high density areas like New York.

Even more appalling is the total inaction from the federal government. The entire White House staff continually downplayed the severity of the outbreak for months, only finally coming around to acknowledging the real danger in early April. At that point, it was too late. They were seen making ridiculously inappropriate comments like the fact that hospitals were “complaining” about the lack of personal protective equipment and ventilators. Some republicans took to news stations proclaiming that the elderly should die to save the economy. It has never ever been more obvious that the GOP and the current administration do not care an ounce about the citizens that they’ve been supposedly elected to represent. They’re only in it for themselves and to profit off of the poor.

Coldplay said it best in the lyrics to Violet Hill, my favorite song of theirs — “When the future’s architectured by a carnival of idiots, you’d better lie low.” And boy, is it a grand carnival. Never have I seen such utter incompetency from people elected to look after the well-being of its people. Of course, no-one expected them to be good at this. Just look at their track record. None of them in the White House have former political experience and they actively shoot down suggestions from scientists and health experts. But when a monster this large is directly staring at you in the face, even the dumbest person wouldn’t give it a breadcrumb trail to let it proceed towards their direction.

Trump in particular is to blame for a lot of the way the US has bungled its federal response. He cares more about the infection numbers being low than what they actually are. He cares more about his re-election campaign than providing hospitals and healthcare workers with what they need. He cares more about himself and his approval ratings than providing rent and mortgage relief for the unemployed. If there ever was a chance for him to show that he at least had a drop of competence to deal with something, if there ever was a way for him to prove that in four years, he did something worth writing about in a positive tone, this was it being handed to him on a silver platter. A problem he didn’t cause, but a solution to which he had complete control over. He had the ability to sign the Defense Production Act at any time. He didn’t. He could’ve controlled the states’ response to the outbreak and suggested lockdowns for all but essential businesses. He didn’t. He could’ve provided relief with a sensible stimulus package and healthcare for all. He didn’t.

If anything, the current US President has actively made the situation way, way worse than it should’ve had any right to be. By refusing to provide hospitals with equipment, by constantly spreading misinformation about the severity of the virus, and by doing nothing to help Americans in need, he has directly contributed to what can only be described as genocidal class warfare on the poor and uninsured, sponsored by the federal government. It’s disgusting and shameful to a degree that no-one would’ve thought possible a mere decade ago.

“When the truth offends, we lie and lie, until we can no longer remember it is ever there. But it is still there. Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth. Sooner or later, that debt is paid.” That was my favorite quote from Chernobyl (the HBO mini-series), and it has never been more appropriate than it is now. Beijing originally covered up the numbers to make itself look better. Yes, it’s the undeniable truth. Trump repeatedly lied about the federal handling of the situation and seriously downplayed its impact on Americans. It’s the truth. No matter how you spin and falsify the truth, you cannot change the fact that the truth is the truth and that the damage is done. There’s no going back from this. Perhaps the most unfortunate of all is that the liars aren’t repaying the debt for all of their misdeeds, the poor and innocent are without having any part to play in all of it.