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Never again? — When I grew up in Germany, I understood that "never again" should people die because others were "just following rules". Now in the US, I'm facing the same dilemma Germans faced during the 3rd Reich.
As a virus disease with R0=2, SARS-CoV-2 will spread until 50% of the population are immune. About 25% have immunity from previous CoV infections, 25% need to develop immunity de novo. Of course, vulnerable people should be able to protect themselves by wearing a mask. Then the virus will spread predominantly among low-risk people who will become immune until, within a few weeks, the 25% is reached and the vulnerable can „unmask“.
I'm not obese, don't smoke or have diabetes, COPD, ... , so I'd like to act responsibly and give the more vulnerable an advantage from wearing a mask. Unfortunately, I‘m often forced to wear a mask, too. Hence, if I'm "just following the rules", I'm increasing the risk that somebody vulnerable will become infected and die. Even worse, those who die don't count toward the 25% threshold, so more of the vulnerable will die. (This is one way "mitigation" causes more deaths in an epidemic.)
I'm now facing the same dilemma as my grandparents: as a professional, I need to "just follow the rules" and accept that this will cause deaths.
Yes another Nazi analogy - I wish people would stop making them - but I wonder if he is right.
A Nazi analogy used here is offensive, theatrical, and stupid.
ReplyDeleteAnd misleading, because wearing a mask does not endanger other people.
Only some people are allowed to use Nazi analogies - not people on the losing side of history. Brexiteers can't call Remainers Nazis even if they are Conservative politicians who normally can be called Nazis. Anna Soubry was no slouch in calling others Nazis but being Remain she had protected status. Did you see this on the n word? https://pvewood.blogspot.com/2019/01/anna-soubry-and-n-word.html
DeleteI would be happy if no one used either word.
ReplyDeleteI would be happy if no one used either word.
ReplyDeleteI think it gets really childish when people start complaining that others are allowed to get away with using words they can’t. The same thing when groups declare that they are the only group that it is permissible to insult — it seems that all groups say this at some point.
When I said n word I meant Nazi. My joke. Not the word that can never be uttered.
DeleteI wish people would stop talking about the Nazis - but if you could understand why they don't you would understand the meaning of history since 1945. It is very mysterious.
ReplyDeleteI wish people would stop talking about the Nazis
DeleteThey won't because it's too useful.
When it comes to political power games every group will use any method that is available that serves their interests. Slurring enemies as Nazis works so it will continue to be done. Just as the Right will continue to slur people as communists, even though communism is dead and even though most of the people slurred in that way are not even remotely communists. It was used as an effective weapon to damage Bernie Sanders.
The antisemitism slur was used very effectively to damage Jeremy Corbyn even though he's not antisemitic (he's anti-Zionist but that's an entirely different thing).
Attacking somebody's actual political positions is hard work. You have to demonstrate that their positions actually are invalid. It's so much easier to just discredit them by calling them Nazis, white supremacists, antisemites, communists, etc. Or to slur them in a personal way.
The Right is vulnerable to the Nazi and white supremacist slurs because if you spend some time on far right and dissident right sites you'll find actual Nazi sympathisers and actual white supremacists. Not very many perhaps but they are there. Just as the Left is vulnerable to the communist slur because there used to be actual communists (and Trotskyists and other assorted nutters) on the Left.
As long as playing particular political cards works they will continue to get played. By both sides.
The Communist slur carried bad connotations during the Cold War but now it is over not so much. There is no prejudice unfortunately against Marxists and wasn't much of one in the 1970s or 1980s, in Western countries.
DeleteAccusations of communism have made a comeback in the US thanks to Cuban and Venezuelan immigrants, who are obsessed with communism. Unhinged accusations made by wannabe Trump lawyer Sidney Powell also focus on communists “stealing” the election.
ReplyDeleteAmerican academia is infested with Marxists but the new left is worse than the Marxists. It was only in the 1950s that the hard left did not wield huge, covert influence in the USA. The civil rights movement began with Communists, as Truman said.
DeleteI Now Better Understand the ‘Good German’
ReplyDeleteTue, Jan 5, 2021 • Prager's Column
https://dennisprager.com/column/i-now-better-understand-the-good-german/