2020 Election MEGAthread

[douglas1999]

Originally Posted by Jibartik [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

But i have explained in very clear terms why to take covid restrictions and apply it to influenza is both irrational on both a medical/scientific level, but also on a political and rational level.

Like so many times, so it bums me out when you say the logical conclusion of me wanting masks is to take my argument to it's absurd, after we've gone through all that!

Again to be clear, what you are accusing me of being authoritarian is the president using this language. "Masks will really have the best impact on us controlling this outbreak, so we can open our economy up sooner, get the schools open, and get us out there continuing to build the greatest economy in the world! So stand back (6 feet) and stand by (with a mask on)!"

That is all I wanted the president to say during this friggen last year.

Yeah and that is reasonable, but the effective of masks is not definitely shown. At first, even fauci was saying not to use them, that they only offer minor protection and that a mass rush on buying them by the general population would deplete the supply for essential workers, who arguably need them more. I think that this is true, because infection rates in other countries who *have* had hard imposed masking mandates, have still seen infections on par with the US and in many cases more. Masks don't seem to help very much at all, but I personally still wear one cause it takes two seconds and I don't want to get screamed at by the mask gestapo in public.

My main gripe is with lockdowns, and that's why I keep bringing up the flu comparison. Covid is, thankfully, proving to be less lethal as we understand more about it than the flu by many metrics. Economic lockdowns have already permanently shuttered tens of thousands of small businesses, and have only enriched major corporations like walmart and amazon even further. You can't support local businesses if they all close. So, even assuming covid is more dangerous than the flu, the question becomes how *much* more dangerous is it, and are the economic impacts of lockdowns somehow sensible collateral damage? On top of the increased suicides and drug overdoses and alcoholism, which further tax the medical system? I think those are extremely important questions, but the news cycle at the moment treats donald trump and literally anything he does as the work of the devil, and anything democrats do as the work of benevolence. The left is becoming a creepy, pseudo-religion and it's driving me further and further away. If trump cured cancer, rather than saying "Ya know I don't like him but... that was a pretty good achievement curing cancer and all" like a sane decent person, Pelosi would be on TV frothing at the mouth saying "Why didn't he do it sooner!! If Joe Biden had been in office, we would have cured cancer four years ago!!".