These days, #orangeManBad seems to trump reason. Yes, that pun is intended and it’s actually the point. Scrolling along in my feed and this conversation took place. Friend’s comments are boxed, mine are italicized. (I should say, former friend. After this exchange, they unfriended me.)
How bad does this have to get before we all agree that this leadership is responsible for letting this happen?
I don’t see how we can blame leaders of this country for this problem. The virus transcends borders and politics. Here in California we’ve had this crazy lockdown for months on end now and we still have deaths and transmissions happening even with the lockdown.
Look at how they’ve handled it all over the world versus here, that’s why we’re spiking.
Here’s the world graph as of today:
Here’s our curve. Before the protests, our curve was trending way better than the world curve. So, I am looking at that and it doesn’t show me much that makes me want to blame our politicians. If anything I blame the protestors.
Here’s where I got very confused. My friend responded as follows…
This is just not even a conversation worth having- If you haven’t seen the irresponsibility in our leadership during this, it’s because you don’t want to... this is not either this or that but the fact is the top of the pyramid has fucked up... if you want an online argument, take it somewhere else.
How is it that when I present evidence — the exact evidence that my friend pointed to as evidence of what was “problematic” with our “leadership” — that it’s implied that all I want is an argument and the other person abandons the conversation? What made it suddenly not worth having? Might it be the fact that I presented facts that didn’t align with their perspective and, in the face of it, they no longer wanted to engage because really, what can you say when the facts don’t support your narrative that it’s all the leader’s faults?
And the bigger question still is: how many times have you had conversations like this on line, especially lately where emotions are running high and reason seems to have abandoned us?
From where I sit, this sort of response does nothing for anyone. I find myself frustrated because in the end, this shuts down the exchange of dialogue and doesn’t resolve anything, simply polarizes the conversation with insinuations that the person who doesn’t agree is somehow a bad actor looking for an argument.
Are we to continue in a world where, at the first sign of evidence presented to counter ones view people cower and turn away from rational dialogue? Is this the kind of world we want? I for one, do not. I hope, if you’re reading this, you also will continue to engage respectfully when the conversation gets tough.
I left the dialogue with this final comment since clearly there was no place in this status for reason and actual dialogue. Too bad.
We used a variety of measures in different places in this country as dictated by the so called top of the pyramid and we got varied results which don’t necessarily correlate to the political response. It’s a pandemic. Our numbers look better than the international curve. Viruses transcend politics and borders.
Those statements are all facts.
I respect you have an opinion, and, your opinion has done nothing to counter those facts for me nor have you presented any facts. You’re entitled to your opinion of course.
Note: Here are other resources pointing to protests being a cause of the spike in Houston, Cleveland, and Los Angeles.