WhooHoo FluMongering: CJR just comes right out and says it

John Young jya at pipeline.com
Fri Feb 28 04:00:16 PST 2020


NY Times editorial today apologizes for 
downplaying virus threat, claiming optimism was 
derived from other optimism herdism. But then 
CYAs the change of mind may be another example of 
herdism ever-ready to lemming over the cliff. 
Expect CJR to change its CYA lemmingism.

CYA insultism is braying stampeding herdism 
maxima. CC's kisses show the way away from scowling FU angerism.



At 09:22 PM 2/27/2020, you wrote:
>Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="51WX5uuG7BOUwNV3s9NYYN7XdzNVJo3tj";
>  protected-headers="v1"
>From: Razer <g2s at riseup.net>
>To: John Young <jya at pipeline.com>, cypherpunks at cpunks.org
>Message-ID: <3c1d0769-88e6-6287-bfac-91dd9ade8c87 at riseup.net>
>Subject: Re: WhooHoo FluMongering: CJR just comes right out and says it
>References: <1edcd351-7569-8b13-777c-a9cfa9bcd81c at riseup.net>
>  <E1j7OBI-000Dfm-C1 at elasmtp-masked.atl.sa.earthlink.net>
>In-Reply-To: <E1j7OBI-000Dfm-C1 at elasmtp-masked.atl.sa.earthlink.net>
>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
>Content-Language: en-US
>
>
>
>On 2/27/20 10:51 AM, John Young wrote:
> > Downplaying the COVID-19 threat has become a formulaic cognitive
> > trigger dismissal.
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>Can't prove or disprove a baseless-statement. Next you should ask me if
>I've stopped beating my wife yet.
>
>
> >
> > Perhaps wise but there have been disasters in the past by such
> > wise-ass downplaying: plague, VD, smallpox, polio, measles, mental
> > illness, genocide, AIDS, opiods, suicide, environmental damage, sexual
> > predation, et al.
>
>You forgot Cholera. I'll get to that.
>
>First, and I'm only going to respond to three idiocies. Two stated and
>one I brought up.
>
>Measles is hardly a global scourge of death. It DOES twend to kill
>children in the nations we make war on and impoverish into child
>starvation, because children deficient in Vitamin A do have a high
>mortality rate. Or Yemen and a few other nations, for example, where
>Polio and Cholera show up after we BOMB THEIR WATER SUPPLIES and
>blockade... sanction, blow out of the air or water, anyone bringing
>Chlorine b/c "Dual-Use".
>
>Get the picture dude? WE ... OUR ACTIONS ... ARE THE DISEASE, AND THE
>DISEASE-BRINGER.
>
>Our society is diseased with the concept... the very NAZI-like fascistic
>concept, that we bring help, not destruction, as we destroy.
>
> >
> > The worst are intolerant religion and war-making, this two-backed
> > beast is widely blessed and boosted by profit-making adherents no
> > matter the great harm the cause, both sensationalized to the maximum.
> > Their leaders wear funny-looking garments and jewelry, are obsessed
> > with rank, ceremony, public displays and above all fund-raising by
> > scaring the shit out of people with endless murdering onslaughts
> > supported by extorted tithes and taxes.
> >
> > No surprise that journalism sucks up to them, that's its purpose.
>
>
>Journalism doesn't sux. News Reporting sux.
>
>Don't conflate the two, dickwad. You know better.
>
>
> >
> > This befouling message is behind a paywall, privacy guaranteed by TOS.
>
>
>No it isn't. I read the whole piece and I'm not a subscriber. If you
>actually go to the article you'll have links to facts, too.
>
>Here...
>
>"How to name a coronavirus
>
>As regular readers of this column know, we usually object to labels,
>because their meanings are often in the eye of the beholder rather than
>universal.
>
>Exceptions should be made, though. The current epidemic sweeping China
>and threatening the world should be called by its label.
>
>Most news reports call it “the coronavirus,” “a coronavirus,” “new
>coronavirus,” or “novel coronavirus.” To be accurate, though, it must be
>“a coronavirus,” “a new coronavirus,” or 
>“a novel coronavirus.” That’s
>because this coronavirus is separate from other coronaviruses that have
>caused their own epidemics or pandemics. Each gets a name, and each was
>new (or novel) at some point.
>
>One of them, SARS, appeared in November 2002, in Guangdong province in
>southern China. (SARS stands for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.) The
>Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Site says that 8,098 people
>were infected, and 774 died before it was declared under control in July
>2003. It spread to 24 countries.
>
>Another “coronavirus” is MERS, which stands for Middle East Respiratory
>Syndrome, first reported in Saudi Arabia in 2012. The World Health
>Organization says 2,494 cases were reported, with 858 deaths, in 27
>countries.
>
>The current “coronavirus” first appeared in Wuhan, China, probably
>transmitted to a human by an animal, and has spread to many countries,
>including the United States, causing quarantines, panic, a run on
>facemasks, and discrimination against Chinese people.
>
>After several weeks without a name of its own, the current coronavirus
>finally got one: The virus is SARS-CoV-2, and the disease it causes is
>called COVID-19, after coronavirus and its year of discovery. “COVID-19”
>does not run as easily off the tongue as SARS or MERS but there is a
>logic to its name.
>
>As the director general of the WHO, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus,
>said: “We had to find a name that did not refer to a geographical
>location, an animal, an individual or group of people, and which is also
>pronounceable and related to the disease. Having a name matters to
>prevent the use of other names that can be inaccurate or stigmatizing.
>It also gives us a standard format to use for any future coronavirus
>outbreaks.” As Shakespeare did not say: what’s in a name can be important.
>
>In getting a name without a geographic or animal identification,
>COVID-19 can avoid some of the problems previous viruses have. This
>year, for example, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has
>named several varieties of flu viruses, including an
>A/Singapore/INFIMH-16-0019/2016 A(H3N2)-like virus, an A/Kansas/14/2017
>(H3N2)-like virus, a B/Victoria virus, and a B/Yamagata virus. They get
>shortened, to Singapore, Kansas, Victoria, and Yamagata, to make them
>easier to say and understand. That stigmatizes the people in Singapore,
>Kansas, Victoria, and Yamagata, who did not cause those flus. And of
>course, there’s “swine flu,” “Asian flu,” “bird flu” and others.
>Associating a disease with a place or an animal always risks
>retaliation, and overreaction. It will be difficult enough to distance
>COVID-19 from its Chinese source, especially as people shun Chinatowns
>around the U.S. from an unfounded fear of COVID-19.
>
>COVID-19 has already surpassed the death tolls of SARS and MERS, over
>2,000 people as this is written, with little signs of abating. Still,
>that pales in comparison with the CDC estimates of 26 million illnesses
>from flu, resulting in 250,000 hospitalizations and 14,000 deaths from
>flu in the United States alone.
>
>And even the WHO director-general seemed frustrated that so much
>attention was being paid to COVID-19. He began his Feb.11 briefing on
>the coronavirus with a reminder: “Although the world is now focused on
>coronavirus, we cannot and must not forget Ebola,” which has surged in
>Africa and which has a much higher fatality rate than COVID-19.
>
>So why is so much attention being paid to COVID-19? First, because it’s
>new, and spreading. But as Max Fisher wrote in the New York Times,
>COVID-19 “hits nearly every cognitive trigger we have.” Its novelty and
>the uncertainty around it override the recognition that other diseases,
>including flu, are far more endemic and dangerous. He likens the
>reaction to that after a plane crash, when people shun flying even
>though a crash is an anomaly and flying is overwhelmingly safe.
>
>And social media spreads the rumors, fake cures, and other untruths that
>we won’t link to, but include words like “genocide” and “Zionist
>conspiracy.”
>
>Journalists have the responsibility to put things in context. Cover
>COVID-19 and its effects, be they economic, physical, or social. But
>acknowledge its place in the pantheon of disease. Reporting as if it
>were the end of the world is an epidemic of a different kind.
>
>
>Merrill Perlman managed copy desks across the newsroom at the New York
>Times, where she worked for twenty-five years. Follow her on Twitter at
>@meperl."
>
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> >
> >
> >
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> >
> >
> > At 11:13 AM 2/27/2020, you wrote:
> >> Content-Type: multipart/mixed;
> >> boundary="wQo7VCexvkCLBNE0vSTK1iIzwarPt4zkk";
> >> Â protected-headers="v1"
> >> From: Razer <g2s at riseup.net>
> >> To: cypherpunks at lists.cpunks.org
> >> Message-ID: <1edcd351-7569-8b13-777c-a9cfa9bcd81c at riseup.net>
> >> Subject: WhooHoo FluMongering: CJR just comes right out and says it
> >>
> >> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
> >> Content-Language: en-US
> >>
> >>
> >> "Why COVID-19 is not the problem" (but the sensationalized reporting and
> >> ignorant reactionary humans sure are!)
> >>
> >> "So why is so much attention being paid to COVID-19? First, because
> >> it’s
>s
> >> new, and spreading. But as Max Fisher wrote in the New York Times,
> >> COVID-19 “hits nearly every cognitive trigger we h have.â€Â Its
> >> novelty and
> >> the uncertainty around it override the recognition that other diseases,
> >> including flu, are far more endemic and dangerous.
> >>
> >> He likens the reaction to that after a plane crash, when people shun
> >> flying even though a crash is an anomaly and flying is overwhelmingly
> >> safe.
> >>
> >> And social media spreads the rumors, fake cures, and other untruths that
> >> we won’t link to, but include words like 
> â “genocideâ€Â and “Zio‚¬Å“Zionist
> >> conspiracy.â€Â
> >>
> >> Journalists have the responsibility to put things in context. Cover
> >> COVID-19 and its effects, be they economic, physical, or social. But
> >> acknowledge its place in the pantheon of disease. Reporting as if it
> >> were the end of the world is an epidemic of a different kind."
> >>
> >> Â https://www.cjr.org/language_corner/covid-19-coronavirus.php
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
>
>
>
>
>




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