Herd Mentality

Q: It will go away without a vaccine?

TRUMP: Sure, over a period of time. You'll develop 'herd mentality."

This is crazy. pic.twitter.com/Z2bZZzsDet

— Pod Save America (@PodSaveAmerica) September 16, 2020

I guess what made me chuckle the most about this one is thinking back on all the times Trump's anti-mask followers insist that mask wearing was for "the sheeple". Trump's townhall for "undecided" voters was really a vision to behold, and you know this much is true, because Fox News is already spinning it as an ambush, because I guess he was not informed that there would be questions? Because you know, exactly the thing you want in a president is a guy who can be caught off guard by regular folks asking him questions about things that are happening right now.

Except does Trump even know he's president? I mean, he blamed Joe Biden for there not being a national mask mandate, and Joe Biden is (sorry to this woman, who also does not seem to know) not currently the president. But I'm starting to feel good it about it happening one day! Because Trump also seems to not understand that all the times he said the coronavirus was a hoax with his own mouth were anything but "up-playing" the virus.

It isn't just performances like this entire shitshow that made Scientific American break a 175 (!) year tradition and endorse Joe Biden, but it does help you understand that Trump is so exceptionally stupid that he finally scared the shit out of scientists. (This is not even the first tradition breaking non-endorsement this guy has gotten--see The Atlantic four years ago, who endorsed Clinton when they had only endorsed candidates two times before in their 150ish year history. And for a similar reason: he's an "enemy of fact-based discourse.")

Trump's grotesque mental deficits have been on rare display this week, from his discussion of exploding trees to his insistence that "science doesn't know" about climate change because it will start "getting cooler". Who knows what the latter thing is even supposed to mean with Trump--that it will be fall, and wildfires will go away with the cold like COVID-19 was supposed to go away in April when things got warmer? Scientists have of course heard of the change of seasons (see: every conversation ever had under the heading of "climate is not weather" and "Yes, it still snows, Virginia") but take note that when Trump was encouraging things to open up after Easter regardless of whether or not the virus had gone away with the warmth of spring, he was also telling Bob Woodward what a killer it was.

Trump is audaciously ignorant, and the results have been disastrous and there is no reason to believe this will improve. I do not expect such warnings to penetrate with his biggest fans, whose herd mentality is that he is a great white Christian businessman come to rescue them from the raging barbarian hordes of foreigners, libertines and book-learners, but if anyone is even a little bit undecided, let his being a whole dumbass stand out as being a great reason to not vote for him.

This is guy who talks about windmill cancer and being injected with disinfectants. I don't know how how much dumber he needs to be to scare everyone else off. I'm not even sure I want to know that.

UPDATE: It's also pertinent to note that per Worldometer, the US is at over 200,000 COVID deaths. It is projected we could see 200,000 more before the end of the year. Herd immunity would mean 2-5 million US dead over a period of the next year or so, providing we do not have an effective vaccine. Unlike Trump, I do not prefer to behave as if an effective vaccine is already on the table. Given what we don't know about the long-term health of COVID survivors (lung, neurological and cardiac health, etc.) herd immunity is a bitter pill that should never have been made a necessity. But after a certain point of loss of control of testing/tracking, becomes a default, I guess. Which is absurd and painful and reminiscent of the idea of climate "tipping points". )