Recommended Reading: Graveside Gaslighting

NinaIllingworth November 23, 2022 analysis, anticapitalism, capitalism, Capitalist Propaganda, Captain Trips, class war, conspiracy theories, coronavirus, Covid 19, Covid 19 primer, Covid and capitalism, COVID disinformation, Covid eugenics, Covid is not over, culture war, doctors, epidemiology, genocide, Global Pandemic, homicidal capitalism, Jessica Wildfire, killing people for profit, labor rights, Media, medical science, neofeudalism, Nina Illingworth, OK Doomer, pandemic, Politics, QAnon, Rec Reads, Recommended Reading, US politics, virus denial as politics

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Reference Point

At this point I must confess that I haven’t written much about the still-raging Covid 19 pandemic for both professional, and personal reasons. From a professional standpoint, my wheelhouse is history, economics, and political theory. I’m not a qualified medical scientist, and in an environment where every inconvenienced cracker in the Pig Empire thinks he’s an epidemiologist, I have a very real desire not to contribute to Covid disinformation through ignorance. On a personal level, my struggle with the long term fallout of catching Covid at the beginning of the pandemic, has emotionally complicated the act of writing about this crisis; as I’ve said before, I’m never particularly comfortable as an analyst when I’m personally part of the story.

Unfortunately, reality hasn’t been particularly concerned about my discomfort; the virus lingers whether I write about it or not, and the longer I wait, the harder it is to catch up in one article. Furthermore while I tarried, Covid disinformation went out and won the war; it is now official policy, almost everywhere the in the Pig Empire, that the pandemic is over. To say this is both wrong, and vaguely genocidal is actually a bit of an understatement. As many concerned observers predicted, it turns out that collective mass delusion isn’t much of a virus management strategy and now it certainly looks like our leaders have dragged us all to the “finding out” portion of this capitalist eugenics shit-show.

This puts me, and perhaps my readers, in a tough spot. What we need here is an informative jumping off point for all future “pandemic in the neofeudalist era” discussions here on NIDC. Additionally, that resource has to be a concise assessment of where we stand, and what comes next, placed firmly in the context of the capitalist order’s decision to pretend the pandemic has ended, for profit. That’s a tall order, but I think this November 15th, 2022 piece by Jessica Wildfire over on the OK Doomer Stubstack ultimately gets there:

You May Be Early, but You’re Not Wrong: A Covid Reading List

First of all, let me acknowledge that I’m definitely cheating here. Jessica’s excellent article is actually built around its own recommended reading list of articles from credible medical science journalists; in order to grasp the whole situation, the author recommends you read all of these linked sources. Having done so; I’d have to say I agree with her that the additional reading is worthwhile. Thankfully however, Wildfire has also made the effort to summarize not only the big picture these sources reveal, but the contents and conclusions of each individual item in her reading list. That’s right folks, Jessica’s knowledge bomb article is quite literally modular; which makes it ideal for our requirements here and going forward.

Naturally then, I am telling you to read the whole article and the sources the author has included; at least over time. For our immediate purposes here however, I’d like to quote a couple of Wildfire’s key summary points. From the introduction:

“Over the last few months, there’s been an avalanche of studies telling us that Covid poses a major threat to our health, our lives, and our sanity. The biggest risk now comes in the weeks and months after we recover. Our politicians and media have done a poor job communicating this threat. Instead, they’re doing their best to manipulate information to protect their own political interests. The public has bought into these lies. They want to believe they can return to normal.

The latest studies tell us that’s not possible. There’s no permanent immunity from this virus. Each time we catch it, this virus attacks our hearts and minds. It weakens us. It tries to kill us. It imprints on us, so a future variant has a better shot next time. That next time could be a few months later. Here are the key points:

You can catch Covid multiple times.
Reinfections are common, not rare.
Breakthrough infections are common.
Covid can kill you months after you recover.
It can cause brain damage.
It can cause blood clots and heart attacks.
It doesn’t spare children.
Vaccines help, but only some.
Masks work.

Everyone should know about these studies.”

Naturally, there will be folks reading this post who aren’t particularly happy to hear the facts Jessica has laid out; as if a pandemic inducing virus really gives a damn what anyone wants to hear at all. Speaking broadly, I predict those people will come in two types; reactionaries who have committed to Covid denial as part of the Pig Empire culture war, and rational skeptics who struggle to believe their leaders, much of the media, and even some government advisors would lie to them about something so big, and so dangerous.

I can’t do much for people still stuck in coronavirus denial conspiracies, or an ostrich mindset; they’ve made their choices, and no amount of research or debunking is going to convince them to surrender their reactionary propaganda until folks they care about personally, start dropping dead. To the rational skeptic however, my question is how can you be so sure? Would this be the first time rich people, politicians, and the media lied to us about a crisis for their own financial benefit; even a deadly one? The simple truth is that they all lied, as Wildfire states quite bluntly in her wholly accurate conclusion:

“Biggest takeaway: the media lied to us. The evidence is overwhelming now.

Last winter, the media made a concerted effort to convince Americans that Covid had become mild. They said catching Omicron would protect us from future variants, and that we could ditch our masks. Newspapers were filled with op-eds basically telling us to go out and shop, celebrate, and get infected. They blanketed the internet with stories about the “relief” people felt catching Covid. Anyone who disagreed got labeled a doomsayer.

The optimists were all wrong. There was no evidence to support any of these myths, just arrogant assertions from the same handful of pundits. The actual studies tell the truth. You don’t want to catch Covid once. You certainly don’t want to catch it multiple times.”

In the final analysis, that last point is our key takeaway. Nobody who knows what they’re talking about ever said that Covid 19 wasn’t dangerous anymore, or that the pandemic was actually over. Politicians said it, corporate spokespeople said it, media propagandists said it, but doctors and scientists were predicting we’d end up right here, the entire time. Ending pandemic prevention measures was never about science, it was about pressure from the capitalist class; after astroturf protests, conspiracy theories, and “common sense” declarations of genocidal intent, our bootlicking “leadership” buckled and sent folks back into the petri dish. And most people applauded; they chose to believe vested interests, over medical professionals, because they were tired of living through an existential crisis.

Well my friends, we’re all learning that you can’t stop a virus with theories and vibes; the rich guys lied to you, herd immunity isn’t a viable answer. And if the many doctors, scientists, and researchers cited in the articles Jessica Wildfire has compiled here are right, we’re all about to pay the price for a genocidal capitalist game of make believe. Stay safe, mask up, and may whatever gods you believe in protect us all now, because there is clearly nobody with a conscience at the wheel anymore.