Highlander wrote: ↑Fri Jul 31, 2020 12:44 pm
phuqueue wrote: ↑Fri Jul 31, 2020 9:10 am
On the other hand, all of these Sunbelt states had plenty of lead time to prepare and they squandered it on half-assed "lockdowns" that they then prematurely ended.
That was because the pandemic became a political football in the SE aided and abetted by Trump. Not that it isn't elsewhere, but the republican governors in the SE refused to take necessary steps because they wanted to stay aligned with the nonsense coming out of Washington. It still pains me to see my older and vulnerable conservative friends/family take no precautions whatsoever because they expect miracle drugs pushed by Trump and quacks to allow them to quickly overcome any effects of the virus.
If you haven't, look at the MLM (pyramid scheme) market. It explains a lot.
The people who sell through these systems, many of them are well meaning people but they're either easily controlled or ignorant.
Of course it's not 1:1 but a huge number of MLMs come out of groups where following a strong religious leaders is normal, regardless of which religious group you're talking about. Mormon, evangelical Christian and Hispanic Catholics are three (but not the only) groups well known for being associated with MLMs.
Many of these people also de-friend people seen as being against their sales and has parallel to religious shunning or dismissing people with other religious views. This isn't a group where working well with others is common.
It's somewhat anecdotal but there's a large overlap between people who sell these products and support Trump.
So what's more powerful than a deeply held belief? Narcissism. We haven't sufficiently got everyone to take action to save themselves.
That's what's so bad about what Trump's doing. He's so out of the norm that he's not even doing what it takes to get his supporters to save their lives. I'm not saying he's narcissist but it's incredible how his being right is more important than winning.
What he needed to do was hold a rally and hand out a free MAGA mask and sell several varieties on some website for people who can't get a ticket. Take over large parks in multiple cities with video screens in each. It would let them have people across the county and enables swing voters to come out easily. Tell his supporters that liberals don't want them to wear the masks and to go out and show the huge amount of support there is with a product that businesses can't ask them to remove. Use masks as a walking billboard like the hats were, whoever came up with the hats was brilliant.