Pierce: There's an Awful Lot of 'Cull the Herd' Rhetoric Floating Around These Days

[mcar]

There's an Awful Lot of 'Cull the Herd' Rhetoric Floating Around These Days
Ron Johnson joins the parade of people to whom my response is: You first.

BY CHARLES P. PIERCE
APR 1, 2020

I know we’re all slowing down and stuck in our houses, but I don’t think it’s time for U.S. senators to go all wiggy on existential questions. This is especially true in the case of Ron (Shreds of Freedom) Johnson, Republican of Wisconsin. He took to the pages of USA Today and encouraged us all to liberate ourselves through profound, patriotic, fatalistic gibberish.

Each year, approximately 48,000 Americans commit suicide and an estimated 67,000 die of a drug overdose. That level of individual despair has occurred in a strong economy with near-record low levels of unemployment in virtually every demographic. Imagine the potential psychological and human toll if this shutdown continues indefinitely, unemployment reaches 20% or higher, as some now predict, and we sink into a deep recession or depression.

Imagine there’s no hope. It’s easy if you try.

The U.S. Senate just passed a $2 trillion coronavirus relief bill in a less-than-perfect attempt to mitigate some of the economic fallout. In addition to the current human toll, future generations will be required to pick up that tab. Every premature death is a tragedy, but death is an unavoidable part of life.

This is also true of people who throw themselves off cliffs and jump in front of subway trains. What is the senator getting at, exactly? There’s an awful lot of discreet “culling of the herd” realism floating around in the public rhetoric these days, and there’s also an occasional episode in which somebody seems to be putting it into practice, discreetly, in one way or another.

For example, there are the cruise ships currently on the voyage of the damned because nobody will let it dock anywhere. And there’s also the fact that the administration refuses to relent in its attacks on Barack Obama’s signature achievement, even in the face of a global pandemic....

Now that this particular president* has decided that a mere 100,000 to 200,000 dead will be a personal triumph on the scale of V-E Day, I find this attitude more than a little disturbing. My response remains unchanged: You guys first.

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a32010122/ron-johnson-coronavirus-op-ed-trump-obamacare/

[la-trucker]

1. Heartless people with no empathy

can do this without missing a heartbeat. Fuck the republicans.

[HarlanPepper]

2. I'm seeing a few "let em die" toned posts around here as well with regard to cruise ships.

[dhill926]

4. I hear ya....disturbing...

[malaise]

3. THIS

Now that this particular president* has decided that a mere 100,000 to 200,000 dead will be a personal triumph on the scale of V-E Day, I find this attitude more than a little disturbing.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

5. I don't think it's a lack of empathy for people who do the right thing and still get infected.

It's more of a "Darwin's Law" sort of thing: "People who improve the gene pool by choosing to eliminate themselves by doing stupid things." I would put into that category people who cram into mega-churches, conservative rallies and willfully ignoring clearly posted social distancing rules.

"Cull the herd" definitely doesn't apply to those exposed to the virus through no fault of their own, or by altruistic choice: medical personnel, first responders, military members (especially on ships), people who work or were on a cruise when this whole mess began, flight crews (for those whose airlines are still flying), etc.

Lacking empathy definitely doesn't apply to people with conditions (age, poor health) over which they have no control, nor does it apply to those who have suicidal or other mental health problems. It definitely does not apply to children, nor employers who are doing their best to take care of their employees.

People who wear their red hats, or go to Big Lots and buy their entire supply of toilet paper and paper towels and yell "GO DONALD TRUMP!", and have no empathy for anyone but themselves belong in the #CullTheHerd classification.

In the end, it reminds me of George Carlin's bit, "People I Can Do Without."