Thoughts while watching a recent Frontline (the one about COVID and PPE issues from October)

[NRaleighLiberal]

I am sure lots of you have noticed I have occasional tirades against TV - my wife and I are simply not fans of being advertised or lied to - so we stopped watching about 11 years ago and just rotate different streaming services for movies and binge-worthy series. We just finished what we wanted to see on HBO, so now have a PBS Passport subscription - most way through Ken Burns "The War", finished his "Country Music" - now dabbling in various Nova, Nature - and last night, began going through some Frontline episodes.

Over the years we've watched quite a few Frontline episodes. What is challenging about them is that, in general, they do a good job highlighting where our species screws up - typically political situations, sometimes related to nature and science. My wife and I always wonder what one is supposed to do with the anger they generate? Because that is typically what they do - righteously piss us off, because we humans always seem to find ways to game the system, screw people, screw the earth. We are so flawed.

Anyway - last night we chose the one that highlighted the many issues about keeping health care professionals supplied with necessary safety equipment during the pandemic. It showed how the Obama administration did what it should have done to ensure that the asshole administration to follow had what they needed (lessons learned during H1N1). It showed how the asshole administration ignored it. It showed endless lies - many from Navarro (my dog, is he ever a slimy individual, a sort of trump clone in his ability to spew lies).

As we watch the numbers rise again - and it doesn't matter if we are in wave 1, wave 2 or wave 3 - watching shows like this, which I think are critical in helping us understand and see what really goes on - brings a sense of hopelessness and dread. So much needless loss of life - and as we watch the orange asshole play his childish games in failing to get the transition rolling, one wonders if humanity is simply digging itself too deep a hole to ever successfully climb out of.

My one sentence encapsulation of the episode is that trump is mentally ill, and navarro is an evil asshole. My thought after watching the episode is...why would Joe Biden (or anyone) wish to be president at a time like this, and what a huge task he has to deal with this complete plate of FUBAR.

[subterranean]

1. For more hopelessness and dread, watch the episode about AI!

That's something that will have profound effects on society, but is talked about by very few politicians. The episode is "In the Age of AI." I can't say it made me feel optimistic about the future, but it's definitely worth watching.

I will check out the one you mentioned about the pandemic response.

[NRaleighLiberal]

2. thanks....keeping oneself aware of what is really going on is very sobering these days.

But I'd rather be aware, than not, and find ways of dealing with the anxiety that results!

[Moostache]

3. I for one welcome our AI overlords!

It IS a sobering episode for sure.

The changes that are on the horizon are going to be as seismic and world-changing as those that happened in the end of the agrarian society to the industrial and then industrial to the information. We are already smack in the middle of the "influence economy" and what people have failed to recognize is that with each shift, fewer and fewer actual PEOPLE are necessary to keep the gears turning...the shift to AI in the coming decades, paired with the ravages of climate change and the ongoing mass extinction leads to a very, very grim future for mankind.

At least the machines and computers we leave behind will likely evolve well beyond our puny mental capabilities in the end...

[NRaleighLiberal]

4. kicking for the afternoon crew