WAPO OP ED: Welcome to the United States of 'Idiocracy'

[lindysalsagal]

Welcome to the United States of ‘Idiocracy’

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/06/30/welcome-united-states-idiocracy/

Opinion by Max Boot Columnist June 30, 2020 at 6:08 p.m. EDT

Is there a better prophecy of our end times? The only thing “Idiocracy” really got wrong was its timeline. It has taken just 15 years, not 500, for America to become an idiocracy. Don’t believe it? Look at our response to the coronavirus pandemic.

In other wealthy democracies, coronavirus cases have been plummeting. In the United States, they have risen 80 percent over the past 14 days. On Monday, the United States reported more than 40,000 new cases, while the European Union, which is more populous, had fewer than 6,000. The number of confirmed coronavirus deaths in the United States is approaching 130,000, more than twice as many as in any other country.

This toxic imbecility is getting people killed. But recall the adage that “every nation gets the government it deserves.” Trump and the Trumpy governors did not seize power by force. They were elected by constituents who, in some cases, see masks as the spawn of the devil.

We can and should hold our leaders responsible, but ultimately, we have no one but ourselves to blame. Nobody forced so many Americans to act so recklessly — first by placing their faith in a president who doesn’t deserve it, and now in ignoring widely publicized scientific findings. We are living — and now dying — in an idiocracy of our own creation.

[Voltaire2]

1. almost 4 years later WaPo figures out the obvious.

[PatSeg]

28. I was saying this several years ago

The only exception I'd make is Terry Crews was a better president than Donald Trump.

[dalton99a]

2. "We" did not elect the traitor.

[Wawannabe]

3. I always want to shout this from the rooftops

When reading it here especially.

Stop saying that, right???

The fucker stole the WH and we should took it back by force over 3 yrs ago.

[ananda]

17. Actually, it all started with Florida 2000 and Ohio 2004.

We've been letting Reeps steal elections for 20 years now.

[StClone]

25. Yes that was a big tell but the Reagan Revolution is my pick

[usaf-vet]

30. EXACTLY! 2000 EXACTLY! 2004 EXACTLY! 2016 with Russia help they INSTALLED the 45th idiot.

State elections every opportunity they needed to so they could maintain control of redistricting (gerrymandering).

[llashram]

26. while "stole the WH" is appropriate

voter suppression of minorities, taking away voting locations making many unable to travel long distances to vote among many strategies employed by Republican-led states, towns and locales, African-americans specifically targeted, Putin's huge hacker farms creating confusion among those who are wilfully able to believe anything the RW says, the Electoral College system, a slave-era holdover created to appease those ex-slave states complaining of underrepresentation and now a moot argument, China maybe ss yet unproven, but the so-called POTUS did ask for their help in defeating Vice-President Joe Biden. And on and on. Hopefully, our DNC has a strategy in play to counter the RW shenanigans this upcoming election day.

[ananda]

33. Agree. I don't think this country can survive another stolen election.

They're literally deadly.

[lagomorph777]

4. Putin installed Turd.

[bdamomma]

7. most

Last edited Wed Jul 1, 2020, 11:43 AM - Edit history (1)

definitely this is all Putin, and those traitors in the Congress they know who they are. Damn.

[iluvtennis]

23. + 1. nt

[calimary]

12. That's what I remember every day.

“We”? Don’t lump me in there, either!

I worked nonstop, blogged, knocked on doors, made phone calls, and donated to support Hillary. This was forced on me under protest.

I console myself by the thought that I’ll be able to report I got this one right when it’s time to face St. Peter at the Pearly Gates.

[raccoon]

32. Thank you! Bt

[liberalmuse]

5. We have red counties here

Where people refuse to wear masks and social distance. Cases are skyrocketing like crazy in those areas. This is happening all over the country. Red, rural areas are out of control with Covid cases. They just don’t have hospital capacity in those areas, so they take up beds in the cities where people tend to be much more mindful that there’s a pandemic and follow safety precautions. These antimaskers will fill the hospital beds in blue areas, and they’ll come into the cities and spread the virus to mask wearers who will then get sick and not be able to get the care they need because the hospitals are full of willfully ignorant assholes who didn’t want to wear a fucking mask or stay home. That is how masses of people end up dead.Stupidity kills, but it is indiscriminate about who. It’s not always the assholes who suffer from their misdeeds. It’s everyone in their vicinity and far beyond

[bdamomma]

8. I really think

Putin just totally wants to break up the states just like the Soviet Union. Putin seeks revenge on the US and he has his puppet doing it.

[BComplex]

9. Liberal Muse, indeed.

You got that whole thing right.

This part is especially profound:

"Stupidity kills, but it is indiscriminate about who. It’s not always the assholes who suffer from their misdeeds. It’s everyone in their vicinity and far beyond."

[hatrack]

6. Like a remake of "Contagion", but instead of Kate Winslet & Matt Damon, Beavis & Butt-head

[Johnny2X2X]

10. Young people getting it is actually the worst case scenario

While we're seeing the daily cases rise to new highs, people are saying it's a lot more young people getting the virus. OK, and that's the worst case scenario. Deaths spiking will lag even more, but these young people are much more effective vectors than old people are, the are more likely to be asymptomatic, they're more likely to visit relatives, more likely to go to work, and more likely to spread it by socializing.

Eventually this ill be back ravaging the vulnerable groups again and the death tolls will be catastrophic, young people testing positive guarantees that.

In the meantime, idiot politicians from the Right are using this to downplay that we are entering a much worse time for this virus and its effects. Americans and their stupid short attention spans and failure to see past their own nose is to blame. Sad.

[luvtheGWN]

13. I foresee the Canada/US border being kept closed

well into 2021.

And yes, now it's the 20-39 year-olds. In my southern Ontario region of just under 1 million, we've had 759 cases. The first ones were in long-term care facilities and snowbirds returning, but the 20-39 age group has far surpassed that. Most of us started wearing masks and liberally using hand sanitizer at the very beginning -- staying home, physical distancing, meeting friends and family ONLY by FaceTime, zoom, phone or Skype.
Masks are mandatory and since we Canucks believe in peace, order and good government, we tend to follow the rules. We recognize and appreciate the freedoms we have, and the obligations we have to our neighbours and our community. This last is what seems to be missing in some Americans -- with freedom comes obligation.

[LastDemocratInSC]

27. You're correct about the relationship between freedom and obligations.

[DanieRains]

11. Brainwashed By Fox Lies Jesus Frauds And Hate Radio - Reality Means Nothing

Reality means nothing to Republicans these days.

They still believe in trickle down, and praying real hard will make them wealthy.

https://www.amazon.com/Brainwashing-My-Dad-Matthew-Modine/dp/B01C6AFDM6

[live love laugh]

14. Until we stop blaming voters for a rigged election system

nothing will change. We are on course for more disappointment from that very system now. We have to act for election system change.

[SergeStorms]

15. The United States has....

a seemingly endless supply of idiots more than willing to carry out the movie Idiocracy's dire warnings.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

16. Goes back a very long time before tRump.

Think Spiro Agnew and the Southern Strategy, Reagan's anti-tax/anti-government campaign, the beginnings of right-wing talk radio and cable news, brainwashing the public to have a love affair with Wall Street, and so forth. Many books have been written on this process.

I suspect every one of us here on DU have known numerous perfectly normal, intelligent and rational friends, family and business associates transformed into blathering right-wing idiots in just a few years.

KY............

[HotTeaBag]

19. Yep, and all of that lead us directly to where we are now.

We got so stupid and complacent that electing Trump seemed like a good idea.

As Boot says, we have the government that we deserve.

[Roc2020]

18. if an enemy wanted to arrive at a

strategy that would defeat the most powerful nation in the world what's going on today would be it. a pandemic that the country would botch killing hundreds of thousands destroying the economy and to boot add outcry against the country's greatest weakness racism. The enemy is us.

[Initech]

20. We can put an end to this on 11/3/20.

And once we get competency back in the White House, we're gonna need it. Until then, enjoy the next episode of OW! My Balls.

[LVNVblue]

21. the problem is

that all of these conservatives are sounding the alarm now on Trump et al, but what happens after the election and hopefully we have President Biden? I think most of these guys will go back to their old republican ways--so I am a little less optimistic about them. I know, we have to take what we get for support (Lincoln Project, never trumpers etc) but republicans have always been hypocrites. In 2024 who will they back--Rubio or any of these other sycophants of this traitor-president? I will never ever trust any of them.

[orangecrush]

22. Word

[Javaman]

24. At least President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho was willing to listen to reason.

[kimbutgar]

29. Now when are they calling for MF45 to resign ?

100+ newspapers called for Clinton resign because he lied about a BJ.

But this president bungled the cv response and now we find out he turned a blind eye to Putin paying bounty’s To kill US soldiers in Afghanistan. Crickets.

[Hekate]

31. Tip of the hat to Max Boot. Who, by the way, is not the WaPo itself, but a columnist.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

34. K&R