The name of this blog is Pink’s Politics. The name comes from my high school nick-name “Pink” which was based on my then last name. That is the only significance of the word “pink” here and anyone who attempts to add further or political meaning to it is just plain wrong.

Saturday, April 25, 2020

This should not be political, but NPCs help to make it so


The coronavirus pandemic is not a political issue and I wish people would stop treating it that way.  I happen to think that our President has for the most part done and is doing a good job handling this complex problem.  I also happen to think that my state governor, a progressive Democrat, is doing an outstanding job.  This is not a political issue and we do not need political rhetoric clouding things up.    

This pandemic and its effects are complex.  This is not a simple issue with a right and wrong answer.  It is a new issue that this country, this world, has never faced before.  No one has all the answers, and everyone is learning as we go along.  Learning is a key word here.  Everyone who wants to spout an opinion on this issue should take some time to educate him or herself about it first.  That means facts, not anecdotal evidence from one satisfied or dissatisfied person or business owner or victim of the virus.  And not following in the approach that so many currently take to newsworthy issues which is to simply spout the rhetoric of one or the other political parties.

There is a term NPC which originally referred to a non-playable character in a video game; that is, a character with whom other players can interact but which can only repeat programmed lines – it cannot think for itself.  The term has come to be used for those political minions who similarly do not think for themselves but only repeat programmed phrases – that is, they spout the party line without thought.

NPCs have been around for a while.   Now they spout their party’s politically correct phrases and positions about the coronavirus pandemic.  I used to see NPCs as primarily a Democrat phenomenon.  They would stick to their programmed dialog even when simple common sense proved it to be ridiculous.  For example, during the Kavanaugh hearings the Democrat NPCs all asserted that “women must always be believed when they claim sexual assault, even if there is no evidence to confirm their story and even evidence to contradict it.”  Now, with a seemingly credible allegation against Biden, the program has been changed to “all women must be believed, but only if they are accusing a Republican; when they accuse a Democrat we can dismiss their claim post haste.”

But now I cannot help but see the assault of NPCs and their programmed views coming from every political persuasion.   The Democrats and Anti-Trumpers first assert their same tired complaints:  President Trump is destroying the country, he does not know what he is doing, and, more specific to the virus – he is killing people.  They also assert that everything he does violates and/or destroys the Constitution and our government.  He acted too late.  He acted too early.  He should not let the governors decide.  He cannot make any national orders.  He must make national orders.  And, of course, he must be investigated.  Don’t ask the folks making these assertions to explain or support them – they cannot.  The only truth underlying them is that they either don’t like the President or don’t like his policies, or both.

But we also have the Republican NPCs.  Their current mantra is “Open Now!”  They have supplementary statements that they assert in support of this demand:  Closing businesses violates our rights; people have the right to choose; shut down orders violate the Constitution, not opening now will destroy the Constitution, the economy, and our country.  Do they have the science or the economics or the legal scholarship to prove any of that?  Of course not.  Sure, closing down and staying home orders do interfere with some rights or at least some activities, but they do so and are allowable for the public good.  These Republican NPCs have apparently conveniently forgotten that part of civics class – it seems to not be a part of their programmed lines. (They have also forgotten their old mantra of “we don’t need anything from the government” as they hold out their hands for stimulus and other benefits).

All these programmed assertions do nothing more than to prove some sort of ignorance, or at least an inability or disinclination to think things through.  For example, one cannot end with “just open up and let people choose whether to stay home, wear masks, etc.”   This reveals so much about what the asserter does not know.  First, the point of staying home, wearing masks, is to keep those who are asymptomatic from spreading the disease to others (and, if they bothered to look at facts they would know that huge percentages of us are asymptomatic, which is why we need things like sufficient testing and other data before opening up).  They would also understand that even if one is free to stay home, that might be a difficult choice if opening up means one has to choose between returning to a job or losing it by staying home.  These NPCs often claim they are demanding opening now for the workers, but would that really help those workers?  They claim decisions about what to open/close are unfair, but they do not have the details upon which these decisions were made; such assertions are just part of their politically programmed speech.

We have a pandemic involving a virus for which there is no treatment or cure and no vaccine.  It threatens the Public health of everyone in the country.   We have experts who update data and projections daily as they determine and regularly revise, based on new information, the best way to handle this public health crisis.  In order to flatten the curve – which was necessary so as not to overload healthcare and thus make the effects of the pandemic far worse – stay at home orders and business closures were put into place.  Of course these affected the economy and now those same experts are recommending a safe, data-driven and measured re-opening of business.  They provide clear criteria and a wealth of data to help each Governor make decisions and a reopening plan for his or her state.

NPCs are not interested in facts or data.  Here, by the way, is the link to a cite that provides a wealth of data, updated daily, about the corona virus, including state by state statistics and projections.  LINK.  Interestingly, when I shared this with a social media discussion about the virus populated mostly with NPC-type statements, the entire conversation was suddenly deleted.  Perhaps no one is really interested in facts. 

Generally, in this country we of late seem to suffer from a wealth of people who think they are experts on everything or at least anything about which they have an opinion.   Yet they do not educate themselves about that which they are opining.  Many of them are actually NPCs.   They are often wrong or incomplete in their statements and often insufferable in their thinking or lack thereof.  But annoying as it can be, such false belief in one’s own knowledge is usually not harmful; certainly not deadly.  Not so when we look at the coronavirus. 

Those false experts who are demanding anything and everything from opening fully now to never opening again, from asserting we must have more and more money forever to compensate those possibly injured by the virus or its economic effects  to those who would deny any and all financial aid, from those who see every well thought out cautionary and temporary restriction as the end of our Constitution and our life as we know it to those who assert that now is the time that mandates a complete restructuring of our government, all of these programmed assertions spoken without thought or support are dangerous.

We need to get the solution to this problem right.  We need to intelligently balance the health dangers with the economy.  This requires understanding and thought.  It cannot be done by NPCs.  Yet it is the voices of the NPCs who are at times drowning out those reasoned expert voices that we need.

There are those in this country who take the time to educate themselves about the science of the disease, who take the time to look at and understand facts, and to think for themselves.  These are the people who are looking at data, who are looking at various measured guidelines for reopening, who are understanding that it is a delicate balance between protecting the people from this serious health risk and from keeping the economy in a position where it can return to “normal” without too much hurt and delay when the time is right.

These people stand in stark contrast to the NPCs who simply spout politically driven opinions and demands about the virus and the economy.  Their leaders of course are trying to capitalize politically in any way possible from this pandemic and its effects on both health and economy.  Their leaders will use it to push their agendas and to trash those of their opponents as well as the opponents themselves.  The NPCs are their necessary minions.

NPCs and self-proclaimed experts (often one and the same) need to simply shut up until they are willing to actually think.   We all need to use our brains and our common sense to understand what is going on, to accept reasonable restrictions and inconveniences, and support all of our leaders as they do their best to get this right.  What we do not need to accept, and indeed should ignore, are the politically driven NPCs and their unhelpful and potentially dangerous comments.   


No comments:

Post a Comment