I have to imagine that when the Founding Fathers established the House of Representatives, they pictured people in small towns across the 13 states getting together and deciding whom they should send to represent them in the Congress.
"I say we send Doc Johnson, he's an educated man!"
"Well if we're sending someone to make laws, we should send Bill Jones. He's a lawyer."
"I'd like to nominate Parson Brown. He's the most honest man in town!"
"well what about Miss Jackson, the schoolmarm?"
"Miss Jackson? Why she's a woman! Probably has boobies and everything. The schoolmarm! Well now I've heard everything!"
And so on.
But somehow we've gotten to the point where in many, if not most, of our congressional districts, the goal seems to be to find the stupidest nastiest shithead in the area to represent the good folks back home.
Case in point: Michigan's Justin Amash,
who had this astute observation re: scientists and Covid-19:
A scientist may know a virus’s characteristics, but he doesn’t know a community’s characteristics: how they feel, eat, shop, work, and operate businesses. These items constitute the most useful kind of knowledge—available only locally, and crucial to limiting the virus’s spread.— Justin Amash (@justinamash) May 13, 2020
Wait, what?
You think that it would be helpful for virologists or epidemiologists to have some knowledge of how a community feels?
What about that conservative motto:
I mean, is the communicability or the lethality of a virus affected by how people feel? How they eat, shop, work, etc?
Because I'm pretty sure that however you normally work, shop, conduct your business, the prescription for our current situation is the same. Stay the fuck at home, wear a god damn mask, stay at least 6 feet away from other people. It doesn't matter what your shopping habits were like last year. Things are different now.
Epidemiologists cannot know the specific actions of each individual in a community. This kind of knowledge is not knowable to any scientist. The top mistake being made by state governments is their imposing uniform rules that limit the use of local knowledge to fight the virus.— Justin Amash (@justinamash) May 13, 2020
Yes, because the way to fight a virus differs from one locality to another. Maybe in Detroit, the way to fight it is to stay home, shut non-essential businesses, wear masks and practice social distancing, but in, say, Lansing, the best way might be to STAY THE FUCK HOME, SHUT NON-ESSENTIAL FUCKING BUSINESSES, WEAR YOUR GODDAMM MASKS AND PRACTICE SOCIAL DISTANCING YOU STUPID FUCKING SHITHEAD!!!
As an example, a business owner will know how to manage traffic in her specific grocery store much better than a governor advised by a scientist. Lansing can’t account for particular circumstances. A blanket rule may cause a huge line out the door that helps spread the virus.— Justin Amash (@justinamash) May 13, 2020
Oh my God, that is the stupidest thing I have ever heard!
Why in the Hell would you think that a grocery store owner would have a better understanding of how many people can be safely admitted into a building at once, or how far apart those people need to be spaced? And a line out the door is what you're worried about? And you think that the solution would be to take those people who are standing in line outside, potentially spreading the virus, and herd them all INSIDE THE STORE? This makes sense to you?
Have you even seen what businesses are doing with lines of customers? They're having them stand six feet apart until enough people leave the store that more can be allowed in. This isn't something that should be handled differently based on your particular locale. There is just no logic to the idea that a grocery store owner would have a better idea about virus containment than the governor who is advised by the CDC, the NIH, the WHO, the top scientists at Univerity of Michigan, Michigan State, whatever other university she wants to call up and ask for advice.
They don’t have the knowledge and neither do I. That’s the point. The most useful and important kind of knowledge—that of the particular circumstances of time and place—is dispersed.— Justin Amash (@justinamash) May 13, 2020
Oh, yeah. The most important and useful knowledge is that possessed by reg'lar Joes in their small-town neighborhoods. These fancy eggheads who have spent their entire adult lives studying the factors that are in play in this exact scenario don't know nothin'! Not compared to ol' Frank down at the Stuckey's. Why ol' Frank has lived in this here town purt near longer'n anyone can remember. He dropped out of high school after his sophomore year, but he has the kind of local knowledge you just cain't git from books or colleges or laboratories and such!
This is what we've come to. This is the kind of person who we put into positions of responsibility. There's no coming back. America is doomed.
2 comments:
See my question from your latest post.
Where do these people come from and how come there are so many of them so ignorant of everything?
I proudly nominate my state's former governor Scott Walker as the "nastiest and stupidest shithead in the nation," and believe that if he'd still been in office during the pandemic, he could have run up fabulous death totals far beyond any of your measly pretend shithead governors. Our current Governor Tony Evers is actually trying to keep Wisconsin residents, you know, alive and well. Which shows the direction our state is going (sigh).
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