CSotD: Varying Comments on the Variant
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Martyn Turner provides a good starting point by celebrating the fact that we’ve long since lost track of the starting point and it’s all ups and downs now.
Turner is Irish, hence the snakes. The game we Yanks call “Chutes and Ladders” is “Snakes and Ladders” elsewhere because of its Indian origins, but it’s played the same and snakes are a more threatening image.
Which doesn’t matter much in the board game but works well in this context.
Brazilian cartoonist Carlos Amorim (Cartoon Arts Intl) offers a second brilliant game-based metaphor, albeit one you need to be a futbol fan to appreciate.
This is terrific work in large part because there is so little substitution in soccer and we don’t know if this is a case of taking a weary player out of the game for some fresh legs, or if the coronavirus team is behind and needs some scoring or is ahead and wants a defender to hold their lead.
If it mattered, that would be a flaw. As it is, it lets you ponder, and that seems quite appropriate, given that we’re not yet sure what’s going on with this new variant.
Which brings us to our first
Juxtaposition of the Day
(Paresh Nath – Cartoon Arts Int’l)
(Ramses Morales Izquierdo – Cartoon Movement)
The omicron variant is still being studied, but the South Africans who first identified it report that the people being hospitalized are not vaccinated, which isn’t actual proof of anything but is a pretty good hint, which these cartoonists take in slightly different directions.
Morales points out that the medical profession has been begging people to become vaccinated, and portrays this vulnerable anti-vaxxer as a tin-foil nitwit, while Paresh turns things somewhat, making it an accusation against deliberate, boneheaded idiocy.
On a purely pragmatic level, this may be a distinction without a difference, but there are a variety of levels in which it does matter.
Greg Kearney, for instance, accuses the Republicans of purposely downplaying the threat of the coronavirus for political advantage, and it’s hard to argue with him.
There are many things being bruited about that are hard to believe, but high on the list is the notion that, among all the Senators, Representatives and Governors in the GOP, there is absolutely nobody smart enough to recognize the value of vaccines and of masks.
While the party seems oddly loyal to some genuine fruitcakes, certainly they can’t all be so paranoid and so scientifically illiterate that none of them see what’s going on.
But, hey, it means they don’t need to shoot anyone on Fifth Avenue. They can just hand out bad advice and kill them by playing to their insecurities and their fears.
And, similarly, it doesn’t seem to cost them a single vote.
The outbreak has stoked some truly irrational conspiracies on both sides, including A.F. Branco (Creators)’s theory that Chinese leader Xi Jinping bullied the World Health Organization into skipping over the next Greek letter out of fear of him rather than because he’s one of many people to bear the name.
The most screwy take I’ve seen so far, however, is that the variant was announced in order to distract us from the start of the Ghislane Maxwell trial. Branco’s conspiracy only takes place at a political level, while that one requires a jump into a completely other universe of paranoia.
This, too, may be a distinction without a difference. I remain in favor of handing out fake earbuds to people who wander around talking to themselves, but they seem to be doing a pretty good job these days of blending in anyway.
Juxtaposition of the Day #2
It’s not all paranoia. Some of the factually dubious things being said are traditional political spin, and it’s hard to know how much is being said in loyalty to the party and how much is deliberate deception.
This popular accusation — discounted here by Politifact and here by CNN — is based on a remark Biden made during the campaign, in which he accused Trump of being xenophobic on the same day that Trump announced travel restrictions, but, as pointed out in those links, he said it too close to the announcement for it to be definitely taken as a comment on that specific move.
Certainly, Trump’s blatant bigotry against Muslim immigration and his remarks about “shithole countries” made xenophobia a credible evergreen charge, while his insistence on referring to the virus as “the Chinese Virus” and even “Kung Flu” justify pointing out his bigotry on that particular topic, travel restrictions aside.
Kevin Siers brings up a more complex accusation, which is that the vaccines are not being distributed in a fair manner.
It’s certainly true that, while the US is at about two-thirds vaccinated, South Africa has only about a quarter of its adult population protected.
It’s not, however, as simple as rich people hoarding the medicine for themselves, though there is an element of Bat Masterson’s observation that life is fair because the rich get ice in the summer and the poor get it in the winter.
The issue came up at yesterday’s White House press briefing, and Jen Psaki said the South Africans have not been requesting more vaccines, that the problem is not supply but distribution.
Still, other nations accuse the Biden Administration of publicly favoring patent waivers so that vaccines can be produced in other countries while failing to follow through with meaningful action in that direction.
As said, this one is complex, and not the sort of problem that responds well to endless debate. We need some rapid debate, given the facts already known.
Juxtaposition of the Day #3
We’ll end this otherwise grim roundup with a reminder that great minds think alike and also that shit happens.
This is pure coincidence. It’s impossible to believe that Handelsman, who is based in Louisiana, could possibly have stolen this from Schacherl, who lives in Johannesburg, or vice-versa.
After all, it’s a whole 600 miles from Baton Rouge to Laredo, where we are assured by Governor Abbott that Texas and South Africa share a common border.
(Careful, there, Greg. You’re gonna lose the redneck vote.)
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