Conversation

Kinda fascinating that a virus is the biggest story in 2020for me personally, way ahead of Sanders vs Democratic Party or SpaceX or forest fires or anything else. Something is different about this bug compared to last few, and it isn’t just the online memetic immune response.
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I think it’s a live referendum on the importance of institutional and expert responses in an age that has convinced itself both are irrelevant and have lost all trust and credibility.
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People I thought were radical BTFSTTG types are suddenly turning into CDC stans and believers in epidemiology credentials. Nobody is suggesting popular referendums like Brexit to shape responses. There’s a limit to faith in crowds/distrust of authorities after all.
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The thing is, even if the institutions and experts are responding poorly, there’s no “populist” alternative on the table. Almost anyone can be President it seems, but very few can do things like analyze viruses or synthesize vaccines.
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Populist options will be limited to cures worse than disease in the short term. In the long-term biohackers might generate local responses from hacker spaces with crispr or whatever. Right now, the vilified experts are the only available line of defense
Replying to
Most of you, I’ll bet if you get the symptoms you’ll go see a doctor and accept their protocol. You won’t be calling your friendly neighborhood anti-authority conspiracy theorist for advice.
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