
Republicans and Democrats See Covid-19 Differently. Is That Making People Sick? - sprucely
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/republicans-and-democrats-see-covid-19-very-differently-is-that-making-people-sick/
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mindslight
As more of our existence moves into the virtual realm, the virtual realm
carries more weight than the physical reality. This was foreseen with the rise
of mass media decades ago - long enough to have been forgotten - and now we're
just living it out. This is combined with post-truth - the world is
complicated, and we're swamped with conflicting expert opinions. So we fall
back to solipsism - nothing truly matters until it affects _you_.

I had been hoping this article was going to be about actual psychosomatic
effects based on peoples beliefs. Like say if the people who didn't care about
the epidemic actually had lower fatality rates. _That_ would be interesting,
alas.

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starfallg
The fact that, back in June, 61% percent of republicans thought that the worst
of the crisis was behind us explains how the epidemic picked up so much pace.
That was an increase from 42% in April. I wonder what the current figures are.

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alexbanks
It also probably depends on your definition of "crisis", no? If republicans
view the crisis as "government forcing businesses to close", maybeprobably
we're past it. We're not even close to done with (unnecessary) death, but I
kinda think that the US red party doesn't really care about that figure at
all.

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starfallg
>If republicans view the crisis as "government forcing businesses to close"

Isn't that an entirely roundabout approach to viewing the issue though? They
are targeting the treatment rather than the cause. And because the treatment
being the problem in their eyes, they don't adhere to it, making the problem
worse. It's like getting a 3 month treatment of anti-biotics, taking 2 pills,
throwing the rest away and saying that anti-biotics don't work.

~~~
alexbanks
I mean, yes, but that's not stopped anybody. The reds want people back to
work, not to live a long and healthy life. The reds are getting what they
want.

