
How the Pandemic Defeated America - jbegley
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/09/coronavirus-american-failure/614191/
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vanusa
The pandemic, by itself, did not do this country in.

Rather, it was betrayed from within.

For decades, the conservative establishment in this country (or rather: the
right-wing ideologues that have hijacked the the term "conservativism" so
successfully that it has come to mean essentially the opposite of what the
word lexically signifies) have been working proudly and tirelessly toward a
single goal -- as expressed in the words of one of its most eloquent
spokesmen: "To reduce government to the size where I can take it into a
bathtub and drown it."

It would seem they've now finally gotten their most cherished wish.

See also:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_capitalism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_capitalism)

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glial
An utterly depressing and profoundly written essay. Ed Yong deserves a prize.

> The pandemic has been both tragedy and teacher. Its very etymology offers a
> clue about what is at stake in the greatest challenges of the future, and
> what is needed to address them. Pandemic. Pan and demos. All people

