4 ms·

Trumpian rhetoric aside, it's really unfair giving the histrionic media a pass on this. The toilet paper outages were stoked by the media. Instead of seeing op-

by dvt 7y ago

Trumpian rhetoric aside, it's really unfair giving the histrionic media a pass on this. The toilet paper outages were stoked by the media. Instead of seeing op-eds with "stop raiding stores for toilet paper," all we saw (and still see) is "this president is incompetent." Just this morning, CNN was frothing at the mouth at Trump calling it the "China virus" -- I mean, yeah, it's a virus that came from China -- and they have an op-ed on how this term is stoking xenophobia.

munk-a 7y ago
Honestly, "China Virus" is just xenophobia and deflection - it wasn't a term adopted by the populace at large - pushing it as a name for the virus has been a right wing effort. The usage of that term is solely to try and deflect responsibility for anything domestic to China and pass the buck... it also has the potential to cause hate crimes in a time when we really should be unifying as nations.
daeken 7y ago
> Just this morning, CNN was frothing at the mouth at Trump calling it the "China virus" -- I mean, yeah, it's a virus that came from China -- and they have an op-ed on how this term is stoking xenophobia. That's because it is. There have been many reports of harassment and assaults on Chinese Americans, and this kind of label doesn't go away. The term "Spanish Flu" is still used 100 years later, not because it originated there (it didn't -- it almost certainly originated in midwestern USA) but because the media paid more attention there. The terms we use matter.
- dvt 7y ago
  > That's because it is. There have been many reports of harassment and assaults on Chinese Americans This is an extreme, uncited, and frankly inflammatory extrapolation. There have been only a handful of such attacks -- I believe 5-ish (reported by The New Yorker and CNN). It's just the typical race-baiting we've seen that generates outrage clicks. Calling it the "China Virus" has no more societal impact (which is: minor at best) than the "Spanish Flu." Really, it just strengthens my point about the nonsense the media is peddling, instead of asking the populace to remain calm, take precautions, and stay safe.
  - FireBeyond 7y ago
    > There have been only a handful of such attacks How many are an acceptable number? Or tolerable number?
    - XaoDaoCaoCao 7y ago
      You can't control every agent in the world. You literally have to have a tolerance for the existence of a few stupid ones.
      - munk-a 7y ago
        You can avoid stoking the flames and creating scapegoats. Just for reference when the Nazi party initially started to scapegoat Jewish and Romani people they used disease and hygiene concerns as an early way to paint people poorly and it's hellishly effective - blaming "mexicans taking jobs" is a pretty weak (relatively) scapegoating when compared to "mexican rapists" and trying to play to actors that may be causing a more personal harm. Painting the disease as being Chinese/Jewish/Romani is sort of the ultimate scapegoating - people feel personal pain from seeing sickness in their community and have no direct way to see that the attribution of that sickness to a people group is entirely bullsh. Dogwhistling for racism isn't an innocent action and deserves no understanding, it is hate filled and driven out of self-interest by those doing it.
        dvt 7y ago
        > Just for reference when the Nazi party... This is an absolutely insane analogy -- not to mention grossly off-base. No one is scapegoating the Chinese people (or, even less so, Americans that happen to have Asian ancestry). Calling it the "Chinese Virus" simply points to its geographic source, i.e. Wuhan, China.
        huanwin 7y ago
        > insane analogy Yeah, Godwin's Law strikes again. Not everything is literally Hitler. > This is an extreme, uncited, and frankly inflammatory extrapolation. There have been only a handful of such attacks -- I believe 5-ish (reported by The New Yorker and CNN).[0] So nobody is doing this? Or have there been incidents that you yourself have previously acknowledged? I tried civilly engaging in discourse with you earlier[1]. But now it seems like you're arguing with people just to argue, not to actually discuss these topics. Also, you can correct people who are mistaken about where it originated without saying "Chinese flu". E.g. "actually, the coronavirus originated in China". I remarked on this to another user who said they just wanted to stick to the facts about its origins.[2] If you're intent on making sure China is regarded as the source and/or culprit, you can emphasize further by adding something like, "and that's why the majority of cases and deaths from [coronavirus/covid-19] were in China. It started there." And that can be said perfectly fine without "Chinese virus". [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22621821 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22621821 [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22622069 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22622069 [2]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22622774 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22622774
wool_gather 7y ago
> Instead of seeing op-eds with "stop raiding stores for toilet paper," all we saw (and still see) is "this president is incompetent." Well, if one believed that both these things were equally true, which one would be more worthwhile writing about?
- AnimalMuppet 7y ago
  Toilet paper? Even if one believes the president to be incompetent, that's not news. (The details of how that incompetence plays out today may be...) But toilet paper, last week, was making an actual difference in actual peoples' lives, right then, in a way that was new.
majormajor 7y ago
> Instead of seeing op-eds with "stop raiding stores for toilet paper," all we saw (and still see) is "this president is incompetent." I've seen a LOT of stories about the problems of hoarding, pleas to stop hoarding, etc... I just assume bad cases of confirmation virus when I see claims like this, now.

by dvt 7y ago

munk-a 7y ago

Honestly, "China Virus" is just xenophobia and deflection - it wasn't a term adopted by the populace at large - pushing it as a name for the virus has been a right wing effort. The usage of that term is solely to try and deflect responsibility for anything domestic to China and pass the buck... it also has the potential to cause hate crimes in a time when we really should be unifying as nations.

daeken 7y ago

> Just this morning, CNN was frothing at the mouth at Trump calling it the "China virus" -- I mean, yeah, it's a virus that came from China -- and they have an op-ed on how this term is stoking xenophobia. That's because it is. There have been many reports of harassment and assaults on Chinese Americans, and this kind of label doesn't go away. The term "Spanish Flu" is still used 100 years later, not because it originated there (it didn't -- it almost certainly originated in midwestern USA) but because the media paid more attention there. The terms we use matter.

dvt 7y ago
> That's because it is. There have been many reports of harassment and assaults on Chinese Americans This is an extreme, uncited, and frankly inflammatory extrapolation. There have been only a handful of such attacks -- I believe 5-ish (reported by The New Yorker and CNN). It's just the typical race-baiting we've seen that generates outrage clicks. Calling it the "China Virus" has no more societal impact (which is: minor at best) than the "Spanish Flu." Really, it just strengthens my point about the nonsense the media is peddling, instead of asking the populace to remain calm, take precautions, and stay safe.
- FireBeyond 7y ago
  > There have been only a handful of such attacks How many are an acceptable number? Or tolerable number?
  - XaoDaoCaoCao 7y ago
    You can't control every agent in the world. You literally have to have a tolerance for the existence of a few stupid ones.
    - munk-a 7y ago
      You can avoid stoking the flames and creating scapegoats. Just for reference when the Nazi party initially started to scapegoat Jewish and Romani people they used disease and hygiene concerns as an early way to paint people poorly and it's hellishly effective - blaming "mexicans taking jobs" is a pretty weak (relatively) scapegoating when compared to "mexican rapists" and trying to play to actors that may be causing a more personal harm. Painting the disease as being Chinese/Jewish/Romani is sort of the ultimate scapegoating - people feel personal pain from seeing sickness in their community and have no direct way to see that the attribution of that sickness to a people group is entirely bullsh. Dogwhistling for racism isn't an innocent action and deserves no understanding, it is hate filled and driven out of self-interest by those doing it.
      - dvt 7y ago
        > Just for reference when the Nazi party... This is an absolutely insane analogy -- not to mention grossly off-base. No one is scapegoating the Chinese people (or, even less so, Americans that happen to have Asian ancestry). Calling it the "Chinese Virus" simply points to its geographic source, i.e. Wuhan, China.
        huanwin 7y ago
        > insane analogy Yeah, Godwin's Law strikes again. Not everything is literally Hitler. > This is an extreme, uncited, and frankly inflammatory extrapolation. There have been only a handful of such attacks -- I believe 5-ish (reported by The New Yorker and CNN).[0] So nobody is doing this? Or have there been incidents that you yourself have previously acknowledged? I tried civilly engaging in discourse with you earlier[1]. But now it seems like you're arguing with people just to argue, not to actually discuss these topics. Also, you can correct people who are mistaken about where it originated without saying "Chinese flu". E.g. "actually, the coronavirus originated in China". I remarked on this to another user who said they just wanted to stick to the facts about its origins.[2] If you're intent on making sure China is regarded as the source and/or culprit, you can emphasize further by adding something like, "and that's why the majority of cases and deaths from [coronavirus/covid-19] were in China. It started there." And that can be said perfectly fine without "Chinese virus". [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22621821 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22621821 [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22622069 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22622069 [2]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22622774 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22622774

wool_gather 7y ago

> Instead of seeing op-eds with "stop raiding stores for toilet paper," all we saw (and still see) is "this president is incompetent." Well, if one believed that both these things were equally true, which one would be more worthwhile writing about?

AnimalMuppet 7y ago
Toilet paper? Even if one believes the president to be incompetent, that's not news. (The details of how that incompetence plays out today may be...) But toilet paper, last week, was making an actual difference in actual peoples' lives, right then, in a way that was new.

majormajor 7y ago

> Instead of seeing op-eds with "stop raiding stores for toilet paper," all we saw (and still see) is "this president is incompetent." I've seen a LOT of stories about the problems of hoarding, pleas to stop hoarding, etc... I just assume bad cases of confirmation virus when I see claims like this, now.