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Unfortunately, I doubt this is true. Conservative churches have largely become a proxy for conservative politics, and a lot of conservative media still question

Unfortunately, I doubt this is true. Conservative churches have largely become a proxy for conservative politics, and a lot of conservative media still questions the methods and motives of the coronavirus response. Imagine people that are so deeply convinced that the media is lying to them and this is a plot to undermine his agenda. That narrative absolutely exists and there are many out there who believe it.

JamesBarney 7y ago
I think this is the most likely answer. The only people I know who aren't taking this seriously are friends who get their information from conservative sources. I don't think any churches are intentionally risking the health of their congregation.
- maxerickson 7y ago
  Congregants of megachurches in Louisiana, Ohio and Florida attended services in defiance of social distancing orders That's pretty intentional. I think I get what you mean, that the decision isn't being made with the intention of risking their health. But they are risking the health of their congregations, because they think they know better.
war1025 7y ago
This is severe bias on your part in my opinion. Conservatives are just as concerned as liberals about the prospect of hundreds of thousands of people dying. The only difference is they tend to have confidence that the government will be able to handle the response effort.
- d3ad1ysp0rk 7y ago
  This is untrue. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/03/21/upshot/coronavirus-public-opinion.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/03/21/upshot/corona...
- cycrutchfield 7y ago
  And how is that going so far?
  - war1025 7y ago
    Pretty damn well in my opinion. Mobilizing and coordinating resources is a hell of a task. The response was going to start off as a shit-show, no matter who was in charge. In my opinion we're ramping up and course correcting very well.
    - cycrutchfield 7y ago
      No mention of the bungled CDC test or the 6 week headstart that was squandered? “15 cases soon to be 0”? This has been an unmitigated disaster thus far, especially if you compare us to South Korea.
      - war1025 7y ago
        Did you read what I said at all? It started as a shit-show. Everything unexpected always starts as a shit-show. That is life.
        cycrutchfield 7y ago
        South Korea handled it fine. They didn’t downplay it and claim it was no worse than the seasonal flu. When it’s your guy who fucked up, it’s interesting how all of a sudden it’s “this could have happened to anybody!”
        war1025 7y ago
        South Korea dealt with SARS 20 years ago. This was round two for them.
        save_ferris 7y ago
        The administration made numerous statements early on that insinuated the virus wasn’t serious. Trump himself called it a hoax, said it was like the regular flu, etc. HEB, a Texas-based grocer, was talking to partners, running disaster scenarios, and preparing their supply chain as far back as January[0]. A private company was a month ahead of the administration despite all of the preliminary reporting and intelligence communications around the virus. There’s absolutely no excuse for the way the government bungled this. While Trump was calling the virus a hoax, companies were already preparing for what was to come. 0: https://www.texasmonthly.com/food/heb-prepared-coronavirus-pandemic/ https://www.texasmonthly.com/food/heb-prepared-coronavirus-p...
- JamesBarney 7y ago
  I 100% agree that conservatives value life just as much as liberals. But surely you must agree the "this is just a flu" narrative has been more common among conservative news sources than liberal ones.
  - michaelmrose 7y ago
    Conservatives value their own lives as much as anyone else and presumably the lives of their own intimates. They are much more likely to believe that the lives of others are out of scope of their life and decision making. That is to say that they in theory will express its value but will not sacrifice even the slightest bit of their own effort or their own well being for any degree of benefit to the other. In fact they will gladly sacrifice our well being or our very lives for mere wealth.
- crispinb 7y ago
  This may be true of conservatives qua conservatives on the world stage. Conservatism in the US, however, has become married with a very particular dysfunctional form of identity politics. And that does tend to deny any science that contradicts the policy prescriptions of its brand of oddly selective libertarianism. The stats are pretty clear on this with US 'conservative' attitudes to public health, climate change, etc.
- michaelmrose 7y ago
  What about the Lt Governor who said that his grandma would Gladly die for America as it were. Playing down the level of current and coming deaths and passing off the loss of those who ultimately do die as necessary for the continuing prosperity of the remainder is the mainstream conservative position.
  - war1025 7y ago
    Some people are morons. That doesn't change based on whether they are conservative or liberal. The majority of my news comes from NPR (IPR locally here in Iowa). The main people that comment on their Facebook page are clearly liberal and clearly also some of the biggest idiots you've ever met. Being in a position of leadership also doesn't automatically mean you're not a moron. What I know is that the Republican President and also the Republican Governor of Iowa are taking this very seriously. Also I highly recommend people actually watch the press briefings because what I've found is that any time I actually listen to what Trump says, he makes a hell of a lot more sense than whatever clip the media generally chooses to play out of context.
    - cycrutchfield 7y ago
      Ok, now you’re just trolling us. I watch Trump’s press conferences. The word salad is still word salad. He clearly has no idea how to handle this and is incapable of taking responsibility or decisive action.
      - war1025 7y ago
        I am 100% not trolling. I find those briefings to be very informative.
        FireBeyond 7y ago
        “It’s going to disappear. One day, it’s like a miracle, it will disappear” Informative? "There's a theory that, in April, when it gets warm, historically, that has been able to kill the virus," Informative? "when it gets a little warmer, it miraculously goes away." I could go on. And on, and on. But I doubt it will make any difference, whatsoever.
- save_ferris 7y ago
  I’m happy to hear how exactly my statement is biased. Fox News just fired Trish Regan for stating that Coronavirus was “another attempt by Democrats to impeach Trump.” That statement came just a few weeks after Trump himself claimed that concern around the virus was also a liberal hoax. Days after making that statement, he said that cases would drop to zero in a few days, we’re now in the hundreds of thousands. When asked why he cut the pandemic preparedness unit at his National Security Council, he claimed he had no idea that happened, despite video surfacing that shows him talking about those cuts in 2018. Doctors in NYC are days away from having to decide who lives and dies because there won’t be enough respirators for everyone, they’ve already set up refrigerated trailers to store bodies. Testing still isn’t widely available even though we were all told it would be weeks ago. We’re now at hundreds of thousands infected, thousands dead, and no end to this in sight, given that the president has now pushed social distancing measures to the end of April. What gives you confidence about this situation?
  - war1025 7y ago
    > I’m happy to hear how exactly my statement is biased. Re-reading your comment, I think probably the main issue I have with it probably just comes down to us thinking of different people when we see the word "conservative". I agree that people exist who fit exactly what you described. I just think that's a much smaller slice of the population than (I assumed) you believe. > We’re now at hundreds of thousands infected, thousands dead, and no end to this in sight Welcome to a pandemic. Americans today aren't used to being vulnerable. If anything, it's just a reminder of how thin the facade we project on the world actually is.
    - magduf 7y ago
      >Welcome to a pandemic. Americans today aren't used to being vulnerable. If anything, it's just a reminder of how thin the facade we project on the world actually is. No, the problem is that America has an incompetent government. China, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan have shown how to handle this thing with reasonable degrees of competence. We have not. Plagues and diseases have been around since long before humans. Dealing with them is one of the functions of civilized society, and ours is failing, while other nations are doing far better jobs. But of course, Americans never want to look outside their borders at how other countries do things.
- FireBeyond 7y ago
  That the party for smaller government because (large) government is ineffectual and intrudes on individual rights is the one more confident that the government will fix things is entirely oxymoronic.
crispinb 7y ago
The two tend to go hand in hand. Being strongly money-motivated almost invariably requires lying to yourself in order to maintain a sense of not being a bastard (which almost no-one, not even the most egregious figures, tend to believe about themselves). The best sales people believe their own lies. Greed is a cognitive malfunction.
kortilla 7y ago
This isn’t the cause. Even Trump is recommending social distancing, etc.
- cogman10 7y ago
  Unfortunately, he called it a hoax and conservative media spent a good deal of time downplaying the seriousness of corona. I think that initial reaction has done a lot of damage even with everyone changing their tune.
  - cglace 7y ago
    Not that I agree with Trump or his handling of all of this but he didn’t actually call it a hoax [1]. Repeating this makes conservatives even more convinced “the media” is just out to get him. [1] https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-coronavirus-rally-remark/ https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-coronavirus-rally-re...
    - finnh 7y ago
      "One of my people came up to me and said, ‘Mr. President, they tried to beat you on Russia, Russia, Russia. That didn’t work out too well. They couldn’t do it. They tried the impeachment hoax. That was on a perfect conversation. They tried anything, they tried it over and over, they’ve been doing it since you got in. It’s all turning, they lost, it’s all turning. Think of it. Think of it. And this is their new hoax." It's the usual word salad, but I think "Trump says coronavirus is a hoax" is a reasonable interpretation.
      - cglace 7y ago
        Sure, however he didn’t directly say the virus is a hoax. So you are projecting an unfair interpretation because you don’t like him. That’s just going to further convince conservatives that liberals don’t ever give the president a fair shake.
        deleted 7y ago
markkanof 7y ago
The problem is that the media often does lie to us or at least cherry picks the bits that align with their narrative. It’s basically become a boy who cried wolf kind of situation. Many in the mainstream media have cried wolf so frequently that now that there is a wolf many people are not willing to listen.

JamesBarney 7y ago

I think this is the most likely answer. The only people I know who aren't taking this seriously are friends who get their information from conservative sources. I don't think any churches are intentionally risking the health of their congregation.

maxerickson 7y ago
Congregants of megachurches in Louisiana, Ohio and Florida attended services in defiance of social distancing orders That's pretty intentional. I think I get what you mean, that the decision isn't being made with the intention of risking their health. But they are risking the health of their congregations, because they think they know better.

war1025 7y ago

This is severe bias on your part in my opinion. Conservatives are just as concerned as liberals about the prospect of hundreds of thousands of people dying. The only difference is they tend to have confidence that the government will be able to handle the response effort.

d3ad1ysp0rk 7y ago
This is untrue. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/03/21/upshot/coronavirus-public-opinion.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/03/21/upshot/corona...
cycrutchfield 7y ago
And how is that going so far?
- war1025 7y ago
  Pretty damn well in my opinion. Mobilizing and coordinating resources is a hell of a task. The response was going to start off as a shit-show, no matter who was in charge. In my opinion we're ramping up and course correcting very well.
  - cycrutchfield 7y ago
    No mention of the bungled CDC test or the 6 week headstart that was squandered? “15 cases soon to be 0”? This has been an unmitigated disaster thus far, especially if you compare us to South Korea.
    - war1025 7y ago
      Did you read what I said at all? It started as a shit-show. Everything unexpected always starts as a shit-show. That is life.
      - cycrutchfield 7y ago
        South Korea handled it fine. They didn’t downplay it and claim it was no worse than the seasonal flu. When it’s your guy who fucked up, it’s interesting how all of a sudden it’s “this could have happened to anybody!”
        war1025 7y ago
        South Korea dealt with SARS 20 years ago. This was round two for them.
      - save_ferris 7y ago
        The administration made numerous statements early on that insinuated the virus wasn’t serious. Trump himself called it a hoax, said it was like the regular flu, etc. HEB, a Texas-based grocer, was talking to partners, running disaster scenarios, and preparing their supply chain as far back as January[0]. A private company was a month ahead of the administration despite all of the preliminary reporting and intelligence communications around the virus. There’s absolutely no excuse for the way the government bungled this. While Trump was calling the virus a hoax, companies were already preparing for what was to come. 0: https://www.texasmonthly.com/food/heb-prepared-coronavirus-pandemic/ https://www.texasmonthly.com/food/heb-prepared-coronavirus-p...
JamesBarney 7y ago
I 100% agree that conservatives value life just as much as liberals. But surely you must agree the "this is just a flu" narrative has been more common among conservative news sources than liberal ones.
- michaelmrose 7y ago
  Conservatives value their own lives as much as anyone else and presumably the lives of their own intimates. They are much more likely to believe that the lives of others are out of scope of their life and decision making. That is to say that they in theory will express its value but will not sacrifice even the slightest bit of their own effort or their own well being for any degree of benefit to the other. In fact they will gladly sacrifice our well being or our very lives for mere wealth.
crispinb 7y ago
This may be true of conservatives qua conservatives on the world stage. Conservatism in the US, however, has become married with a very particular dysfunctional form of identity politics. And that does tend to deny any science that contradicts the policy prescriptions of its brand of oddly selective libertarianism. The stats are pretty clear on this with US 'conservative' attitudes to public health, climate change, etc.
michaelmrose 7y ago
What about the Lt Governor who said that his grandma would Gladly die for America as it were. Playing down the level of current and coming deaths and passing off the loss of those who ultimately do die as necessary for the continuing prosperity of the remainder is the mainstream conservative position.
- war1025 7y ago
  Some people are morons. That doesn't change based on whether they are conservative or liberal. The majority of my news comes from NPR (IPR locally here in Iowa). The main people that comment on their Facebook page are clearly liberal and clearly also some of the biggest idiots you've ever met. Being in a position of leadership also doesn't automatically mean you're not a moron. What I know is that the Republican President and also the Republican Governor of Iowa are taking this very seriously. Also I highly recommend people actually watch the press briefings because what I've found is that any time I actually listen to what Trump says, he makes a hell of a lot more sense than whatever clip the media generally chooses to play out of context.
  - cycrutchfield 7y ago
    Ok, now you’re just trolling us. I watch Trump’s press conferences. The word salad is still word salad. He clearly has no idea how to handle this and is incapable of taking responsibility or decisive action.
    - war1025 7y ago
      I am 100% not trolling. I find those briefings to be very informative.
      - FireBeyond 7y ago
        “It’s going to disappear. One day, it’s like a miracle, it will disappear” Informative? "There's a theory that, in April, when it gets warm, historically, that has been able to kill the virus," Informative? "when it gets a little warmer, it miraculously goes away." I could go on. And on, and on. But I doubt it will make any difference, whatsoever.
save_ferris 7y ago
I’m happy to hear how exactly my statement is biased. Fox News just fired Trish Regan for stating that Coronavirus was “another attempt by Democrats to impeach Trump.” That statement came just a few weeks after Trump himself claimed that concern around the virus was also a liberal hoax. Days after making that statement, he said that cases would drop to zero in a few days, we’re now in the hundreds of thousands. When asked why he cut the pandemic preparedness unit at his National Security Council, he claimed he had no idea that happened, despite video surfacing that shows him talking about those cuts in 2018. Doctors in NYC are days away from having to decide who lives and dies because there won’t be enough respirators for everyone, they’ve already set up refrigerated trailers to store bodies. Testing still isn’t widely available even though we were all told it would be weeks ago. We’re now at hundreds of thousands infected, thousands dead, and no end to this in sight, given that the president has now pushed social distancing measures to the end of April. What gives you confidence about this situation?
- war1025 7y ago
  > I’m happy to hear how exactly my statement is biased. Re-reading your comment, I think probably the main issue I have with it probably just comes down to us thinking of different people when we see the word "conservative". I agree that people exist who fit exactly what you described. I just think that's a much smaller slice of the population than (I assumed) you believe. > We’re now at hundreds of thousands infected, thousands dead, and no end to this in sight Welcome to a pandemic. Americans today aren't used to being vulnerable. If anything, it's just a reminder of how thin the facade we project on the world actually is.
  - magduf 7y ago
    >Welcome to a pandemic. Americans today aren't used to being vulnerable. If anything, it's just a reminder of how thin the facade we project on the world actually is. No, the problem is that America has an incompetent government. China, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan have shown how to handle this thing with reasonable degrees of competence. We have not. Plagues and diseases have been around since long before humans. Dealing with them is one of the functions of civilized society, and ours is failing, while other nations are doing far better jobs. But of course, Americans never want to look outside their borders at how other countries do things.
FireBeyond 7y ago
That the party for smaller government because (large) government is ineffectual and intrudes on individual rights is the one more confident that the government will fix things is entirely oxymoronic.

crispinb 7y ago

The two tend to go hand in hand. Being strongly money-motivated almost invariably requires lying to yourself in order to maintain a sense of not being a bastard (which almost no-one, not even the most egregious figures, tend to believe about themselves). The best sales people believe their own lies. Greed is a cognitive malfunction.

kortilla 7y ago

This isn’t the cause. Even Trump is recommending social distancing, etc.

cogman10 7y ago
Unfortunately, he called it a hoax and conservative media spent a good deal of time downplaying the seriousness of corona. I think that initial reaction has done a lot of damage even with everyone changing their tune.
- cglace 7y ago
  Not that I agree with Trump or his handling of all of this but he didn’t actually call it a hoax [1]. Repeating this makes conservatives even more convinced “the media” is just out to get him. [1] https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-coronavirus-rally-remark/ https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-coronavirus-rally-re...
  - finnh 7y ago
    "One of my people came up to me and said, ‘Mr. President, they tried to beat you on Russia, Russia, Russia. That didn’t work out too well. They couldn’t do it. They tried the impeachment hoax. That was on a perfect conversation. They tried anything, they tried it over and over, they’ve been doing it since you got in. It’s all turning, they lost, it’s all turning. Think of it. Think of it. And this is their new hoax." It's the usual word salad, but I think "Trump says coronavirus is a hoax" is a reasonable interpretation.
    - cglace 7y ago
      Sure, however he didn’t directly say the virus is a hoax. So you are projecting an unfair interpretation because you don’t like him. That’s just going to further convince conservatives that liberals don’t ever give the president a fair shake.
      - deleted 7y ago

markkanof 7y ago

The problem is that the media often does lie to us or at least cherry picks the bits that align with their narrative. It’s basically become a boy who cried wolf kind of situation. Many in the mainstream media have cried wolf so frequently that now that there is a wolf many people are not willing to listen.