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The makers of Lysol also had to issue an official statement: As a global leader in health and hygiene products, we must be clear that under no circumstance sho

The makers of Lysol also had to issue an official statement: As a global leader in health and hygiene products, we must be clear that under no circumstance should our disinfectant products be administered into the human body (through injection, ingestion or any other route). https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/24/business/lysol-disinfectant-trump-coronavirus/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/24/business/lysol-disinfectant-t... I keep thinking of this recent Ted Chiang quote: If your goal is to dramatize the threat posed by an unknown virus, there’s no advantage in depicting the officials responding as incompetent, because that minimizes the threat; it leads the reader to conclude that the virus wouldn’t be dangerous if competent people were on the job. A pandemic story like that would be similar to what’s known as an “idiot plot,” a plot that would be resolved very quickly if your protagonist weren’t an idiot. What we’re living through is only partly a disaster novel; it’s also—and perhaps mostly—a grotesque political satire. https://electricliterature.com/ted-chiang-explains-the-disaster-novel-we-all-suddenly-live-in/ https://electricliterature.com/ted-chiang-explains-the-disas...

breischl 6y ago
On the one hand it's incredibly sad that they have to make announcements like that. On the other hand, this reaalllly feels like evolution in action.
danans 6y ago
> there’s no advantage in depicting the officials responding as incompetent, , because that minimizes the threat In this case it's not typical incompetence of officials, it's an official with huge influence derived from their office endangering people by recommending injection of disinfectants into their bodies. That itself a huge threat.
- klenwell 6y ago
  Not sure why you're being downvoted. You're right. Just to clarify one possible misreading of Chiang's point I noticed due to the way I excerpted his statement: he's not suggesting that incompetent officials should not be called out and held accountable. He's saying rather if you're a fiction writer and you were trying to write a story about a plausible sci-fi pandemic and you added a character like Trump and depicted a scene like that press conference yesterday, you'd literally lose the plot and lose any serious reader. It would unsuspend disbelief.

breischl 6y ago

On the one hand it's incredibly sad that they have to make announcements like that. On the other hand, this reaalllly feels like evolution in action.

danans 6y ago

> there’s no advantage in depicting the officials responding as incompetent, , because that minimizes the threat In this case it's not typical incompetence of officials, it's an official with huge influence derived from their office endangering people by recommending injection of disinfectants into their bodies. That itself a huge threat.

klenwell 6y ago
Not sure why you're being downvoted. You're right. Just to clarify one possible misreading of Chiang's point I noticed due to the way I excerpted his statement: he's not suggesting that incompetent officials should not be called out and held accountable. He's saying rather if you're a fiction writer and you were trying to write a story about a plausible sci-fi pandemic and you added a character like Trump and depicted a scene like that press conference yesterday, you'd literally lose the plot and lose any serious reader. It would unsuspend disbelief.