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> 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
by danans 7y 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 7y agoNot 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.