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A loud minority of twitter mob participants shouted "You want to kill grandma!" every time anyone tried to discuss the full costs of the lockdowns. People don'

A loud minority of twitter mob participants shouted "You want to kill grandma!" every time anyone tried to discuss the full costs of the lockdowns. People don't want to risk their careers saying things that are unpopular with twitter mobs (especially in academia). So now we're effectively governed by emotional neurotics and government can no longer make reasonable decisions based on a dispassionate cost-benefit analysis.

matthewdgreen 5y ago
Figuratively speaking, we did kill grandma. We've lost 603,000 human lives during this epidemic, and 90% happened within the first year.
acatnamedjoe 5y ago
There is no such thing as dispassionate cost benefit analysis (or at least, there isn't outside of a very narrow range of specific cases). Cost benefit analysis for big complex issues like coronavirus requires the identification and quantification of things that are really difficult to identify and quantify, and there's no easy way to do that without some form of subjective value judgement. CBA done properly is a good way to make these judgements explicit and transparent. CBA done badly is a good way to hide those judgements behind a load of figures. Neither is dispassionate.
- ryathal 5y ago
  The entire point of a republic and bureaucracy is to have that dispassionate cost benefit analysis. It's to be done by people that shouldn't be subject to the mob mentality.
  - tboyd47 5y ago
    The point of a republic is to limit government, not ensure technocrats can never get fired.
    - ryathal 5y ago
      It's not about not getting fired. It's about having the person that can make the cold dispassionate, but ultimately best choice. If we are still getting decisions based mostly on emotion the usefulness is vastly diminished.
bellyfullofbac 5y ago
Ugh, Twitter mobs? Governments that got the pandemic "under control" gained approval ratings, the ones that messed up, well, that I agree with Biden aide that quipped "Covid is the best thing that ever happened to [Biden]". Had Dumbass & Co. got it under control, he would've probably won the reelection... So I don't think it's just the Twitter mobs...

matthewdgreen 5y ago

Figuratively speaking, we did kill grandma. We've lost 603,000 human lives during this epidemic, and 90% happened within the first year.

acatnamedjoe 5y ago

There is no such thing as dispassionate cost benefit analysis (or at least, there isn't outside of a very narrow range of specific cases). Cost benefit analysis for big complex issues like coronavirus requires the identification and quantification of things that are really difficult to identify and quantify, and there's no easy way to do that without some form of subjective value judgement. CBA done properly is a good way to make these judgements explicit and transparent. CBA done badly is a good way to hide those judgements behind a load of figures. Neither is dispassionate.

ryathal 5y ago
The entire point of a republic and bureaucracy is to have that dispassionate cost benefit analysis. It's to be done by people that shouldn't be subject to the mob mentality.
- tboyd47 5y ago
  The point of a republic is to limit government, not ensure technocrats can never get fired.
  - ryathal 5y ago
    It's not about not getting fired. It's about having the person that can make the cold dispassionate, but ultimately best choice. If we are still getting decisions based mostly on emotion the usefulness is vastly diminished.

bellyfullofbac 5y ago

Ugh, Twitter mobs? Governments that got the pandemic "under control" gained approval ratings, the ones that messed up, well, that I agree with Biden aide that quipped "Covid is the best thing that ever happened to [Biden]". Had Dumbass & Co. got it under control, he would've probably won the reelection... So I don't think it's just the Twitter mobs...