2 ms·

Cynical take: covid is a pretense here, it's actually a fire drill. China wants Taiwan and is prepairing its populace for life under martial law.

• lostgame 4y ago
  I wish I could disagree; but this is a close to the truth as could be. :( Sad state of affairs over there.
• geoduck14 4y ago
  Before we jump to unfounded theories, can I lay down some solid observations: 1)Humans are really bad at responding to highly-unlikely events. Like: is it safer to drive or fly? And knowing which one, how would you change your travel plans? You would probably over react, or not react at all - and both would be a reflection of our inability respond to highly-unlikely events 2) Humans hate uncertainty. You ask someone a question... and then wait for an answer, we want to interject "facts" to get an answer faster. We have a vague threat, we want to protect ourselves - even if that means bringing something even worse on us. In the US, I've seen both sides of the political aisle respond poorly to uncertainty. On the left, I see "lock everything down". On the right I see "all freedoms for everyone all of the time". Personally, I have been on both sides of those decisions My theory: China is responding to to the uncertainty with something they are comfortable with: wide spread conformity. That's not a bad thing - is it simply how they find comfort
• minsc_and_boo 4y ago
  That is a cynical take, because China doesn't need to declare martial law (in Shanghai or elsewhere) if it were to take Taiwan in this scenario. It's more likely that martial law is very good at stopping transmission of a plague with R0 = 7-12