It is the China virus. That’s not racist. That’s the truth.

China was warned decades ago that their markets were a potential source of a pandemic. They did nothing to mitigate the risk.

When the COVID19 outbreak started, they suppressed the truth, jailed dissenters, didn’t allow foreign experts in, and lied to the world, and to the World Health Organization. (WHO’s conduct is in this story is abysmal also, by the way.)

They hid the fact that COVID19 could be spread by human conduct. Lots of people are dead because of that lie.

We still don’t know crucial facts about this Chinese, Wuhan virus because in totalitarian cultures, following orders and supporting the party is more important than the truth.

It is way past time to end our dependence on China, and for the world to ostracize them for the brutal monsters they are.

Guilt culture vs. shame culture: Does it matter?

In their first #coronavirus shut-down podcast, Pigweed and Crowhill drink and review two beers — For Pete’s Sake and Torpedo — and then discuss shame vs. guilt, and how a shame culture differs from a guilt culture. 

Although the words are sometimes used interchangeably, you can distinguish them. Guilt stems from the feeling that you have violated a moral norm. You can have guilt over something you’ve done alone in the dark. Shame requires an audience. It’s related to how others perceive you. 

Shame culture might also be called honor culture, and it leads to a very different sort of society. Guilt may be no fun, but it makes for a better culture than shame. 

How are we going to crawl out of this mess once it’s over?

Millions of people are losing their jobs. Businesses are closing down. The government is putting trillions of dollars of debt on our backs. And as of right now, we don’t know when this will be over. It could be another month. It could be another two months. Or three.

Once it is over, will there be jobs for people to go back to?

I don’t think anybody knows how, or whether, this is going to work.

The conspiracy theorists say it’s a huge power grab of some kind, and … I have to admit that in a lot of ways it seems like that.

A few things are certain. When the crisis is over …

+ we’ll be more dependent on government than ever
+ government will have seized more powers, and we won’t even know what they all are
+ we’ll be many trillions of dollars further into debt