In a press-conference today Governor Andrew Cuomo twice referred to the current pandemic as “the European virus”.
I am old and experienced, and expect nothing but lies and deception from politicians generally, and Democrats in particular, but even by contemporary Blue-Team standards this is stunningly audacious. Everybody — everybody! — knows this thing did not come from Europe, so to say that it did is a transparently obvious test of power and allegiance.
Theodore Dalrymple once said:
“Political correctness is communist propaganda writ small. In my study of communist societies, I came to the conclusion that the purpose of communist propaganda was not to persuade or convince, nor to inform, but to humiliate; and therefore, the less it corresponded to reality the better. When people are forced to remain silent when they are being told the most obvious lies, or even worse when they are forced to repeat the lies themselves, they lose once and for all their sense of probity. To assent to obvious lies is to co-operate with evil, and in some small way to become evil oneself. One’s standing to resist anything is thus eroded, and even destroyed. A society of emasculated liars is easy to control. I think if you examine political correctness, it has the same effect and is intended to.”
A far older example: “Point Deer, Make Horse”. Spandrell explains.
8 Comments
Just read Spandrell’s article and in fairness, not being “pragmatic” is why the west wrecked China (and the rest of the world) for about 400 years. By honoring truth telling you get more truth aka things that actually work, like reliable ships and handheld firearms.
Christianity Is the most intellectually ruthless religion, bar none, whether or not you believe in it. It establishes truth at such a high level and even identifies it with with Jesus Christ Himself. There’s a reason Aristotlean logic was preserved and propagated in the west, while Averroes was considered a heretical Muslim even at the time as I recall. The impact on western culture can not be overestimated.
This is why western civ “has got to go”. Truth itself, as a concept, had to be dethroned. Which is why a lot of things don’t work as well as they used to.
Yes, Cuomo is a loathsome political hack, but I recall reading somewhere that the strain of the virus affecting NY is the same as the strain in Europe…. which makes sense. So he runs with that to downplay China’s culpability.
…the strain of the virus affecting NY is the same as the strain in Europe
Highlights even more the dis-ingenuousness: the mother strain is still from China; and he had the option of not using the moniker, but he can’t help himself.
Hoyos,
Just so. And the secular West, rooted in that tradition, is now a cut flower.
The explanation for the governor’s astounding lie is simple enough: it is a banner, and a test. It dares us to defy it, and by doing so to mark our loyalties. Either we are with Zhao Gao, and are willing to admire the horse, or we will call a deer a deer, with everything that entails.
The chasm in America is widening, as it has been for years. Even so, though, I’m startled by the audacity of Cuomo’s remark, and by everything it signifies. It wouldn’t have happened even a little while ago.
They will not respect him in the morning.
Academics are early adopters. I saw one call it “the Italian flu” about a month back and couldn’t believe it. I’d never even have imagined someone saying that. I expected they’d be furious if anyone called it “Chinese” but couldn’t have imagined they’d up the ante like this. My reaction was the same as yours. It’s a dare, an in-your-face lie so outrageous that it’s humiliating to let it pass. They’re sadists.
I don’t know whether Hoyos is being sarcastic, but the West did not wreck the world in the last four hundred years, obviously. All the benefits of science and technology and medicine have been given to the rest of the world by Europeans. Obviously non-European lives are better now than they were what with the vaccines and analgesics and cars and phones and so on all invented by Europeans. Why do people waste their time writing such utter drivel. Go and do something useful, there’s an OAP living nearby that probably needs her lawn cut. (Apologies if you were joking.)