I'm not surprised that Trump and his team of ace campaign spokespeople are trying to discredit Dr. Anthony Fauci, perhaps the leading expert in the U.S. on infectious diseases for the past 40 years. After all, it's a Very Fascist Thing to do. One of the main tenets of fascism, as I noted here, is to try to discredit other areas of authority in society, as we've seen Trump do with the media, courts and intelligence services. It's all right out of the Fascist Playbook -- Fascism 101.
But even by Trump standards, which are profoundly low, this is pretty stupid. 1. Even if Dr. Fauci was ever discredited, it's not like he's the only doctor in the country who is saying what he's been saying. Indeed, pretty much all doctors -- as in "all" -- who have even a semblance of substance have been saying the exact same things...for almost five months. And whether Dr. Fauci is discredited or not, all those other doctors -- as in "all" are going to keep saying the exact same things. 2. They're all saying the exact same things because they are experts, too, and this is science, and it's how science works, and...because they are all right. 3. One of Trump's other main advisers is Dr. Deborah Birx, and though Trump seems to like her because she's does her best to say nice things about him, even she says the exact same things as Dr. Fauci. 4. When you're trying to discredit the leading expert in the field, you should bring more to the street fight than being the person who recommended drinking bleach and disinfectants and suggested shining deadly ultraviolet lights into people's bodies. 5. People actually understand there is a pandemic and that over 138,000 Americans have died and that social distancing and wearing face masks is a good thing to help keep you from getting infected, perhaps infecting others and possibly dying. And it's really hard to discredit someone who is saying all this that people actually know. And if you even did, people would still know it. 6. Dr. Fauci has a Trust rating on dealing with COVID-19 of around 67%. Trump has a Trust rating on it of about 28%. Trying to convince people not to trust a person who they already highly trust when they barely trust you at all is a Sisyphean task doomed to failure. 7. During a pandemic, most people actually want to support the experts they trust to help them get out of the hell hole they're all in and likely look deeply askance at the "leadership" of those who are trying to get rid these experts they trust so highly. So, no, I'm not surprised that Trump is using a fascist tactic to trying and discredit Dr. Fauci, which he won't be able to do. I'm not even surprised that the elected Republicans in Congress aren't pushing back at Trump in his lamebrained fascist effort. Why not? Because -- well, yeah, this isn't about Trump, we know who he is. This is about the elected Republican members of Congress who enable his fascist administration, have blood on their hands and are complicit.
2 Comments
Douglas Abramson
7/14/2020 04:56:26 pm
Oh, but President Fat Head is able to cite noted medical expert Chuck Woolery's Twitter feed to back up his handling of the plague. I was so impressed, I tracked down the particular tweet and responded to it. Apparently Chuck didn't feel that "I'll take the word of the experts over the man who was too stupid not to quit Wheel of Fortune", didn't warrant a response. Go figure.
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Robert Elisberg
7/14/2020 08:29:27 pm
I've responded to a few others of Chuck Woolery's tweets that were riddled with angst. I thought about replying to this one, but haven't yet had the heart.
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AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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