The Weekend Politics Thread is at a loss…
Monty: I was supposed to cover Armenia’s constitutional referendum, but the vote was postponed due to the Coronavirus outbreak. The vote would have taken place today and tomorrow.
It’s hard even to say what is going on anywhere, how much of it matters, or whether everything will go back to normal afterward or effectively start over from scratch. Probably somewhere in between.
What I do know is that people are using it to be super-racist. Mostly against East Asians of course, as has been well-covered on this thread, but a surprising amount against my own people. Even here in Israel, people are blaming the ultra-orthodox for causing the outbreak (ultra-orthodox leaders have largely ignored the crisis and continued mass gatherings).
Anna: This isn’t exclusive to ultra-orthodox members of the Jewish community either. In my spare time I frequent many corners of Reddit, and the fundamentalist Christian community is convinced jesus juice is enough to save you, still gathering for bible studies and going around handing out flyers.
This has of course led to the current Florida controversy1 of the Governor declaring churches essential businesses for 2020 election campaign purposes but not for taxes or equal responsibility of laws. I am also very informed of the regulations regarding states I don’t live in right now because the COVID controversy is sweeping Bachelor Nation, all of which is to say I am very white and privileged but noticing how much other white and privileged people still not social distancing and being super-racist is the problem here.
Monty: Because apparently it’s only happening to us, and they have everything to gain. You’ve got the Axis of Resistance celebrating the death of a Holocaust survivor as the first Israeli fatality, Rick Wiles saying COVID-19 is God’s punishment for “Christ’s killers,” Twitter mobs cheering on Israel to have as many fatalities as possible. I thought I’d learned to expect it, but I guess I’m still too naïve.
Be nice and talk amongst yourselves.