As much as I sneered with the rest of the nation at the sight of young people on the beaches of Florida—FYI, they are Generation Z, not millennials, who at this point range in age from college senior to Beyoncé on baby number three—smugly dismissing the coronavirus, thereby magnifying the growing pandemic, I’ve been much more pissed at the old fools who led them there.
That begins with Donald Trump, who up until only very recently was not at all taking the coronavirus seriously. Well, based on the daily press conferences, which somehow are more nightmarish with time, he’s still not taking COVID-19 seriously enough. There is Mike Pence, a fake Ned Flanders who showers in lies and disingenuous smiles, who hasn’t appeared to learn much from the mess he made in Indiana years ago. If he had, he wouldn’t continue to be called out for lying as he stands behind the podium purportedly to offer calm and facts to a concerned nation.
Of course, there are the old fools among the administration whose uselessness mere words could barely ever encapture. A middle finger could, but I can also chill.
On a local level, there are the old and old enough fools like Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott who waited until it was too late to save people from themselves. DeSantis can talk big with his chest on Fox News now, but he should have done something about the beaches to present that viral clip. Instead, he did nothing. By the way, DeSantis has not technically closed all those beaches (local officials stepped in). These people do not care if you live or die. No wonder the young are not taking things seriously.
As annoying as those kids are, and as goofy and full of germs as they looked in that clip, consider the climate. Of course, young people think they are invincible, but no one warned them of the inevitable. Yet, as much as I fault those college students and other twentysomethings for now spreading that coronavirus across the country, I blame all of them just as much.
Even so, some characters, in particular, deserve even wider scrutiny. The notion that Richard Burr and Kelly Loeffler were told about the severity of the coronavirus at a Senate hearing but instead of warning the public, simply dumped stocks to make money off the looming mass deaths, is so enraging. Their statements in response are laughable—particularly Burr’s. The North Carolina senator and head of the Senate intelligence committee, like many of those Republicans, has long coasted on a reputation built on fiction. I’m not the type to yell “LOCK HIM UP,” but if he profited off the deaths of people, let the investigation lead him to the destination it takes him.
That said, let’s not give the likes of Tucker Carlson too much praise. Yes, I appreciate him vaguely reminding me of the dude who used to wear the bow ties on Crossfire and be conservative but not too annoying in the clip, but his show is still White Nationalist Tonight. But I guess kudos to him for not being as ignorant and awful as his colleagues, who like the aforementioned, spent the entire time acting like the coronavirus was a figment of libtard imagination.
Yeah, we should get the young to value life, but when I think of clips that ought to be going viral at a time like this, I want to see more of the old fools who have given way to massive death to Americans of all ages.