I definitely share the concern about increasing radicalization/polarization when polling data and everyday life experience indicates that most people have far, far more things they agree about than disagree. But media (on both sides) trains people to have very strong reactions to certain watchwords the other side uses, at which point emotions take over and discourse rapidly breaks down.
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IM SORRY FOR THE CAPS BUT DID YOU SEE THE NEWS???
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YEP!!!
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Speculation has run wild.
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I love how so far the only comments are Canadian, Australian, Australian.
HTbF literally woke me up to show me twitter.
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Honestly there are a lot of Australians on my twitter feed cackling about how all the USA’ians are asleep so they get to make all the memes first.
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About 5 minutes after hearing the news, my mind went right to, “Wait, is this even true? Is this just a planned distraction from the debate and his taxes?” And then to “What if his case is mild and then he uses it as evidence that COVID is no big deal? What if this HELPS him?”
I feel very cynical and paranoid. I should go find some of these memes.
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My second-most fervent prayer right now is the obvious one.
My first-most fervent prayer
is that Joe Biden did not get infected while on the stage / in the same building with him / his staff at the debate on Tuesday night.
Please please please please
I can remove this if it is too much of a downer
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I had the same thought
I had the same thought. All that maskless shouting.
They should’ve put each of them in an isolation chamber onstage. Like the pope mobile.
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Not to get all conspiracy theory, but are we all sure this is even true?
I mean, every damned thing that comes out of his mouth is a lie.
Boyfriend said, “well, a doctor confirmed it.” And I was like, SURE, uh-huh, because doctors have never lied about him or obscured the truth, like when he suddenly went to Walter Reed a while back for no announced reason.
How would this ‘conspiracy’ benefit Trump? I’m not seeing an upside in this for him…
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Only thing I could see would be if he miraculously recovers in a few days and tells everyone it’s not that bad.
That being said, it looks like the real deal from where I’m standing, just speculating on how it could get spun if it wasn’t
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A reporter broke the story first. The White House later confirmed it. I speculate that if the reporter hadn’t told people they would have tried to hide the whole thing.
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I suppose it could be a way to throw even more chaos into the election and discredit the result if he doesn’t like it. But it couldn’t come at a worse time for him, having to cancel campaign events, ballots already printed and people already voting, etc. To me it underscores how poorly his approach to combating the virus has been and I can’t see that helping him in the election.
NGL, I hope he has a tough case, even if he does not require hospitalization and ultimately recovers. He has so little empathy and so litte concern for all of the people he’s put in harm’s way like healthcare workers, teachers, essential workers many of whom are very low paid. The only way I think he will recognize the seriousness and pain this has caused so many people is to experience it himself.
I would like them to decide the next debate cannot be held in person and will instead be done over Zoom, with its built-in Mute functions for the moderator so that both sides could speak without interuption.
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I have a new nightmare scenario and need to get it out of my head. Do not read if waves at everything is already making it hard for you to sleep at night.
Inner Anxiety Beast is having a field day
Trump becomes ill with covid but the election results are very close, disputed, there are protests but after a few days Trump is declared to be the victor despite signs pointing to shady shit. Trump “recovers” from covid at some point during all this but the damage to his body causes him to die before inauguration day. Everyone loses their fucking minds. Or, hell, let’s borrow a play from the last season of West Wing when they had to write around an actor dying, he dies on election day. Everyone loses their fucking minds. Civil war? Like, no one has any fucking idea what’s going to happen come mid-November.
Guess I’ll look into getting some form of medical pot this weekend.
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What totally sucks is that a friend gave us some edibles but we don’t dare until we know whether Boyfriend has to pee in a cup (which, despite it being legal in IL, is still federally illegal so piss tests are still going on, and one job’s tangentially government-related so that seems risky). I know I still could, but that feels rude.
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Seems way too convenient for me. Call me cynical, but the timing and the immediate shift away from how absolutely awful the debate was and the taxes issue… I don’t buy it.
It gives the campaign a great excuse to pull him out of the public eye, dominate the news with the story of their choosing and they can show how strong Trump is when he emerges in 2 weeks completely fine.
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Okay. I am going to be a debbie downer.
With Boris Johnson got the virus - despite literally bragging about ignoring standard protocol for covid at the time - and ended up in ICU - it only bolstered his popularity.
Trump could
- end up very sick and recover, which helps sympathy ratings and allows him to push off/delay/cancel the election
- have a mild or asymptomatic case and use it to futher bolster his argument that that “it’s just a bad flu”
I have trouble wishing grave illness on another human - and I really don’t want President Pence so… I’m going to hope that everything is okay and our democracy stays in tact
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Same
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