Lunacy

I love Orwell.

His writing style — concise and to-the-point, uncluttered and witty — a punch packed into each sentence:

“Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.”

“If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”

I could reference a hundred more…

But what I love most about Orwell is what he gifted me through his books — a sort of human experience that my juvenile reading of history couldn’t provide — an understanding of psychology and political language; a vigilance, even if cloaked in a skeptical “that could never happen here” attitude.

But it is happening here.

The evidence is there for anyone who takes an honest look. But that’s the thing…

Earlier this month, President Trump’s approval rating hit 45.8% — its highest mark. The timing suggests that the increase in his popularity is related to his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which most Americans think he is managing well.

The trouble is, he isn’t.

Objectively speaking, his handling of this crisis has been an utter disaster marked by incompetence, misinformation, and outright lies. And now, we’re experiencing an actual rewriting of history to mask this fact.

The same week that President Trump’s approval numbers reached their peak, he warned Americans to brace for a “hell of a bad two weeks” ahead, projecting 100,000 to 240,000 deaths in the U.S. from the coronavirus pandemic. He presented Americans with a brutal and grim reality that, three weeks later, has thankfully proven less severe at a still devastating figure of 54,156 American deaths.

The death and national paralysis caused by the coronavirus is shocking, yet there was an accompanying shock that came with President Trump’s words: his acknowledgement of the potential for a grim reality at all.

Remember, it was barely two months ago that Trump was telling us that the coronavirus would go away on its own — now he’s acknowledging, somber tones and all, that COVID-19 will kill more Americans than the Vietnam War.

This change in tone needs to be acknowledged and discussed. In fact, the manner by which it is acknowledged by American voters may have a greater impact on the survival of our republic than anything we have experienced in modern times.

I know I sound hyperbolic. I listen to our President belittle reporters who ask “negative” questions, and I regret my own cynicism while friends on social media try to put a positive spin on things — but this is simply too important to ignore. What we are witnessing is more than the damage wrought by a pandemic — we are witnessing the deterioration of truth itself, and if we acquiesce for the sake of deference to our political tribe’s consensus, or worse, for the sake of mere comfort, then we will be remembered as the generation that allowed America to perish.

And I mean that.

Consider our President’s words as he comes to grips with reality. They do not meet our ears as the humble admission of error with a renewed sense of purpose and hope — to the contrary, they convey triumph and frame the gravity of an unthinkable death toll as an example of how effective he and his administration have been.

“You know 100,000 is, according to modeling, a very low number,” Trump said last week. “In fact, when I first saw the number — they said it was unlikely you’ll be able to attain that. We have to see but I think we’re doing better than that.”

100,000 American deaths is suddenly a “low number” that we, as a country, are seeking to “attain.” And apparently this would be a win?

In the wake of tragedy, Americans have a tendency to express the importance that we “never forget,” yet somehow, many of us already have — or have simply chosen ignorance over truth.

This is dangerous.

Ignorance has become a pervasive disease in America, and our acknowledgement of what has happened, and is happening, to our collective perception is the only remedy. This task is the difference between living in fact or fiction; lunacy or enlightenment.

Consider the fact that South Korea and the United States reported their first coronavirus cases on the same day: January 20, 2020.

Two days later, Trump went on CNBC and said about the virus: “We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming from China. It’s going to be just fine.”

South Korean officials, on the other hand, summoned 20 private companies to the medical equivalent of a war-planning summit and told them to develop a test for the virus immediately. A week later, South Korea’s first domestic test was approved and put into use, identifying infected individuals who could then be quarantined to halt the advance of the disease.

South Korea administered over 5,500 tests per million people in the first weeks after being alerted to their initial case, and through intensive testing and monitoring, managed to slow the growth of new cases and ‘flatten their curve’ almost entirely. That country has experienced just 10,718 cases of the virus and 240 deaths. This is the equivalent of the U.S. having stopped at fewer than 70,000 cases and 1,500 deaths. But in fact, the United States is about to reach one million confirmed cases of the virus with tens of thousands of new cases being reported each day, and it’s still quite likely that the United States will experience close to 100,000 COVID-related deaths by the end of May.

The difference?

The United States began administering tests at scale almost two months after South Korea, and only last week matched that country’s testing threshold of 10,000 people per million. In simple terms — we were slow to react. We screwed up, and screwed up badly.

So why don’t we universally recognize this? After all, that’s the only way to learn and prevent future failures of this sort.

Well… back to rewriting history…

Trump’s grim projection turned into a talking point thanks to an Imperial College study that concluded as many as 2.2 million Americans could have died from coronavirus had people just gone on living their lives as though nothing was wrong.

He said: “A lot of people were saying, maybe we shouldn’t do anything [about the coronavirus]. Just ride it. Ride it like a cowboy. Ride that sucker right through. That’s where the 2.2 million [deaths] come in. That is not acceptable.”

No, it’s not. But that’s exactly what his administration did for nearly two months.

The study, might offer a useful data point, but it does not redeem the President. It may help to remind ourselves how things really went down:

• 1/20: America’s first known case of the coronavirus is reported.
• 1/22: Trump is asked during an interview: “Are there worries about a pandemic at this point?” His answer: “No. Not at all. We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China, and we have it under control. It’s going to be just fine.”
• 1/24: Trump tweets: “China has been working very hard to contain the Coronavirus. The United States greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency. It will all work out well. In particular, on behalf of the American People, I want to thank President Xi!”
• 1/30: “We’re working very strongly with China on the Coronavirus. And we think we have it very well under control. We have very little problem in this country at this moment — five. And those people are all recuperating successfully.”
• 1/31: Trump enacts the order about which he now constantly boasts, that “closed” the “border” to China. The order, in fact, temporarily restricted travel by foreign nationals who had visited China within the previous 14 days, and makes exceptions for the immediate family of U.S. citizens and permanent residents.
• 2/2: Trump tells Hannity, “We shut it [the virus] down coming from China.”
• 2/10: “The virus — a lot of people think that goes away in April with the heat. Typically that will go away in April. We’re in great shape. We have 11 cases.”
• 2/19: Trump is asked how confident he is that China is being 100% honest with us about the number of cases, answering: “I’m confident that China is trying very hard, and I think the numbers are going to get progressively better as we go along. I think it’s going to work out fine. I think as we get into April and the warmer weather that has a very negative effect on that type of a virus. So let’s see what happens, but I think it’s gonna work out fine.”
• 2/23: “We have it very much under control. We accepted a small number of people, they’re very well-confined and they should be getting better fairly soon. Very interestingly, we’ve had no deaths.”
• 2/24: Trump tweets: “The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA. We are in contact with everyone and all relevant countries. CDC & World Health have been working hard and very smart. Stock Market starting to look very good to me!”
• 2/25: “We have contained [the virus] pretty close to airtight.” -Larry Kudlow, the President’s top economic advisor, speaking on live TV.
• 2/26: Trump says, “When you have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple days is gonna be down to close to zero, that’s a pretty good job we’ve done.”
• 2/28: “It’s going to disappear. One day, it’s like a miracle, it will disappear.”
• 2/28: Speaking at a rally, Trump says: “The Democrats are politicizing the coronavirus. One of my people came up to me and said, ‘Mr. President, they tried to beat you on Russia, Russia, Russia.’ That did not work out too well. They could not do it. They tried the impeachment hoax. They tried anything. And this is their new hoax.”
• 2/29: “We’ve already started developing very rapidly a vaccine to combat the virus and we’re having very good initial feedback. We respectfully ask the media and politicians and everybody else involved not to do anything to incite a panic because there’s no reason to panic at all.”
• 3/2: “Our country is doing very well. We’re going to have vaccines relatively soon.”
• 3/2: “I don’t think you’ll need [a national emergency declaration] because I think we’re in extremely good shape. We’re prepared for anything.”
• 3/4: “I think the 3.4% [global coronavirus death rate] is really a false number. Now, this is just my hunch.” (the current death rate in America is roughly 3%)
• 3/6: “Anybody, right now, and yesterday — anybody that needs a test gets a test. They’re there. They have the tests, and they’re beautiful. Anybody that needs a test gets a test.” (the US was unable to provide testing to those in need until after 3/15, and is still struggling to provide tests at scale)
• 3/8: “Going to a rally? There’s no reason that you shouldn’t go.” -Ben Carson, after the President said he’d continue to have rallies.
• 3/9: Trump tweets: “So last year 37,000 Americans died from the common Flu. It averages between 27,000 and 70,000 per year. Nothing is shut down, life & the economy go on. At this moment there are 546 confirmed cases of CoronaVirus, with 22 deaths. Think about that!”
• 3/9: “This is something that we were thrown into.”
• 3/10: “It will go away, just stay calm. Be calm. It’s really working out.”
• 3/11: Trump makes a government proclamation suspending all travel from Europe to the US for 30 days.
• 3/12: “We wanna lose as few people as possible. The United States because of what I did with China has 32 deaths at this point. Other countries that are smaller countries have many many deaths.”
• 3/13: Trump declares a National Emergency (11 days after saying we wouldn’t need one). When asked if he takes any responsibility for the spread of the pandemic, Trump responds: “No I don’t take responsibility.”
• 3/15: “We’re doing great. It all will pass. This is something that we have tremendous control over.”
• 3/16: “I think we’ve done a great job. I would rate [our response to this crisis] a 10 out of 10. We have an invisible enemy. We have a problem that a month ago nobody ever thought about.” (a month ago, eh?)
• 3/17: “I’ve always known, this is a real — this is a real — this is a pandemic. I felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic. All you had to do was look at other countries… no, I’ve always viewed it as very serious.” (see 1/22)
• 3/17: “We’re asking everyone to work at home and limit travel. One day we’ll be standing up and and say, well, we won. We’re going to win, and I think we’re going to win faster than people think.”
• 3/18: Trump begins calling the coronavirus the “China” or “Chinese virus,” tweeting: “For the people that are now out of work because of the important and necessary containment policies, for instance the shutting down of hotels, bars and restaurants, money will soon be coming to you. The onslaught of the Chinese Virus is not your fault! Will be stronger than ever!” (see 1/24)
• 3/24: “I would love to have the country opened up and just raring to go by Easter.”
• 3/30: “If we can hold that down [the number of coronavirus deaths], as we’re saying, to 100,000, it’s a horrible number, maybe even less, but to 100,000, so we have between 100,000 and 200,000, we altogether have done a very good job.”

“A very good job”…

From no worries and no pandemic, to I knew before anyone else and 100,000 deaths would be a “very good job.”

History is being rewritten, and it’s not just one man’s own reworking of a narrative that any one of us can easily reference — it’s systemic and supported by a small army of propagandists.

This week’s ‘injecting disinfectant’ story inadvertently served as a spotlight on this reality. The conservative spin machine quickly manufactured memes explaining how Trump really meant ‘medicine,’ not disinfectant — or my personal favorite: that he was referencing a (prohibited) fringe practice called Ozone therapy. Yet Trump himself — clearly not having seen these latest attempts at defending his incompetence — walked back his comment entirely, claiming that he was only serious about the first half of the sentence and the part about disinfectants was “sarcastic” and meant to mess with reporters.

Both can’t be true (and it’s likely that neither are, and that he meant what he said — it certainly appeared that way). Yet what’s terrifying is that before the President was even asked to clarify his comments, a rewriting of history was already well underway. The propaganda machine got ahead of even Trump’s own reworking of the facts.

Social media has enabled the refinement of misinformation campaigns by enabling simple packaging. Place false, oversimplified information into ‘meme’ format, such as easily shareable cards like the one below, quickly arming Trump supporters with some type of explanation for what otherwise sounds like the incompetent ramblings they are, and watch sharing begin. Millions of posts later and people begin to question whether the media fabricated the President’s comments altogether — comments made on live television that can be rewatched with our own eyes whenever we want.

And if your eyes and ears remain unsure, a few minutes of research shows that the FDA prohibited all medical uses of ozone therapy four years ago, stating “Ozone is a toxic gas with no known useful medical application in specific, adjunctive, or preventive therapy. In order for ozone to be effective as a germicide, it must be present in a concentration far greater than that which can be safely tolerated by man and animals.”

But why trust your own eyes and ears; why fact-check when something fits with one’s worldview?

Trump’s approval numbers have dropped by 2.5 points over the past three weeks. Protests, the debacle that is the Paycheck Protection Program, and the fall of oil have bruised him in public opinion — but as we’ve learned over and over with Donald J. Trump, today’s embarrassing reality is no more than tomorrow’s example of the media’s unfair treatment, or worse, a mirage that never even happened.

“In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”

Lately I feel an eerie empathy with Winston Smith, the protagonist of George Orwell’s dystopian 1949 novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, whose job is to rewrite historical documents so they match the constantly changing party line. Throughout the book, Orwell explores the concept of ‘lunacy’ as Winston struggles with knowing the truth, while resisting it to survive in ‘utopian’ fiction:

Part 1:

“He wondered, as he had many times wondered before, whether he himself was a lunatic. Perhaps a lunatic was simply a minority of one. At one time it had been a sign of madness to believe that the earth goes round the sun; today, to believe that the past is unalterable. He might be ALONE in holding that belief, and if alone, then a lunatic. But the thought of being a lunatic did not greatly trouble him: the horror was that he might also be wrong.”

Then in Part 2:

“Being in a minority, even a minority of one, did not make you mad. There was truth and there was untruth, and if you clung to the truth even against the whole world, you were not mad.”

And finally, in Part 3, in the words of Winston’s antagonist, O’Brien, while he is literally torturing Winston:

“You are here because you have failed in humility, in self-discipline. You would not make the act of submission which is the price of sanity. You preferred to be a lunatic, a minority of one. Only the disciplined mind can see reality, Winston. You believe that reality is something objective, external, existing in its own right. You also believe that the nature of reality is self-evident. When you delude yourself into thinking that you see something, you assume that everyone else sees the same thing as you. But I tell you, Winston, that reality is not external. Reality exists in the human mind, and nowhere else. Not in the individual mind, which can make mistakes, and in any case soon perishes: only in the mind of the Party, which is collective and immortal. Whatever the Party holds to be the truth, is truth. It is impossible to see reality except by looking through the eyes of the Party. That is the fact that you have got to relearn, Winston. It needs an act of self-destruction, an effort of the will. You must humble yourself before you can become sane.”

Orwell.

Brilliant.

But wrong when it comes to us.

There’s no need for the Thought Police in 2020. Just social media and cable news and the algorithms and talking points that insulate us from the horror of conflicting information. We’ve over-informed ourselves into confusion, chosen apathy or tribal propaganda as the solution, and lulled ourselves into happy idiocy. It’s Hannity and Zuckerberg, not O’Brien.

In the end, we will never know how many people would have died had America done ‘nothing,’ nor will we know how many American lives could have been spared had Trump taken the coronavirus more seriously early on. But the fact remains that he did not, and it’s a dangerous lie to convince yourself otherwise — a lie that will cost innumerable American lives.

I’ll leave you with one last quote:

“The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.”

Acknowledging this does not stop us from coming together as a nation to beat this virus — but denying it puts at risk the penultimate value at the core of our republic: truth.

-AN 🥃