As long as our fate was controlled by a segment of the population using their addiction to selfish ignorance as the rationale to do nothing, none of humanity's problems was ever going to get resolved.
On the alt-right, every human problem is a hoax and every solution is a conspiracy. A conspiracy intended to force them to change their perfect way of life. Heavy assault rifles and gas guzzlers forever. COVID is their latest obsession. We are now told that the entire human race is engaged in a conspiracy that includes everyone, EXCEPT the biggest dumbfucks on the planet. And their denialist saviour, King Donny.
Right.
The only true conspiracy - believed by everyone except dedicated cave trolls - is the concern for those other than themselves. A friend of my father's, around the same age (80), says that his evangelical son is one of these COVID deniers. He told his father it's all a big hoax. Statistically, for someone over 80, the chance of dying from COVID is 30%. For someone under 50 it's de minimis. What the son is telling his own father is fuck you Dad, I'm ok. The mantra of the entire conservative movement.
Now, if this corporate Idiocracy wasn't so plug stuffed on GMO Frankenfood, and the fattest generation in all of human history, then the lethality from COVID would be far less. The largest risk factors beyond age, are all lifestyle related: smoking, obesity, diabetes, and high blood pressure. Coincidence? I think not. This virus selectively preys upon corporate addiction and ignorance. The very people who believe it's all a hoax, are the ones most at risk. It's natural selection at its finest.
This species, living on the only known habitable planet in the entire universe has a proven unwillingness to change its ways, except in the most dire of circumstances. While the accumulation of centuries of wisdom collects dust on library book shelves, the Idiocracy at large takes its education from South Park, and its news from Sean Hannity.
Laziness, greed, materialism, selfishness. These are instincts endemic to the human condition. Religion was invented to curb humankind's worst instincts, so we would not come to believe that Roman orgies are commonplace. However, Mother Nature is far less forgiving of those who seek to merely recycle their sins every Sunday morning, emerging refreshed for another week of unhinged debauchery. Not that the "system" doesn't have its appeal to those who seek to NEVER change their ways, and yet still get a good night sleep.
All else being equal, the COVID deniers are right about one thing - which is that the derivative impacts of this pandemic lockdown will linger far longer and have far greater human impact than the virus itself. Consider that the current U.S. death toll of 200,000 equates to roughly 11-12 days of average total deaths in the U.S. In true context, it's a small number. However, add in the devastating derivative impacts of mass unemployment, poverty, delayed medical procedures etc., and the secondary impacts will dwarf the direct COVID deaths. In the Third World - already at the margins of existence, the derivative impacts will be multiplied many times over.
Now however, factor in the longer term outcomes from this forced reset, such as forcing new behaviors around consumption and carbon footprint. Such as a forced examination of the inequalities of Globalization. One can make the case that COVID is saving the human race from itself. Mother Nature is saving the human race from its vast store of idiots. Who have been protected from reality for far too long.
It's the inconvenient truth.