Who’s afraid of being told not to be afraid? The folks with a corner office in Fear. Inc.
President Trump’s message, “Don’t be afraid of Covid” should have been an uncontroversial one. We are in an era where ad slogans urge people to take the fight to various diseases, including the coronavirus or the Wuhan Virus. But the reliable media formula is Trump + X = Scandal. There isn’t even a breath or a pause anymore, forget a honeymoon period, when it comes to Trump and the media whose messaging is lubricated by the worst and craziest elements of social media.
And so, “Don’t be afraid of Covid” became twisted into a lack of concern for the dead and disdain for the risks involved. That’s obvious nonsense.
To quote a political folk hero of Democrats, “The only thing we have to fear is … fear itself.”
FDR was not dismissing the Great Depression. The obvious point there was that we were capable of beating it. (FDR’s record, the New Deal, and his mismanagement and socialist sabotage of the recovery are their own topics.) That’s also obviously Trump’s point. But in the era of TDS, everything Trump says has to instantly come under fire with barrages of contempt, rage, and feigned moral outrage because… President Trump told people that the coronavirus can be beaten.
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