Conversation #63, Part 4: The Narrative's Power Fails (August 18, 2021)

This episode contains the fourth part of our conversation about COVID-19, the Delta variant, and the territory we’re all lost in. In this part, we talk about how we handled the Polio epidemics of the twentieth century, which lasted decades, when the general consensus was that protecting children from a sometimes-fatal, sometimes-debilitating illness was worth the cost. We then talk about several examples of neoliberal consensus-building and goalpost-moving, in which public health experts promote noble lies and cheerfully claim that Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia. The worst are full of passionate intensity.

Show Notes

You can read Chris Hedges’ work on Salon here.

The article from the Shepherd Express aboutthe polio epidemic in Milwaukee is here.

Abudul El-Sayed’s article “Vaccine verification >>> mask mandates.” can be found here.

The article from Persuasion, “What We Got Wrong (and Right) About COVID-19,” can be found here.

We mentioned, but did not discuss, this article from Politico explaining how our antiquated and under-funded public health infrastructure made it very difficult to properly track infections in the pandemic.

The music clips are from the songs “Funky Shit” by The Prodigy from the album The Fat of the Land, released in 1997, and “Shit Towne,” by Live (yes, the band’s name is “Live,” so when they were touring you could see Live live) from the album Throwing Copper, released in 1994.

How to Listen

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