was at grocer today and something occurred to me

[kozar]

We live in a VERY RW part of Tn. 85% R to 15% D would be optimistic. I read numerous FB posts from people I know around here,either through work or church or wherever, about this whole "hoax and media created panic" etc etc.
So today at the store,,lines full again,,hundreds of dollars worth of goods in each cart,,except my little 25 dollar order. And I think to myself,, if most these folks believe the RW hoax thing,, why is THIS store so full. And why do 4 of the biggest carts of about 60 in line, have a person with one of those red caps on?

Just things I ponder while standing in line during a media hyped hoax.

Koz

[SWBTATTReg]

1. Their BS has come full circle to roost on their a&&es.

[Alacritous Crier]

2. Me too...

I'm in rural TN too and people around here don't seem to be very outwardly demonstrative with their politics. I am thankful for that. I hardly see any hats, bumper stickers or signs. But I know the general politics around here are strongly RW. People are definitely frightened right now. I'm only hoping some of them will begin to snap out of their cult45 brainwashing.

[LiberalArkie]

19. I live in rural Arakansas where even the Democratic sheriffs and mayors etc have Trump signs

at their house.

[lagomorph777]

35. This is the test - Jonestown /Heaven's Gate, or time to wake up, MAGAts?

[CaptYossarian]

56. When they go, I can't say "Nice knowing you".

To partially contradict the OP, they know that the original hoarders are depleting the TP and food, so they realize they'll need it too--hoax or not.

A few weeks ago, I referred to the virus as "Y2K 2.0" and got nailed for it. The responders thought I meant this was a Nothingburger, like Y2K. I was talking about the panicked response that we've been seeing in the stores.

[certainot]

55. even the end of last week their moral and intellectual leader lmbaugh was continuing to tell

them that it is all blown up by the liberal media and left to sell the socialist big govt solutions he's beaten back for the last 30 years just because he had an unchallenged monopoly on 600 of the loudest stations (now more important and louder in a national emergency) where he could hide behind call screeners and avoid fact checking and criticism

so now they are suddenly worried that motherfucking asshole and his army of parrots might have been wrong. maybe they'll figure out they were wrong about global warming.

last weekend a dittohead weekend blowhard was having a few on air doubts about the line that it was just like a regular flu and the dittohead PC police called right in to impose their political correctness - the limbaugh line

[Alacritous Crier]

57. Pitiful.... nt

[Scarsdale]

59. Does he really have cancer,

or is all the vile hatred eating him alive? You would think he would retire, spend time with his family IF he is ill. He has made enough money spreading his manure.

[czarjak]

64. "Fortunately, I don't have children" , has been his boast before.

[Scarsdale]

67. Thank goodness.

He has abused other people's children, though, in the Dominican Republic. Remember his suitcase full of Viagra when he was taking a trip over there?

[LizBeth]

3. I have considered that too. I am in a blue area and our stores have been fine. Not seeing hoarding

like I have been reading on line. Houston Tx though with lots of red appears to have shelves wiped clean. People not able to get meats and stuff. I have been wondering myself if it is not red the biggest hoarders of all. It would make sense. As they poo poo'd the whole concern.

[Mariana]

4. They don't have to believe that Coronavirus is a real threat

to be afraid of getting stuck having to stay at home without enough food and supplies.

[PatSeg]

28. Exactly

They can still believe there will be shortages of food and supplies, but think the coronavirus is a hoax or conspiracy. They will have to actually get sick before it sinks in, but then they'll probably come up with another conspiracy theory to explain that.

[Mariana]

36. They'll blame Obama with their dying breaths. nt.

[PatSeg]

41. Yep

And immigrants and Hillary and liberals................always "the other".

[progressoid]

5. cognitive dissonance.

[Igel]

15. And not theirs. n/t

[mcar]

6. I had the same experience yesterday in my rural red county

Publix was crammed as if it was a few days before a hurricane. People buying cases of water(?), paper goods aisles cleared out, shopping carts jammed with groceries.

A friend was there the day before and saw a woman butting bunches and bunches of bananas, and loads of other fresh produce in her cart. The produce manager asked her if she was planning a party. She said, "no, I have to stock up because of the virus." He had to explain to her that all this produce was going to go bad.

[JGug1]

17. Produce Going Bad

You have to understand, they aren't capable of thinking.

[mcar]

24. It is mind boggling

[LiberalArkie]

20. They shop from hurricane preparedness plans. a 2 or 3 day inconvenience.

[Aquaria]

39. Uh, no.

If you’re in a hurricane path, and it causes enough damage, you could be without services or access to them for far longer than the hurricane itself. It could be weeks before you have potable water, or roads open, or access to grocery stores.

Cat 4 and 5 storms in some areas can take weeks to dig out of enough for some semblance of normalcy again.

Ask Puerto Rico or Katrina victims about that.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

53. She's going to have to make a whole lot of banana bread

within the next couple of days. But you can freeze that.

[mcar]

54. A lot of banana bread

[RhodeIslandOne]

7. Because Agent Orange finally said there's a fucking problem

And like good little Reich Wingers they fell in line.

[Windy City Charlie]

8. I've noticed that as well

The ones that were dead set on this being a hoax and being wise-asses about it, seemed to have shut their traps and realized this is a very situation. Yet, like Trump, they won't publicly admit how they were wrongly duped.

[Totally Tunsie]

11. Yeah, my Chump-humper landlord went to the store yesterday

and found nothing of what he was looking for. He was floored to find it all wiped out. I'm thinking of donating my one roll of "Wipe Down to trump's Last Day" TP to him, just to enjoy the irony.

[doc03]

9. Right wingers are scared of their own shadow and greedy. They can't stand

thinking someone else has more TP than they do.

[redstatebluegirl]

10. Because their orange leader said they could be afraid now.

[Aquaria]

40. They were hoarding before he "pivoted"

My poor mother lives in the fucking moron stronghold of Louie Goehmert’s district. Her local grocers look like Moscow, 1976, and have since last Friday.

They’re buying because they’re selfish, or to make sure those brown people or libs will do without. “Ah ain’t lettin’ no n———r get my toilet paper when ah kin git it first.” Someone actually said that at mom’s local Kroger’s.

This is what we’re up against.

[southerncrone]

47. Bless her heart. I can't imagine having "Gomer" as my rep. I consider him to be

one of the 3 dumbest congress members. Every time I hear him, I think: "WHO voted for HIM??!!"

[Moostache]

66. That thinking (or actually total lack thereof) is why I fear armed conflict at the end of this path

Our economy has been shattered...the real pain is months away, but the entire model of a service-based economy that shed all manufacturing bases and traded easy money and cheap loans for false security has run smack into a wall. The never-pondered question was always "what happens if people simply stop buying EVERYTHING?"

The shutdowns, shelter in place, massive financial upheavals and imminent unemployment crisis make this a time unlike anything we have seen since the Great Depression. Things are not only just gone in a snap, it is very unlikely that they are coming back any time soon. Restaurants, bars, performing arts, theater, opera, orchestras, shopping - none of this is going to simply bounce back like nothing happened unless massive government plans are put in place to replace a functioning economy with a war-time, rationed survival economy unlike anything seen since the 1940's.

The Great Depression was NOT ended by the New Deal - it is true that the New Deal did exceptional things for people in keeping them out of the abyss and in new jobs and programs (and things like Social Security were essential to keep elderly from dying in the streets everywhere), but it was World War II that broke the Depression. It was a complete conversion of the economy into a wartime manufacturing juggernaut that finally ended the Depression. Without FDR, America would have fallen into totalitarianism like some many others did in the 1930's, so this is NOT a diminishment of him in any way...but we need to be thinking MASSIVE, GIGANTIC, STRUCTURAL CHANGE to get to the other side of this event.

We are witnessing the early moments of a capitalist system in total cardiac arrest. It may be time for more than CPR alone to save the patient. It is absolutely essential to have a plan for distribution of resources - especially food and water and shelter (the essentials for basic life support) - or we will have anarchy and the guns and bullets will flow into a maelstrom of hate and grievances the likes of which we have not seen for a very long time.

[Hassler]

12. Simple: hoarding is the MAGAt's right. Everyone else needs

To be rationing.

[The Mouth]

13. possibility

One factor might be the amygdala.

The amygdala is the part of the brain that is involved with the fear response.

Conservatives tend to have larger and more active amygdalas than liberals. ( https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3092984/ )

Once the attitude of “this is just a hoax” wears off, once the programming fails (or is replaced by newer programming that ‘hey this is real, it’s a Dumbocrat/Chicom conspiracy/bioengineered anti Trump weapon”, whatever), the same people who scoffed last week will run over their grandmother to buy the last roll of TP fast than you can say ‘Venezuela’ .

Thus the polarity; Fox “News” has now announced that we’ve *ALWAYS* been at war with Eastasia

[Alwaysna]

50. I've always thought that were brain damaged!

[richdj25]

14. After more than a week

I visited my local grocer to pickup some coffee and milk. Was quite surprised the shelves wasn't picked clean to the bone. Don't know if they were out of water and paper products, cause I wasn't there for that. Hope this nationwide hoarding has already come to a head, cause the elderly who shop these stores don't need this.

[JGug1]

16. Making Sense Of It

I agree, the irony is too thick to pour.
The amazing thing is they don't see any paradox.
By the way, how can you live there?

[kozar]

21. not for long

We are selling Mrs K's fathers house next month, then ours and Lil bit,Mrs and I heading full time camping, while we are young enough to still enjoy it. I cannot wait to be away from here...

Koz

[southerncrone]

48. I also live in rural TN, not too far from Nashville. Our county was solidly Dem when I moved here

in 1983. Since then, we have flipped to red. It has been a sad event to witness over the years. My observation is that much of the change stemmed from the churches preaching against abortion like rabid dogs.

[smirkymonkey]

18. Typical Right-Wingers.

Greedy, selfish and stupid.

Many of them are buying huge amounts of perishable goods that they will never be able to consume before they spoil. They just have to have it all because, god forbid, anyone else gets a fair shot at providing for their own needs as well.

[Mars and Minerva]

22. Republican Folk are always expecting Armageddon!...

They probably doubled their usual Freeze Dried Jerky and Ammunition order for the month already!

[PatSeg]

31. Yes

A lot of survivalists among the right-winger crowd. The End Times are coming right around the corner.

[cab67]

23. cognitive dissonance

Few things scare the shit out of people like a spreading disease. It's like shouting "shark!" at the beach - people don't have to actually see a shark to stampede out of the water. (And even if they did, the average shark couldn't care less about people.)

People are surprisingly good at separating out the ideals they espouse from the realities they face. Lots of "pro-lifers" quietly arrange abortions for inconvenient pregnancies, and then go right back to protesting abortion. They still mean it, too.

I suspect that's what's happening to a lot of people. They're emotionally invested in the administration for which they voted, and they'll continue to voice support for it, but are panicking in the face of a contagion whose impact was made worse by the administration's incompetence.

[Marcuse]

25. "The Democrats want to grab your guns and food."

[C_U_L8R]

26. They feed on fear

Doesn't matter whether it's Trump bullshit or an actual global pandemic.
These magats are wired for fear. It rules everything they do.
And sadly, they are easily manipulated around their fears.

[wishstar]

27. Trump finally got serious yesterday and Fox News immediately began covering it as a real crisis

When he said it could last into July or August and that he was recommending no groups of over 10 people (and Major League baseball, Nascar and schools ordered closed) they finally realized something drastic was happening.

But Trump/Fox have been politicizing by blaming Democratic governors for not doing enough to deflect from accusations he didn't do enough with attacks on Gov. Cuomo and Gov. Whitmer and Gov. Inslee.

[3Hotdogs]

42. Fuck ! Not Nascar?

[progree]

29. Lunds & Byerlys: requests that the first hour of the morning be reserved for elderly and vulnerable

https://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2020/03/16/coronavirus-in-minnesota-lunds-limiting-1st-hour-open-daily-for-high-risk-shoppers/

Lunds and Byerlys have announced that, on a daily basis, they’re requesting people allow older shoppers and those with compromised immune systems access to shop at their stores during their first hour of business.

From 7 a.m. to 8 a.m. every day, officials request that shoppers respect their request to not shop during that first hour unless they’re a member of the at-risk population. The store announced they would be committed to even deeper cleaning overnight.

“Our intent is to provide an opportunity for those individuals to be the first to shop after our overnight cleaning and stocking so they have increased access to essential products,” the store reported.

https://lundsandbyerlys.com/coronavirus/

They don't indicate at what age one becomes an "older shopper".

They are a chain of 15 stores in mostly the Twin Cities

They just changed their hours from 6am - midnight to 7am - 9pm

[Ligyron]

34. I guess they'd be as fully stocked as possible at that time.

But old people out and about at that hour?

IDK...

[3Hotdogs]

43. Supermarkets in my town, N.J., agreed to have shopping 6 -7:30 a.m.

for peeps 60 and older, or compromised.

[geardaddy]

62. That's my store.

And I'm glad they're doing that. Plus they're union.

[Greybnk48]

30. Vile willful ignorance.

aka "dick-heads."

[brewens]

32. If Trump had been straight with us from the start, many would have stocked up earlier.

I said in a post a couple days ago that was why the stores are getting slammed so hard now. They would have anyway, but a lot of us stocked up a couple weeks ago. A lot of this could have been spread out a little more, and maybe we'd have a little thinner crowds where the virus is spreading fast already.

[DENVERPOPS]

60. We weren't listening to the lard ass

we were listening to the info/reports/predictions coming out of the CDC and WHO...........
We did our stockpiling in January. Our neighbors, (mostly republicans) when we were unloading into our house were all laughing at us yelling "HOAX". We saw one yesterday, and she didn't even say hi..........
In a way, I'm sorry they saw us unload everything, because now they know who has stuff..........

[brewens]

63. It was almost three weeks ago I had empty cat litter buckets in the bed of my truck and

remembered to go to Petco for refills. I had them back there for a few days thinking I'd better do that. Not because of any hoarding, but because I knew I may want to avoid those places once we had cases in town. Same with Costco. 16 days ago now. I was in there 40 minutes after they opened and it was dead. I saw one lady really loading up. I just needed my 30 pack of buttwipe and extra coffee. The two thing from there I'd likely be out of in a month.

[Sloumeau]

33. There is what Republicans say, and there is what they believe.

Keep in mind that Right Wing survivalists have been big in Right Wing circles since at least the 1990s. The idea of stocking up on canned goods, guns, and ammo has been something that the Right Wingers have been pushing for a long time now. In addition, even if Republicans think this is all a hoax, they are still likely to worry that "those crazy Dems are going to buy all of the toilet paper, leaving none for me!".

Now that Trump has finally started to realize that he cannot BS his way through a pandemic, Fox News is following his lead, so Republicans, who seemingly can turn on a dime on any issue, are also starting to believe in COVID-19--just two months too late.

[3Hotdogs]

44. Yeah? I got my AK. Libs are gonna take the T.P, out'a my dead,

brown, wet hands.

[iluvtennis]

37. Great point...if it's a hoax, why are they shopping like there is no tomorrow. nt

[relayerbob]

38. Fear is the mind killer

“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”

Frank Herbert

[Nitram]

45. Right Wing cultists are able believe two contradictory ideas at the same time.

Like when they both criticized Obama for being a dictator and for being weaker than Putin.

[Warpy]

46. His base is angry old white men

and they are generally not the ones doing the grocery shopping. They push that off on women, meaning wives, girlfriends, or even daughters.

Women aren't buying much of what the Orange Blob says, even the dummies who voted for him and will do it again.

[Ingersollman]

49. Seems

like there are a lot of us on here from rural TN. It's tough being a liberal in this part of the country, but I love it here.

[Laelth]

51. They KNOW it's not a hoax.

But the social pressure to toe the party line is immense.

-Laelth

[ProudMNDemocrat]

52. There is NO CURE for STUPID.

Where is Forrest Gump when you need him?

[Doreen]

58. Thank you.

You made me laugh so hard I was snorting.

[Submariner]

61. I have to commend you Sir for your spirit and sense of composure in the midst of

a MAGAnazi Apocalypse.

As a old liberal yankee vet, if I was in that line you describe, I'm afraid I'd run off at the mouth (as in letting my alligator mouth overload my hummingbird ass) to make neighborly conversation like, "boy I'll be glad when this Trumpdemic is over so I can un-retire and go find a new job because my 409(k) is all gone.....how 'bout you guys in the red hats, your 409s(k) okay?"

I'm sure I'd make a lot of friends in that establishment.

[Pryderi]

65. Probably trying to deny libtards from getting supplies :P

[paulkienitz]

68. what I keep getting back to on right wingers is that they are not deluded, they are lying