The Rude Pundit: Why It Matters That Trump Is Calling COVID-19 "the Chinese Virus"

[babylonsister]

Last edited Sat Mar 21, 2020, 05:25 PM - Edit history (1)

https://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2020/03/why-it-matters-that-trump-is-calling.html


The Rude Pundit
Proudly lowering the level of political discourse
3/19/2020
Why It Matters That Trump Is Calling COVID-19 "the Chinese Virus"

snip//

It's not a distraction that Trump is calling COVID-19 (which isn't that difficult to say) the "Chinese virus." On so many levels, it's significant. It gives fuel to rising anti-Asian hate crimes and attacks. It allows Trump and his assorted douches and dicks to deflect blame for the Trump administration's catastrophic fuck ups in preparing for and dealing with COVID-19 onto China. At today's petulant press conference, he said, "f people would’ve known about it could have been stopped in place. It could have been stopped where it came from, China." Except, of course, that "people" did know about it for over a month before Trump took any action at all beyond closing the border to people coming from China (which Italy did before us and then they never saw COVID-19 again...oh, wait). And who the fuck is defending China? Someone ought to say to Trump, "Motherfucker, you're the one who always talks about how good you get along with President Xi. What did that get you?"

So, sure, in many ways, the whole "Chinese virus" bullshit is of a piece with Trump's refusal to accept responsibility for anything and his use of racism to keep his white troglodyte minions all hot and sweaty and ready to fuck some shit up.

But I think something else is at work here. It's also part of his anti-immigrant rhetoric, that Stephen Miller crap that has created a humanitarian nightmare at our southern border that is going to turn into a catastrophe. If you keep telling people that invaders from the outside are harming us, then you better be able to fuckin' prove that. Caravans of brown drug dealers? You fuckin' bet. Virus-ridden yellow menaces? Hell, yeah. Fuckin' stop that shit cold. Once this real and frightening crisis is over, if not before, Trump is likely going to use it to institute even more draconian policies on immigration. If you don't think that's possible, you haven't been paying attention. What better way to get his base all ready to fuck when it comes to the election in November than to tell them that they are battling to keep diseased foreigners out of our precious white America?

Coming to Trump's defense today was the white nationalist/conspiracy mongering One American News Network (motto: "Fox 'news,' but dumb" ) and reporter/insane person Chanel Rion. She really asked Trump, "Do you consider the term Chinese food racist?" Believe it or not, Trump doesn't think that's racist. And he's right, unless you're being a racist while saying it. Then Rion, who is oddly allowed in the same room with actual reporters, really asked, "Major left wing news media, even in this room, have teamed up with Chinese Communist Party narratives, and they are claiming you are racist for making these claims about Chinese virus. Is it alarming that major media players...are consistently siding with foreign state propaganda, Islamic radicalism, Latin gangs and cartels, and they work right here at the White House with direct access to you and your team?" Honestly, that's not a dog whistle. That's a full-fledged racist blow horn.

Trump answered, in part, "Well, I think they do. I mean, they are siding with China. They are doing things that they shouldn’t be doing. They’re siding with many others. China’s the least of it."

We'll be lucky if this doesn't end with them rounding people up and turning them into soylent green. Hell, he'll rebrand it soylent Trump: "Only the best people."

[BeckyDem]

1. Reagan was a virulent racist too but with Trump its so overt and he blows those

dog whistles with such pride. Sick bastards.

[smirkymonkey]

2. K&R

[customerserviceguy]

3. Pardon me if this is a dumb question

Have there actually been any physical attacks on people of Chinese heritage here in the United States? I know that after 9/11 there were attacks on people of Muslim faith, even against Sikhs whose religion is completely different from Islam.

I haven't seen any stories of that here, and I would expect any legitimate news stories about such attacks to be posted on DU.

[Generic Other]

4. In NYC and SF

https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-the-uk/the-rise-of-coronavirus-hate-crimes

[customerserviceguy]

5. I had heard

of the Febreze guy. But the rest of the article refers to incidents in the UK, and historical occurrences.

Even the Febreze moron was not as bad as the physical attacks on Muslims after 9/11. I'd like to think that we as Americans learned something from that time.

[backscatter712]

7. I'm seeing pics on Twitter

Looks like right-wing smoothbrains are punching people of Asian descent at grocery stores now.

[backscatter712]

6. Every time our racist shitstain in chief calls it the Chinese Virus, call it the Trump Virus.

Or Captain Trumps

or Trump Lung,

or just call it the Trumps, like "mumps" - "Bob's in quarantine, he's got a case of the Trumps."

I want the word "Trump" subconsciously associated with disease a century from now.

[Mc Mike]

8. ..

https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-says-he-calls-chinas-leader-king-and-xi-likes-it-1384497

https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-trump-china/trump-praises-chinese-president-extending-tenure-for-life-idUSKCN1GG015&sa=U&ved=2ahUKEwiz1qasjK7oAhVHlHIEHRPwA9AQFjAAegQIBRAB&usg=AOvVaw3UQd6k0VSbURh3mms5MGBf