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Comment by txcwpalpha | Hacker News Reader

Random commentators and protestors don’t. Certain politicians do, and those politicians have done an outstanding job of convincing those random commentators and protestors that this situation is political one, bringing all of the fervor and zealotry that politics brings.

This situation went from being “we are staying inside to defeat the virus” to now “we refuse to stay inside (reopen) because that lets those evil democrats (Republicans) win, and I won’t ever allow that”.

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I agree. The beginning of this crisis really did hold promise of 'we are in this together'. And yet it quickly morphed into 'the other guys are out to get us'. I watching all this with genuine worry that things can easily spiral out of control.

To be clear, no one is asking to stay inside - everyone wants the economy reopened again. But, there's the sensible way and there's the stupid way. The latter method involves just going to back to the way things were and pretend the virus doesn't exist. That is untenable, and the smarter folk who think that a phased opening is a better approach are the ones being shouted down.

One of us is getting media bubbled here. I've seen a lot of people argue that they do not want the economy reopened and everyone should stay inside because it's not safe yet. Attempts to engage in a phased opening have produced headlines like "Georgia's Experiment in Human Sacrifice"[1], and major figures are still talking on Twitter about how "No life is worth losing to add one more point to the Dow."[2]

[1] https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/04/why-georg...

[2] https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1258184774486642688

I want to stay inside. Most people I know want to stay inside. The economy can limp along for the rest of this year just fine. The sensible way of re-opening involves not doing so now.

Texas is still gaining new cases and deaths at a high rate. Our curve is not flattening. And yet with one eye on the unemployment coffers, Governor Abbott is overriding the same local decision-makers he deferred to just weeks ago, and forcing business to re-open. Hair salons open tomorrow, while four of the six days of May so far have set new records for new COVID-19 cases.

Everyone I know who works retail jobs would rather be home. Some of them are being forced back, some have never been able to stop working. None of them are happy about it.

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