On top of the legion of coronavirus lies the establishment media have deliberately spread, another massive disconnect is that our media elite are entirely immune from the economic devastation that comes with shutting down our economy.
This is a problem.
This is a big problem.
And as President Trump begins to talk about reopening the economy, it is going to become an even bigger problem.
Let me tell you a dirty, little secret about those of us who work in the media… The Chinese Virus is an AMAZING story. No one is taking death or sickness lightly. I’m certainly not, especially with a wife I adore right in the danger zone. I’m holed up; I’m disinfecting the mail with Clorox wipes, my hands are chapped from washing… Nevertheless…
This is a helluva story.
We’re living through a disaster movie. Turn on your TV and it’s all there… Death counts! Contagion counts! The president is on TV every day! Hole up! Stay home! Unemployment could hit 30 percent! A second Great Depression! Tell us how bad things will get, Mr. Expert! Drama! Drama! Drama!
And best of all — and this is important — beneath all the hysteria, beneath all the panic, beneath all the drama, we’re pretty sure we’re going to be okay, because according to the worst predictions, 99 out of 100 of us will survive.
And then there’s the other dirty, little secret…
Financially we’re not being hurt by this. Quite the opposite, in fact. We work in the business of news, and business is good. Business is as good as it’s ever going to get, and … most of us work from home. Or we work in a hermetically sealed radio or TV studio.
How great is that!
Our beautiful and privileged lives are in no way negatively affected by the coronavirus. We get to live and work through an exciting disaster movie knowing we’re going to survive, our jobs are secure, and our employers are thriving because clickety-click-click-click!
And that is a huge, huge problem when it comes to covering this story.
How can those of us who are so privileged even begin to relate to the 99.99 percent of us who are not?
Do you have any idea how easy it is for me to say, “But if this economic shutdown saves just one life!”
It’s insanely easy.
Because I’m living through an exciting disaster movie without my economic life being disrupted, that gives me the unique privilege of being able to sound virtuous without the target of my virtue having a negative effect on my livelihood.
It’s even a bit selfish… As I said, this is one helluva story.
But there is another story… Another disaster movie… The one about an unstoppable financial meteor that’s about to hit 99.99 percent of our country.
The government shut down Margaret’s company.
Margaret can’t pay her invoices to Jimmy’s company.
Jimmy’s company can’t pay Jimmy.
Jimmy can’t pay his landlord.
Jimmy’s landlord can’t pay his mortgage.
Jimmy and his landlord are now sitting at home totally helpless as they watch their bank accounts and 401Ks melt away along with the supplies necessary to feed their wife and children.
And ’round and ’round we go.
So please allow me to put this starkly as I can…
No, the government is not asking us to just sit at home and watch Netflix.
That’s a bullshit media talking point from a bullshit media living through an exciting disaster movie.
What the government is really doing is this…
Asking us to sit at home as our bank accounts dwindle, as our small businesses barrel towards bankruptcy, as the company that employs us teeters on the edge of closing down.
And sitting at home helpless as everything falls apart is agonizing… Is a recipe for despair… And despair means stress, and stress is — for the those of you who thump your chest over your fidelity to science — a killer.
The privileged media living through their exciting disaster movie don’t want to talk about the economic death toll of shutting down the economy — suicide; drug overdoses; crime; murders driven by despair, desperation, and fear; spousal abuse.
Let’s just start here…
In 2018, 48,344 Americans committed suicide.
During the first four years of the Great Depression, the suicide rate jumped by almost 25 percent.
There’s another death toll in this story, another disaster movie… But just as our useless and corrupt media are immune from illegal aliens stealing other people’s jobs, just as our useless and corrupt media cannot relate to weather disasters until those disasters happen in New York or Washington, DC, they are immunized from this death toll…
That’s a problem.
I’m not saying I know the answer to the dilemma between the coronavirus meteor and the economic meteor. But I am at least willing to acknowledge the latter exists, and to not sanctimoniously scream YOU DON’T CARE ABOUT DEAD PEOPLE to those who dare to discuss that other disaster movie.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.
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