Well, someone had to say it and it looks like comedian and late-night host Bill Maher decided to fire the first salvo. He pretty much torched the political correctness police, saying that it was okay to call it the “Chinese virus,” that we should blame China, and that it’s somewhat silly that there are people who would rather die from the virus than call it by the wrong name for the sake of staying woke. Maher drives some on the Right crazy, but I’ve always liked him. And yes, this segment of New Rules this past Friday surely rubbed progressives the wrong way. As Guy wrote today, Maher is now problematic:
China is a dictatorship that, for decades, enforced a one child per family policy under penalty of forced sterilization. But they can't close down the farmer's market from hell? #CoronaVirus #WetMarkets pic.twitter.com/pvkfhdTk4i
— Bill Maher (@billmaher) April 11, 2020
Seriously, it scares me that there are people out there who would rather die from the virus than call it by the wrong name. This isn't about vilifying a culture. This is about facts. This is about life and death. We're barely four months into this pandemic and the wet markets, the ones where exotic animals are sold and consumed, are already starting to reopen. The PC police say it is racist to attack any cultural practice that's different than our own. I say liberalism lost its way when it started thinking like that and pretended that forcing a woman to wear [a burka] was just a different way instead of an abhorrent human rights violation...So when someone says, "What if people hear 'Chinese virus' and blame China?" The answer is we should blame China, not Chinese Americans. But we can't stop telling the truth because racists get the wrong idea.
He's right. How dare we blame China who ordered its scientists to destroy samples of the pneumonia-like virus that’s ravaging the world in December, strong-armed its doctors from raising awareness, dithered on releasing information to the public, lied to the World Health Organization about human-to-human transmission, and has now disappeared those who tried to warn the rest of us. From vloggers to doctors, these people have vanished. Oh, and China’s utterly laughable containment protocols did nothing. They unleashed this plague. It got out. It was from China. That is a fact. Sorry, liberals, facts don’t care about your feelings. Political correctness and wokeness should never exist, but it should especially be non-existent when it comes to fighting a pandemic. Now, if calling this disease, the Chinese virus upsets you, fine—You can still call it COVID-19 or the Wuhan coronavirus, but those who call it by their geographical term aren’t wrong and they surely shouldn’t be subjected to cancel culture harassment.
But now we’re playing this game because the liberal news media has decided to pour gasoline on it. Why? Well, Trump called it the Chinese virus, so they must disagree, even if it’s based in fact. CNN, is it still an apple? By this logic, we need to rename a lot of diseases. Maher noted that Lyme’s Disease is now offensive under this criterion. Is it inappropriate to call the 2019 Samoa Measles outbreak…by its correct geographical name? Is Japanese encephalitis racist? Oh, here’s one that gets all my people: the 1957-58 Asian flu pandemic? In 1968, we had the Hong Kong flu pandemic. What should that be called now? Also, to the liberal media folks who peddled in the Trump-Russia collusion myth, they should know that in 1977, there was the Russian flu epidemic. How does Trump tie in with that one?
It’s time for the woke masses and the liberal media to shut up about this. It’s a virus from China. Period. And no, I’m not afraid about some loser hurling a racial insult at me. I’ve been subjected to worse in the comments section, much to my amusement. There are about 1,000 other issues more important related to the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak that is way above concerns about offending people. The hysteria is one of the reasons why the media’s trust is in the toilet. They lie—and people see it. They also die on some of the stupidest hills of political correctness in recent memory. Bashing those who call this virus by its factual, geographic term has to be at the top of the list. And no, liberal media, no one cares about your lectures or fact checks over this term. We don’t care and that goes double for CNN’s clown show crew that lusts to put on a show in briefing room every day, only to get their teeth kicked in by the president.
“Chinese virus,” and looks I didn’t evaporate into the ether, nor did a Klansman appear out of thin air to kill me.
As of today, the Chinese virus has infected nearly 600,000 Americans, with over 25,000 dying from it.
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