False equivalences cause harm. Bill Maher irresponsibly used New Rules to slap the left about COVID
Sadly, @BillMaher severely erred with the false equivalences he created between the Left or Right on how they handled COVID.
Bill Maher strikes out badly on this one on COVID equivalences
See full episodes here.
While I do not always agree with Bill Maher, his prose is usually from intellectual honesty. This particular “New Rules” segment was severely lacking in context. While, for the most part, his data is accurate, data does not exist in a vacuum, and without taking all factors into account, it can actually be no better than a lie.
Bill treats the CDC directives that were on the cautionary side as lies if their caution was unwarranted. Really? If we are working from a position of not knowing, we err on the side of caution. And we inform the people of that as they did.
He did get it right that the mainstream media has prostituted COVID to the point that in America even good news is spun as bad news or diluted with bad news.
“And the media,” Bill said. “Well, I think we all know if it bleeds, it leads. The more they can get you to stay inside and watch their panic porn, the higher the ratings.”
While that is true, ask any nurse and doctor who were fielding overflowing emergency rooms and ICUs if there was no reason to panic. Based on efficiency for the corporations with its inefficiency to serve humans for profit maximization, our private healthcare system was not designed to field not even a 1% in-hospital sick rate. After all, there are less than a million staffed hospital beds in the U.S.
Bill points out that just as many on the Right are severely misinformed, many on the Left are. He is correct. But when the wrong assumptions on the Right kill while those on the left adds a level of safety or are inconsequential, stating in the context he spoke about is deceiving.
Bill's fatal mistake, in my opinion, was to compare the outcomes in New York versus Florida. The two states have completely different weather and population densities. It was irresponsible to assume that Governor DeSantis's policies were more successful than Governor Cuomo's. DeSantis' irresponsible disregard for his citizens was mitigated by factors completely out of his control, temperature, weather, geography, density, and a more responsible older population. I am sure the scientists will have other mitigating factors as well.
Here is the clip.
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