By David Futrelle
People often ask “who funds The Federalist,” assuming that the answer is some shadowy right-wing billionaire who finds the site’s crackpot conservatism congenial. But I think I’ve found the actual answer: it’s the coronavirus. Yes, that’s right: the coronavirus is funding The Federalist.
I was led to this conclusion by a pair of articles that went up on the site today arguing, quite seriously, that hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of coronavirus deaths might be a fair price to pay for an early end to the not-quite-national shutdown that has millions of Americans now “sheltering in place” to help control the virus’ spread.
If you think I’m exaggerating or engaging in rhetorical overkill, nope. I’m basically just paraphrasing. In an article posted on The Federalist today, Hillsdale College grad student Jonathan Ashbach writes
It seems harsh to ask whether the nation might be better off letting a few hundred thousand people die. … Yet honestly facing reality is not callous, and refusing even to consider whether the present response constitutes an even greater evil than the one it intends to mitigate would be cowardly.
In addition to the economic costs of the shutdown, and what he sees as a fundamental loss of freedom, Ashbach worries that all this social distancing is making our lives a lot less fun.
“[C]onsider the massive sacrifice of life Americans are making in their social distancing campaign,” he writes.
True, nearly all are not literally dying, but they are giving up a good deal of what makes life worth living — work, classes, travel, hugs, time with friends, conferences, quiet nights out, and so forth. Probably almost everyone would be willing to live a somewhat shorter normal life rather than a somewhat longer life under current conditions. The abandonment of normalcy, therefore, is in many ways equivalent to shortening the lives of the entire nation.
He’s rather have hugs and death than a temporary loss of hugs. One wonders if his blithe acceptance of the possibility of mass death may have something to do with the fact that as a grad student (presumably in his twenties or early 30s) he is much less likely to be one of the dead than, for example, those over the age of 70.
When it comes to Federalist executive editor and self-described “happy wife” Joy Pullman, one does not have to wonder: she plainly acknowledges that she’s unlikely to die if the current state lockdowns are brought to an early end. But when it comes to the country as a whole, she’d prefer mass death to massive deficits.
“My point here is not that I like people dying,” she wrote.
It’s that very often our society chooses to allow deaths because the alternative is worse. I’m suggesting the severe social and economic tradeoffs of unlimited quarantine are an important consideration that is not being taken seriously enough. …
The costs Americans are being forced to bear may be more than is rational to impose.
She’s well aware that the cost of abandoning the current lockdowns could be utterly devastating; indeed, she begins her article citing a report predicting that without social distancing the deaths in the US alone from cornonavirus could reach 4 million, two million more than the deaths that could result if we stay locked down. Naturally, she prefers the considerably more optimistic takes on the subject that have come from others on the political right, but she knows that serious researchers think the cost in lives could run into the millions.
Nonetheless, she suggested in one of the article’s subheads that “a depression will ruin 330 million lives, not 4 million.” She worries that cash payments from the government to ordinary Americans will “[addict] millions to welfare … transform[ing them] from workers to takers,” while “many” others will “die due to poverty, lack of medical care, and despair.”
Huh. That last bit sounds like a plug for socialized medicine and a stronger welfare state, but of course to Pullman the very idea is anathema.
In the end, she decides that she’d rather risk coronavirus than a massive economic slump. I mean, why should she and others like her suffer economically when they’re not even part of the group of people most likely to die from the disease?
Why would the entire nation grind to a halt when the entire nation is not at a severe risk? I would rather have a flu I am 99.8 percent likely to survive than the nation plunged into chaos indefinitely because we pulled the plug on our economy during a stampede.
In other words: I’ve got my health, fuck the rest of you.
It would be one thing if this thinking was confined to the fringes of the crackpot right. But it’s not just Federalist writers who see the disease this way. Indeed, Donald Trump himself seems to be suggesting in one recent tweet that he’s getting pretty annoyed with the effect all this social distancing is having on the stock market, and that he might be considering a more laissez faire approach.
At the daily coronovirus briefing today, Trump went further. ”
“America will again and soon be open for business — very soon,” he said. “We cannot let the cure be worse than the problem itself.”
The Federalist is providing Trump with handy talking points for whatever terrible policy — or non-policy — he decides to enact when the 15 days are over on March 30. Depending on what he does or does not do,4 million deaths may turn out to be too optimistic a projection.
H/T — Dr. Nerdlove, who drew my attention to these articles
UPDATE: Story updated with quote from the coronavirus briefing.
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As you point out, this conversation will be playing out in government corridors around the globe. We know it happened here because (a) someone grassed up Dominic Cummings for suggesting it and (b) they were pretty much attempting it at first.
I take hope though that, notwithstanding trite references to ‘the spirit of the Blitz*’, there has been an outbreak of social solidarity and kindness. I hope this is the new paradigm.
(*which as any war historian will tell you, was a myth. Crime soared during the Blitz)
Say what you will about COVID-19, a virus doesn’t have the agency necessary to truly be evil. I can’t say the same for the humans at the Federalist.
COVID-19 really is exposing the bankruptcy and evil of libertarian philosophy, isn’t it.
Add loving the coronavirus to the list TERFs and the Federalist have in common.
The way I see it is, it’s better to spend a few weeks without these things than to die and never experience them again.
This is a very mask-off moment—we all know conservatives want millions to die, but they rarely say it so plainly.
I think part of why conservatives so fear this is because they know that this is making their Dear Leader look very bad (and them by extension). Thing is, killing millions of people doesn’t make you look good either, but I don’t think their base realizes that. And many older conservatives don’t seem to realize they are likely to die.
If I didn’t already realize that the Christian right is a death cult, I sure would be coming to that conclusion now.
I will be relentless in bringing up the right’s swift pivot to the opinion that mass death is better than the wealthy having to lose a little money in the stock market whenever someone tries to claim that conservatives are ideology of pro-life and morals.
Anyway, it’s a false choice between public health and the economy. An out of control pandemic will devastate the economy as much, if not more than just taking drastic steps to contain this thing now.
It takes a lot for Americans to pay attention to politics enough to even think about taking to the streets en masse, but I’m thinking the wealthy are going to get a nasty surprise if they think that 30% unemployment, little to no economic assistance and little to no concern for the death of millions of Americans isn’t going to cause some shit to kick off. Americans buy into the bootstraps my pretty readily, but the kind of conditions that could be coming may burst that bubble. I’m no accelerationist, so I don’t relish this possibility. Civil unrest will include upticks in fascist violence, it’s not all going to be people rioting for a New Deal type intervention.
@WWTH
Do actual conservatives even think they are of life and morals? The cognitive dissonance must be extreme.
I fully expect people to begin violent protests, then Trump will claim the left and antifa are terrorists. If I’m being extra pessimistic, I could even foresee Trump using the national guard to attack protestors and/or declaring martial law and banning criticism of his administration.
Holy shit we’re doomed.
The worst fucking thing about this is that people are suffering under quarantine but — besides those who are dealing with the direct effects of the illness itself — their suffering stems from capitalism. I mean, I wonder how tying healthcare rights to employment then putting so many out of work, or maintaining a system where most people literally work paycheck to paycheck and ordering them to stay home will work out. Anyone who can look at this situation and declare the solution to be the continuation of the status quo is working against the interests of humanity.
Isn’t this the exact same attitude the same far-right pundits have been displaying toward climate change for seemingly eons now? “Carbon taxes? Rapid transition to renewables? Fuck that, it will wreck the economy all to save a few million people most of whom are brown and not Americans!”
The warnings from the IPCC and scientists kept getting more dire, and then an explicit end-date was put out for when our carbon budget has been spent under business-as-usual, and still this has been their attitude. The ones who didn’t outright deny it are all like “we can adapt to a three, four, five degree rise, and screw anyone who can’t, especially if they are poor or not American”. (And to a lot of them “not American” clearly includes nonwhite Americans.)
I am not in the least surprised that their response to the virus is entirely consistent with their response to climate change. And that they then have the gall to claim it’s Democrats who are the elitists.
Here in the netherlands the period of social distancing just got extended from the 6th of April to the start of June. Annoying, but definitely the right call.
As for the 4 million people affected thing that Pullman person put forward: No, you dingdong. 4 million people dying also affects those around them who have to get their affairs in order (many more than 4 million). I can’t imagine arranging funeral services is made easier by this pandemic. Not to mention possible debts and all of the other menial duties when someone close has passed away.
Ugh. Some people.
“I’ve got mine, fuck you” is the motto of conservatism.
@Perry
I think with conservatives that’s kind of the point.
God money, they’ll do anything for you
God money, just tell them what you want them to do
God money, let’s go dancing on the backs of the bruised
God money’s not one to choose
-by someone who is probably a conservative now that he’s rich
@Battering Lamb
In America the funeral industry is already messed up by consolidation. I know people who can’t afford funerals and couldn’t travel anyway for their loved one’s funerals due to quarantine.
More and more, I think “who funds the Federalist” needs to be answered.
In addition to all their other flaws, all of these arguments seem to focus solely on the mortality rate and ignore other outcomes. If the US just lets the virus run freely how many people will need hospitalization and intensive care? And even looking solely at the economic impact, what will that do?
If you’re not following @scalzi on Twitter, you should. He dislikes Drumpf and the Repugnicans, and his tweets are spot-on.
Here’s on of his tweets today:
“To the sociopathic shitmonkeys who are trial-ballooning the idea of letting millions die of the COVID virus just so we can all get back to work a bit sooner:
Thank you for volunteering to die from the virus.
Oh, you mean you want OTHER people to die?
Then go fuck yourselves.”
I’m sure these shitmonkeys want the actual workers to resume their labors, not the useless criminal CEOs and Wall-Street types.
@ Perry
Apparently this says something along the lines of “We cannot return to normal because normal was what got us here”. People might want to check that. I agree with the sentiment though.
@ Alan Robertshaw:
I can’t read Chinese, but based on my knowledge of kanji, it appears to be saying “we cannot return to normal because normal is the problem”.
@WWTH
This crisis has many of them salivating with the prospects that Jesus will come down from heaven soon as cast all atheists and heretics down the fiery pit of hell itself. They seem to be celebrating all of these because they think they will be safe from COVID-19.
On the other hand Joe Biden is still a no show. At this rate he is going to be clobbered by Trump and the media.
@ kindasortaharmless
Thanks; that makes sense.
Yeah, it’s going to make Kent State look like cake.
Anyway, I put on Trump’s “news” conference and had to change it after literally 10 seconds because he praised “countries” like Nebraska and Idaho for handling the pandemic well. By handling well, I’m assuming he means that being red states, they are following his prescription of don’t test and don’t take any containment measures. I mean, I’m sure there’s less of Covid-19 there due to there being lower population density, but when they catch up to large urban centers in infection rates, rural areas are going to be fucked because rural hospitals have been shutting down in large numbers the past several years as a consequence of a profit focused health care system. It is deeply, deeply dangerous to encourage rural states to be complacent about this pandemic.
@Alan Robertshaw
If that is what it says, they aren’t wrong. Calamities come from the status quo, not in spite of it.
@Diego Duarte
Do they think this is the rapture or something? If so, wouldn’t that make Trump the antichrist?
@Naglfar:
That’s what I’ve been telling people who complain about the quarantine. Yes, it sucks, but there are things that would happen without it that would suck a lot more.
I know a few people have said this out loud.
I didn’t think I could despise them any more than I already do. I was wrong.
And I would feel that way I’d i was a healthy 30 year old.
There are no words for how despicable they are.
Also, I learned today that someone I know (I don’t like this person) is deliberately not following the quarantine or social distancing because “the disease won’t affect her”.
*eyeroll *facepalm the selfishness of some people.
I’m just so angry with this person right now.
@Yutolia
It reminds me a bit of the Stanford marshmallow experiment. The thing is, I was expecting adults to get the concept of delayed gratification a bit better than children.
@WWTH:
? Nebraska … ? … does that share a border with Nambia? ?
@Naglfar:
Yep. Heck, you can even get a 666 out of his name without too much effort. And then there’s this:
https://www.benjaminlcorey.com/could-american-evangelicals-spot-the-antichrist-heres-the-biblical-predictions/
It gets scarier. These aren’t just adults. They’re economists, or at least they like to pretend that they are. Economists definitely should understand how to do proper time discounting of risks and expectations …