Dr. Deborah Birx was recruited by Mike Pence to serve on the coronavirus task force, and knowing that nothing that has transpired since should particularly surprise you. Birx made a recent appearance on the Trump-endorsed Christian Broadcasting Network, wherein she says about Trump… But first, because you might have trouble understanding her statement, I will translate it from her favorite ventriloquist: Donald John Trump.
“ He’s been so attentive to the scientific literature and the details and the data,” Birx claimed, despite plenty of public evidence to the contrary. “And I think — his ability to analyze and integrate data that comes out of his long history in business has really been a real benefit during these discussions about medical issues,” she added, ladling on even more adulation and stroking of Trump’s well-known demand for absolute loyalty.
By saying this, and on a right-wing religious network no less, she passed the baptism of hellfire and is now an officially Trump approved sycophant. If she were honest and adhered to her hypocritic oath she should have said: President Trump has tested positive for being an asshole. He must be quarantined to prevent the spread of his massive stupidity.
Under the “man child emerging emperor ” Donald Trump, we have entered the Dark Ages in earnest, pursuing a short-sighted path that can only accelerate our decline. What we are now seeing are the obvious characteristics of the West after the fall of Rome: the triumph of religion over reason; the atrophy of education and critical thinking; the worship of the “Dear Leader”, the state, and the apparatus of dismantling the truth and rules of law and order –a deadly troika that was for Voltaire the central horror of the pre- Enlightenment world; and the political and economic marginalization of our culture.
Add to this the pervasive hostility toward science on the part of the current administration and we get a clear picture of the Enlightenment being steadily rolled back.
Fundamentalists are using COVID-19 as part of a cosmic conflict between Good and Evil rather than in terms of political processes… Manichaean’s rules across the United States.
Jesus and Einstein, where are you when we really need you?