Kung Flu
Trump used the term "kung flu", a usage that might be seen as a play on words, an amalgamation of the Chinese "kung fu", literally "merit" as a word, something "that requires patience, energy, and time to complete," and "flu", a general term for a family of diseases caused by the cornoavirus, and thus related to covid-19.
In one sense, then, "kung flu" might te taken to mean "a strong flu virus". But words take their meaning from their context, and coming out of Trump's mouth, bundled in his tone of voice, his facial expressions, body language, and his recent statements expressing an antipathy towards China, the word is used to provoke and encourage racial hatred toward Chinese -- and other Asians. The term is used to build upon his narrative that covid-19 was the deliberate product of the Chinese government, which it unleashed upon the world for some unexplained but nefarious reason.
Much more likely, the pandemic was "caused" by a Gwyneth Paltrow, as in the movie Contagion. After all, China is the world's second largest economy, which millions of people visit for tourism, education, and to find ways to exploit China's productive capacity. The disease became a pandemic because no place in the world is separated by more than a 24-hour airplane ride; because carriers do not begin to show symptoms -- if at all -- for a week, and are infectious days before symptom are evident; because many of its symptoms are shared by other common diseases, and therefore not necessarily a cause for alarm, and the disease has a tendency to most adversely affect the old and people of color; because after the disease was recognized in other countries, those countries failed to rapidly implement well-known, standard, basic, historically effective measures -- distancing, washing; because the leadership of some countries (including the US) denied the severity of the problem; because measures to slow the spread of the virus were uncoordinated, contradictory and voluntary in the case of the US; also in the US, because social values such as the primacy of individual freedom over that of the group, a rejection and distrust of government leadership (even within government itself), an embrace of conspiracy theories or idiosyncratic knowledge derived from social media, and a desire of capitalists to "reopen the economy" regardless of the consequences to people; and because in the US, response to the virus was characterized as ideological rather than a matter of epidemiology and medicine.
It does seem to be an acknowledged fact that the disease first appeared in Wuhan, China, but once it came to the US, it became an American problem, and its effects on American society are the result of how Americans handled and are handling the problem. How covid-19 is affecting the US is the result of American actions. No other country is forcing America to act the way Americans are acting in response to covid-19. In this case, Americans are the masters of their fate, and the way that covid-19 is affecting America is an American choice. This should be obvious. Other countries much closer to China, with vastly fewer resources than the US, have dealt effectively with their local epidemics of the virus, managed to drastically reduce the number of new cases and are dealing effectively and promptly with any new outbreaks. One example: When the virus began its rapid spread in the US, the US rejected other country's offers of testing technology. These tests were effective and had helped those countries to respond to their epidemics. Instead, the US chose to develop its own testing technology which turned out to be flawed, and resulted in a month-long delay before effective testing could be implemented.
To say that covid-19 came from China is, as an explanation for what is happening with the epidemic now in the US, meaningless, ridiculous, racist. We may as well blame China for the proliferation of guns and gun deaths in the US, because the Chinese invented gun powder. Or we can blame the British for racism because it was formulated there as an ideology there to justify the slave trade; or that a privateer brought Africans to the colonies to be sold as slaves in 1619. Or we can blame Africa because that is where slavers found the people to enslave. But then, we are trying to blame other people for problems and a society that we in the US created for ourselves.
Maybe some of this stuff is part of our evolutionary nature: A distrust of strangers, a preference for a dominance hierarchy, an ability to cooperate to achieve an end, an ability to learn and transmit that learning, the capacity of abstraction and language, our sociability, our tendency to be aggressive, our ability to be kind. These tendencies are all part of racism, but they are also a part of other societies. If these qualities determine the existence of racist societies, then all societies should be equally racist, but of course this is not so. All people in all societies may feel equally prejudiced and hostile towards people whom they perceive as different, but all societies do not deal with those feelings in the same way. How each society deals with the prejudices of their people is a matter of that society's choice.
If I concede that the coronavirus orginated in China, will you concede that once it set foot on our shores, that it became an American virus? How the virus spread, how many it infected millions, how it was talked about, how people responded both personally and as a community are all the products of American behavior. The Chinese did not force us to hold rallies to protest the ordering of mask wearing, the Chinese did not trick the CDC to try to develop our own coronavirus tests, eschewing the use of accurate tests already used in other countries. The Chinese did not prevent employers from providing personal protective equipment to their workers. The Chinese are not forcing us to congregate in large densely-packed crowds without wearing masks -- we are doing that because we want to. And when all of these things which the Chinese did not force us to do result in the largest number of deaths and infections of any country in the world, that was us, that is what Americans chose to do, and that is what made covid-19 in America an American virus.
In one sense, then, "kung flu" might te taken to mean "a strong flu virus". But words take their meaning from their context, and coming out of Trump's mouth, bundled in his tone of voice, his facial expressions, body language, and his recent statements expressing an antipathy towards China, the word is used to provoke and encourage racial hatred toward Chinese -- and other Asians. The term is used to build upon his narrative that covid-19 was the deliberate product of the Chinese government, which it unleashed upon the world for some unexplained but nefarious reason.
Much more likely, the pandemic was "caused" by a Gwyneth Paltrow, as in the movie Contagion. After all, China is the world's second largest economy, which millions of people visit for tourism, education, and to find ways to exploit China's productive capacity. The disease became a pandemic because no place in the world is separated by more than a 24-hour airplane ride; because carriers do not begin to show symptoms -- if at all -- for a week, and are infectious days before symptom are evident; because many of its symptoms are shared by other common diseases, and therefore not necessarily a cause for alarm, and the disease has a tendency to most adversely affect the old and people of color; because after the disease was recognized in other countries, those countries failed to rapidly implement well-known, standard, basic, historically effective measures -- distancing, washing; because the leadership of some countries (including the US) denied the severity of the problem; because measures to slow the spread of the virus were uncoordinated, contradictory and voluntary in the case of the US; also in the US, because social values such as the primacy of individual freedom over that of the group, a rejection and distrust of government leadership (even within government itself), an embrace of conspiracy theories or idiosyncratic knowledge derived from social media, and a desire of capitalists to "reopen the economy" regardless of the consequences to people; and because in the US, response to the virus was characterized as ideological rather than a matter of epidemiology and medicine.
It does seem to be an acknowledged fact that the disease first appeared in Wuhan, China, but once it came to the US, it became an American problem, and its effects on American society are the result of how Americans handled and are handling the problem. How covid-19 is affecting the US is the result of American actions. No other country is forcing America to act the way Americans are acting in response to covid-19. In this case, Americans are the masters of their fate, and the way that covid-19 is affecting America is an American choice. This should be obvious. Other countries much closer to China, with vastly fewer resources than the US, have dealt effectively with their local epidemics of the virus, managed to drastically reduce the number of new cases and are dealing effectively and promptly with any new outbreaks. One example: When the virus began its rapid spread in the US, the US rejected other country's offers of testing technology. These tests were effective and had helped those countries to respond to their epidemics. Instead, the US chose to develop its own testing technology which turned out to be flawed, and resulted in a month-long delay before effective testing could be implemented.
To say that covid-19 came from China is, as an explanation for what is happening with the epidemic now in the US, meaningless, ridiculous, racist. We may as well blame China for the proliferation of guns and gun deaths in the US, because the Chinese invented gun powder. Or we can blame the British for racism because it was formulated there as an ideology there to justify the slave trade; or that a privateer brought Africans to the colonies to be sold as slaves in 1619. Or we can blame Africa because that is where slavers found the people to enslave. But then, we are trying to blame other people for problems and a society that we in the US created for ourselves.
Maybe some of this stuff is part of our evolutionary nature: A distrust of strangers, a preference for a dominance hierarchy, an ability to cooperate to achieve an end, an ability to learn and transmit that learning, the capacity of abstraction and language, our sociability, our tendency to be aggressive, our ability to be kind. These tendencies are all part of racism, but they are also a part of other societies. If these qualities determine the existence of racist societies, then all societies should be equally racist, but of course this is not so. All people in all societies may feel equally prejudiced and hostile towards people whom they perceive as different, but all societies do not deal with those feelings in the same way. How each society deals with the prejudices of their people is a matter of that society's choice.
If I concede that the coronavirus orginated in China, will you concede that once it set foot on our shores, that it became an American virus? How the virus spread, how many it infected millions, how it was talked about, how people responded both personally and as a community are all the products of American behavior. The Chinese did not force us to hold rallies to protest the ordering of mask wearing, the Chinese did not trick the CDC to try to develop our own coronavirus tests, eschewing the use of accurate tests already used in other countries. The Chinese did not prevent employers from providing personal protective equipment to their workers. The Chinese are not forcing us to congregate in large densely-packed crowds without wearing masks -- we are doing that because we want to. And when all of these things which the Chinese did not force us to do result in the largest number of deaths and infections of any country in the world, that was us, that is what Americans chose to do, and that is what made covid-19 in America an American virus.
posted by Godel at 7:30 AM
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