by William Skink
Adaptation is something that organisms do in order to survive. It is defined thusly:
An adaptation is a mutation, or genetic change, that helps an organism, such as a plant or animal, survive in its environment. Due to the helpful nature of the mutation, it is passed down from one generation to the next.
Here is another term worth considering in light of what is happening, normalcy bias. It is described at Wikipedia as
a tendency for people to believe that things will function in the future the way they normally have functioned in the past and therefore to underestimate both the likelihood of a disaster and its possible effects. This may result in situations where people fail to adequately prepare themselves for disasters, and on a larger scale, the failure of governments to include the populace in its disaster preparations.
With these concepts in mind, let’s take a look at good old Pete Talbot and his latest post, titled Coronavirus decisions: guns or generosity.
In this post Talbot is using a global pandemic to set up a false binary because he hates guns and conservatives that much. It begins with this:
The choices we make during the COVID-19 pandemic say a lot about society as a whole.
We can strip the grocery store shelves bare, leaving little for those who don’t have the resources to stockpile. We can load up on guns and ammo.
Or we can volunteer to deliver meals to the elderly and disabled. We can buy gift cards at our local restaurants and retail businesses. We can donate to the community food bank.
I am so goddamn tired of this sanctimonious bullshit coming from the likes of Pete Talbot, a supposed progressive here in Missoula who pretends to stand up for the poor and vulnerable, yet remains conspicuously silent as critics like me point out actual public policies that exacerbate inequality, like Tax Increment Financing.
After 10 years of working in the non-profit sector with the very populations Talbot uses to forward his anti-gun agenda, I know a thing or two about the systems coming under immense pressure from the coronavirus, and that is a BIG reason I stocked up on things like emergency food rations and ammunition years ago.
Pete Talbot and the other partisans pretending to be reporters at the Montana Post are hopelessly stuck in a normalcy bias that prevents them from understanding how the world is changing. They are not alone. There are many people trapped in a mindset that will lessen their chances of survival as the scope of what is coming takes shape.
The economic depression that will result from the popping of the everything bubble is now fast approaching. Does Pete Talbot really think the benevolent billionaires who run public policy will allow the system that has created their wealth to be radically changed in order to benefit the broader public without a fight?
Anyone who thinks there is value in clinging to things like a two party political system is allowing normalcy bias to prevent their imagination from envisioning a different world.
Instead of fretting about gun sales, how about we identify the real threats we are facing, like the consolidation of wealth under neoliberalism and the globalization that has been implemented by those who seek to centralize more power and control for themselves.
We are all panicking to some degree as the world around us rapidly changes, and while we are feeling anxious about our own personal lives, you better believe those with power are positioning themselves to protect what they have and to get more of it.
If you want to expose yourself to sanctimonious lectures and preparation shaming, please, go read the Montana Post.
If you want non-partisan assessments of current events and a poem every now and then, keep checking in here.