What is the link between political authoritarianism and COVID-19 denial?

Asked by SmashTheState (14252

) April 18th, 2020

The convenience store connected to my building was bought by the richest man in a town of 30,000 who therefore believes he is the ruler and potentate of all he surveys. He tore the convenience store down without bothering to even give me notice, despite the fact that we share a common roof and ceiling beams, ripping out my phone and Internet as he did so.

When I complained to him about it, he told me to sell him my building on the spot, and that “I’ll buy this whole fucking town.” When I told him and his construction crew that they’d ripped out my phone and Internet, they said it shouldn’t have been connected to their roof. When I explained that I have serious, life-threatening health problems and can bleed to death from a nosebleed and therefore can’t go without a phone (and that there isn’t even a payphone in the tiny town in which I live to call for repairs) the response I got was, “That sounds like a ‘you’ problem.”

Subsequently they have repeatedly violated a pandemic no-construction order, despite my calls to bylaw enforcement about their activities. They don’t even wear facemasks, and laugh when they see me wearing one. I have asthma, diabetes, and am recovering from a bilateral pulmonary embolism; if I get COVID-19, I will die.

From what I see in the news, this isn’t unusual behaviour for the politically reactionary, and I am wracking my brain trying to figure out what the connection is. Maybe they don’t value my life, but do they not value their own? Do they really believe they are at no risk from a virulent disease which has killed tens of thousands?

As I write this, they’re out there right now doing construction again (on the weekend so as to avoid bylaw enforcement I assume).

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4 Answers

Sounds like a terrible situation for you. I’m sorry.

Top-of-my-head answer, without deep thought and hypothesis testing, says the link has to do with power and control. People who are enamored of authoritarianism want to control others, either directly or by proxy, to their own advantage. If there’s something they positively cannot control, such as rampant disease, science, or a melting polar cap, what else is there but denial?

Jeruba (56106

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I didn’t read Jeruba’s post first. This turns out to be me stating the same sort of thing, but FWIW:

I think one of the main ones is those types of “thinkers” seem to tend to have overwhelming unbearable amounts of fear and anger that they avoid facing by putting their “faith” in lying demagogues (e.g. certain news/entertainers, politicians and preachers) who will pretend to believe in a simple false feel-good story.

i.e. They can’t face the truth of their mortality, wage slavery, vulnerability to disease and financial risks, pervasive political corruption or moral bankruptcy of their clergy, impeding catastrophic global environmental problems, their xenophobic fears, etc, and so they cling to simple fantasies provided by people who tell them that’s all a lie, scientists and doctors are conspirators, and if they just “believe”, tithe, and believe God sent Trump to shout away their worries, they’ll be fine.

Zaku (30607

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Money does that to some people. I think the other half of the equation, though, is education and intelligence. I mean, compare that asshat you have to deal with to Obama.

Dutchess_III (47126

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I think the covid 19 denial is carried out by grown assed adults who never got out of the “You’re not the boss of ME!” stage they went through when they were 5.

Dutchess_III (47126

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