What Does The Mask SNAFU Tells Us About The Overall Situation?
One alternative, obviously, is: nothing (or not much, anyway).
Another is: that the Powers That Be are either subject to big, obviously f*ck-ups, or are willing to lie to us about this stuff (perhaps for the perceived greater good) or both.
The first part of the second alternative shouldn't come as much of a surprise. The second, I guess, would be a bit more surprising to me.
I mean...what were they thinking with respect to the masks? I just can't believe they actually believed some of the things they said--e.g. (a) they actually raise your odds of catching stuff!; (b) don't buy them because they don't help...and health-care workers need them.
Nobody thinks they want to harm us. And (b) seems like obvious BS. So that seems to leave benevolent lies for the greater good: doctors and nurses need them, it's more important that they have them, and we're willing to lie to you guys because we don't trust you to do what you ought to do--in this case, not buy up all the f*cking masks... I'm not sure what to think about that latter option.
(Although, the great Scott Alexander claims that it really is hard to learn how to put the masks on correctly...so that's a complicating factor.)
But...someone who is inclined to lie benevolently about something like the masts might also be willing to lie about the severity of the plague, reasoning that it will raise the likelihood that we'll do what we ought. Seems to me, anyway.
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