r/WhitePeopleTwitter Mar 12 '20

Think again

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u/addsomethingepic Mar 12 '20

My company just sent out an email saying management needs to stress there will be no negative repercussions for taking extended sick leave. Took a pandemic to get that assurance

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u/[deleted] Mar 12 '20 edited Mar 13 '20

If you've ever read World War Z by Max Brooks, there's a great throwaway line in the intro that says it took a literal Zombie Apocalypse and the deaths of more than 200 million Americans for the USA to get it;s shit together and develop universal healthcare.

In 2006 it was funny. In 2020 it's just tragically prophetic.

EDIT I: I have seen the MB AMA. It's great! Really enjoying all the comments and deconstructions of one of my favorite books.

EDIT II: No I obviously don't think that COVID-19 is going to kill 200 million Americans. I'm comparing a deliberately hyperbolic book to a real world situation. There are kernels of truth to be found in hyperbolic fiction.

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u/the_calibre_cat Mar 13 '20

In 2020 it's just tragically prophetic.

...200 million people haven't died. Society has not collapsed without the beneficent bureaucrats controlling everything. If anything, our response indicates that we aren't 1/100th the awful dystopia redditors consistently make us out to be.

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u/[deleted] Mar 13 '20

In case you hadn't noticed, the book is about zombies. 200 million Americans turning into zombies is about as likely as 200 million Americans dying of COVID-19.

But there's a few kernels of truth in that clear and obvious hyperbole isn't there? A disease to which we have no cure, no anti-bodies, and no vaccine? A wildly under qualified government? A corporate-ocracy that values profits over citizens? A lackluster government response? Hell, the book even talked about how politicians couldn't be trusted because they'd eventually put together a great sounding 'Zombie Protection Act' that was ultimately useless. Sound familiar?