Carl Sagan's "Demon-Haunted World" Comes To Life In Louisiana Anti-Mask Protests

[hatrack]

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Woman with a Covid-19 denial sign at an “End the Shutdown” protest in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on April 25.


Woman with a Covid-19 denial sign sporting a message for Bill Gates, a common target of the right wing, at an “End the Shutdown” protest in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on April 25.

At an April 25 “End the Shutdown” rally in Baton Rouge, rally-goers, led by Rep. McCormick, marched from the State Capitol building to the nearby lawn across from the governor's mansion to express their anger with his handling of the crisis. In a speech, McCormick offered talking points to counter Gov. Edwards’ emergency orders meant to address the COVID-19 pandemic. The talking points mirrored a memo sent by GOP political operative Jay Connaughton to Republican State Sen. Sharon Hewitt and shared with GOP state legislators. Hewitt is one of Louisiana's top conservative leaders. In 2018 she was named “National Legislator of the Year” by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).


Veronica Lemoa, a stay-at-home mother, at an “End the Shutdown” protest on April 25, 2020 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.


Young girl at an “Open Louisiana” event in Baton Rouge on May 2 across from the Governor’s Mansion.

Despite President Trump’s praise for Gov. Edwards, a Democrat, for his handling of the pandemic, anti-mask protesters are equating the governor’s stay-at-home order and mask mandate with the first step to tyranny. Spell, who was arrested for defying the mask mandate, did not stop with his sharp criticism of the governor — and also had some for Trump. While he is glad the Trump administration deemed churches “essential,” in order to reopen them, Spell proclaimed that he doesn't need the president’s permission, and warned: “If they can give you your right to go to church, then they can take from you your right to go to church.”

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Many U.S. leaders have failed to take to heart scientists’ warnings that half-measures to combat climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic won’t work. Meanwhile, temperatures across America are hitting new record highs, and cases of the coronavirus continue to rise exponentially, leading top U.S. infectious disease official Dr. Anthony Fauci to advise states “having a serious problem” with a surge in coronavirus cases to “seriously look at shutting down.”

In his 1995 book The Demon-Haunted World, astronomer and science writer Carl Sagan presaged, with trepidation, an America wherein “our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness…a kind of celebration of ignorance.” After viewing some of my photos from the recent “Save America” rally, Mann wrote in an email: “These people, sadly, are the purest embodiment of Sagan’s chilling prophecy.”

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https://www.desmogblog.com/2020/07/10/covid-louisiana-science-denial-anti-mask-mccormick-spell

[Bernardo de La Paz]

1. Virus doesn't cancel Constitution, but it does cancel stupid people & the loved unstupid ones

... and unloved unstupid strangers who get infected by selfish RW snowflakes.

The Constitution also protects "No shoes, no shirt, no mask, no service".

And it permits all kinds of infringements. Right to bear arms does not include fully automatic 20mm machine guns. Nor is shouting "Fire" in a crowded theatre permitted.

All rights have limits and all rights are balanced against other right.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

2. The Constitution does not protect Assault by people breathing germs all over the place. . . . nt

[Squinch]

3. Thing is, like all the coverage of the "protests," these are tight up-close shots that give the

impression of a crowd. There is no crowd here. There are a handful of morons being morons.

The news stories are all so intent on making this news that they miss the real story: these are a few fringe lunatics that do not need to be listened to.

Instead, the news stories intentionally manipulate images to give the impression of "a movement" when there is no movement. They allow other easily led morons to say, "There are so many others out there who believe this, maybe there's something to it. Maybe I should join them."

This inflation of the importance of these people is damaging and dangerous.

[mikeysnot]

5. It is a movement!

A bowel movement, cause they are all full of shit.

[eppur_se_muova]

7. That's true -- photographers try to frame the shot to include everybody, but close enough ...

... to reveal detail. The net result is that the margins of the crowd approximate the margins of the picture. It's just fallible human nature. But a *journalistic* photographer should have enough training to realize the distance shot -- showing not just the "crowd", but the huge empty space around it -- conveys a *lot* of information, based on what is not in view.

Unfortunately, editors tend to select the shots the same way amateur (non-journo) photogs do, and so the distance shot winds up in the dumpster.

[mountain grammy]

9. Exactly!

barely worth any news coverage, and yet, there's that old "librul" media. Just like the tea party protests. I watched our local media give a dozen crackpots big coverage. Maddening .

[Turbineguy]

4. The girls looks like there's something not quite right.

[eppur_se_muova]

6. One of those signs is probably correct ...

the COVID death #'s probably are fraudulent, more likely in LA than elsewhere.

That's not a comfort, since they are assuredly too LOW.

[mackdaddy]

8. sometimes it catches up to you, Like this guy.

A 37-year-old Ohio man died from coronavirus after slamming 'hype' over pandemic on Facebook

Richard Rose, a 37-year-old man from Port Clinton, Ohio, recently died from coronavirus after slamming "hype" about the pandemic on Facebook.

Rose's family told Cleveland CBS affiliate 19 News the US Army veteran died at home on July 3, just three days after testing positive for COVID-19.

Rose's death has attracted attention online due to his public Facebook posts, in which he voiced support for President Donald Trump, criticized Black Lives Matter protesters, made jokes about rape, and accused Democrats of spreading false information about the pandemic in order to "rig the elections in their favor."

https://www.insider.com/ohio-man-veteran-died-coronavirus-mask-facebook-posts-2020-7