2021: A disappointment, or expected?

Many things most people wished for at the end of 2020 hasn’t panned out in 2021.  But in hindsight such an outcome could have been predicted, or maybe the expectations had been too much to begin with?

A major letdown is that COVID-19 is still going on, killing more people in 2021 than in 2020.  By Nov 2020 vaccines were coming out, and COVID-19 was no longer new, so the hope was high in Dec 2020 for going back to normal in 2021.  Yet 2021 finds new variants emerging, re-infections after prior infections and vaccinations possible, and many countries letting it go, so to speak.  The whole world still lacks a coordinated response, allowing variants spreading like wild fires.  Maybe the virus will stop at Omicron?  Maybe everybody will need vaccine boosters once every 6 months?  Or bet on the new, targeted COVID-19 drugs?  At this time there is no clear endpoint in sight, and 2022 looks more like 2021 than 2018. 

The other is that Biden has been no better than Trump delivering the most important results.  Obviously no COVID-19 improvement, despite the fact that Biden does try harder than Trump.  Much of it can be blamed on the state and local levels, but maybe Trump was also partially right when he said of his response: nothing more can be done.   This is indeed a systemic failure.  Ditto the hostility towards China, Russia, Iran, and others, not a single deviation from Trump.  Not the Iran nuclear accord Trump pulled out, not Cuba, not nothing.  This shows at the Deep State level, the two party system is one and the same: no more blaming the Deep State for undermining Trump, because all was simply partisan bickering. 

Biden has picked up the China moral combat from Trump: nothing Trump did Biden hasn’t continued or worsened.  Which is a bipartisan effort that has nothing to do with historical consensus, facts, or what China does, but with what the US elites think.  Recent US accusations against China are demonstrably, factually false and/or apply more aptly to the US than China.   For example the COVID-19 lab leak theory orgy in May, which ended with a whimper in the Fall.  But don’t worry: it will come back to life, like Lord Voldemort, in 2022.  The fabled Chinese coverup is not far behind to explain everything the US fails: many or most people in the West believe it, like articles in www.marketwatch.com automatically adding sentences such as “it is wildly held that China vastly understates its statistics” whenever reporting worldwide COVID-19 cases.  But the authors never explain: who holds the belief?  If many people also believe China’s numbers, will they say this as well: “it is wildly held that China doesn’t understate its statistics”?  Are we going to have a global vote on that?  How vast is "vastly"?  And on what basis do they make the claim, and what numbers do they think or like the Chinese statistics to be?  Then, they never mention that US researchers, including the CDC, have indeed reported the likely true US statistics: well over 100 million infections and 1 million deaths, vs the confirmed 50 million cases, and 800k deaths.  Of course, there is the other Xinjiang and else nonsense. 

In the US or the West in general, different groups of people have different opinions of China.  The most “pro-China” group is the scientific community (natural sciences), whose profession values truth and reasoning the most, but their numbers are minuscule.  The business class is 50/50.  Some businesses are anti-China, but most are not, yet even they stay silent for fear of attacks.  The political class is strongly anti-China, so is the media.  There is a misconception that if FOX and NBC say the same thing, it must be true.  This is BS when it comes to China, because international reporting from the media, whoever owns it doesn’t matter, all gets the cues from the governments.  That is why BBC, CNN, etc repeat the party-line Xinjiang narratives with minimal facts, while ignoring mountains of evidence to the contrary.  Even if one discounts automatically everything China says, how about the youtube videos Westerners made while actually visiting Xinjiang in 2020/2021: is there anything remotely reflecting genocides or forced labor?   Hell no.  Yet BBC, CNN, NYT, etc completely ignore those youtube contents, other than painting those Westerners as paid by the Chinese government. 

Here is an extreme analogy or joke.  Question: Is the Sun hot?  The Sun government says it is, but since the Western media on Earth can’t go to the Sun, we say that the Sun is not hot or its hotness can’t be independently verified.  This is despite scientific measurements indicating, and visitors being there all saying it is hot.  But because we the media are not there (or didn’t find a cool place there so we don’t report it), we will never say it is hot.  Hence the public belief that the Sun is not hot.  This comparison-example is not far-fetched: COVID-19 situations in China vs the US is like the Sun and Earth, but many Westerners believe they are comparable, and no CNN or FOX reporters dare to say on TV in no uncertain terms that China numbers are indeed that much better than the US.   

It is funny that polls show both the US government and media have a very low approval rating %, the media in the 20s.  Yet as far the public is concerned, they all trust the propaganda about China.  All the elites do is to poison the well.  A regular guy doesn’t know or care much about China, but if every story from the media says China is bad, then even if he despises very much the government and media, he will “know” China must be bad.  No evidence or nuance is needed regarding the next lie, and the next, just parroting on, from the government, media, and public.

It is fitting to compare COVID-19 and WCEV (May 1, 2020 blog).  WCEV is more dangerous than COVID-19 in terms of its potential impacts, i.e., WWIII, and has infected more people than COVID-19.  The No 1 WCEV symptom is neo-racism, in both the Left and Right in the West, who can’t accept, therefore believe, China can do anything good or better than the US: identifying with a mafia is more important than with truth.  A COVID-19 infection has a survival rate over 99%.  You may be sick for a week, and once you recover, you will be immune for at least several months.   There are also effective, free vaccines.  But WCEV is like HIV: once you are infected, it is damn hard to get rid of, most carriers for life.  To cure the disease you must do a lot of research, but there is so much mis- and dis-information already, what do you trust?  Living in China for months to years will likely cure you of WCEV, but the most critical is that you have to realize the real problem lies at the system level: the western political elites, media, etc.  Glenn Greenwald is right to note don't trust the establishment.  He just doesn't follow his own preaching consistently and is easily duped, many times already, like believing Iraq WMDs and wishing Trump would pardon whoever.  He thinks the conservatives, like the right-wing populism, are going to save the day.  Good luck with that!  Who are these people?  Are they anti-war, or anti this war but for that war?  Does what they do match what they say?  Experience will tell you that most if not all is partisan posturing.  At the end of the day, once they are in power, they will be as belligerent as the neocons or liberals and do none of those “good” things Greenwald think they will.  This is just the climate the West is operating in and what WCEV makes you.

With the basic biology and sociology of the pandemic and political environments intact, no wonder in the most consequential ways 2021 is the same old 2020.  But at least we live to see another year. Will we be able to say the same next year?