Trump tweets about the "Chinese virus" UP: Trump: "It's not racist at all"/Official White House position: It's the media's fake outrage

Ludon Bear · Mar 17, 2020

If a fire breaks out in a building the arsonist is blamed for the fire as well as the landlord, when he doesn't provide functional fire exits.
But is good to know, that Trumps puts a lot of energy in the most important task in a crisis: Finding somebody to blame.

Josh378 · Mar 17, 2020

He had one job to do and not to mention anything racist or stupid. Why does this man always seem to fail at doing something common sense. For a moment I thought you was at least halfway a president with that speech.

HStallion · Mar 17, 2020

Josh378 said:
He had one job to do and not to mention anything racist or stupid. Why does this man always seem to fail at doing something common sense. For a moment I thought you was at least halfway a president with that speech.

Fail? I think people better get used to Trump ratcheting the racist and bigoted rhetoric up several notches as we get closer to November. Throughout his term he's been able to count on two things propping him up no matter what controversy or fallout he's faced, the economy, specifically the stock market, and bigotry for his zealous base. The stock market is experiencing historic volatility on a near daily basis which means the only thing Trump is going to have left to turn to is the real ugly shit because he knows that will still be able to rile up and energize his base.

Yahsper · Mar 17, 2020

Illenium said:
the crazy part is I just saw a tweet of a singaporean(?) named Jack Ma ready to ship tons of masks to the US, and of course the comments were filled with "oh they're coming from China. Not gonna use them"

Jack Ma is a Chinese billionaire who owns Alibaba.

SilentPanda · Mar 17, 2020

Illenium said:
the crazy part is I just saw a tweet of a singaporean(?) named Jack Ma ready to ship tons of masks to the US, and of course the comments were filled with "oh they're coming from China. Not gonna use them"

Chinese Billionare Co-founder of Alibaba

Jack Ma - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

He's donating 500,000 test kits and 1 million face masks to USA
Also donating to EU and Each of the Africa country
"To each of the 54 African countries, we will donate 20,000 test kits, 100,000 masks and 1,000 medical use protective suits and face shields. "

Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma to donate 500,000 coronavirus test kits, 1 million face masks to the US

The Chinese billionaire says shipments of test kits and face masks are on the way.

www.cnet.com

R0b1n · Mar 17, 2020

Very cool, thank you for this

just needed some good ol racism at this time of day

Serpens007 · Mar 17, 2020

It's not just about being racist. This is also damage control. The people of the world is starting to look to China for help and as an example in the middle of this pandemic, leaving the US "exceptionalism" in the floor.

NineConsonants · Mar 17, 2020

Dennis8K said:
But China told me it was the Italian Virus.

This post is obpo

Chikor said:
Not that I'm sure what it has to do with a thread about race baiting this pandemic, but picking a fight with China is literally the last thing the world needs right now.
Obviously, the worst people in American politics are going to try to do this, and we should not be cheering them.

pretty sure that poster wanted to emphasize that there are real issues within China that help promote diseases like this transferring to humans. The video explains how it happens. Obviously the racist rhetoric is unneeded and wrong. It's a matter of policy, not race.

Deleted member 12352 · Mar 17, 2020

He knows what his scumbag supporters want to hear: "Which 'foreigners' can I blame for this?" so he breaks out the dogwhistle... and proceeds to blow it into a megaphone.

If anyone ever deserved to contract this virus... it's him.

Ludon Bear said:
If a fire breaks out in a building the arsonist is blamed for the fire as well as the landlord, when he doesn't provide functional fire exits.
But is good to know, that Trumps puts a lot of energy in the most important task in a crisis: Finding somebody to blame.

A truly fitting analogy for Trump... while his building burns he's too busy making sure he doesn't let any non-whites in to actually deal with it.

Tuppen · Mar 17, 2020

While the tweet is obviously racist and trying to shift blame there's obviously some kind of double standard at play in the naming of diseases as shown by the naming conventions used for SARS, MERS and Covid-19. My take would be that MERS probably ought to have been called something else but it does imply that the world still is ok with naming diseases after places as long as those places are not powerful enough.

phonicjoy · Mar 17, 2020

Chikor said:
The US media is complicit in this shit.

Exactly how is this headline racist?

shnurgleton · Mar 17, 2020

Ah yes, and the European Black Death

Pomerlaw · Mar 17, 2020

How Facing Our “Shadow” Can Release Us From Scapegoating

When we scapegoat, we project onto others what we deny about ourselves.

www.psychologytoday.com

By demonizing other racial, ethnic and gender groups for their troubles, scapegoaters are able to maintain their own "innocence" and remain blind to the moral imperatives facing them. In totalitarian regimes, in some theocracies, and even in our own country, conspiracy theorists not only target individuals and other countries as scapegoats, but project blame for the society's difficulties onto the disciplines of science, art, and the humanities.

Schreckweg 5000 · Mar 17, 2020

ginger ninja said:
I just had this crazy idea that may be multiple things are true at the same time:

1) Trump is a racist shit bag who is trying to dodge responsibility, hide his own incompetence and gain long term electioneering advantage by calling this a Chinese virus
2) Given the CCP's authoritarian nature, initial coverup/suppression, and current attempts to shift blame outward may all serve to form a narrative which would benefit it in the long run
3) While those two things being comparable, they are not equivalent and the jury's out on which is worse

I know it sounds very radical but its almost like there are no good guys and world is a lot more gray than we like it to be

/s

When American White Rightwingers call it chinese virus, they are not offering any kind of insight.

It is to deflect the failure of their ruler and an attempt to incite racial hatred.

Schreckweg 5000 · Mar 17, 2020

shnurgleton said:
Ah yes, and the European Black Death

Are you really another one who needs an explanation why he is pushing racism? Or are you already aware

Grouch Douglass · Mar 17, 2020

Trump is a racist, to be sure, but I thought this comment was in direct response to Chinese officials blaming the US military for bringing the virus to Wuhan

JuicyPlayer · Mar 17, 2020

This is exactly why Asian Americans are getting their property vandalized and sometimes getting attacked.

meowdi gras · Mar 17, 2020

Vaccines have given white people the luxury of forgetting about the millions they killed spreading lethal shit like smallpox and measles. Racism and hypocrisy, some legacy.

Falchion · Mar 17, 2020

Donald Trump would get banned on ResetEra in like an hour.

Schreckweg 5000 · Mar 17, 2020

Grouch Douglass said:
Trump is a racist, to be sure, but I thought this comment was in direct response to Chinese officials blaming the US military for bringing the virus to Wuhan

We really need a moratorium on charitable interpretations of Trumps words. Its embarassing.

Chairmanchuck (另一个我) · Mar 17, 2020

phonicjoy said:
Exactly how is this headline racist?

Hoarding implies they have enough that they dont need, but wont give it to others.

The article itself later says that they are using it for their country because they also do not have enough.

shnurgleton · Mar 17, 2020

Schreckweg 5000 said:
Are you really another one who needs an explanation why he is pushing racism? Or are you already aware

I'm aware and agree it's dumb and wrong to slap a nationality on a global pandemic

Saya · Mar 17, 2020

Cuomo wants "all states to be treated the same." But all states aren't the same. Some are being hit hard by the Chinese Virus, some are being hit practically not at all. New York is a very big "hotspot", West Virginia has, thus far, zero cases. Andrew, keep politics out of it....

He's determined to make it stick.

ty_hot · Mar 17, 2020

In Brazil the dumbfucks that follow Bolsonaro are not only saying it is Chinese (as in, came from China) but actually saying that it is Chinese made, a bioweapon aimed at slowing down the development of the evil west and bla bla bla. It doesnt matter what is happening, the right will always find a way to spread misinformation as long as it is for their own gain. They were fine with fake news for the past 4 years, why would they change now?

EDebs1916 · Mar 17, 2020

He knows exactly what he's doing with this. It's how his lines about Mexican rapists rocket fueled his initial presidential run after he had to pay people to show up to his initial presidential announcement.
It's unbelievable but his approval ratings have been ticking up despite the implosion of the stock market and the chaos caused by COVID-19.

How Popular Is Donald Trump?

FiveThirtyEight is tracking Donald Trump’s approval ratings throughout his presidency.

projects.fivethirtyeight.com

mikhailguy · Mar 17, 2020

Yeah, this is completely intentional. Masking his incompetence with xenophobia.

Gray clouds · Mar 17, 2020

I hate how twitter allows for this racist shit to go unpunished and propagate.. Why have rules if you're not going to enforce them?

phonicjoy · Mar 17, 2020

Chairmanchuck said:
Hoarding implies they have enough that they dont need, but wont give it to others.

The article itself later says that they are using it for their country because they also do not have enough.

Other manufacturers say the Chinese government is still claiming all the masks that their factories in the country make. "Mask exports are still not authorized, but we are following the situation every day," said Guillaume Laverdure, chief operating officer of Medicom, a Canadian manufacturer that makes three million masks a day at its Shanghai factory.

Masks were send from all over the world to china, and to then institute an export ban when the need elsewhere is rising, is kind of dubious. You're either open to the world and reciprocating, or closed and taking these kinds of steps. Germany apparently did the same thing for a small amount of time for disinfectants, and I thought it was pretty vile then too.

LiK · Mar 17, 2020

He's a shithead.

I've had enough of his shitty tweets. Reported and blocked him. Can't stand that POS parading around as our president anymore. His tweets are just straight up lies and trash.

kinoki · Mar 17, 2020

To be honest, he probably just forgot what it was called.

Seductivpancakes · Mar 17, 2020

kinoki said:
To be honest, he probably just forgot what it was called.

Nah he knows, he's just being a racist.

GuessMyUserName · Mar 17, 2020

Are people handwaving this off at all aware of the Fox News coverage? They've been going full blown Chinese war with this shit.

Kernel · Mar 17, 2020

if you guys keep calling it the chinese virus then we get to call it the white mass shooting

Chikor · Mar 17, 2020

phonicjoy said:
Exactly how is this headline racist?

The US government is handling this amazingly poorly, and it's 100% certain that they will try to blame China for this, because that's allow us to not really inspect what's wrong with our government and our society.
And the US media has been and will continue to be complicit in this.

Look at this garbage.

And look at this thread, this is about how Trump is trying to deflect criticism by pointing fingers toward China and people can't help themselves with that "yeah, sure, but can we talk about how bad China is instead?"

This shit is bad enough on its own, and on top of this, you really can't pretend that if Americans come out of this thinking it was the fault of the Chinese that it will not have really bad downstream effect on Asian Americans (and Asian in general).

cakely · Mar 17, 2020

Racist asshole is racist.

Amnixia · Mar 17, 2020

Kernel said:
if you guys keep calling it the chinese virus then we get to call it the white mass shooting

Is it okay to just call it Covid19 but use "white mass shooting"?

Cyanity · Mar 17, 2020

The clown makeup fits our country so well

GK86 · Mar 17, 2020

Weijia Jiang on Twitter

“This morning a White House official referred to #Coronavirus as the “Kung-Flu” to my face. Makes me wonder what they’re calling it behind my back.”

twitter.com

Foxnull · Mar 17, 2020

Okay, please help me understand. I'm not trying to be racist, I simply don't understand the issue here and want to understand. As far as we know this IS a virus that probably originated in China. So what's the problem with naming the virus after its geographical location of discovery? Other diseases are named after their geographical location as well, like the German measles, the Spanish Flu or the Ebola and Zika virus, even though some of them didn't even originate in that country (German measles, Spanish Flu). But why are those named accepted, then? What's the difference now? Sorry if I'm being ignorant.

Stryder · Mar 17, 2020

I don't think it's great or smart to call it the "Chinese virus".

But it still is aggravating to know that they were not informing people of what they knew was happening and decided to pretend it wasn't happening so they can hopefully silently fix another huge problem that would be embarrassing for them. The doctor who they shut down after he came out publicly for the first time last year about the coronavirus died from the virus. The government is a large shit stain to China and that's a fact.

They could have informed their citizens earlier on and warned the world, they should have taken action but they were too busy calling it fake news and trying, again, to shut their citizens up.

1.21Gigawatts · Mar 17, 2020

Trumps recent behavior is probably the most pathetic display of cowardice I have seen in my life.

The way he is now constantly trying to blame others for his failings and actively throwing others under the bus in order to absolve himself of responsibility.
Absolutely unacceptable behavior by any leader in any capacity, especially if you are the fucking president of the US.

Just a few examples:
1. He completely denies responsibility for the poor preparation for this scenario in the US
2. He blames China and Europe for the spread while the US isn't even able to test properly
3. He is now blaming governors and throwing them under the bus on twitter to deflect from his administration's inactions and failure

This behavior is so incomprehensibly despicable. Everything that's rotten in this time and this system and this administration condensed and put fully on display during this historic event.

Future generations will be absolutely dumbfounded when hearing about this level of ignorance, spitefulness, and cowardice in the most powerful office on the planet.

In a sane world, he would go to jail for criminal negligence.
The fact that he still has supporters in the US is a terrifying glimpse into the absolute depravity that's rampant in US society.

SilentPanda · Mar 17, 2020

Foxnull said:
Okay, please help me understand. I'm not trying to be racist, I simply don't understand the issue here and want to understand. As far as we know this IS a virus that probably originated in China. So what's the problem with naming the virus after its geographical location of discovery? Other diseases are named after their geographical location as well, like the German measles, the Spanish Flu or the Ebola and Zika virus, even though some of them didn't even originate in that country (German measles, Spanish Flu). But why are those named accepted, then? What's the difference now? Sorry if I'm being ignorant.

" The World Health Organization (WHO), in consultation and collaboration with the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), has identified best practices for thenaming of new human diseases, with the aim to minimize unnecessary negative impact of disease names on trade, travel, tourism or animal welfare, and avoid causing offence to any cultural, social, national, regional, professional or ethnic groups "

https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream...d=EF59584FBCDF67AD67E7D689BFBCEE51?sequence=1

"Naming diseases has long been a fraught process. Badly chosen names can stigmatize people, as did gay-related immune deficiency, an early name for AIDS. They can also lead to confusion and hurt tourism and trade. The so-called swine flu, for instance, is not transmitted by pigs, but some countries still banned pork imports or slaughtered pigs after a 2009 outbreak. More recently, some Arab countries were unhappy that a new disease caused by a coronavirus was dubbed Middle East respiratory syndrome. "

Science | AAAS

www.sciencemag.org

Chikor · Mar 17, 2020

Foxnull said:
Okay, please help me understand. I'm not trying to be racist, I simply don't understand the issue here and want to understand. As far as we know this IS a virus that probably originated in China. So what's the problem with naming the virus after its geographical location of discovery? Other diseases are named after their geographical location as well, like the German measles, the Spanish Flu or the Ebola and Zika virus, even though some of them didn't even originate in that country (German measles, Spanish Flu). But why are those named accepted, then? What's the difference now? Sorry if I'm being ignorant.

Because this is helping the Trump administration deflect blame and this will also without a doubt increase the amount of racism Asian Americans will face.
Why not call it COVID-19 or rona or literally anything we called it before right wing dickheads decided to try to shift blame to the Chinese?
Why provide that garbage support?

Deception · Mar 17, 2020

GK86 said:
Weijia Jiang on Twitter

“This morning a White House official referred to #Coronavirus as the “Kung-Flu” to my face. Makes me wonder what they’re calling it behind my back.”

twitter.com

Disgusting.

softtack · Mar 17, 2020

crazillo · Mar 17, 2020

Chinese nationalism is at a high anyway. I work on this stuff in my academic life. Statements like this will only stir up conflict once again and drive the world further apart.

Please USA, vote this man out of office at the end of the year!

SolidSnakex · Mar 17, 2020

crazillo said:
Chinese nationalism is at a high anyway. I work on this stuff in my academic life. Statements like this will only stir up conflict once again and drive the world further apart.

Please USA, vote this man out of office at the end of the year!

The main issue right now is that discrimination and attacks against Asians has been on the rise since this took off. The fact that Trump has moved into doing it as well is going to make it skyrocket.

PKrockin · Mar 17, 2020

Foxnull said:
Okay, please help me understand. I'm not trying to be racist, I simply don't understand the issue here and want to understand. As far as we know this IS a virus that probably originated in China. So what's the problem with naming the virus after its geographical location of discovery? Other diseases are named after their geographical location as well, like the German measles, the Spanish Flu or the Ebola and Zika virus, even though some of them didn't even originate in that country (German measles, Spanish Flu). But why are those named accepted, then? What's the difference now? Sorry if I'm being ignorant.

Why should we suddenly call it the Chinese Virus or Kung-Flu when we started out calling it coronavirus and the medical community has named it covid-19? What's that going to accomplish besides intensifying prejudice against Asians? Also important to note who we're talking about here. Donald has been trying to find a way to avoid responsibility for the spread of the virus in the US. It's obvious him referring to the virus this way is just an attempt to make Americans blame the Chinese instead of their elected leaders who failed to protect them.

Chikor · Mar 17, 2020

crazillo said:
Chinese nationalism is at a high anyway. I work on this stuff in my academic life. Statements like this will only stir up conflict once again and drive the world further apart.

Please USA, vote this man out of office at the end of the year!

China is not trying to pick a fight with America, America is trying to pick a fight with China.

As for Chinese people, anecdotally, all my Chinese friends send me shit like this -

While a ton of my American friends has takes about bat meat.

You can see it in this forum, we have Chinese people here, they don't come in with hot takes about Americans.

cakely · Mar 17, 2020

Stryder said:
I don't think it's great or smart to call it the "Chinese virus".

But it still is aggravating to know that they were not informing people of what they knew was happening and decided to pretend it wasn't happening so they can hopefully silently fix another huge problem that would be embarrassing for them. The doctor who they shut down after he came out publicly for the first time last year about the coronavirus died from the virus. The government is a large shit stain to China and that's a fact.

They could have informed their citizens earlier on and warned the world, they should have taken action but they were too busy calling it fake news and trying, again, to shut their citizens up.

So, everything in your post after the "but" is blaming China.

This one's pretty simple: Trying to repeatedly label covid-19 as the "Chinese virus" is racist.

Trump tweets about the "Chinese virus" UP: Trump: "It's not racist at all"/Official White House position: It's the media's fake outrage

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