Friday, March 27, 2020

The danger of feelings over facts


Today, we see the danger of making decisions based on feelings rather than facts.

There was little evidence to suggest that jobs were being lost en masse to immigrants, legal or illegal, yet people allowed someone to use racist feelings to come into power.

This is little evidence that a physical wall will stop illegal immigration; the Great Wall of China never really did stop nomads from raiding and even conquering China. Yet people allowed rhetoric to sway their feelings and demand for resources to be poured into building a wall when there are more pressing needs for those resources.

There is no evidence that tariffs are being paid by China; on the contrary, tariffs are paid by Americans importing goods from overseas. Yet again, they allowed their feelings to be swayed to support tariffs which make it more costly for their daily lives.

Feelings can be swayed; facts cannot be changed.

The people who voted for Trump and kept him in power trusted their feelings over the facts. Their feelings were exploited for Trump's ego, and today, the U.S. has surpassed all other countries in the number of detected COVID-19 cases. And the U.S. is on the way toward surpassing China in the number of COVID-19 deaths. One can only hope that the actions of governors and local leaders can prevent the U.S. from surpassing Italy's figures. There is no need to be number one in everything.

The leader that is incompetent yet decisive is the one who gets everyone killed.

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