California Official Sees Sunny Side Of Old And Homeless People Dying Of COVID-19, Is Fired Now

That's nice.

"Some people just need killing" is not the kind of thing most normal, non-sociopathic people say in public and in all seriousness — but it has become a very popular hot take for right-wing idiots as of late. People like Ben Shapiro have felt empowered to embrace social Darwinism and suggest that it's actually not that sad if old people die from COVID-19.

These are, of course, the same sorts of people who made up a whole weird fantasy about how Barack Obama was gonna create death panels in order to decide whether your grandma lives or dies, and they are same people who don't believe we should be allowed to have abortions. To be fair, however, they are also the same people who support the death penalty and who are not particularly bothered by people dying because they don't have health insurance, so not a whole lot of ideological consistency going on there.

This was the take that Ken Turnage II, the chairman of the Antioch, California, planning committee decided to share on Facebook last week. While, as I mentioned, there have been several variations on this theme, Turnage's is truly the Platonic ideal of "maybe people dying of COVID-19 is good" takes. It's like the Ebenezer Scrooge "are there no workhouses?" speech took a bunch of angel dust and jumped out of a window, Helen Hunt-style.

Am I overselling it? Well, read for yourself. [ sic throughout, obviously]:

"We have our old, we have our weak and we have our drains on our resources. This virus is targeting those sectors of our population. If we were to live our lives, let nature run its course, yes we will all feel hardship, we will all feel loss. I am sure everyone of us would lose a person who we hold dear. But as species, for our Nation and as a Planet we would we would strengthen when this is all settled.

We would have significant loss of life, we would lose many elderly, that would reduce burdens in our defunct Social Security System, health care cost (once the wave subsided), make jobs available for others and it would also free up housing in which we are in dire need of. We would lose a large portion of the people with immune and other health complications. I know it would be loved ones as well. But that would once again reduce our impact on medical, jobs and housing.

Then we have our other sectors such as our homeless and other people who just defile themselves by either choice or mental issues. This would run rampant through them and yes i am sorry but this would fix what is a significant burden on our Society and resources that can be used."

His take is, very seriously, that COVID-19 killing a whole bunch of people, particularly people who are old or weak or homeless, is actually a blessing in disguise because they are drains on the system and also once they are dead we can have their houses and jobs. The old and weak people's houses and jobs, obviously, not the homeless people's houses and jobs.

Gotta say, if I were this guy's parents, I would watch my back. At the very least, I would not not eat or drink anything he prepared or go on a boat with him. We're just saying we're a little worried you'd be standing in the kitchen going "Oh my, this Diet Coke tastes a little sweet!" and then the next thing you know, you're dead from antifreeze poisoning and Kenny Boy is moving in. (Allegedly!) I watch "Dateline," I know what's up.

 Anyway. 

As you might imagine, there was no small amount of outrage over that completely batshit post, and Ken Turnage II was asked to leave. But because he is an obvious sociopath, he still sees nothing wrong with what he wrote and described himself as "baffled" that anyone found it off-putting.

 Via   NBC Bay Area :

Turnage insisted Wednesday he had no intention of resigning or backing down from his comments. He also strongly objected to being called racist saying his position was simply an issue of "ecological balance." He said he was "baffled" by the reaction to what he called his personal opinion.

At the opening of the video meeting, Turnage was allowed to read a statement in his defense via phone and said, "My personal opinion had nothing to do with the city or my position on the Planning Commission. So to try to somehow link them or create a nexus to further your political agendas is shameful."

He also claimed asking him to leave his position just because he thinks it would be really great if a bunch of people died from the novel coronavirus and is very obviously a sociopath is a violation of his First Amendment rights.

He added, "having it viewed as offensive speech, then targeting me with repercussion for this is a direct violation of my First Amendment Rights and should not happen under our Constitution!"

And then he demanded that he get to see council members' emails, messages and phone conversations regarding his post, so he could prove his theory that this was an attempt to further their nefarious anti-death political agendas:

Turnage also called the special meeting a possible Brown Act violation and potentially illegal. He added "it would be nice if certain council members stop race baiting to further their political agendas."

As brilliant a legal move as that was, it did not work, and he was ousted from his position. He will now have to consider a new line of work, such as being a clown at children's birthday parties, helping on a suicide hotline or working in a chocolate factory.

[ NBC Bay Area ]

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