Mississippians Too #Blessed To Stress Over Dying Of COVID, Says Governor
That's certainly a take.
Earlier this year, Mississippi was ranked the 49th best state in the United States, but they may not be able to cling to that spot for too long. This month, the state led the whole entire world in new COVID-19 cases, and this weekend, it surpassed New York's COVID-19 death rate and now has the second highest death rate of any state since the beginning of the pandemic, following New Jersey. But it's getting pretty close.
When Karl Marx said religion is the opiate of the people, he didn't mean it as a compliment. That might, however, be news to Governor Tate Reeves, who explained this weekend that the reason Mississippians weren't all freaked out about all the COVID-19 is because they aren't afraid to die, because they are so incredibly holy that know they are going to heaven.
"I'm often asked by some of my friends on the other side of the aisle about COVID … and why does it seem like folks in Mississippi and maybe in the Mid-South are a little less scared, shall we say," Reeves said.
"When you believe in eternal life — when you believe that living on this earth is but a blip on the screen, then you don't have to be so scared of things," he said, but added: "Now, God also tells us to take necessary precautions.
"And we all have opportunities and abilities to do that and we should all do that. I encourage everyone to do so. But the reality is that working together, we can get beyond this. We can move forward. We can move on."
Huh. That must also be why Mississippi ranks dead last in health care, as well as why they have the highest infant mortality rate in the country and the second shortest life expectancy .
It seems like Republicans are scared of a lot of things, actually. What even are the culture wars if not a long, drawn out history of Republicans being scared of things/people? Social progress is continually hindered based on what scares conservatives, despite the fact that even if everything stands still, their media people will still find shit for them to freak out about.
They're scared of immigrants, of trans people using bathrooms, of LGBTQ people in general, that their children are going to be taught that racism exists and is bad and that said children will grow up in a world without weirdly racist Dr. Suess books. They are constantly panicking. The reason they're more scared of the vaccine than COVID-19 isn't because of how holy they are, it's that they have bad information and no one they'd actually listen to cares enough about them to correct them.
The people who won't take the vaccine, for the most part, believe the vaccine is more dangerous than COVID-19, which they frequently believe doesn't exist at all. They think COVID-19 is basically just a cold and that the government got everyone freaked out about it for the purpose of controlling everyone (for funsies) and that they are now using the vaccine to "depopulate" the planet. I don't have exact numbers, but I am pretty sure those people outnumber the people who are fine with dying because they are saved by Jesus and going to spend their eternal life in heaven.
This week, more than 22 Mississippi hospital ICUs ran out of beds. Even with insurance, an ICU stay for a COVID-19 patient can cost over $100,000. Surely, if people there were super chill about dying, they would not be rushing to the ICUs and burdening their family with a bill like that.
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Paestum is south almost to Salerno I think. I was driving there and it was nuts.
"...why does it seem like folks in Mississippi and maybe in the Mid-South are a little less scared"
Because ignorance is bliss.
In fact, the very first "lessons" of the Bible are ignorance is bliss (or paradise), knowledge is evil, do not question authority, and women cannot be trusted and will lead one astray. It goes downhill from there.