Klaus Brinkbäumer was most recently editor-in-chief of “Spiegel” and now works as an author for “Die Zeit”, among others. You can reach him at [email protected] or on Twitter at @Brinkbaeumer. In his weekly column “Spiegelstrich” he is currently writing a coronavirus diary with brief observations from everyday life and reflections on the crisis.
The New Yorkers are pushing out of the narrow apartments. It’s spring, and Memorial Day opens summer, and it always has been. In Madison Square Park, circles have been sprayed on the lawn, at a safe distance from each other, and in the circles we sit, rub the cups with disinfectant, eat the first ice cream.
– The Republicans keep Donald Trump’s word “Obamagate” under discussion. They cannot explain what Obama’s crime consists of either. But a gate is a gate, and the world on the other side is endless. Political denunciation works through imagination, a wonderland: every denial points in new directions of an all-encompassing guilt.
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– 100,000 dead. The US denied the virus for six weeks. In South Korea, where it arrived at the same time, tests, quarantine and keeping your distance began immediately; there are almost 270 dead today. The models of various universities show that if the US government had reacted 14 days earlier, 90 percent of deaths could have been prevented. Headline of the week: “If Trump had been in charge during World War II, this column would be in German” (“Washington Post”).
– The fifth month of the pandemic and still no strategy. Infection rates are increasing in 26 of 50 American states. In Frankfurt more than 100 believers are infected after a service; and the American president orders the governors to open all churches when he is not allowed to order it. The evangelicals are his core constituency and the majority consider Trump to be sent by God, even if he is twice divorced and porn stars paid hush money afterwards.
Vulgar democracy
– In the USA, many people cannot read, are “ignorant, vulnerable and receptive to demagogues who only address their feelings”, as the writer Paul Auster told me in an interview for “Die Zeit”. The British philosopher Philip Kitcher has the term for it: “vulgar democracy”. https://www.zeit.de/2020/22/paul-auster-donald-trump-usa-demokratie
– The President says he was wearing a mask in secret, but not in front of the cameras because he does not allow the media to see him in a mask. It’s not about health, nor the wisdom to do the right thing, but about strength, and when the enemy sees that I am weak, the enemy has won. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g84D_KflsME
War on media
– This White House war on the media came about by chance, in three steps. 1. The election campaigner Trump responded with the word “fake news” to reports that the audience should not believe, and only once, speaking to a CBS reporter, he admitted the tactic. 2. The President-elect sat with strategist Stephen Bannon in January 2017, before his inauguration. Since Trump values friction, Bannon suggested the media as an opponent and the term “enemy of the people”. Bannon meant it as an incentive, a game. 3. After his inauguration, the President said the crowd was the greatest ever. The media called this a “lie” because the vast area in front of the Capitol was half empty. The president understood the word as a declaration of war, his presidency was 24 hours old.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyIZz4KE8dg
Keep your distance on the boat
– Progress, continued: the first sailing date with C., we plan exactly the positions, “social distancing” on the boat, and special respiratory masks that, when soaked by the Hudson, do not press on the face like cloths when waterboarding. Then the rain, which has never bothered us, but with the rain the wind disappears and we stay on land.
– This was the last episode of the first season of this diary, next week it will be about language and politics in the sense of the column. Whether there will be a second season depends entirely on New York.
Klaus Brinkbäumer was most recently editor-in-chief of “Spiegel” and now works as an author for “Die Zeit”, among others.
You can reach him at [email protected] or on Twitter at
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