Are you convinced that 300,000 deaths worldwide mean America must stay closed for another three months? You are not alone. You see it everywhere, along with claims that America needs to reopen right this second.
Which should you believe? None of them. Half of the retweets about coronavirus are done by bots, and that is right out of the Russian and Chinese playbook.
Since 2015, there has been increased awareness (albeit grudging, in camps that have benefited) that Russia and China have thrown a lot of money at Americans willing to undermine American science, like Russians funding organic and solar trade groups to harm the U.S. and prop up their top two exports, food and gas, or help send American research overseas, as China has been busted doing. One group even contended that Russians spending a few million dollars on ad campaigns swayed the election for Republican candidate Donald Trump, but since Michael Bloomberg just spent 30X as much and only got one delegate - in a primary! - those 'money talks' arguments seem a little silly.
But bots are cheap. And if bots can convince American journalists, who are overwhelmingly Democrats, that America is still at risk and needs to hunker down until the election, confirmation bias will remove any skepticism they might have if Republicans stated it.
How will they do it? By retweeting posts saying America needs to reopen or that hospitals are filled with mannequins - suggesting the disease is fake. And being such obvious bots doing it that anyone can spot it, which makes Democrats think Republicans will benefit and then Resistance Journalism will use that as their latest excuse to promote its political bias.
Fight the power, indeed. But the power is almost certainly coming from Russia and China, not some political zealot in his American basement.
