Muhammad Naeem | Contributed
We are just coming out of that dreadful pandemic that made us hide our faces, lock ourselves indoors, and avoid any contact with fellow humans. There was a second pandemic at the same time that went unnoticed for a while, and it seems that we are also coming out of that as well, albeit, more slowly. There are no vaccines, no tests, and no stimulus checks for it, but there are plenty of fever, fatigue, headaches, nausea, and even diarrhea of the verbal kind.
First pandemic is known as COVID-19. I suggest that the second pandemic should be known as COVFEFE, because it is caused by a virus known as Trump. Generally, the symptoms are mild, but older adults and people with severe underlying conditions like racism, xenophobia, and bigotry seem to be at a higher risk for developing more serious complications from this illness. It usually affects the White people, but the total cumulative data shows that Blacks, Hispanics, and other minorities have also experienced COVFEFE infections.
Just as millions of people have experienced a loss of their sense of smell and taste due to COVID-19, similarly, millions of people have experienced a loss of their sense of right and wrong, and their ability to separate truth from lying due to COVFEFE. Severe cases lead to a high fever caused by misguided understanding of what patriotism really means, blindness towards what our Constitution truly stands for, and delusions where a fair and secure election is seen as rigged and patients start seeing voter fraud where none exists. Some extreme cases lead to insurrection at the Capital and attempts to commit high crimes against elected officials while attempting to subvert constitutionally mandated transfer of power.
Some people continue to experience problems long after having COVFEFE. These ongoing problems are called post-COVFEFE syndrome. In most cases, the delusion of rigged elections continues and manifests itself into a very unhealthy obsession, where a narcissist can then take advantage of these patients to enrich himself by turning the whole process into a huge grift. Patients even become vulnerable to Trump-variants, who also try to milk them for as much money as possible, in the form of fund-raising to fight the non-existent election irregularities.
Some politicians lose their ability to accept defeat when clearly the majority of the people DID NOT vote for them. Foul language starts to fill the airwaves towards the current and legitimate President, and democracy as a whole starts to suffer from the constant denial of the final outcome. Courts start to fill with frivolous lawsuits and the country as a whole starts to look like a joke to the rest of the world. Some people even go as far as to hoard classified and top-secret documents, even though that is a criminal offense. People who call themselves patriots, and who proclaim their love for the nation, become blind to the person doing extreme harm to that very nation and maybe even selling our national secrets to the enemies and thus committing treason.
I remember when Trump ran for the first time, people admired his mean and cruel remarks as if he was “telling it as is.” Instead, he was constantly lying and in the four years of his presidency, he told as many as 30,573 lies. That’s almost 21 lies a day, which makes it more like “telling it as IT IS NOT.” His actions and words were mostly embarrassing, but some of our fellow citizens did not see anything wrong with it. Even the Evangelicals and many preachers did not see the wrongs in Trump, which any serious religious person would have found truly offensive. Now, with all the criminal and treasonous acts that he has committed, his followers should feel truly ashamed for supporting him. I know I do, and I voted for him twice. Forgive me father, for I have truly sinned.
It seems that we, as a nation, have finally developed natural immunity to COVFEFE. Trump influence is waning, as it has been made obvious from the midterm elections. Candidates who spew Trump election lies and try to kiss his behind seem to have fallen from grace. People have started to tune out his rhetoric and most GOP bigwigs are coming out strong against his hold on the republican party. We are finally shaking this virus off and regaining our strength. Soon we’ll be rid of this other pandemic, just like the first one, even though some health officials are hanging on to it, as if their lives depend on it. For God’s sake, people, move on. We can’t live the rest of our lives playing host to these diseases.
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