During the first couple of weeks, President Trump at his daily briefings consistently referred to the virus as the “Chinese virus” or the “Wuhan virus.” The press went nuts, and he successfully defended his usage of the term every day in response to their loaded questions, and it highlighted the press’s obsession with narrative. He never laid it out quite so plainly as I would have liked, listing a dozen viruses named after their places of origin, which nobody ever suggested was racist before now, but he defended it, despite the fact that no one else at the podium ever used it.
And then one day he came out and talked about how wonderful Chinese Americans are, and he hasn’t used the term “Chinese virus” even once since then. And thus the press won on that narrative.
I wish he’d stuck to his guns. I wonder if he simply felt he’d made his point. I wonder if someone on his team convinced him that it was too distracting and his messages weren’t getting out because that was all the press would talk about. I wonder if someone convinced him that Asian Americans were being targeted for hate crimes (which were probably all hoaxes).
I think the President has been enormously patient with the press and their ridiculous loaded questions. He gives them a lot more credit than they deserve, calling a lot of their questions “fair” when they aren’t. I don’t understand why he would let go of such easy ammo when he was right and they were wrong.
One reply on “Wuhan virus: terminology matters”
And another thing! I’m resolved not to use the word “China” anymore when speaking about the Chinese government. I’m going to say “Chinese socialists” or perhaps “Chinese communist party.” Because they’re really socialists, not communists. I read or heard somewhere recently (probably here or over at DW) that there has never been a communist government in the history of the world, because communist governments are utopias that Marx alleged will emerge after the perfection of society (i.e., after the purges). Instead there have been socialist fascist totalitarian states. I think we should stop using Marx’s vocabulary where possible. I therefore resolve not to use the term “capitalist” anymore either, since it is likewise a Marxist term, this time dystopian.