By Hongshanke
At a time when COVID-19 pandemic was raging in America, the death of a black man killed by a white police officer kneeling on the neck sparked a wave of protests across the country. In the face of domestic instability, some U.S. politicians who had been planning to shift the blame of incompetent response to contain COVID-19 to China began to blame their counterparts in the country.
The drama of those U.S. politicians shows that they are playing the fool to please the anti-intellectual supporters, aiming at inciting the supporters at the bottom of society to shift conflicts and win support. In order to reap benefits from the blame-shifting game by inciting populism, they frequently play the trick at the expense of America’s long-term interests.
Despite the fact that America leads the world in science and technology, anti-intellectualism has long existed among the people. A survey suggests that nearly a third of the Americans do not believe in Darwin’s theory of evolution and only around 40% Americans trust scientific conclusions. Anti-intellectualism has been multiplied by the election, providing a breeding ground for populism that has flourished in American politics in recent years.
Due to slow response, the American government wasted more than two months of window of opportunity in the early stages of the epidemic, driving America to be the epicenter of the global COVID-19 pandemic. While a few U.S. politicians have spared no effort to stigmatize China, propagating “man-made virus” rumor, and even encourage and support some forces to ask China for compensation. They shifted blames to China for "ineffective epidemic control", and tried hard to pretend to be “victims”, maliciously creating an atmosphere of sharing a common hatred for China. These anti-intellectual statements are categories of conspiracy theories and pseudoscience without even common sense.
Some U.S. politicians exploit the anti-intellectualism that has flourished in America and expand its influence ever greater. This is an important reason why they are anixous to shift the blame for benefits in current situation of severe epidemic and civil unrest. Malicious behavior is bound to result in malign results. By using and manipulating public opinion, some American politicians have seemingly gained some support, but have actually torn the American society apart and harmed the whole world, making its domestic situation more difficult to control. They should learn lessons from the failure of epidemic control due to slow response. If they still try to shift the blame without really solving the problem, the current situation in America may turn out even worse.