There are actually worse ways to respond to the epidemic than those attempted by serial sexual criminal and bankrupt Donald Trump. He’s bad; terrible. But Belarusan President Alexander Lukashenko is undeniably worse.
As death tolls have skyrocketed globally and many countries have closed their borders and shut down nonessential businesses, Lukashenko has advanced his own solutions to the crisis, urging citizens to drink vodka and visit saunas.
Not for such a manly man (or his deeply unfortunate country) are vapid, bourgeois trifles like epidemiology and public health. The measures undertaken by just about everyone else, including, however imperfectly, the US are to Lukashenko, “frenzy and psychosis.”
What to do, then, to lead la vida Lukashenko?
“It is better to die on your feet than live on your knees!” he told a reporter just before the game. “Sport, especially on ice, is better than any antiviral medication. It is the real thing.”
It isn’t funny, not really. Such insanity is a death sentence for too many Belarussians–a country that has seen way more than its share of misrule and misery.
But viciously, bitterly humorous? Maybe a little.
Open thread, especially for jokes of the oppressed.
Image: Annibale Caracci, Boy Drinking, 1582-1583.
It Could Be Worse (Gallows Humor, Kinda-Not-Really Respite)Post + Comments (3)
