“Is this perhaps a ploy to try to take down President Trump’s roaring economy that we have by sabotaging the markets, by creating fear porn and fear-mongering while they’re also killing Chinese people by the thousands? Is that a strategy that the deep state would actually use?”
– Conspiracy theorist Ann Vandersteel, speculating that the coronavirus outbreak may have been orchestrated by the “deep state” and/or the British government in order to destabilize global markets, weaken the American economy and prevent President Donald Trump from being reelected.
Sometimes, when people become severely ill with an influenza-type agent, they begin to hallucinate and start seeing things that aren’t there. In this case, however, the new coronavirus (COVID-19) seems to be inducing phantasmagoric hysteria in a variety of people. Then again, that often happens when folks don’t read more than religious texts and a TV guide. It’s almost unfortunate fatal viruses don’t target stupidity.
Chief Writing Wolf 