People have forgotten the media environment in February. I was begging journalists to take this seriously, being lectured that we should worry about the flu instead—and top newspapers were publishing articles saying we should continue traveling and masks were just superstition.

— zeynep tufekci (@zeynep) September 9, 2020

To come back to this, it is very interesting to me how quickly so much is forgotten, then becomes “conspiracy theory.” In such an environment breeds monstrosities like QAnon.

Zeynep as usual is right. In February as my partner and I were stocking up our larder to prepare for what we knew was coming, we were being told by nearly all media sources that masks were superstition, that social distancing was racist, that the flu was far worse, and there was nothing to worry about.

People are forgetting all that now — many of them because they have no wish to examine how very wrong they were and why. As usual, we will learn nothing.