A Time of Covidiocy: Media, Politics, and Social Upheaval in Bloomington, MN

The COVID-19 pandemic interrupted a chaotic political and social landscape within the United States. Its arrival revealed cracks in longstanding neoliberal narratives. In this book, the authors utilize critical theory to analyze the collapse of these hyper-individualistic narratives within the media, in the broad areas of economics, the nuclear family, and authoritarian populism and through the topics of scapegoating China, capitalist class economic messaging, the essential worker, the family under shutdown, the spread of conspiracy theories, and the ideologies of the COVID-19 protests. The book conclude with commentary on the significance of the George Floyd protests and their connection to the pandemic.