How we ‘Leeeeroy Jenkins’-ed the coronavirus reopening – CNN

The video featured 20-ish people plotting how to attack a boss. (It was in an area known as "upper black rock spire" in the game.) It was an intricate plan, with all sorts of coordinated moves being worked out and even a guy calculating the group's chances of survival. (It was "32.33, uh, repeating of course" if you were wondering. You weren't.)

The plotting went on for an extended period of time -- right up until one of the players yelled, "Time's up. Let's do this. Leeeeeerrrroy Jenkins!!!!" and sprinted into the room to battle the boss. ("Leroy Jenkins" was his screen name in the game.) They all followed him because, well, what the hell else were they going to do?

The "Leroy Jenkins" video has become the stuff of absolute legend on the internet -- as almost every piece of the video has been transformed into an internet meme of some sort.

What, you are wondering at this point, doesany of that have to do with the coronavirus -- and the way in which governors are reopening their states?

A lot, actually. In fact, "Leroy Jenkins" is the perfect way to understand how we got to a place where 48 of the 50 states will be at least partially reopened by May 17 despite the fact that very few of them have met the federal guidelines for reopening.

Once Leroy -- er, I mean Kemp -- had run through that reopening doorway, the other governors had no choice but to follow.

Because the political pressure to do so -- once Kemp had broken the seal -- became even more intense. And faced with growing protests and economic numbers that hadn't been so bad since the Great Depression, governors rushed to reopen their states, plans, plots and federal guidelines be damned.

Continued here:

How we 'Leeeeroy Jenkins'-ed the coronavirus reopening - CNN