• Bury The Right
      link
      fedilink
      29
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      Some of stuff I see when driving around in rural America really makes me think that a lot of people here actually are insane. For example people having giant signs hanging on their front porch that say “DON’T DONATE YOUR KIDS TO SCIENCE!” or something along that nature.

      • Rasm653u [He/him] 🔻
        link
        fedilink
        62 years ago

        The craziest thing I’ve seen in Denmark is propaganda for the right-wing party Venstre on a bale of hay. (Venstre = Left in Danish)

      • DankZedong
        link
        fedilink
        5
        edit-2
        2 years ago

        Some countries are worse off it seems.

        Here in Belgium I rarely see weird shit outside or wherever. But when I cross the Dutch border, all of a sudden there’s Dutch flags upside down, COVID-1984 plastered on highways, huge anti-vax stickers everywhere, posters hanging in front of windows etc.

        People are a lot easier on masks here as well.

  • @Munrock@lemmygrad.ml
    link
    fedilink
    202 years ago

    I was just seeing this yesterday. I walked across Central on Hong Kong Island yesterday, where the majority of Westerners work. White people made up less than 1% of the people I passed by, and yet somehow being such a tiny minority… they made up the majority of people I saw going maskless (or wearing it pulled down under their chin, or with their nose poking out the top like some kind of simple-minded moron).

    And the thing here is, even after you set the science aside (obviously you shouldn’t, but if), the culture here is to wear a mask. Before covid we always wore masks when sick. With SARS we wore masks. Now we wear masks. It’s been established a courtesy to the people around you for more than 10 years now. Yet the demographic of outsiders who think themselves above observing local culture is overwhelmingly populated by Western Libs. If I could place bets on what kind of accents the maskless Asians in Central had, I could make a fucking fortune.

  • @panic@lemmygrad.ml
    link
    fedilink
    172 years ago

    I have close contact with a lung cancer patient. I love that people don’t care if they infect and kill them. Why not just save on the chemo treatment, amirite? /s

    • @201dberg@lemmygrad.ml
      link
      fedilink
      182 years ago

      My great uncle was fighting cancer and got COVID. Had gotten that vaccine and thanks to that was only like sick for a day or two with COVID. Cancer had also been in remission. Then before the last of the COVID was gone the cancer mutated because of the COVID and all the treatments that had put it into remission failed. He died less than a month later. Literally the only way for his to have not died is to never have been exposed in the first place. Things like this is why I fully believe antivaxers and antimaskers should be locked up in their own little cesspool communities away from people that are actually trying to stop the spread of diseases.

      • @panic@lemmygrad.ml
        link
        fedilink
        152 years ago

        We don’t know how COVID can affect cancer patients’ chances of survival. And we’re supposed to be okay taking the risk. I’m sorry for your great uncle, it’s so fucking unfair.

  • Seanchaí (she/her)
    link
    fedilink
    11
    edit-2
    2 years ago

    Okay, literally just went for a walk around the block with my wife, and two guys followed us home in the dark screaming at us to take our masks off because we’re “brainwashed,” demanding to know what we “are afraid of” and then as they got closer and louder yelling that actually we were scaring them.

    It was surreal, and actually pretty terrifying. This hasn’t happened before, but we have both been told many times that we’re idiots for wearing them, or had people insult or mock us.

    Like, it’s not enough to choose not to wear it, they also want to force us not to wear it, while also yelling about how it’s wrong for them to be forced to wear it??? Even though there are no restrictions here…

    Made me think of this thread lol.

    • Muad'DibberOPM
      link
      fedilink
      92 years ago

      Jesus comrade, that’s terrible, what the fuck is wrong with people. Other people wearing masks doesn’t affect them AT ALL. Hope you both are okay.

      • Seanchaí (she/her)
        link
        fedilink
        62 years ago

        Thank you, yeah we got home safe and everything, just didn’t engage. I’m used to catcalls, and transphobic yells and stuff, but I’m sitting here more than an hour or so later and I still can’t really feel like it’s real. It’s such a weird reason to yell at a stranger, and then follow us? People are wild.

    • Disgusting that these types preach about free choice while physically threatening other people for no reason.

      Good thing both of you were unharmed, with so many of these deranged dickheads walking about.

    • DankZedong
      link
      fedilink
      72 years ago

      It’s weird that people feel the need to tell you to not wear a mask. Like, how does this person wearing a mask have an influence on you? Let that person wear a mask and walk on.

  • @hegginses@lemmygrad.ml
    link
    fedilink
    -6
    edit-2
    2 years ago

    As much as I agree that the typical community response from many white people during the worst of the pandemic was disgraceful, I think it’s fair to say that things are different now when you look objectively at the relevant data. For countries/territories with high vaccine uptake, it’s scientifically justifiable to go down the route of co-existence with the virus and you can see that reflected in the data of low hospitalisations and deaths.

    Co-existence means we do have to accept that some people will become ill and die of this disease, the only alternative is to pursue the impossible task of global eradication of the virus. If we accept that this is the case, we logically no longer have a reason to try and limit the spread of the virus and we must also remember that it is important for us to develop our natural immunities through exposure to germs alongside getting fully vaccinated against them.

    I know many people will point to mainland China’s continuation of the zero COVID policy but it’s important to understand that mainland China’s situation is different to many other countries/territories with regards to vaccine uptake and the unacceptable risk that COVID still poses to their public health system, thus China’s policies are tailored exclusively to China’s conditions as always. Many East Asian countries have had more difficulty in getting their most vulnerable groups vaccinated as they are the least willing to receive the vaccine due to superstition and disinformation on social media.

    Edit: Yes I am aware of the comical irony of me being a caucasian coming into this thread and doing an “ackchyually”

    Edit 2: For those of you inclined to downvote, do you care to offer a rebuttal? Have I misunderstood the situation in some way?

    • @redtea@lemmygrad.ml
      link
      fedilink
      13
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      I’ll justify my downvote.

      Where I am, the rhetoric of co-existence has led us to a place where, even though most people are vaccinated and single, double, or tripple boosted, there are still loads of cases, loads of deaths, and the health service is doubly fucked because of it, and it wasn’t in great shape to start with. Not to mention loads of people with COVID get bedridden until they recover. Plus the compounding effects of long COVID.

      Almost nobody wears a mask. Nobody keeps their distance. Nobody opens windows or doors. Ventilation is shit. Kids go to school with COVID. Adults go to work with COVID. Lecturer theatres, stadiums, theatres, festivals, etc, get full, and COVID runs rampant. Some restaurants have crammed in more tables than they had pre-COVID to make up for all the lost revenue.

      The only people who seem to wear masks are me (90% of the time), the elderly, and a few younger vulnerable people.

      Unless someone has a medical condition, wearing a mask is no hardship whatsoever. I can wear an FFP3 doing manual labour all day, in anything less than 40°C, no problem, and I’m fit enough but not the fittest person in the world. But people don’t need to wear such a mask. An FFP2 is almost as good for COVID. And a medical mask is less hardship than wrapping a scarf around my face in winter.

      So I downvoted the comment because the rhetoric of co-existance in a capitalist society has turned into exactly what I would expect it to become in this death cult: care about nobody but yourself; if someone dies or gets ill, it’s due to their own moral failing; if someone is vulnerable and gets it, they should have stayed indoors. Fuck everyone, so long as you don’t have to suffer the mildest of inconveniences.

      Now, I realise you didn’t say half of this. And when I say ‘you’ I’m not saying you. I just outright reject the idea of co-existance.

      There are lots of policy choices between full lockdowns and ‘just live with it’. Unfortunately, co-existence has become the latter.

      Edit: changed 40° to 40°C for clarity.

      • @hegginses@lemmygrad.ml
        link
        fedilink
        -22 years ago

        In your case I understand that it is one of many where governments are too eager to open up and do so against the science, thus sacrificing people to the economy. I’m only saying that I believe there is a point where COVID restrictions can go away and some countries/territories are at that stage right now

    • @201dberg@lemmygrad.ml
      link
      fedilink
      72 years ago

      My great Uncle was battling cancer and it was in full remission. He was doing great. He had gotten the COVID vaccine as well. He then got exposed to and infected with actual COVID. He was only sick with COVID for a few days but in those few days it did something to the cancer and/or his immune system and went from full remission to completely uncontrollable. He was dead in less than a month. The only way for him to have lived was to never be exposed in the first place.

      So no, there is no “co-existing” with fucking COVID. There is only “being complacent with the most vulnerable among us dieing because people are too fucking lazy to bother to try and stem the spread of a disease.” So glad my uncle had to die so people don’t have to be ever so slightly inconvenienced with wearing mask when they go shopping.

      • @hegginses@lemmygrad.ml
        link
        fedilink
        -42 years ago

        I understand how you feel and I’m sorry for your loss, my uncle also died from COVID despite being fully vaccinated and in otherwise good health. However, as tragic as such deaths are, we can’t help but look at the greater situation with some degree of heartless abstraction and when we do that, we understand that the cases of our uncles are the exception and not the rule. All the other diseases that we consider endemic also tragically take away the lives of people but there’s not really much we can do to really stop this

        • @201dberg@lemmygrad.ml
          link
          fedilink
          82 years ago

          This is some serious lib speak right now. All of it.

          “Heartless abstraction” is a real fancy way of saying “I don’t give a fuck about the lives of the vulnerable.” “Some of you may die, but that’s a risk I’m willing to take.” This is how capitalists talk when they justify poor people dieing of any number of poverty related causes. “We have to look at our anti homeless architecture with a magnitude of heartless abstraction. Sure it may seem cruel but we have to preserve the aesthetics of our city.” “Heartless abstraction” is not just the advocation of needless deaths but the belittlement of them. To look upon their suffering with no empathy and imo, not the way anyone who claims to be a communist should ever be. It is one thing to know that the greater good of the community may come at the sacrifice of some but you should take into your heart their suffering and truly assess if it is justified.

          Is it not part of being a communist to do what’s best for the whole of society? Taking a minor inconvenience of continuing to wear a mask to try and stem the spread of a disease, that’s magnitudes more dangerous to the vulnerable in the population, seem to be the proper communist approach. Not to mention we still don’t know the full damage that can be caused by “long COVID.” It does not hurt me to wear a mask but not wearing a mask COULD end up hurting someone else. I have the vaccine but I COULD still get infected and who knows if that will be the cause of a new strain that’s even more resistant? So I will wear a mask, because I care.

          I just want to also address this.

          All the other diseases that we consider endemic also tragically take away the lives of people but there’s not really much we can do to really stop this

          This is the most ridiculously defeatist garbage I’ve seen in a while. Let’s just all give up and throw in the towel because the task at hand looks insurmountable. “There’s not really much we can do about global capitalism, I guess we should just all stop trying to be communists and only look out for ourselves from now on.”

    • @folaht@lemmygrad.ml
      link
      fedilink
      -9
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      I will pitch in as another caucasian that stopped caring since the Omicron variant. I went from every time to never in a span of 30 days.

      I understand when other nations have different health care issues and would act as in Rome.

      • @panic@lemmygrad.ml
        link
        fedilink
        132 years ago

        I wonder if people who think like you see the severity of this type of thinking.

        Are you aware that vulnerable people have to become hermits or risk their life when going in public.

        Do you understand the severity of cutting off this part of the population from public life? Do you understand the severity of potentially infecting a chronically ill person? They can die… and you’re okay?

        How?

        I know I’m personally affected by this problem. Does it have to be so personal to care about minimum protection?

        • Seanchaí (she/her)
          link
          fedilink
          122 years ago

          Mild inconvenience to yourself to potentially save another human being’s life? Westerners will never.

          • DankZedong
            link
            fedilink
            72 years ago

            For real, it’s about wearing a piece of cloth on your face for a limited amount of time lmao.

            I did it for a twelve hour train ride with no great annoyance, doctors do it all the time, public transport workers do, people do it all the time.

            GROW THE FUCK UP.

        • @folaht@lemmygrad.ml
          link
          fedilink
          -1
          edit-2
          2 years ago

          I wonder if people who think like you see the severity of this type of thinking.

          The ban has been lifted here except for hospitals in which I did wear a mask.
          The severity since omicron and vaccinations has gone down to flu-like levels.
          Every grandparent and sibling in my family has gotten it in the last few months, even though I never have.
          They told me it was a few days of flu.

          Are you aware that vulnerable people have to become hermits or risk their life when going in public.

          This includes the one step-grandfather who has lung and heart issues, so he was quite vulnerable.
          And I was told he had a few days of flu.
          I lived almost like a complete hermit for two years. I think that’s enough now.

          This was what my home looked like since late January to December 2020.

          When I was I stopped caring, I mean I’ve dropped the seriousness of it down from this level.

          Do you understand the severity of cutting off this part of the population from public life? Do you understand the severity of potentially infecting a chronically ill person? They can die… and you’re okay?

          I don’t live in the US where there’s no universal health care.
          We (still) have a good health care system here.

          How?

          Because the number of death has gone done in my nation by 90%, even though the curfew is gone and the masks are off.
          Our hospitals are able to take care of most of the patients.
          It’s now slightly more dangerous than the flu.

          I know I’m personally affected by this problem. Does it have to be so personal to care about minimum protection?

          No, I just calculate the risk and the risk simply has gone done to flu levels for my nation.
          Other things still occur that also have risk, including health care issues, and those are getting priority.

          What people aren’t taking seriously right now are the consequences of the Nord Stream pipe line being blown up and the gas/oil sanctions against Russia.
          It’s going to lead into a cascading effect in the EU similar to the Arab Spring, with complete overturns of governments, coups and even civil war, with the difference being that unlike the Arab nations, the EU could have stopped the US, but jumped ahead in front US in order outdo it’s own collapse.

          And a lot more people are going to die from this this year in Ukraine (due to the provoked war), and next year in the EU than COVID.

      • @hegginses@lemmygrad.ml
        link
        fedilink
        -32 years ago

        I’m not saying I’ve stopped caring as such. For myself, I live in Hong Kong where it’s still a legal requirement for us to wear a mask almost everywhere at almost all times. We’re reopening but also rightfully being cautious about it as our booster stats are not amazing, yet the situation here is still different to that of mainland China as we already went through the kind of nightmare outbreak scenario with Omicron that the mainland has been holding off.

        • @folaht@lemmygrad.ml
          link
          fedilink
          4
          edit-2
          2 years ago

          I still remember seeing mainlanders trying to flee to Hong Kong from COVID on the news. They must be feeling stupid ever since it became clear that the mainland is doing a better job at protecting its citizens.

      • @Beat_da_Rich@lemmygrad.ml
        link
        fedilink
        -72 years ago

        When no one else around you is wearing a mask, then it’s functionally pointless to wear one. I wear one in the majority of indoor spaces I’m in, but sometimes it just feels like symbolic virtue signaling when everyone else – irrespective of ethnicity – doesn’t have one.

        • @panic@lemmygrad.ml
          link
          fedilink
          12
          edit-2
          2 years ago

          then it’s functionally pointless to wear one

          Not true. Even surgical masks reduce your chances of catching a virus. Don’t spread this misinformation. You are safer covering your face.

          • @darkcalling@lemmygrad.ml
            link
            fedilink
            6
            edit-2
            2 years ago

            And at this point in time N95 and KN95 masks are widely and cheaply available. You can get 3M name brand N95 masks for as little as $2 a mask (and KN95 for significantly less) and with cycling (put in paper bags, have 5-7 paper bags, cycle through them, one a day to give rest periods of at least 5 days to each mask) you can make these masks last through multiple wears. Probably 5-6 at least if not potentially twice that making the cost per day literally cents per day.

            And at that point you’re almost totally protecting yourself given the filtration rate and of course protecting others in the very unlikely chance you get it.

          • W_H
            link
            -12 years ago

            Excuse me for butting in, but there is quite a lot of research about ffp 2and3 masks stating the contrary. And as for those surgical masks they contain cancer causing chemicals. If somebody is interested a could scrounge up a few links.