outbreak! (ebola, sars, coronavirus, etc)

re that news report - how did you guys reach that state

most of them probably already live there, they're used to it

I'm just going to be perfectly frank and say that despite my knowledge that much of what was happening in that video is the result of an education system decimated by conservatives and skewed toward the needs of a shrinking number of middle class whites, I am also more and more convinced that about half of this country is filled with the dumbest, most selfish, myopic idiot fucks of any population anywhere else on the planet. And to be cruel, I wish ill on all of them.

I am also more and more convinced that about half of this country is filled with the dumbest, most selfish, myopic idiot fucks of any population anywhere else on the planet. And to be cruel, I wish ill on all of them.

I'm pretty much here as well. At this point it's hard to see otherwise. We can blame education, conservative news overload, fear, "economic anxiety" all to some degree, but at the base of it all there is a not insignificant percentage of this country that is just plain fucking stupid and selfish and, worse, extremely proud of being so.

Sounds about right! That's the "innocence" of the 1950s that these dummies want to return to, a time when everyone was at least a little bit stupid but you could still achieve a lot and make a good living despite it. (And also, I suspect, it was still a smarter stupid than where we are now, at least by standards of literacy, math, science, etc.)

I mean, there's also the obvious racial, sexual, and gendered connotations of such a return.

It's all just infuriating!

xp JiC - Don't fall for it. People were just as dumb back then. but at an even lower scientific and technological level than today. Remember "Duck and Cover"?

Ethics are taught. Generosity has to be cultivated. It's a social issue.

fwiw i agree 100% table. the thing that pushes me over the edge, with that kind of ignorance, is when it starts hurting other people

tracer otm

Tracer otm. There’s nothing natural about being good.

the dumbest, most selfish, myopic idiot fucks of any population anywhere else on the planet. And to be cruel, I wish ill on all of them.

i could have written that myself, and it's not a fun feeling.

at least the dumbfucks of the 1950s had lead in their water and gasoline to blame. the current generation has had 50+ years of relief (for the most part) from lead-related mental health issues, and can easily look up almost any fact on the internet. and in fact, they take the most valuable tool in the world, the ability to look up almost any fact on the internet, and then decided to watch joe rogan or whatever with it

it's a social issue, like almost anything, but i think it's a lot of other things too. without turning this into a barely-related diatribe against white evangelicals again like i always do, all i can say is that "ethics" and "generosity" are very much central to the same households that teach little timmy poopmonster to say "flu kills more people than coroanvirus" to the lamestream media cameras

i should probably especially avoid the white evangelicals diatribe since we're talking about SLC, lol

PLAGUE HOUSE
THOU SHALT ENTER NOT

― sleeve, Tuesday, September 15, 2020 12:36 AM (fourteen hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/s0mXq6WJSJc"; frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Ahhh! Damn.

https://youtu.be/s0mXq6WJSJc

Anyway the joke is ruined now and clearly I don't know how to embed videos.

Short URLs don't get embedded.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0mXq6WJSJc

there we go :)

Yeah, my point was that ignorant people in the '50s had lots of excuses for their ignorance, and they weren't alone, because people were just, well, more ignorant. Duck and Cover (for example) was absolutely stupid, but in its (dumb) defense, those were early days of nuclear weapons and panic and also the threat of global nuclear war was actually possible/plausible, so there was a reason to at least be afraid. Right now, though, we're 50 years down the line, and we've come so far in terms of public health, science, general knowledge, all literally free to anyone with a phone more powerful than almost every computer that has come before it, and as comprehensive as a library. And yet here were are, willingly choosing stupid again and again even when there are better choices. Like being "pro coal" in 2020.

FWIW, as I understand it Americans are actually more generous than most, in terms of charity and the like. Ethics and morality, otoh, have been corrupted and degraded by selfishness and shortsightedness, which can't be unique to Americans, but we seem to do it louder and more obnoxiously than many others despite being awash in economic stability and luxury compared to huge hunks of the world.

Countries with a dysfunctional tax system come across as more generous on paper if charities are your sole yardstick.

Seriously. The prominence/importance of charitable donations is a symptom of a problem. And they are also antidemocratic at scale.

I agree. But I've got to assume it's got to be all the churches, too. People there are giving not for the tax benefit. They're giving for the right reasons, which admittedly in many cases means "stepping in where the system is not doing a good job."

Eh, I can confirm from personal experience that people in churches are NOT typically giving for the right reasons. At least not the small town Lutheran churches I attended as a kid. Remember many post-service meetings where they discussed how to distribute charity money and they would literally name the families they wanted to help out. Funnily (read: not at all funny) enough the non church going, non-white families NEVER came up in those discussions.

I'm pretty much here as well. At this point it's hard to see otherwise. We can blame education, conservative news overload, fear, "economic anxiety" all to some degree, but at the base of it all there is a not insignificant percentage of this country that is just plain fucking stupid and selfish and, worse, extremely proud of being so.

― soaring skrrrtpeggios (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Tuesday, September 15, 2020 10:25 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

My little working theory is that there is a very high level of "background radiation" of anxiety hanging over the country resulting from (1) many years of unresolved economic inequalities highlighted by the Great Recession and now exacerbated by the new gilded age and the pandemic; and (2) unacknowledged but obvious resource scarcity from climate change.

Of course, none of the foregoing completely explains or justifies the inbred racism and selfishness in this country.

xpost Yeah, I have no idea. But I assume majority black churches (of which there are many) are giving a lot, too.

Prosperity gospel, one of the greatest cons.

we've come so far in terms of public health, science, general knowledge, all literally free to anyone with a phone more powerful than almost every computer that has come before it, and as comprehensive as a library. And yet here were are, willingly choosing stupid again and again

this is probably the most depressing part of this pandemic for me. the one hope I had about avoiding climate change related catastrophe was that one day the reality would become simply undeniable and we'd all get on the same page but if anything the more information we have the dumber we get. Florida is gonna be underwater and these idiots will still say "the climate's always changing, you idiot" as they pull the lever for Don Jr. yes this pandemic is tricky but it's not exactly complicated stuff. we know exactly what we need to do to save lives and we simply choose not to.

Tracer, I agree about ethics, but then the issue becomes whose ethics? If we're going with Christian ethics, then we're going to come into so many disagreements within the first few minutes of discussion that the point is moot.

The despair of my outlook is underscored by the fact that I truly do believe that we are all brothers and sisters, and that so many people refuse to believe that as part of their guiding belief system is not just baffling or infuriating, but incredibly sad.

any ethics at all would be hottt

was going to write “good” but my phone autocorrected to “hottt” - phone otm obv

starting to rethink my “humanism is bad” position as the product of a privileged age perhaps

The stupidest thing about these stupid idiots is they have no idea how good they have it and how much they will regret destroying systems that once allowed them to have it so good.

starting to rethink my “humanism is bad” position as the product of a privileged age perhaps

Focus on climate change and maintain your stance guilt-free.

Why do British people say “r number”? It’s just “r”.

isn't it r0?

isn't she r0v31y

R0 and Rt depends or just R is fine if the difference doesn’t matter. “R number” is like calling x in an equation “x number”.

we're close enough to cornwall that otherwise people assume we're pirates

wait I thought this was a message board for pirates

ilx-arrrrr

Yeah, it's the pirates thing

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/covid-19-acoustic-face-mask-music-enhancing-hungary-conductor-13105742

Fucksake

'They didn't stop off in pubs on the way'
A club trip to Doncaster Races was blamed by the Welsh Government for a covid cluster.
The partner of one member hits back pic.twitter.com/ZnBBkeDa94

— BBC Wales News (@BBCWalesNews) September 17, 2020

how the fuck are we 6 months into this and there are still people who don't understand you can have CV without symptoms? and that maybe if you get tested (so presumably did have symptoms) you wait for the results before getting all your mates together on a bus trip?

The American woman in Germany who broke quarantine to throw a barhopping "rona party" while she had a sore throat should have to spend the rest of the year in solitary.

Dean of St Andrews has announced a 7pm curfew for students starting tonight, apparently.

(Though that’s according to my mum, so who knows)

Pretty grim news here on the Oxford coronavirus vaccine: 2 of the 8,000 UK participants in the trial have developed a rare illness involving inflammation of the spine; in the US the illness hits about 1 in every 236,000 people annually. https://t.co/zcBbAbLNBg pic.twitter.com/mVVFZOMCHd

— Tom Gara (@tomgara) September 20, 2020

This is all making me super excited to get my second dose of Moderna's on Tuesday (tho i think i got placebo fortunately)