outbreak! (ebola, sars, coronavirus, etc)

they're going to do that anyway

Turning Points dipshit Charlie Kirk was in town here over the weekend, speaking to our county Republican Party (who paid him $20,000 just to come, the grift never ends). At one point he declared "I am not vaccinated, and I will not be," and got a loud round of applause. Anti-vaxx is now the mainstream GOP position, at least around here. Republican officials who probably HAVE been vaccinated won't admit it in public for fear of backlash. What a shitshow.

He’s less dangerous than elder?

Yeah the cascade of requirements that'll kick in here will be something.

"Secrets Swingers Club hereby demands all its swingers be vaccinated...."

“He’s less dangerous than elder?”

Wrong thread ignore me

i think there’s something deep in the red-meat truck drivin mentality of the red stater that was really primed for this. it’s the mentality of the motorcyclist. yeah it’s dangerous. but i don’t care. you might want to live in fear buddy, not me. so my chances of disease are higher, so what? it’s my choice. i smoke, i ride motorcycles. i’m ready to die. i’m right with god. i’d rather just just one month without fear than the rest of my life in a cage. and just because YOU disagree doesn’t mean i have to live by your rules. oh my decisions affect you too? well YOUR decisions affect ME too! who are you to say your scared-ass beliefs should trump mine, KAREN?

Unfortunately that sounds about right. I don't have any openly anti-vaxxers in my media feeds but occasionally some acquaintance posts something vaguely like "I'd rather _______ than live in fear" or "blah blah so divisive these days" and they clearly think they're taking, like, the neutral middle "reasonable" line.

the "argument to moderation" logical fallacy is probably the one that drives me the most up the wall.

fully vaxxed motorcyclist here.

Is the GOP really such a collection of morons that they don't realize their antivax rhetoric stands a good chance of decimating their own constituency? Or are they just going full Jim Jones at this point?

The biggest disconnect in the whole "I don't want to live in fear" mentality is also feeling like you need to take a handgun to buy eggs at Kroger.

"i don't want to live in fear"

*very obviously lives in state of complete fear and paranoia*

Is the GOP really such a collection of morons that they don't realize their antivax rhetoric stands a good chance of decimating their own constituency? Or are they just going full Jim Jones at this point?

― Marty J. Bilge (Old Lunch), Monday, August 23, 2021 11:16 AM (four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

there's a pretty solid chance that covid deaths materially affected the election outcome in wisconsin and arizona in 2020.

so, the short answer is...yes

I smoke AND ride motorcycles.

lol sorry bulb. not all motorcyclists!

okay so the analogy’s not perfect xpost

but i feel like the impulse is similar. and it’s very attractive. you want to live in a society that’s perfectly safe and everybody tells you what to do all the time go right ahead. but me i want to LIVE my LIFE. yeah maybe i need to pack a gun sometimes. that’s cause life gets fuckin real and raw (i’ve heard) and i don’t mind dealing with it head on. yeah I’M A LITTLE BIT OF A BADASS.

like that’s some deep down identity shit that “epidemiology” isn’t going to make a dent in

there's a pretty solid chance that covid deaths materially affected the election outcome in wisconsin and arizona in 2020.

I'm curious because I recently moved to WI and not trying to be overtly interrogative, but do you have a source for this?

i do not!

"i don't want to live in fear"

*very obviously lives in state of complete fear and paranoia*

― professional anti- (Karl Malone), Monday, August 23, 2021 12:19 PM (ten minutes ago)

comirnaty dread

Posse Comirnaty

in fact, i was overestimating the number of covid deaths in wisconsin, which is currently at 8.6k (would've been many less in november).

xps

it's probably a mistake to assume significantly more Republican voters died of this come Nov 2020 when nobody was vaccinated but I wouldn't be surprised if this winds up swinging a close one next year

Be nice if DeSantis died of COVID

https://scontent-lga3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.6435-9/s720x720/239723722_10158204553366500_4675306312778919555_n.jpg?_nc_cat=105&ccb=1-5&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=IF27F_o3GnIAX_cq942&_nc_ht=scontent-lga3-1.xx&oh=3799ae3af608fb7d6159c0cbeee0fe17&oe=614871CB

I'm sorry. A mod can remove that if it's triggering anyone. It came up in my feed yesterday posted by someone who only posts like once a year and that was her yearly contribution.

That's exactly what I'm talking about

It doesn't matter that it's utterly untrue, it feels true

I think Simba had free health care iirc

I think Tracer Hand nailed the mindset, even if the connection to motorcycles was based in stereotyping. It is a bravado that rationalizes doing whatever your appetites, desires and fantasies suggest, no matter what the risk or danger and it lasts right up until the moment the person crashes into a wall of reality. There are thousands of paraplegics out there whose last moment of health was spent whooping with joyous abandon as they dove off a cliff into shallow water.

Trump Jr just off camera aiming a massive cannon at lion #2

everything about his quality of life is his own responsibility except for encroaching human habitats, poachers, hunter tourism, mass prey die-off due to drought from climate change, general poisoning of the ecosystem, basically the impact of asshole humans who don't acknowledge that their actions alter the lives of everyone around them....

Hmm yes precisely.

the brother of a friend, a guy in his 50s, is several weeks into a hospital stay because he had a no-helmet single-rider motorcycle wreck ... during multiple emergency surgeries they discovered he had COVID, which was helpful when he had to go on a ventilator for a while ... he seems to be doing better, just posted a photo of his cast-and-brace-covered leg with the caption "only 8 or 9 more surgeries to go"

he lives in Florida btw

More like identifying with lions because they are alpha predators with no natural enemies (other than humans), but the person who posted that is far more in the position of an aging gazelle the 'free' lion is gazing at hungrily.

NYC just mandated all employees to be vaccinated with no opt-outs.

Teacher's union responded with some vague language re: collective bargaining, but that's just going to be details (I hope).

Sorry, NYC schools.

Good, although I'm curious to see what kind of shitshow there is going to be if a significant number of teachers either leave or just don't comply.

I've seen a couple of threads w people having meltdowns talking about quitting and boohoo won't they be sorry when "all" the teachers quit, and, like...no one is going to miss your Long Island blue lives matter bumpersticker ass. Kids will be better off without ever knowing what you think of their selves and their families.

Fuh.

Based purely on anecdotes, I'd guess more teachers have left or are leaving because of all the other miseries of COVID education than will because of vaccine mandates. Literally every teacher I know got a vaccine as soon as they could. Some went to other states and counties to do it.

Where are they going to go? The state is expected to have a similar mandate very soon.

the majority of teachers want vaccine mandates as it is going to save lives

I am going to guess the ratio of teachers who don't want the vax and who are bad teachers approaches 1:1.

approaches 1:1

Maybe not so simple a ratio as that, especially in the kindergarten through 2nd grade. But I definitely understand the sentiment.

I wouldn't say "bad" in terms of pedagogy necessarily but I'm cynical from being stationed in schools in one of the reddest, most Republican leaning parts of NYC. Like, I searched a related hashtag on the bird media service and it was really only one guy, over and over, questioning the teacher's union's decision not to contest the vax mandate...and he's a white dude who has only ever posted about baseball and his background pic suggests a connection to Staten Island. Ooookay. Byeeeeee

wamp wamp

Just In: According to AZ Senate President Karen Fann, the head of Cyber Ninjas - Doug Logan - is "quite sick" from COVID-19, and the "audit" report expected today has been delayed.

— Duty To Warn 🔉 (@duty2warn) August 23, 2021

lots of people are saying China swapped in COVID contaminated ballots

true, twas at the hipster coffee bar and I heard this

holy mackerel pic.twitter.com/YDZZQnvuJQ

— bücketheâd (@BuucketHe4d) August 23, 2021

Bloody piss-taker!