COVID-19 - On the Ground

[Deleted User 289]

There's risk in having a group of 10 or fewer over for a party but there comes a point where you have to make those decisions on your own.

I've had a couple small gatherings like that during this pandemic with friends and family.
I don't feel scared/bad/guilty.

The only group of people we have had at our house was for a birthday party for my 7 year old. My parents, my mother in law and my wife's sister/husband/kid and we just did everything outside and spread out on our patio. Lucked out with great weather so it was really nice.

I am nowhere close to having groups inside my house.

And good on you.
We all have different ways of dealing with this.
I was at a party, inside, with 10 people, no masks, and that was within our governors recommendations.
If someone decided to go ahead with a wedding of, I dunno, 50 people, I wouldn't finger point and post images of it, shaming them.

The Ozarks pool pic and crowded bars though seem too much for me at this point.

I'm all for people getting together and enjoying themselves. Responsibly.
Not that you give a damn but the way others "deal with this" can and right now does affects me.
Co-worker does what you did. Several times a week. Usually a small get together 8/10/12 people often with her sister, her sister's boyfriend, her sister's kid, a few other friends, her two sons, and her.
They don't wear masks. They don't give a shit. Why would they?
Anyways, I worked with her two weeks ago. She seemed fine. I didn't work yesterday but she did. She went home not feeling well. She woke up this morning still not feeling well. Told her Doc her symptoms and her doc told her to get tested. She went to a testing center near where she lives but she doesn't get her results for 48 to 72 hours. Various co-workers freaking out thinking they now have the virus and doing "contact tracing" in their heads.
That's what I'm fucking dealing with right now.

Meanwhile, in two hours I'm going out to dinner with my 87 year old, autoimmune deficient, 1/3 of lung missing, former cancer victim, mother.
I figure what's the worst that can/will happen? I have virus, I infect her, she dies, and then 4-6-8 weeks from now I really have no big worries about the virus anymore. That's not so bad. Right?
That was sarcasm. Sort of. Maybe.

Of course going out to dinner isn't the smartest of things to do to avoid getting the virus but I'm like most other people right now. I'm going to do what I want to do - and I want to go out to dinner.
If I get the virus because of it, so be it. I'll just feel bad for those I infect. Seriously. I'll feel like shit about it. Especially if someone gets/has complications and/or spreads it to someone else who does.

Moral of my way too long post......
Most of us are probably assholes.

[pdub]

We can't plan for every situation or accommodate everyone.
I think what i've done is responsible, others don't.

Being so overwhelmed with what someone else has decided for themselves if you do not agree with it and then ( not saying you have gone to this length ) making it a mission to let more people know about it and make sure they personally know that YOU and other people don't agree with and try to attempt to let it personally affect them ( professionally ) is a scary and uncomfortable future.

There needs to be a middle ground - it's what MICH annoyingly refers to as folks - he's a bit off here in my opinion, but he's right in that there are people that look at two sides of this current political climate:

A. A freedom and even protection to express oneself, even if it hurts peoples feelings, which shouldn't ever be considered as a protected right ( and i'm adamant against this, if you bring feelings into a protected right, we are all fucked )

B. A clear disregard for other humans lives

The turning point for me here is the frightening power of the collective public with the state of technology.
It is an updated version of Tocqueville -- the masses can press an agenda and force a person living in this environment who disagrees with them to immediately suffer -- and it may not be correct.
It's crowd thought and it doesn't belong in the USA.
( of course, all opinion )

[jfish26]

I don't know quite how to put what I want to say.

It seems like, over and over again, we're conflating fact and opinion, and then misleading ourselves on what it means to make decisions that are contrary to best practices.

The fact is that the virus would go away - all the way away - in 2-3 weeks if literally everyone stayed in their homes for the entire time. If, after that, we simply did not allow anyone else in the city/county/state/country/continent, etc., there would be no virus in the specified area.

Now of course that's ridiculous, and not just unrealistic but impossible.

But the fact is that anything we do that is contrary to that plan, is adding risk. And this is not a situation where you're making decisions that only affect you. In fact, I'd argue it is MORE dangerous for a relatively young and healthy person to become a carrier (and vector), because that person might not get sick, and might pass the disease to dozens. At least a very old or sick person who gets sick is, like, going to be in hospital room or laid up in bed.

Anyway. Because of so many goddamned things - headlined by not just a void in, but a complete fucking failure of, leadership, and also this fucking ridiculous rejection of science and empiricism and expertise, and embrace of individualism and motherfucking wishcasting - we, collectively, are making awful decisions, and in numbers big enough to have fucking RUINED so many people's good-faith efforts, and personal sacrifices, in March-May.

So congratulations, everyone. See you at the Covid party.

Cheers.

[ousdahl]

“I know the doctors and experts and anyone who knows anything says we should wear a mask, but I still have a hunch that they don’t actually do anything.”


- beaverfever

[ousdahl]

Cuz who needs expert advice when you have a gut to trust?

Not my gut, though. Not after that Sichuan stir fry.

But maybe even more concerning than the expert doubting itself is, the way he implies some ulterior motive for the masks?

[CrimsonNBlue]

See you at the Covid party.

Cheers.

Should be a safe weekend, captain.

[jfish26]

[pdub]

So, here ( just because we are in a microenvironment ) is an example if we can follow the thread to how I ( we ) came to my decision to post that.

I explained what I did - which was a 10 person party with no masks.
twocoach said he isn't ready for that.
I said everyone has their own degree of figuring this out - and said that I wasn't comfortable with mass gatherings like @ the Ozarks - but that what I was doing was following what our governor recommended ( fewer than 50 in a setting ).
gutter tells me that a coworker did what I did - meaning a small gathering - and that it affected him.
And then ous makes it a LOL about how people are LOLdumb and just out to spread covid - and CnB hops on bored - and i'm guessing JFish too, I wouldn't know.

Where is the line - is it OK for 15 people to gather? 30? If you're twocoach, only just your family?
I disagree on the level of isolating in respect to risk. Others do to.
That's just the way it is. It's life. People have to deal with this the way that they decide.

The crusade of shame doesn't just apply to the virus.
It's a movement directly linked to the growth of social media.
It's really shitty.

[ousdahl]

Wait, when did I make it an LOL?

Just shared beav’s account of Covid 19 on the ground.
Or did you mean his inferior wingman game? Cuz that’s no laughing matter either.

[pdub]

"Cuz who needs expert advice when you have a gut to trust?"

[ousdahl]

I wasn’t trying to joke. Or just joke.

That’s beav’s mentality, like for real.

But, okay, the stir fry part was a joke. Even though that’s for real too.

*runs to bathroom again*

[pdub]

It's why I typically try to stay out of politics.
The extremes are just so loud and obnoxious and detrimental to progress.
And by progress, it's likely not what a lot of you think it is.

And the pandemic has been a perfect launching pad to paint the loud divide.

[ousdahl]

Dang.

I didn’t realize I was being the extreme one. How am I being the extreme one?

Is my “crusade of shame” really a transgression worse than beav dismissing doctor’s advice?

If our end game is progress - let’s say, progress toward mitigating a pandemic - you really wanna call out me shaming a dude for refusing to listen to doctors, over the dude who refuses to listen to the doctors?

I hope I’m not coming across as confrontational, but I’m genuinely a little perplexed here.

[ousdahl]

Waiiiiit a second - are you just beefing with me cuz I talked shit on Perry again?

[Deleted User 141]

Americans are a bunch of cunts led by the biggest cunt of them all. Only industrialized country to have the situation we find ourselves in.

The protesters, who aren’t cunts for what they are protesting, but because the timing couldn’t be worse, are still cunts.

The sheer politicization by both sides is gross, but again, if we had some kind of compass (a president) not curtsying to states’ rights (that’s the okay, anyway), we’d be a whole lot better off.

Federalism seems to be a shitty thing to embrace during this pandemic. Essentially 50 (+) independent states making decisions all cross of one another is dumb as shit. But, let’s not pretend that if trump would have found an ability to empathize for others or see outside of his own ‘interests’ that congress would have played along.

It’s tragic and convenient that Trump is so inept to deal with anything that might not directly help him.

[Deleted User 62]

Texas Governor mandates masks for everyone.

The assholes are surely gearing up to do asshole shit this weekend.

[pdub]

Gq says it well I think in his first two point five 'paragraphs'.
The messy middle is in his the 2nd half of his third, fourth paragraphs.
The last sentence does just fine.

And ous, i'm not tying to point you out individually/directly, you're my boi, but I do think you are part of a group that just leans, imo, in that non-progressive section who at least at face value, is quick to point out the LOLz of the other sides opinions when it comes to "poli-topics" because they seem dumb to you.

As much as I think phD is the worst poster on the bored, and I can't believe I'm saying this but also DC, I think they are closer to a reasonable wavelength when it comes to this kinda stuff.

And DC left the boreds b/c of me.

[TDub]

Yea I mean, thats pretty close to spot on as far as I'm concerned. Although I dont know of DC left because of you, or Feral, or the dodo 2coach. Im gonna blame him.

[ousdahl]

Right on. Good feedback, thanks.

I suppose I can be quick to point out the LOLz of others. I’m not sure what “non-progressive” in this context means, but I’ll guess it’s something like, I’m more likely to poke fun than I am to actually be constructive?

I dunno if the whole mask issue is the best example though — shaming those who refuse to wear masks equals the same politicizing as refusing to wear masks in the first place?

I’m trying to think of an analogy but they all seem silly. If a mom tells her kid “wear a jacket outside in the winter or you might catch a cold,” would anyone think it wasn’t dumb if the kid replied I AINT GONNA LISTEN MOM YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW ANYTHING!

I think most folks would agree it’s stubborn and childish. Yet when adults refuse to take precautions during a pandemic, we’re supposed to just tolerate it as a matter of their rights, and we can’t say anything otherwise or else we get labeled as the ones politicizing it?


But yeah, regarding DC leaving again, on one hand I miss him - again. But on the other when even 99, whom I consider among the most reasonable and objective dudes on the bored, observes that DC’s demeanor had changed, I can’t help but wonder...

also if you really want him back then just bump the official return watch thread again, duh

[Deleted User 141]

I was always good at a bing and a bang, but not a bongo. (I may be true only one from a district that taught the five paragraph essay that way, I don’t know).