Day of Chaos 2: a.Covid-19 thread.

[Leigh S]

Indeed, what is the plan? Why does every country go along with it?  If there are no more deaths, why are there ACTUALLY 1,000s more deaths? How do you argue with idiots who have been made to feel like they finally know something you don't?

Apparantly she (and her mum) had decided "the virus is all planned" because they'd become aware of a Youtube video called PLANdemic, which they had not even watched, but they had figured out the gist from the name.  How do you even fight this?

TBH, this is the most enraging thing about the whole 'conspiracy' angle... it makes literally no sense. It's both insane and idiotic. There's no part of any of the 'conspiracy' stuff that stands up to a moment's rational scrutiny, and yet somehow there's no reasoning with these people.

[JamesC]

How do you even fight this?

Have you tried a cricket bat?

[Jim_Campbell]

Indeed, what is the plan? Why does every country go along with it?  If there are no more deaths, why are there ACTUALLY 1,000s more deaths? How do you argue with idiots who have been made to feel like they finally know something you don't?

That's what I mean... every country in the world agreed to simultaneously tank their economy? And falsify statistics en masse, fake deaths, co opt the entire contingent of healthcare professionals in their respective nations, not one of whom has turned whistle-blower... to what end?

"It's all about control, innit?" the last fuckhead I had this argument with responded, then sat back with the expression of a poker player who'd just laid down a royal flush.

[Colin YNWA]

That's what I mean... every country in the world agreed to simultaneously tank their economy? And falsify statistics en masse, fake deaths, co opt the entire contingent of healthcare professionals in their respective nations, not one of whom has turned whistle-blower...

To be fair if it was this it would be a glorious example of international cooperation on a scale that's been utterly unimaginable up to now and a source of great hope for the future!... well assuming the next time they decide to cooperation in this unilateral way its done for something positive... like starting a new version of Battle or reprinting Doomlord...

...or something more ambitious...

[Jim_Campbell]

To be fair if it was this it would be a glorious example of international cooperation on a scale that's been utterly unimaginable up to now and a source of great hope for the future!

Blimey, and Alan Moore thought it would take a giant, teleporting, psychic alien squid. Maybe he doesn't know the score after all!

[JamesC]

But these people don't believe in multiple governments cooperating (or not) - they believe in a secret illuminati who control everything.

[shaolin_monkey]

Do you want a solid and reliable update re what is happening with COVID19 up and down the country right now?

Then read this thread from Independent Sage, a reporting and recommendations group made up of healthcare professionals and scientists with a public health focus.

Absolutely essential reading - bypasses the government's noise to get to the facts.

https://twitter.com/independentsage/status/1306938285177085955?s=21

[TordelBack]

Meanwhile, in Ireland,the population has decided to take its public health advice from the You-tube videos of a chemical engineer turned keto diet guru who churns out carefully cropped graphs and assures them that less people have died than normally would and Sweden ignored Covid-19 so it left them alone,  despite this being not the case, despite every second of his videos being debunked. Unsurprisingly his compelling advice is 'Party on, Wayne'.

His believers are on every form of media, in every comment thread; anyone who disagrees are deluded sheep.

Even as 100s of new deaths are already locked-in by skyrocketing and entirely predictable  numbers and Dublin retires to Stage 4 lockdown.

Our new government counters this by making a good play for bring the most deceitful, incompetent shambles we've ever had.

I'm off for a swim, as of midnight I'm restricted to my fucking county. Again.

[TordelBack]

Foolishly, foolishly, oh what a fool was I, went digging into Irish anti-restriction Twitter, with its no-surprise massive crossover into blood nationalism, pro-life, climate denialism and LGTBQphobia. If this is the standard of comprehension, reasoning and critical approach to media of a segment of our population, we have done something terribly wrong as a society.

We squares can get agitated by our own dear Shark's energetic pushing at the boundaries of received wisdom, but this is nothing like that. This is a very pure kind of deep malaise, where ANY unqualified quack or crank that comes along is accorded complete authority, where every misleading graph and cynical fiddle with numbers is greeted with howls of triumph. It's the complete opposite of questioning orthodoxies, substituting the difficult with the easy answer every time.

How did people's preconceptions and selfish desires completely overwhelm the rational parts of their minds, never mind their empathy and compassion?  I can't help but see this as a straight swap for a lost religiosity, a blind faith in what the man in the dress says, and the crueler the better.

[sheridan]

That's what I mean... every country in the world agreed to simultaneously tank their economy? And falsify statistics en masse, fake deaths, co opt the entire contingent of healthcare professionals in their respective nations, not one of whom has turned whistle-blower...

To be fair if it was this it would be a glorious example of international cooperation on a scale that's been utterly unimaginable up to now and a source of great hope for the future!... well assuming the next time they decide to cooperation in this unilateral way its done for something positive... like starting a new version of Battle or reprinting Doomlord...

...or something more ambitious...

It feels like I must have posted this already, but...
Jewish Humour



Rabbi Altmann and his secretary were sitting in a coffeehouse in Berlin in 1935. "Herr Altmann," said his secretary, "I notice you're reading Der Stürmer! I can't understand why. A Nazi libel sheet! Are you some kind of masochist, or, God forbid, a self-hating Jew?"


"On the contrary, Frau Epstein. When I used to read the Jewish papers, all I learned about were pogroms, riots in Palestine, and assimilation in America. But now that I read Der Stürmer, I see so much more: that the Jews control all the banks, that we dominate in the arts, and that we're on the verge of taking over the entire world. You know – it makes me feel a whole lot better!"
   

[TordelBack]

I'm not sure I can adequately describe the raw terror and boiling anger I feel daily, hourly, at the constant lobbying from my fellow citizens to let my most loved vulnerable family members die horribly for their (notional) convenience. It's quite honestly destroying my mind.

Whatever way this ends up, I don't think my mental health will ever recover, I don't there'll be enough pieces of me left to reassemble.

[maryanddavid]

TB, personally I avoid all comments on articles, 99% of FB and Twitter unless its comic related, and even then I avoid a lot of it.
Avoid avoid avoid, especially if you think you might change anyone's mind, think of the Bull McCabe and the sea.

[IndigoPrime]

BIL has it (and so far has—fortunately—mild flu-like symptoms), caught from his job working with vulnerable disabled people in care homes. Two infection explosions in Iceland (not quite doing New Zealand well, but not far off, and without any full lockdown to date) and subsequent fallout have all been linked to two French tourists who tested positive on entry and then refused to isolate. They were shopped by their hotel, by which point it was too late—so the country's infection rate soared because two people decided it was OK for them to head to bars and restaurants in the city. Natch, they're getting away with it because they "misunderstood the rules about quarantine". How fucking difficult is it to understand the rules? If you get a positive test, STAY INSIDE, AWAY FROM OTHER PEOPLE. Gah.

[shaolin_monkey]

] How do you even fight this?

Two answers to this

1 - Education, such as Finland's example.

So that's the U.K. fucked - there's no chance of spending on this, given there's already not enough spending on basics like Textbooks and even pencils.

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/05/how-finland-is-fighting-fake-news-in-the-classroom/


2 - An outright ban of social media. Block it. Especially given the harm it is doing, and the way it has been hijacked by fuck knows who, and is actively being used to take down the tattered remains of democracies around the world.

We know what'll happen though. "You're banning our freedom of speech!"

https://www.businessinsider.com/the-six-countries-that-block-social-media-2015-4?r=US&IR=T

[Professor Bear]

Or we could arrest tech company CEOs.
They knowingly allow the fake accounts and targeted disinformation that is causing all this, because it isn't some unforseen side-effect of human brains being wired to the Matrix or an out-of-control technology like Skynet or something: social media is working exactly as it's supposed to because it makes money this way.

As a follow-up to my earlier comments about family members doing their best to secure gold membership cards in the dipshit moron club, I walked into my dad's house and found the same family members decked out like riot cops, with masks and face shields and I was like "what's this?  I thought it was a hoax" etc because of course they've had to get tested, because of course the people they hang out with have tested positive already.  This is in my parents' house - both in their fucking 70s, both with serious underlying breathing conditions.