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Unperson_47
Oct 14, 2007



Not gonna lie, I thought coronavirus posted as if they were the actual coronavirus.

edit: Oh wait. Turns out that IS the case...I think?

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Philthy
Jan 28, 2003

Pillbug
Everybody ready to lock down again!?!

Kirk Vikernes
Apr 26, 2004

Count Goatnackh

Philthy posted:

Everybody ready to lock down again!?!

Hell yeah! The past couple months have been awesome. (110% serious post)

Illuminti
Dec 3, 2005

Praise be to China's Covid-Zero Policy

Crocoswine posted:

I don't know about anyone else but my own mental health has deteriorated not because of the lockdowns, but because of other people's behavior during them. People refusing to wear masks, being selfish monsters, straight up assaulting others over being minorly inconvenienced, all of this poo poo is just so insanely depressing. I mean I'm an "essential" worker so I straight up have to actually deal with these noxious assholes, so that doesn't help, but I don't think you could blame an increase in suicides just on people being sad that they can't go outside. Some of those are going to be people who have had any kind of optimism for the future or faith in their fellow man completely obliterated because, whoops, turns out people are pure, selfish trash.

(I'm not in any danger of killing myself or anything, so don't worry about me.)

I feel that. When lockdown started here I had visions of everyone coming together and maybe even enjoying the change of pace and embracing a simpler lifestyle. But most people acted like spoilt children, started stockpiling toilet paper and medicine, the crazies came out and started burning down 4G towers....etc etc. I was hoping for a quiet peaceful time, but my neighbours thought while everyone was working from home would be a great time to get some major house renovations out the way.

People are just loving awful.

It's genuinely depressing, and I'm lucky I don't have any serious mental health issues.

dudeness
Mar 5, 2010

:minnie: Cat Army :minnie:
Fallen Rib

Philthy posted:

Everybody ready to lock down again!?!

Lol you think there's gonna be a second lockdown instead of just barreling through the casualties like there was nothing we could've done.

Captain Beans
Aug 5, 2004

Whar be the beans?
Hair Elf

dudeness posted:

Lol you think there's gonna be a second lockdown instead of just barreling through the casualties like there was nothing we could've done.

yea there is like no loving way there will be a big second lock down, to do so would require a ton of people to publicly admit they have made a mistake that killed people. instead more people will die so that they don't have to admit they made a mistake

that kind of admission won't happen until the number of people who died reaches like a million

Captain Beans fucked around with this message at 03:21 on May 25, 2020

smoobles
Sep 4, 2014

yeah there's no second lockdown. We will mentally file away the climbing death toll as a cost of freedom, like school shootings and war. it's what Americans do best, arguably

Chocobo
Oct 15, 2012


Here comes a new challenger!
Oven Wrangler
Muh pres'dunt sayed "hydro-oxy-cholorine-kin" can prevent AND cure the 'rona so I'ma rob Mrs. Jenkins down the lane she's got the loopis so I doubt she's got much fight in 'er.

Facebook Aunt
Oct 4, 2008

wiggle wiggle




Captain Beans posted:

yea there is like no loving way there will be a big second lock down, to do so would require a ton of people to publicly admit they have made a mistake that killed people. instead more people will die so that they don't have to admit they made a mistake

that kind of admission won't happen until the number of people who died reaches like a million

LOL, no. I've already seen responses to reaching 100,000 claiming that most of those deaths weren't from covid at all. They'll never admit they've made a mistake.

They'll deny that millions have died.
They'll claim that the few deaths that did happen were from flu or something.
They'll claim that if covid exists at all it is no more deadly than a cold so anyone who died of it was on death's door anyway.
Even if they believe that a large number of dead people tested positive and they'll say those folks died with covid not of covid.
Oh, and those few who did die of a bad cold? Nothing we could have done to prevent it, it's China's fault.

Ultimate Mango
Jan 18, 2005

This is the perfect year to start having the USA shut down for the month of August, akin to much of Europe and who knows where else. Just a monthlong holiday, food and medical and tourism only. Everyone gets paid like normal.

cash crab
Apr 5, 2015

all the time i am eating from the trashcan. the name of this trashcan is ideology


Crocoswine posted:

I don't know about anyone else but my own mental health has deteriorated not because of the lockdowns, but because of other people's behavior during them. People refusing to wear masks, being selfish monsters, straight up assaulting others over being minorly inconvenienced, all of this poo poo is just so insanely depressing. I mean I'm an "essential" worker so I straight up have to actually deal with these noxious assholes, so that doesn't help, but I don't think you could blame an increase in suicides just on people being sad that they can't go outside. Some of those are going to be people who have had any kind of optimism for the future or faith in their fellow man completely obliterated because, whoops, turns out people are pure, selfish trash.

(I'm not in any danger of killing myself or anything, so don't worry about me.)

hey, bud this sucks. i'm sorry this is happening to you.

if you're desperate for some (free) mental health stuff, i'm doing a self-guided cbt course paid for by the gubbermint of canada, so i could sent you my modules and stuff if you want to pm me. it's not perfect but it's something.

nullEntityRNG
Jun 23, 2010

Mostly pseudo-random.

Illuminti posted:

People are just loving awful.

I think that's one of the interesting (and very depressive) things that has come around as of late. Its this slow shift of

"We, the human race, in the face of a crisis, will work together for the betterment of all mankind"

To
"We, the Human race in the face of crisis, will bicker and tear each other apart and ostracize anyone who isn't on our side"

Granted I don't think this a recent thing nor would I argue is the dominant feeling of all humans but it certain FEELS that way. Where did the cynicism start for us?

Blistex
Oct 30, 2003

Macho Business
Donkey Wrestler

Il Federale posted:

there wont be another lockdown, the new policy will just be this

https://youtu.be/YFFo7xz69t0

I'm picturing "Threads" except Covid instead of Nuclear Holocaust.

FlamingLiberal
Jan 18, 2009

Would you like to play a game?



smoobles posted:

yeah there's no second lockdown. We will mentally file away the climbing death toll as a cost of freedom, like school shootings and war. it's what Americans do best, arguably
Pretty much

A couple of states like NY and CA might take it seriously, but good luck getting any of these Southern Republican Governors to do anything

MarcusSA
Sep 23, 2007

My S/O is flying in from the UK which is pretty much a hot spot and We were a little shocked that CA doesn’t require a 14 day quarantine lol

Granted she’s had it and has an antibody year but still...

WILDTURKEY101
Mar 7, 2005

Look to your left. Look to your right. Only one of you is going to pass this course.

nullEntityRNG posted:

I think that's one of the interesting (and very depressive) things that has come around as of late. Its this slow shift of

"We, the human race, in the face of a crisis, will work together for the betterment of all mankind"

To
"We, the Human race in the face of crisis, will bicker and tear each other apart and ostracize anyone who isn't on our side"

Granted I don't think this a recent thing nor would I argue is the dominant feeling of all humans but it certain FEELS that way. Where did the cynicism start for us?

9/11/01

Snowglobe of Doom
Mar 30, 2012

sucks to be right

nullEntityRNG posted:

I think that's one of the interesting (and very depressive) things that has come around as of late. Its this slow shift of

"We, the human race, in the face of a crisis, will work together for the betterment of all mankind"

To
"We, the Human race in the face of crisis, will bicker and tear each other apart and ostracize anyone who isn't on our side"

Granted I don't think this a recent thing nor would I argue is the dominant feeling of all humans but it certain FEELS that way. Where did the cynicism start for us?

The rise of FYGM was fairly slow and complex for the most part, there were a LOT of moving parts in the machine which lead to this outcome. I did a few effortposts earlier ranting about it:


Snowglobe of Doom posted:

Oh hell yes, pretty much all of this was inevitable ever since Reagan started you guys on the path of lower taxes and deregulated markets and bet the entire farm on the free market + trickle down economy and dismantled FDR's New Deal.

Like, shoving the poor and the working class into a meat grinder that they can't escape from and can't opt out of but not even allowing them the medical coverage they need to survive the lovely conditions isn't a bug, it's a feature that was very very deliberately built into the system, increment by increment over the years. Forgetting people in nursing homes and ignoring the horrific conditions and pretending they haven't been abandoned to die is nothing new. Leaving the frontline medical professions to fall apart under brutal unrelenting conditions in underfunded, underequipped hospitals is nothing new. Letting the Latino and African-Americans populations face the worst out of all these factors combined is nothing new. Screaming at people for being freedom-hating socialists if they complain about any of this is nothing new. Trump saying blatantly moronic poo poo and ignoring reality and making everything worse while his rabid cheersquad fellates him is nothing new.

Every lovely thing happening during this pandemic is stuff that was already happening every day in the US, the only different it that it's been accelerated to a rate where it can no longer be swept under the rug and ignored.

Snowglobe of Doom posted:

We know exactly how to combat the pandemic because there's already been several countries which have successfully beat it down to the point where they can safely (but tentatively) start to open up again with minimal risk. The requirements are:

- Listening to experts and quickly putting their recommendations into place
- Majority of citizens agree to wear masks, wash hands and self-isolate for as long as it takes, sacrificing their comfort for the sake of others
- Centralized concerted efforts to provide PPE and equipment and support quickly and freely to hospitals
- Widespread and immediate financial safety nets for citizens & businesses
- Widespread & repeated testing for as many as possible, constant checking of temperatures etc
- Stable & unified political leadership that constantly spreads a message of unity, diligence, patience and hope

The US is not currently capable of even attempting any of those requirements. The real headfucker is that polls show that a majority of the US people are taking the pandemic seriously and are prepared to do the right thing to help hold it back but politicians, business owners and a small but rabid percentage of the population are throwing a giant baby tantrum and refusing to face the reality of the pandemic which completely negates any and all efforts from those who are taking it seriously.

This state of affairs wasn't a recent development either. During the 1918 flu epidemic there were similar protests against shutting down and wearing masks. The politicization of the southern evangelical churches (they got the taste when they decided to push Prohibition in the 1920s) which led to the Republican party courting them which led to Christianity and "Christian values" becoming inextricably linked with US politics was a big factor leading towards the current situation. The Cold War and the demonization of anything that had a whiff of 'Socialism' was a big factor. Reagonomics and 'trickle down' economic policies was a big factor. Resentment against racial & sexual equality and social movements was a big factor. 9/11 and a black president (and the possible election of a female president) broke a LOT of brains and was also a factor. The media (including the internet) amplifying the loudest voices and de-emphasizing everything else was a factor.

So to answer the question of how this can be fixed: it can't be fixed today, or any time soon. The factors that led to the current situation have been building momentum for over a century and now they're hardbaked into the spirit of the USA and it's going to take a crazy amount of time and effort to even start to apply the brakes on them even before you can start making changes for the better. This pandemic is going to be extremely lovely and cause an incalculable amount of loss and hardship to the entire country which will no doubt takes years and years to recover from and you're just going to have to hunker down and ride it out the best you can.

Rectal Death Adept
Jun 20, 2018

by Fluffdaddy

nullEntityRNG posted:

I think that's one of the interesting (and very depressive) things that has come around as of late. Its this slow shift of

"We, the human race, in the face of a crisis, will work together for the betterment of all mankind"

To
"We, the Human race in the face of crisis, will bicker and tear each other apart and ostracize anyone who isn't on our side"

Granted I don't think this a recent thing nor would I argue is the dominant feeling of all humans but it certain FEELS that way. Where did the cynicism start for us?

I think it depends on how drawn out the crisis is.

If Aliens appeared in the sky bombing cities we would unite as one global society to ram Randy Quaid into them in a jet.

If the Aliens sat on the moon and started threatening to invade us at some point while occasionally shooting something then after a few months people would just quit caring and turn their televisions up when they could no longer ignore the distant rumblings of orbital bombardments. Major news outlets would have headlines "250,000 Dead in Boston. They died with shrapnel from alien weaponry, not from alien weaponry."

Shit Fuckasaurus
Oct 14, 2005

i think right angles might be an abomination against nature you guys
Lipstick Apathy

nullEntityRNG posted:

Granted I don't think this a recent thing nor would I argue is the dominant feeling of all humans but it certain FEELS that way. Where did the cynicism start for us?

The abundance of evidence that's cropped up in the last 30 years is what did it. Different people turned the corner over different events at different times, but by the time Bush stood in front of the Mission Accomplished banner on national television I'd say the majority of people recognized that society at large did not give a poo poo about them.

central dogma
Feb 25, 2012

Come to the Undead Settlement in the next 20 mins if u want an ash kicking
The "lockdown" in the US was a joke anyway. I'm surprised people posting here act as if there even was one. Look back thru these hundreds of posts at people saying things like "yeah, went to home depot to finally get that retaining wall done. You shoulda seen all those chuds not wearing masks".

No, you shouldn't have even been at home depot to begin with. If you go anywhere at all, you have increased the risk of contracting CV itself or spreading it asymptomatically to someone else by a non-zero number. Mask or no mask. You have also justified the owner of that store (or megacorporation, more likely) in being open because you contributed to their bottom line. "See how essential we are? Someone needed to build a new shelf and buy lawn fertilizer." But then you come here and pat yourself on the back because you wore a mask. Millions of people are working in public every day because they are essential. Thats a lockdown? This is the reason the US is topping the charts, not because your next door chud neighbors had a pool party.

Now a couple dozen pages ago, someone picking up a relative's medication. I'm not saying they shouldn't have, that's dumb (although most prescriptions can be mailed), but don't pretend you weren't a possible vector for the virus, mask or not. I'm sure some of you will respond with other reasons why your situation was super special. Maybe it is literally impossible for groceries to be delivered at your address or there's no curb side pickup, idk.

To top off my rant, my idiot boomer anti-mask uncle posted that if things were actually that bad, the people wearing masks wouldn't be at the store buying their cigs in the first place, and I'll be damned if I didn't have a counter for him.

Chocobo
Oct 15, 2012


Here comes a new challenger!
Oven Wrangler
The thing about 9/11 was it was a few events with incredibly impactful live imagery that immediately made everyone appropriate the tragedy as their own. Most of us watched thousands of people die in an instant on live TV, so it was real to us. With coronavirus, and thousands of people dying every single day, we only hear about the statistics and see the graphs, and there's a certain demographic of American's that simultaneously refuse to believe factual statistics while also cherry-picking or falsifying statistics to share on their loving CHUD facebook wall/groups. gently caress them all.

Illuminti
Dec 3, 2005

Praise be to China's Covid-Zero Policy

nullEntityRNG posted:

I think that's one of the interesting (and very depressive) things that has come around as of late. Its this slow shift of

"We, the human race, in the face of a crisis, will work together for the betterment of all mankind"

To
"We, the Human race in the face of crisis, will bicker and tear each other apart and ostracize anyone who isn't on our side"

Granted I don't think this a recent thing nor would I argue is the dominant feeling of all humans but it certain FEELS that way. Where did the cynicism start for us?

When did facebook start?

Social media is a blight on humanity, it's changed everything for the worse. Most notably human interaction and the news.

Kirk Vikernes
Apr 26, 2004

Count Goatnackh

Illuminti posted:

When did facebook start?

2004 as "The Facebook"

Inept
Jul 8, 2003

central dogma posted:

Maybe it is literally impossible for groceries to be delivered at your address or there's no curb side pickup, idk.

Curbside pickup and delivery are just trading your safety for a worker's, unless the store completely banned idiot customers somehow.

Illuminti
Dec 3, 2005

Praise be to China's Covid-Zero Policy

Rectal Death Adept posted:

I think it depends on how drawn out the crisis is.

If Aliens appeared in the sky bombing cities we would unite as one global society to ram Randy Quaid into them in a jet.

If the Aliens sat on the moon and started threatening to invade us at some point while occasionally shooting something then after a few months people would just quit caring and turn their televisions up when they could no longer ignore the distant rumblings of orbital bombardments. Major news outlets would have headlines "250,000 Dead in Boston. They died with shrapnel from alien weaponry, not from alien weaponry."

The aliens could literally Mars Attack's us and start enslaving us whilst broadcasting on the news that they come in peace and within a week you'd have gangs of humans in the street demanding we stop all attacks on the aliens.....who come from God....and it's all a hoax anyway.....and you're not taking my guns. Or enthusiastically rounding up liberal alien haters and delivering them to the camps.


Sir Not Appearing posted:

2004 as "The Facebook"

Life was better in 2003

Philthy
Jan 28, 2003

Pillbug

central dogma posted:

The "lockdown" in the US was a joke anyway. I'm surprised people posting here act as if there even was one. Look back thru these hundreds of posts at people saying things like "yeah, went to home depot to finally get that retaining wall done. You shoulda seen all those chuds not wearing masks".

Nah, we did pretty good for a while. A lot of places still are. We haven't hit over a million deaths yet, so the "mEdiA PAniC!!" did it's job fairly well.

The Protagonist
Jun 29, 2009

The average is 5.5? I thought it was 4. This is very unsettling.


is it over yet hail satan

Zugzwang
Jan 2, 2005

You have a kind of sick desperation in your laugh.


Ramrod XTreme

Illuminti posted:

Life was better in 2003
Facebook was alright when it first launched because it was just goofing around with your friends, getting in touch with people you haven't seen in a long time, and easily finding out if that cute person in your class is single or not.

I think it was sometime around 2011/12 when the site really changed to an outrage machine and microads etc. Because shareholders.

Pindakaas
Jul 8, 2003

I'm not a baby I'm a man! An Anchorman!
Sometimes I wonder why god has forsaken us but then I see this death cult and it's starting to make sense.

Bogus Adventure
Jan 11, 2017

More like "Bulges Adventure"

Zugzwang posted:

Facebook was alright when it first launched because it was just goofing around with your friends, getting in touch with people you haven't seen in a long time, and easily finding out if that cute person in your class is single or not.

I think it was sometime around 2011/12 when the site really changed to an outrage machine and microads etc. Because shareholders.

I wonder what happened in 2011/2012 that helped push the outrageous outrage machine...

PostNouveau
Sep 3, 2011

VY till I die
Grimey Drawer

Bogus Adventure posted:

I wonder what happened in 2011/2012 that helped push the outrageous outrage machine...



That was 2008, old man

Zugzwang
Jan 2, 2005

You have a kind of sick desperation in your laugh.


Ramrod XTreme
I'm not sure exactly when the kind of adtech that allows for micro-targeting and the like really took off, but their IPO was in May 2012.

I have been diligently avoiding Facebook during all this. I still check Twitter even though I don't have an account because it's possible to avoid most of the bad stuff by manually checking the feeds of a select few people who aren't dipshits. Or by checking curated feeds like this one. Even then, if you make the mistake of looking at the replies, the sheer volume of garbage and bile is overwhelming, and it's astonishing to me that it's now impossible to differentiate between garden-variety internet fuckwads and malicious bots.

CaptainSarcastic
Jul 6, 2013



My Facebook feed is fine but then again I have always strictly limited it to people I know personally, and I make it a point to not associate with dipshits.

Lugnut Seatcushion
May 4, 2013
Lipstick Apathy

FlamingLiberal posted:

Pretty much

A couple of states like NY and CA might take it seriously, but good luck getting any of these Southern Republican Governors to do anything

Lol cuomo botched it worse than those southern hillbillies

PostNouveau
Sep 3, 2011

VY till I die
Grimey Drawer

Zugzwang posted:

I'm not sure exactly when the kind of adtech that allows for micro-targeting and the like really took off, but their IPO was in May 2012.

I have been diligently avoiding Facebook during all this. I still check Twitter even though I don't have an account because it's possible to avoid most of the bad stuff by manually checking the feeds of a select few people who aren't dipshits. Or by checking curated feeds like this one. Even then, if you make the mistake of looking at the replies, the sheer volume of garbage and bile is overwhelming, and it's astonishing to me that it's now impossible to differentiate between garden-variety internet fuckwads and malicious bots.

It's called Facebook Pixel. There's a pixel on every website that reports to Facebook that you're on the site and what you're doing on it. It reports what your Facebook friends are doing as well.

This dude invented it along with a lot of the location and friends-based micro-targeting:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Garc%C3%ADa_Mart%C3%ADnez_(author)

Google has a similar product.

PostNouveau fucked around with this message at 07:10 on May 25, 2020

CaptainSarcastic
Jul 6, 2013



PostNouveau posted:

It's called Facebook Pixel. There's a pixel on every website that reports to Facebook that you're on the site and what you're doing on it. It reports what your Facebook friends are doing as well.

This dude invented it along with a lot of the location and friends-based micro-targeting:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Garc%C3%ADa_Mart%C3%ADnez_(author)

Google has a similar product.

Running containers and the enhanced tracking protection in Firefox really helps cut down on this. When I've had to use a work computer without the level of protection I run on my private machine it has been really noticeable.

Green Ganja
Apr 8, 2020

central dogma posted:

The "lockdown" in the US was a joke anyway. I'm surprised people posting here act as if there even was one. Look back thru these hundreds of posts at people saying things like "yeah, went to home depot to finally get that retaining wall done. You shoulda seen all those chuds not wearing masks".

No, you shouldn't have even been at home depot to begin with. If you go anywhere at all, you have increased the risk of contracting CV itself or spreading it asymptomatically to someone else by a non-zero number. Mask or no mask. You have also justified the owner of that store (or megacorporation, more likely) in being open because you contributed to their bottom line. "See how essential we are? Someone needed to build a new shelf and buy lawn fertilizer." But then you come here and pat yourself on the back because you wore a mask. Millions of people are working in public every day because they are essential. Thats a lockdown? This is the reason the US is topping the charts, not because your next door chud neighbors had a pool party.

Now a couple dozen pages ago, someone picking up a relative's medication. I'm not saying they shouldn't have, that's dumb (although most prescriptions can be mailed), but don't pretend you weren't a possible vector for the virus, mask or not. I'm sure some of you will respond with other reasons why your situation was super special. Maybe it is literally impossible for groceries to be delivered at your address or there's no curb side pickup, idk.

To top off my rant, my idiot boomer anti-mask uncle posted that if things were actually that bad, the people wearing masks wouldn't be at the store buying their cigs in the first place, and I'll be damned if I didn't have a counter for him.

My favorite lockdown experience was going to the grocery store and having another 200 people in the store. Oh so essential it was..The store couldn't have employees gather orders and deliver/set up a pick up point...That would be....expensive....

Green Ganja
Apr 8, 2020

Inept posted:

Curbside pickup and delivery are just trading your safety for a worker's, unless the store completely banned idiot customers somehow.

It's one hell of a better option for everyone.

Yes the workers are still exposed but just to other workers and not to the dumb idiot customers. Goes both ways

Zugzwang
Jan 2, 2005

You have a kind of sick desperation in your laugh.


Ramrod XTreme

PostNouveau posted:

It's called Facebook Pixel. There's a pixel on every website that reports to Facebook that you're on the site and what you're doing on it. It reports what your Facebook friends are doing as well.

This dude invented it along with a lot of the location and friends-based micro-targeting:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Garc%C3%ADa_Mart%C3%ADnez_(author)

Google has a similar product.
Imagine if they used this to show ads for actual good information to the "OPEN EVERYTHING BACK UP"/anti-mask folks.

Probably no money in that though. :smith:

(And I know, lots of problems with allowing one company to decide what counts as "good information." Just saying.)

Zugzwang fucked around with this message at 07:39 on May 25, 2020

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Persiflagist
Mar 7, 2013
i think that the coronavirus is bad. i hope i dont get it

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