BF2S Forums Pandemic thread

You both had bad childhoods.

I survived 9/11 without so much as a scratch, clearly terrorism isn't something to be concerned about.

it has a mortality rate 20x that of the common flu, which is already lethal enough in large-scale pandemics.

'poor medical practices' in china? it's a respiratory virus. it becomes pneumonia. all you can do is intubate people and keep them in a hospital bed with their vitals ticking over and fluids topped up. what exactly are china doing that's so wrong or negligent? on the contrary, most epidemiologists and the world health organization have commended china on its speed of research and rapid implementation of care for the virus.

the reason developed countries are supposedly able to absorb it much better is because they have more hospital beds and better intensive care. it's a pure resources game.

as to italy, my best guess is that it took root in a small rural community with poor access to healthcare and a local demographic tilted heavily towards the elderly (the youth being off elsewhere in major towns/cities). old peasants in these communities don't exactly go to their doctors for an annual check-up, either; there's still that vague, residual fear/mistrust of doctors that you find in all people of a certain age living in the countryside.

Last edited by uziq (2020-03-04 08:38:09)

I did hear, indirectly from people who are in China, that no-one dare go out of their apartments.

One cough and you're frog-marched to a clinic.

Dr. Sara Cody was offering one piece of simple, yet vital, advice on how people can stop the novel coronavirus from spreading: Don't touch your face.

"Today, start working on not touching your face — because one main way viruses spread is when you touch your own mouth, nose, or eyes," Cody, director of the Santa Clara County's Public Health Department said at the Friday press conference.

Less than a minute later, Cody brought her hand to her mouth and licked her finger to turn a page in her notes.

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/sa … oronavirus

In fairness it is pretty damn hard to train yourself not to touch your face. I think the Azns have a practice we should emulate here. I would love to wear one of these all day.

Dilbert_X wrote:

Jay wrote:

The primary difference between us is that with the shitty stuff that has happened in our lives, I've learned to let go. You haven't.

The primary difference between you and - everyone else really - is that most people are idealists at some level.

While most people have at least an idea and some understanding of different ideologies and eventually  pick one which makes sense to them on moral grounds, and stick with it, you have little understanding and choose whichever gives you the most personal advantage at any given moment.
You spout and moralise like an idealist, but you're not, you're a self-interested chancer. The reason you've learned to 'let go' is it allows you to grasp on better.

You used to be a marxist, then a libertarian, now you're a conservative, the moment you get a major health condition you'll be a socialist, not that you really have a full grasp of any of these beyond what you read on some opinion-blog on the internet.

This is why you can't discuss anything rationally, and there's little point because when it suits you you'll ditch whatever is your current idea of the only acceptable worldview for whatever you calculate is most likely to support your 401k, reduce your taxes or boost your personal income - in NPV terms over the next 10 years or whatever measure you're using at present.

Picking a religion for your kids is a funny microcosm. I pity them as they're made to jump from Lutheran to Shinto to Sikh to Buddhist, and how many cycles of circumcision/foreskin reattachment will your doctor let them go through before the authorities make them wards of the state?

This constant flipping and dissonance does seem to be an American thing though. The beacon of democracy, stability and christian values elects a corrupt and dishonest rapist and pervert in the pay of a foreign government without a blink - because he'll deliver tax cuts and increased spending in the short term (which loads debt on the next generation but fuck our kids right?) which makes it all OK.

Oh, I've been very consistently a libertarian my entire adult life. Nothing has changed. Do I lean towards Conservatism somewhat as I get older? Sure, I think that's normal though. You get used to things being a certain way, and the world changing tends to make you want to put up your hands and say "hey slow down a bit". Normal. Also, the libertarians in the US are mostly found within the tent of the Republican Party, so there tends to be some overlap in ideas.

But I think you're a bit off on most of your analysis. Idealism is good. It gives you a purpose, a mission, a goal, but it also blinds you in that it requires a certain amount of faith. I admit to being both a cynic and a nihilist, but, and it's a big but, my cynicism extends only to those who seek power. On a day-to-day basis, I'm actually a very optimistic person who expects people to be generally good. I think even the worst sorts ultimately want to do a good job and receive praise. This optimism does not extend to my government. Why? Well, as you've pointed out roughly one million times, I have spent time within that government. I have rubbed elbows with the lazy people getting by and sucking up tax dollars. You mention I was briefly a communist, yes? Not that this was any sort of non-superficial belief, but it was thoroughly removed from my system when I discovered government pay scales based on time in service and time in grade. No merit pay, just "you've been in 3 years, 3 months, your rank is X, here is your pay". It doesn't matter if you're a shitbag who hides under a truck all day or the sucker (me) who busts his ass because that's how he was raised. Same pay. Well, extrapolate that out to an entire society. The suckers are going to eventually give everyone the finger... which is why right around the time I joined this forum the story of Atlas Shrugged resonated so much with me, to the point that I came here under the name JohnG@lt. You wanna create an army of libertarians? Expose them to actual socialism. I guarantee that Bernie isn't getting the Eastern European or the Cuban vote.

So sure, you can say that my philosophical opinions, are in your eyes, malformed, but A) I'm not a professional political scientist, nor have I ever claimed to be and B) your actual exposure to people with similar ideas to mine is approximately nil.

What else? Rational opinions? Frankly, I spend maybe five minutes on this board a day anymore. I just don't have the time or the patience to sit here and type out long posts such as this one anymore. Kids, job, wife, commute, I get maybe 30 minutes to myself on a weekday and I do not choose to spend it here. Also, I pretty much made my arguments here 8, 9 10 years ago and I hate repeating myself, especially not to the five people still left here who have zero inclination to take anything I say seriously. I've accepted my role here as the resident punching bag for all of the enlightened liberals. In turn, you get my five minutes and what will likely be nothing more than an inflamatory post or two.

And again, I voted for Gary Johnson in the past two election cycles. Libertarian Party. Did not vote for Trump. Did not vote for Romney. If it's Bernie vs Trump in 2020, I likely will vote for Trump because Sanders is a piece of shit grifter that should never be allowed within 100 miles of a seat of power. If it's Biden, who gives a fuck. They're both corrupt anyway. I'll vote 3rd party again.

I did, and regret it. I bought the maverick thing without realizing he was such a warmonger.

More from WA state:

Clover Park Tech closes Lakewood, South Hill campuses for cleaning; student under quarantine
https://www-1.thenewstribune.com/news/l … 8166.html#

e: talked with someone who said a grocery store around the same area was empty. manager supposes people were staying home.

SuperJail Warden wrote:

Dr. Sara Cody was offering one piece of simple, yet vital, advice on how people can stop the novel coronavirus from spreading: Don't touch your face.

"Today, start working on not touching your face — because one main way viruses spread is when you touch your own mouth, nose, or eyes," Cody, director of the Santa Clara County's Public Health Department said at the Friday press conference.

Less than a minute later, Cody brought her hand to her mouth and licked her finger to turn a page in her notes.

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/sa … oronavirus

In fairness it is pretty damn hard to train yourself not to touch your face. I think the Azns have a practice we should emulate here.

That's one of my milder pet peeves. Like, stop rifling through my filing cabinet or books with your saliva-laden fingertips. It's gross. Also seems to be a subconscious mannerism that people sometimes don't realize they have, and will sometimes deny it if asked to stop.

"I was scratching my nose!" Sure you were.

e: Jay should get a kick out of it at least. As well as wiping down doorknobs, faucets/handles, and phones during housecleaning. What a ludicrous idea!

Dilbert_X wrote:

uziq wrote:

curfew/quarantine laws are in place in many major cities there. what's so sinister about that?!!

I think people should be able to clear their throats without being sent to a death camp.

dilbert: the response hasn’t been enough, selfish individualists everywhere, we need total quarantine, shutdown all flights, no foreigners should enter australia whatsoever, it’s them damn international students that will be our downfall, we’re too soft.

*china clears throat, clamps down on individuals*

also dilbert: china is out of control, it’s a nightmare state, ‘i have contacts inside’ (lmao it’s not north korea) who have leaked to me some info, it’s basically a police state, there are death camps.

you are a fucking retard my man.

RTHKI wrote:

I just came here to say I asked my mom her thoughts about coronavirus.
Basically a conspiracy theorist now, she loves Trump, thinks this is overblown, and would be happy if the Pope died from it.
She's Catholic.

i was catching up with an ex the other day, she lives in Lima (coronavirus isn’t a big deal in Peru yet). she just casually dropped the bomb that she thinks maybe, ‘or some people say’, etc, that coronavirus was engineered and let out by Bauer or some other generic big pharma company.

now, growing up in south america and being close to the elite, i’m sure she had a pretty different take on corruption and conspiracy in public life. it’s a continent where most of the political conspiracy theories and whispering is true, after all. but this really blindsided me.

we really do live in a new era of information, truth, facts. it’s a cliché to say so at this point, but it doesn’t fail to shock me.

RTHKI wrote:

SuperJail Warden wrote:

RTHKI wrote:

I just came here to say I asked my mom her thoughts about coronavirus.
Basically a conspiracy theorist now, she loves Trump, thinks this is overblown, and would be happy if the Pope died from it.
She's Catholic.

Conservative American Catholics are basically Prots who like fancy churches. She should join a mega church

Plenty of  those around here but she's Catholic to the core even though she wishes the Pope was dead ¯\_(ツ)_/¯


And yea, she's completely unconcerned about it even though her mom/my grandma is 95.

I probably already know the answer but how does she feel about all those Catholic children in camps at the border?