@snow @freemo People are dying. My grandmother is in a hospital that's dealt with a recent COVID outbreak at this very moment. I can't attend school because all of them are closed in Hong Kong.
Have a little respect for people affected by the issue.
@snow @freemo Like, you do you but COVID not being dealt with has a tangible effect on the lives of others and to cheer it on is some really insensitive stuff. If you want to see the climate crisis addressed, pick a solution that's not the potential sacrifice of thousands of Asian lives.
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I understand why COVID is, for you, a very serious issue. But what snow said is equivalent to someone saying "man people suck, if the world ended it would be a good thing".. if someone says that i dont think it would make them insensitive to anyone who has ever suffered and died though.
Its about context. You cant judge a person's generalized comment directed to someone else the same as you would someone speaking to you directly and aware of your personal struggles
@snow
@freemo @snow I do happen to speak the language, but my Chinese is really rusty. I should probably pick it back up when I graduate but I only got like half of that message
@freemo @snow Yeah what makes it controversial is that the outbreak happened in China specifically which might make some people relate more personally.
That being said, though, the effect wouldn't be the same in Europe or the Americas simply because of population density to be so different. Cities in Asia are simply so much bigger.
So yeah @greenled, I don't think anyone has a "this is good" sentiment, but more of a "it wouldn't be bad if the world's population would somehow drop" sentiment.
@stevenroose @freemo @snow Yeah, I mentioned in another reply thread that hoping for abstract "it would be fine if the population just dropped" is fine because it's not a real possibility and isn't already affecting people.
The outbreak def wouldn't be such a big deal if it hadn't started in China during Chinese New Year while people were crossing the country to visit relatives, so perhaps to a certain degree Confucianism is to blame.
That said, edgy teens would definitely meme a plague in Europe, however impotent it proved to be.
@freemo @snow Yeah, I know, it's just kinda shitty to pick that issue to latch onto specifically when it's a real and current threat and not some abstract possibility like the world ending immediately.
It would be perfectly fine to hope for something that's unlikely or near-impossible, but to muse in such a manner about something that's already affecting people is in deeply bad taste.
I'm not so much personally offended due to my own *personal* struggles as I am bothered by the choice of an issue that's so heavily stoked in racial issues and nationalism to illustrate said morbid point.
Btw @snow re: the whole "哦，系咁噶啦，本來身體因為空氣污染有問題嗰啲人咪仲開心，大陸大停工。" thing, I'm Korean, but nice try.