Yes, I'm blaming people for perpetuating the pandemic, not only for myself but for everyone who has lost a loved one.
What's your point?
High-risk, low-benefit behavior is not caused by the virus. The high-risk, low-benefit behavior perpetuates the virus, encouraging it to mutate faster. If the people involved were more inclined to look at risk vs. benefits honestly, you would naturally have higher benefits and lower risk.
But that requires the mythical unicorn known as a "rational human acting in their own reasonable best interest." Because of the evidence I find around me, I don't believe such a mythical beast exists.
>"But that requires the mythical unicorn known as a "rational human acting in their own reasonable best interest."
A large number of well-educated people is not required to get people to wear respirators and end the pandemic.
After the benefits of seatbelts were discovered, many people still didn't wear them because they were stupid. Then the US government launched a huge education campaign -- there were PSAs all over the media and children in school were taught about the importance of wearing seatbelts. Everywhere you went, there were messages telling people to "buckle up". The result was that nearly everyone wore their seatbelts and traffic fatalities dropped.
You are much more likely to die from not wearing a respirator than you are to die from not wearing a seatbelt.
You should not be able to turn on a TV or go online without seeing a PSA urging you to wear your respirator in pubic. The government should see to it that everyone has an elestomeric respirator available in their homes and that they know how to properly wear them.
My response went out to the local timeline for some reason:
I'll respond here as it's the relevant thread I think we'd all prefer to keep.
On the facts you cite, I'd recommend you post them on a web page you can make a short-link to (easy for you to remember) so when you quote that, people can look it up even if they should choose to dismiss those facts out-of-hand as inconvenient to their narrative. Make it easy so every time you say it, you can cite it, particularly for anyone new who picks up on the conversation... which, of course, is highly desirable.
On your page, be sure to link to the source .gov, CDC, WHO data. "Well, *I* don't accept those sources..." OK fine... but it's proof you are not just making those numbers up, you have them from SOMEWHERE, and those usually give further reference as to how *THEIR* numbers were obtained.
That's also back to the imperative as to *WHY* every effort must be made not to politicize heath data, because once we go down that road weaponizing health is inevitable.
That said, it did appear as if a government mandate (practically impossible at this point) were being suggested, but I accept now that was not your intention.
"...most likely to become infected are the ones most likely to hold the reins of power. I think we're sunk." "Power attracts the corruptible." That's a given. That's just humans being human. "Sunk" would be one way to describe the impending dissolution of the United States. If it comes to that, COVID-19 and climate crisis issues will be swept aside in favor of, "they have to shut down the food processing plant where I work because we can't ship in or out through a war zone." Masking up and climate change will take a back seat to fleeing to Canada as refugees.
"... odds are we'd come out much better after the dust had settled."
You have WAY far more faith in the political sanity of the United States than anything I would consider realistic.
"We've got a really low bar right now"
Every time... EVERY DAMNED TIME I think I'm being just a bit too dark and cynical, I have things like (but certainly not limited to) the current #FediBlock #MastoAdmin situation to remind me I just need to lower my expectations a bit more.
When I say "push it off the cliff", I'm not thinking of just a civil war. There is no way it would be limited to that. If the US has a civil war in our modern, connected world, it's a worldwide civilization reset. Back to square one.
Pretty much. We supply the tek backing, the money, and the commerce for the glue that holds the world's business together. And we are nothing limited in connection like in the early 1930's.
A dissolution of the US is going to leave skid marks worldwide.
If it comes to that, and I'm highly confident it will, nobody's going to care about COVID-protection measures or climate change reduction.
>"If it comes to that, and I'm highly confident it will, nobody's going to care about COVID-protection measures or climate change reduction."
By the time the dust settles, COVID-19 will likely have burned itself out, and CO2 would be significantly reduced in a post-apocalyptic world.
I can't think of a better breeding ground for pathogens than a war zone.
I'm also fairly confident that continual raging fires from bombing and artillery exchanges will have a net positive effect on the increase of atmospheric carbon. Certainly, if some nut bags decide to involve tactical nukes to try and get the attention of their opposition.
I don't mind a discussion of this on another public thread separate from this one, but my point is specifically to COVID-19 reduction programs... it's going to be really tough, and current priorities will certainly have to be taken into consideration.
I can't think of a current US public policy priority more significant than the needless deaths of over a million Americans.
@Romaq @Pat @WhatYouMcCallit I don't have faith in the US being politically *sane*, but I also have limits as to how *insane* I expect it to get, and at what rates.
You are absolutely correct about such a dissolution having apocalyptic ramifications in the event that it occurs, but my current expectation is that, while we might have an insurgency at some point somewhere in the US, total dissolution of the US is considerably less likely, particularly after the non-appearance of a certain red wave due to anti-democracy candidates performing poorly. I'm more hopeful now than I have been in a considerable while; not pre-2016 hopeful, but certainly not despairing like I was much of 2020.
There are a lot of dark things in the world, many of which can't be contextualized. But as for the current nonsense with Fediblock and MastoAdmin, I would contextualize that by noting that the whiny instances in question who object to QOTO existing are generally run by people who are so childish as to be decidedly unrepresentative of people at large, that those instances in question are often small and even more often not fast-growing, and that at this point there is a ton of interest in federated networks and applications, with or without Gargron at the helm, so even if Mastodon fell apart or lost steam due to this (I'm admittedly not sure how likely those are) the essential idea behind it will remain very much alive.
You still have far more faith in the American Public than what I can scrounge up. I hope you are correct. I fear you are not.
Relative to the COVID-19 discussion, the force for change will most likely be driven by a consensus among corporations hiring the big gun lobbyists where it touches their bottom line. Tribal and political affiliations can resist that force, but it is very difficult to say "no" to people waving around checks.
Supposing Gargron threw in the towel and quit the whole thing, someone will likely step in, and this increases the possibility of a code fork. Corporations are interested in money. "Your love gives me such a thrill. But your love won't pay my bills I WANT MONEY! That's what I want!" If Mastodon doesn't have a monetary interest, corporations won't intervene. If corporations won't intervene, Mastodon will forever suffer squabbles among people of parochial interest. People acting like people. Just like the final answer on the COVID-19 issue. Changing it away from this is a systemic issue, and I'm not clear how to do that with either COVID-19 or Mastodon. Or US politics, for that matter.
@Pat
"A large number of well-educated" idiots pushing an agenda of control for us "pleebs" own good is a recipe for their natural hypocrisy to be pointed out and having the rest of anything actually true completely ignored.
In other words, pretty much exactly what you can observe in the American treatment of the pandemic thus far. The actual truth of the benefits of masking is largely irrelevant. Tribalism is all that matters.
"Much more likely to die from not wearing a respirator than you are to die from not wearing a seatbelt."
Ok. In light of the current US political situation and the trust the public at large has in apolitical authorities in health matters... what source would you choose to cite for this which the public in general would generally agree to trust for that little factoid?
As far as PSAs and whatnot... again, given the current political climate within the US, how do you propose the government at large, fractured and lurching towards civil war as it is, coordinate to spend the money for and promote the information of your claim, true or not as it is? And your claim may very well be true.
"The government should see..." There is no "government" within the US. There are really only fractured fiefdoms of various tribes increasingly reluctant to cooperate among one another to the point of publicly considering disunion as a favorable solution and outcome. And if we go that route, we'll have about as much interest in sane precautions against COVID-19 as Ukraine. You might say they have other priorities at this time. And so will we if it comes to that. "Should" in one hand and sh.....pit in the other. See what will fill faster.
"Put my tribe in charge and have them make everyone be safe for their own good" is not the winning solution you might think it would be. Even if you don't believe that's exactly how it would be perceived... that's exactly how that will be perceived. And why such a move will be so totally doomed to failure.
@WhatYouMcCallit