Honestly made me tear up seeing this. Amongst my peers, I'm the only one still masking which can feel (and in a real sense, is) incredibly isolating. Seeing individual maskers out and about is bittersweet--I'm glad not to be literally alone, but it's also a reminder that both of us are just fighting tooth-and-nail for the health of ourselves and those in our immediate ambits, with the health of the broader community completely abandoned by the state and by nearly everyone around us. But seeing people still fighting the good fight en masse gives me hope.
Also, if anyone's interested, I haven't gotten a chance to watch it yet but it seems that the Death Panel podcast hosts did a panel at the conference. Warning: the audio can be EXTREMELY crunchy, particularly at the beginning, so headphone users especially should turn their volume down basically as far is it can go before watching. There are professional captions provided, so you can mostly just rely on those. Skimming through, it seems like it's mostly only crunchy after Bea's (leftmost speaker) intro when Jules (rightmost speaker) and some of the audience is speaking--regardless, I'd tread carefully.
I can only think that people who are happy in this current social climate are fooling themselves or selling something, because my experience since 2020 as an immunocompromised person has been the same. Friends that have told me they "care about" and "want to help" people will not wear a mask and have stopped talking to me. It is an incredibly alienating life and I'd be lying if I said it hasn't irrevocably changed my opinion of the notion of a broader public goodwill. I have made concerted efforts to find reading material on the history of the medically vulnerable and marginalized and, ideally, its intersections with Marxist principles if I'm lucky, and the few things I have managed to find paint a dour picture. Hundreds of years - thousands, even - and the disabled are still seen exactly as they were then: nuisances at best, a rot to be cleansed at worst. To call me doomer is an understatement at this point. No one sees me as human, no one sees me with any value, or they would do this very simple thing that everyone at this conference seems to have done without spontaneously combusting or whatever it is everyone thinks happens when a venue enforces rules. So when I see things like this, I am relieved, and pleased, and I hope people take the message: you all can do it, you just don't want to.
Honestly made me tear up seeing this. Amongst my peers, I'm the only one still masking which can feel (and in a real sense, is) incredibly isolating. Seeing individual maskers out and about is bittersweet--I'm glad not to be literally alone, but it's also a reminder that both of us are just fighting tooth-and-nail for the health of ourselves and those in our immediate ambits, with the health of the broader community completely abandoned by the state and by nearly everyone around us. But seeing people still fighting the good fight en masse gives me hope.
Also, if anyone's interested, I haven't gotten a chance to watch it yet but it seems that the Death Panel podcast hosts did a panel at the conference. Warning: the audio can be EXTREMELY crunchy, particularly at the beginning, so headphone users especially should turn their volume down basically as far is it can go before watching. There are professional captions provided, so you can mostly just rely on those. Skimming through, it seems like it's mostly only crunchy after Bea's (leftmost speaker) intro when Jules (rightmost speaker) and some of the audience is speaking--regardless, I'd tread carefully.
The full virtual program can be found on the conference's front page
edit: alternative frontend links:
I can only think that people who are happy in this current social climate are fooling themselves or selling something, because my experience since 2020 as an immunocompromised person has been the same. Friends that have told me they "care about" and "want to help" people will not wear a mask and have stopped talking to me. It is an incredibly alienating life and I'd be lying if I said it hasn't irrevocably changed my opinion of the notion of a broader public goodwill. I have made concerted efforts to find reading material on the history of the medically vulnerable and marginalized and, ideally, its intersections with Marxist principles if I'm lucky, and the few things I have managed to find paint a dour picture. Hundreds of years - thousands, even - and the disabled are still seen exactly as they were then: nuisances at best, a rot to be cleansed at worst. To call me doomer is an understatement at this point. No one sees me as human, no one sees me with any value, or they would do this very simple thing that everyone at this conference seems to have done without spontaneously combusting or whatever it is everyone thinks happens when a venue enforces rules. So when I see things like this, I am relieved, and pleased, and I hope people take the message: you all can do it, you just don't want to.
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