The US gov's misinformation that we can act like covid's over is mainly so we're good servants for capital, and that's lib shit. That's mostly what I got.
That's the gist of it. Zero covid is class struggle. Rich people have the resources to buy themselves bubbles of safe air and regularly tested company while the rest of us were sent back to the plague mines. And it's a very Neoliberal approach. That's also how we're treating climate change and abortion access.
I just mask everywhere because I dont want to worry about getting covid and getting long covid
I agree that Covid is still going on and is a fatal danger to people and I wish we could still have precautions and remote work or lockdown as a society as a whole.
But, I'm genuinely curious, are all of you still wearing masks and not visiting others indoors? Honestly not judging nor shaming if that's what's going on but just wondering.
I really do wish everyone vaccinated and were more careful and remote, and I was extremely careful for a couple of years there to the annoyance of my friends and family but, given how things are now, I kinda gave up on wearing a mask except for some circumstances and I go visit family and friends indoors or will go to concerts or bars like "normal", which is what I think people mean. Reasonable people still acknowledge Covid is out there and a problem but recognize the reaction to it is non-existent, as if everything is "normal".
Does that make me a lib? I mean, I know I'm a lib but does it make me more of a lib? Am I supposed to keep wearing a mask at all times and not visit people to not be lib or is it sufficient to know and say Covid is still a fuck and capitalists have forced us back onto the gears of capitalism and drain us over the blood altar?
Wearing masks indoors whenever I'm with anyone else, yes, and restricting interaction to only people I can trust; as you might expect, this list has become comically short as time has gone on. Yes, you are
I still wear a mask every single time I go into the office or into any public indoor setting. Very few exceptions. The idea that anyone can acknowledge COVID is still around and still a major issue but simultaneously gives into normalcy means that they don’t actually care. Caring means acting in a way that helps the situation, not blaming circumstances while still serving your own wants. Live life how you want, but you can’t have your cake and eat it too.
Yes you are a lib, the hyperbole is humongous lib energy. No one said we are avoiding seeing friends and family, we are just more cautious with the setting.
For the record, most people fall into the same category you do. Most people feel compelled to placate the risk averse for the sake of optics, but in reality can’t be bothered to hinder their lives anymore. Meanwhile long covid has hindered many lives in much worse ways.
Yes you are a lib, the hyperbole is humongous lib energy. No one said we are avoiding seeing friends and family, we are just more cautious with the setting.
Come on, dude. I agree with the rest of what you are saying for the most part but now you are being the hyperbolic one.
It is not excessive of me to ask if you are avoiding seeing friends and family when this was exactly the protocol called for at the height of the lockdowns and the pandemic. I did, in fact, avoid seeing friends and family indoors for a couple of years. But I've stopped avoiding seeing my friends and family for the most part, at this point. I'm just asking how rigorous people on here are still being with regards to Covid. I did say I still wear masks in certain settings but not in all settings, as I did before. And blaming circumstances while dealing with the material reality of the circumstances the best we can is, I think, not about having our cake and eating it too. Now you are having tremendous chud energy. 'oh, you critique capitalism yet you have a job and use an iphone. curious!' This is a collective effort and given that nothing is shut down and there is no recourse but to go in person for many things, including work, and that absolutely no one is wearing masks around me anymore that does impact the way an individual, even one in disagreement, will behave as a result. It happens with everything under capitalism.
Sorry if I directed my frustrations at you. they are actually more general frustrations with the entire situation and I tend to get a little to worked up.
COVID has been taking a toll on me and my family because of various health concerns that are exacerbated by us getting COVID beginning of this year. Because of that I definitely get a little defensive and snippy.
Honestly, I apologize for coming at you like that, I definitely understand your sentiment and recognize your understanding of the larger situation. Its no excuse for me snapping at you, but I want to acknowledge my error.
No worries, man. I very much appreciate and accept the apology. I'm sorry to hear that Covid has been hard on you and your family.
I still get worked up about some things, like antivaxxers. Just found out one of my best friends is an antivaxxer and doesn't have the vaccine. I had no idea and I never asked him before because we're usually pretty much on the same page and he's very reasonable, so it came as a shock. Kinda had to step back to avoid an overreaction that might damage the friendship because I know I can be harsh, and I just hit strongly by the flu (not Covid) through an antivaxxer so I'm extra pissy. So, I get it. Hope you and your family are safe and well this holiday season, comrade.
Yeah that’s a tough pill to swallow. I had a friend like that as well, but it was a lot easier to cut ties because he was also a racist transphobe.
Hope you and yours stay healthy too!
I wear a mask indoors whenever possible. I still go out and do things, but almost always masked. E.g. I go to a decent number of concerts, it doesn’t take away from the experience at all to wear a well fitted kn95 in there. I’ll eat out occasionally and that involves temporary masklessness, but I figure I’m minimizing risk not eliminating it fully. I’ve had all the available vaccines and never had Covid, and I test regularly. To me this all seems reasonable given the risks Covid still holds
I view it the same way as living an eco friendly lifestyle. It's nice to do to help out the people immediately around you, and it might make your own life worse in some ways but better in others. But since the entire situation can only be dealt with collectively and we live in an individualistic, profit driven world that only cares for the interest of capital, the ship of actually dealing with the situation in a productive way has sailed. More concretely, I still mask up any time I'm around anyone I don't live with, and I avoid indoors gatherings except those that I have some kind of responsibility to attend. I wouldn't expect other people to live to this standard, and I think it's something I've only been able to maintain for as long as I have because I'm not a very social guy even in the best of times.
Well me and my partner for example don't really have a choice and that I suppose is what makes not wearing a mask a bit of lib thing. There are many disabled and immunocompromized people who can't just choose "normal" with this virus.
We as a species also clean our water and do other similar things that humanity could probably also survive without. It would be miserable, but not everyone dies from cholera either.
The way the whole anti-max & anti-vax &get back to work industrial complex spun this made these protections about "liberty". When living safely with reasonable protection that includes everyone, not just the able-bodied majority would have been an option too. But that was "too authoritarian" even though there were strong forces of solidarity in the beginning. These were very actively spun around and focus shifted to all that individual neoliberal crap we have been listening to for years at this point.
It's a systemic issue, I am not going to go out if my way to shame anyone for not wearing a mask at this point, when there are no systems in place to make it easy and normal. But it is disappointing. Nor are there any other well working solutions like ventilation, spacing things out, work from home for anyone who needs protection etc. But letting all this become an individual burden and choosing to not stand in solidarity with vulnerable folks is a failure of the Left too. I won't attend a protest as long as there is no protection there, this excludes a lot of people. You just don't have to see them.
There is a great blog post about this whole thing here, says it all really: https://msteenhagen.medium.com/loathe-fascism-then-dont-be-a-health-supremacist-c8841acdf69
I kinda get it. I mean, even some people on this very site are fortunate enough to not have to care, but I personally am immunocompromised and people in my close family are as well.
I don’t know what the answer is, honestly. We all could continue to live relatively “normally” if people would take the most lukewarm measures to protect their fellow man but even that suggestion is seen as a threat
COVID can't be combated under global capitalism, so once Trump was out of office and pretending to care no longer served a political purpose, the issue was dropped. You can apply this to all sorts of things... Climate change, homelessness, whatever.
