Do you still deny being a monster and think that having to acknowledge reality and truths that conflict with what you desperately would rather believe is a fate worse than death?
Reality is what's in my bank account and whether I get to buy my son that 12V tractor I know he'd love. Reality is seeing Biden elected and watching my taxes go up. It's whether my daughter gets to start kindergarten this year or if she's denied the social education that comes from going to school.
Reality isn't whether you think extending the lockdown more than it already was would have resulted in a better economy or even fewer deaths. That's conjecture and your best prediction based on what facts you're willing to take into account and which you choose to ignore. The science behind all of this is far from objective and stinks of political partisanship. The expert models and predictions have been wrong most of the time throughout this pandemic and that includes claims early on that Covid was going to leave massive numbers of people permanently disabled due to lung dysfunction.
And when the confederates saw Jackson standing fearless as a stone wall the army of Northern Virginia took courage and drove the federal army off their land.
New York and New Jersey both succeeded spectacularly well in flattening the curve once they decided to implement those procedures, and are still doing spectacularly well compared to most of the rest of the country.
I don't know anyone who has gotten Covid and gotten any more sick than having the flu. But one out of every two people I met during the lockdown had lost their job because of it. If you're talking about the suffering that most people saw on a day to day basis, that suffering was economic not medical.
And when the confederates saw Jackson standing fearless as a stone wall the army of Northern Virginia took courage and drove the federal army off their land.
New York and New Jersey both succeeded spectacularly well in flattening the curve once they decided to implement those procedures, and are still doing spectacularly well compared to most of the rest of the country.
I don't know anyone who has gotten Covid and gotten any more sick than having the flu. But one out of every two people I met during the lockdown had lost their job because of it. If you're talking about the suffering that most people saw on a day to day basis, that suffering was economic not medical.
Well, I'll say this for your state, Tennessee. The current trend of daily new cases is downward since the record high spike of July 8. I hope it remains that way.
California's trend has been downward the last 2 or 3 days, but the average for the last week has been upward. I hope the short term downward trend remains and accelerates, but I'm not holding my breath. The daily number of new cases has fluctuated rather unpredictably the last month or so. I'm concerned. The rural county I live in has had a total of 421 confirmed cases since the pandemic began, including the 19 confirmed today, 14 of which were asymptomatic at the time they were tested. 4 people have died of it, 13 are currently hospitalized and 185 have recovered, leaving 232 still active, confirmed cases. Only one of those confirmed cases was incurred by a healthcare worker providing healthcare, and was not one of the deceased (as far as I can tell), which I am happy about.
So far, I have yet to meet anyone who I know was infected.
No precept or claim is more likely to be false than one that can only be supported by invoking the claim of Divine authority for it--no matter who or what claims such authority.
“If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; but if you really make them think, they'll hate you.”
― Harlan Ellison
ajax18 wrote:Reality is what's in my bank account and whether I get to buy my son that 12V tractor I know he'd love.
I just read this again and it struck me just how shallow it is. Any charlatan who has made himself rich by promoting nonsense like flat earth theories, quack medicine, anti-vaccine scams, religious charlatanry of all kinds could very easily use the same justification for conning his easily deluded victims out of their money. (And I am not implying that you are necessarily a charlatan yourself.)
Besides that, I doubt that my own bank account is more than a small fraction of yours, and now that both my mortgage and car are paid off I don't think I would have much difficulty paying for a nice 12V toy tractor for my grandson, if his father, my physical therapist son, didn't already make much more money than I do, and hadn't already bought toys as nice or nicer than that for him.
No precept or claim is more likely to be false than one that can only be supported by invoking the claim of Divine authority for it--no matter who or what claims such authority.
“If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; but if you really make them think, they'll hate you.”
― Harlan Ellison
ajax18 wrote:
I don't know anyone who has gotten Covid and gotten any more sick than having the flu.
Oh. Ok. Sounds like the disease is no big deal then.
And, as we have both noticed, he still hasn't even tried to deny the blazingly obvious fact that no national leader (with the possible exception of Brazil's Bolsonaro) has come even close to botching his nation's pandemic response as badly as his Lord and Master, Donald J. Trump.
No precept or claim is more likely to be false than one that can only be supported by invoking the claim of Divine authority for it--no matter who or what claims such authority.
“If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; but if you really make them think, they'll hate you.”
― Harlan Ellison
Of course ajax won't say anything about Trump's incompetence. He'd have to admit what a fu-cking moron he was for voting for him, and even bigger moron for continuing to defend him.
This economy is all the fault of Trump voters (and GOP senators), so nobody gives a sh-it about your whining over the mess of the economy you made. You don't like the lock-down? Don't like the economy? Look in the mirror, blame Trump and wear a mask, morons. I don't have any economic sympathy for a single Trump supporter. You all deserve to fu-cking starve, assholes.
God belief is for people who don't want to live life on the universe's terms.
Of course ajax won't say anything about Trump's incompetence. He'd have to admit what a fu-cking moron he was for voting for him, and even bigger moron for continuing to defend him.
I know you're right, of course. Really stupid people would rather remain stupid and subject to ridicule than correct their mistaken views and thereby admit to having been stupid.
No precept or claim is more likely to be false than one that can only be supported by invoking the claim of Divine authority for it--no matter who or what claims such authority.
“If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; but if you really make them think, they'll hate you.”
― Harlan Ellison