Ben Shapiro lies about Omicron and vaccines

[Doctor CamNC4Me]

Too many of our people, including many, if not most, of our political leaders and government officials are functionally "innumerate"

innumerate,
[iˈn(y)o͞omərət]
ADJECTIVE
without a basic knowledge of mathematics and arithmetic.
"to this day I am practically innumerate"
NOUN
a person lacking basic knowledge of mathematics and arithmetic.

which I think is in some ways more problematic than being illiterate.

For sure. There was something floating around the interwebz a while back where people were asked if a 1/4 pound burger is bigger than a 1/3 pound burger, and which one should cost more? Not only did they have trouble with the first proposition, but layering the second proposition over the first one caused immediate confusion in most people. Think about the average person’s ability to discern fact from fiction during a broadcast or reading a post on Facebook if it requires thinking rather than affirmation of a pre-held belief. It’s not in the realm of possibility. It’s this simple fact that cult leaders have so much success with their followers - the latter don’t have to reason out anything if The Way is straightforward and unthinking. If *I* am currently ok, why would *I* need to think about others’ welfare? <- That’s an object lesson in 1) the inability to think abstracly or asymmetrically, and 2) an inability to layer a second variable over the first. Most people can’t do either.

Sad.

- Doc

[canpakes]

Even China has now admitted that Covid did not originate in a wet market

Oh so now suddenly you believe China only when it is convenient to your narrative? To admit this would mean they're responsible, which is something they want to deny.

This is what I just don’t understand about some folks on the Right.

They want to believe that China hatched a virus and a plot to destroy the economy of the US. So, their answer to this threat is to simultaneously do the following:

• Deny that any virus threat actually exists, or that if it does, just let some million or so folks die off.

• Refuse basic social distancing (“stand 6 feet apart”) or mitigation measures (“wear a mask”), presumably because it’s sooo hard, and because their chosen political leader sought to make masks a weapon to divide Americans for his own gain.

• Refuse basic spread mitigation such as work-at-home or home-school (a chance to remove their kids from the clutches of the evil libtard public school teachers, except that now this is no longer OK).

• Refuse vaccination, because somehow this managed to become politicized along with masks.

It’s as if the same folks who are convinced that China purposefully launched a biowarfare attack against us are the same group of Americans who want to do absolutely nothing to address the threat. What’s up with that?

As for the remote school routine - speaking as a parent, this absolutely was a pain, in many respects. But distance learning has been around for a long time, and children are quite adaptable to changes that would rile many adults, because children are not so rigid in their routines. What this approach exposed were the shortcomings within our employment environment, in that US labor economics is not well adapted to allow people the flexibility, time and resources to take on family-oriented responsibilities like school-at-home in a pandemic situation, and not all of those shortcomings have easy solutions.

Of course, addressing those shortcomings would be seen by many conservatives as socialism!!1!, so we should just deny that a virus exists, and carry on as normal with our fingers crossed.

[canpakes]

There was something floating around the interwebz a while back where people were asked if a 1/4 pound burger is bigger than a 1/3 pound burger, …

So, now, will this work (below)? Lol.

https://awrestaurants.com/blog/101921-a ... -americans

Forget everything you know about fractions and wrap your beautiful mind and watering mouth around the whopping A&W 3/9 lb. Burger.

The A&W 3/9 lb. Burger is a remarkable achievement in the field of beef mathematics and advertising arithmetic based on a groundbreaking discovery: Bigger numbers are better numbers. After all, if people thought ¼ was bigger than ⅓, then they should think 3/9 is way way WAY bigger. Right?

…

Fans of big burgers and big digits are encouraged to grab an A&W 3/9 lb. Burger from any of A&W’s 525 US locations while supplies last. If sold out, a 2/6 lb. Burger can be specially made at no extra charge.

[Doctor CamNC4Me]

You wanna know something shameful I’m going to admit? I had to think about that for a hot second. I even pulled up a calculator and divided 3 by 9, and then I was like, “Jesus Christ what am I doing?” I’m not making that up, and yes, I’m embarrassed.

- Doc

[Res Ipsa]

In my state, there are no government required lockdowns. But schools and businesses are having to close because so many employees are sick. This is exactly the kind of uncontrolled shutdown of the economy that Ajax has been demanding since 2020. He’s whining about lockdowns when the economic disruptions happening in the US now are almost entirely due to “let ‘er rip.”

The CDC’s current recommendations are a crisis standard of care for the nation, sacrificing short-term and long-term and lives to keep the economy “open.”

My son is working a food service job. They are already struggling to stay open. Two days ago and employee and a brother that she lives with had symptoms and they both got PCR tested. He was positive. She was negative. She took a rapid test the next day and it was positive. When she called in sick, the supervisor (who describes COVID as “the sniffles,” told her to come to work because there were lots of “false positives.” This supervisor is the owners’ son. One of the other employers called the owner who, after hearing what was going on, told the supervisor she was not to come in, at least that day.

My son and the employee who tested positive were scheduled to work together today. We had a long talk after he asked me what he should do if she reported for work. It became moot when he reported for work only to learn they’d changed the schedule without notifying him.

It’s complete chaos, and there is tremendous incentive to pressure employees to work when they are infected, guidelines be dammed. They and other businesses in our area (including the local pharmacy I use) have had to reduce hours because they are running out of healthy employees.

Meanwhile, half our high schools in the district are now closed because they’ve run out of healthy teachers, subs, and administrative staff to keep the place running. And what’s going on inside the other other school buildings looks more like mass, organized babysitting than classroom instruction. The district put together a snazzy online dashboard to inform folks about the stats on Ill teachers and students in each school and whether instruction was currently in person or online. After a week it was so far behind in reporting that it looks like they just gave up.

I’m afraid that what we’re looking at is the new normal. We’ve got a disease that attacks and damages the lungs, heart, kidneys, brain and other organs. It doesn’t provoke any sort of durable immunity and even the more durable vaccine immunities appear to fall off rather quickly.

This disease isn’t anywhere near endemic, and there is little reason, despite all the bloviating, to expect that it will anytime soon. This wave is seriously damaging our healthcare system, leaving us in worse shape for the next. The education system isn’t far behind.

We need to wean ourselves off of hopium, stop fooling ourselves into thinking that we’ll be back to normal any day now, and start thinking about how to adapt to a periodic waves of illness and death for the foreseeable future.

[Jersey Girl]

I have no idea why I just read this.

I don't believe that God will protect me from the Covid 19. I believe that God created people who have the passion for science and research who have developed the knowledge and skill to advise me, and that God expects me to (well) use the brain He gave me and the advice from people far smarter than myself and the material and medical choices that have been made available to me just as much as He wants me to make smart use of the environment and every other aspect of human life and living it that has been made available to me.

I don't believe that God is using Covid 19 to punish any one group of people. I believe that God allows us to encounter such things as pandemic and that we humans reap the benefits or bear the consequences of our individual and collective choices.

I read a headline today or yesterday (?) that said only 1 in 5 Americans who are eligible to get vaccinated have actually been vaccinated. I find that horribly embarrassing and sad. I'm sure that a small percentage of those who are eligible are actually ineligible due to severe reactions to vaccines. I don't understand why the rest of "us" doesn't care that "we" should be moved to protect those ineligible few by getting vaccinated ourselves.

You don't have to believe in a god to understand the principles I've stated here. All you have to know how to do is think.

I'll read this tomorrow and see if I made any sense!

My guess as to why you read the above is that you are one of the most rational, fair-minded, eager to learn and compassionate people I have ever encountered. You don't tend to let your belief in God lead you into irrational, anti-science or "holier than thou" delusions or bigotry.

My eyes went straight to that post for some reason. I wanted to offer a differing point of view from a believer.

The Bible warns against pride and haughtiness (arrogance). The New Testament, in particular and overall (where Jesus is reported to have entered human history), teaches love, kindness, gratitude, honesty, generosity, perseverance, patience (I suck at patience), speaking in temperate ways (I suck at that, too), not giving railing for railing (still sucking) and in general offers guidelines on how we are to treat and engage with our fellow human while trying to emulate the heart of the living Christ in this world.

None of that has anything to do with say, a Westboro Baptist Church showing up at funerals with placards "God Hates Fags", or ignoring the gifts and talents of others (science and research or even the development of the computer I'm posting with) and their contributions or breaking the law of the land as we are seeing today. Some of us are looking at our belief and the Bible for discernment. Example: Is Rand Paul a provocateur and a liar for purposes of self interest, instead of doing the job as a public servant that he was hired to do?

By their fruits ye shall know them...what does he actually accomplish besides to turn attention on himself and try to cause chaos? God is not the author of confusion. I could go on but that's not the topic of the thread.

People here, for example, who don't hold a belief in God try to use their formal and self education, and ability to reason and think critically. I simply add scripture and prayer to that process with God as my final fact checker.

I can't say that I know with absolute certainty whether or not God or gods exist, though I strongly suspect that they don't. What I am fairly sure about, though, is that if there is a just and loving God, he would not have created us as beings that are inherently incapable of discovering truths about the nature of the universe and how it works, thus what evidence we have managed to discover about the real world should be compatible with what true religion (if there is any such thing) claims to have received via divine revelation. We know that there are innumerable, mutually contradictory religious beliefs and doctrines claimed to be supported by absolutely infallible divine revelation. This is why I say in my signature line, "No precept or claim is more suspect or 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."

I can't disagree with any of your above. I would extend it to say...that if there is a just and loving God who created us as beings who are capable of discovering HIM, then I see no reason why he wouldn't have created us to discover truths about his creation as well. People misuse religion the way they misuse everything else for self gain and status, including other people.

Religious leaders and would-be Prophets are fond of warning us to beware of the teachings of men, and this is good advice, because we mortals have made a lot of mistakes, and there have always been dishonest charlatans, both religious and otherwise relentlessly trying to take advantage of the gullibility and weakness of others, but far from convince that there are or ever have been teachings available to us that are not of men. Some teachings of men are better than others, and a lot of mistaken ones have been disproved and discarded along the way. I am firmly persuaded that there is no more reliable way than the scientific method to detect and discard the false and mistaken ideas, even though science and scientists themselves are not absolutely infallible.

The Bible actually issues those warnings. I am not well familiar with other types of scriptures so I don't know. I assume that some of those warnings have to do with keeping people in the group and not always for pure purposes. I have to go back to the fruits. Are the fruits of such persons based on self interest, gain, status, greed, power, and build up of personal wealth or are they contributory to humankind as a whole?

I think my focus is always on contribution. Making a deposit in the lives of others, not withdrawals. We have the ability to end homelessness, food insecurity, and improve access to health services. We have the ability to work to reverse climate change. We just don't do it. We, as a society, spend our time selfishly looking out for number one and trying to arm wrestle the other guy with words of rhetoric instead of pooling our efforts and wealth for the betterment of all...even ourselves.

Thanks for your feedback! Yes, I do like to learn.

[Jersey Girl]

In my state, there are no government required lockdowns. But schools and businesses are having to close because so many employees are sick. This is exactly the kind of uncontrolled shutdown of the economy that Ajax has been demanding since 2020. He’s whining about lockdowns when the economic disruptions happening in the US now are almost entirely due to “let ‘er rip.”

The CDC’s current recommendations are a crisis standard of care for the nation, sacrificing short-term and long-term and lives to keep the economy “open.”

My son is working a food service job. They are already struggling to stay open. Two days ago and employee and a brother that she lives with had symptoms and they both got PCR tested. He was positive. She was negative. She took a rapid test the next day and it was positive. When she called in sick, the supervisor (who describes COVID as “the sniffles,” told her to come to work because there were lots of “false positives.” This supervisor is the owners’ son. One of the other employers called the owner who, after hearing what was going on, told the supervisor she was not to come in, at least that day.

My son and the employee who tested positive were scheduled to work together today. We had a long talk after he asked me what he should do if she reported for work. It became moot when he reported for work only to learn they’d changed the schedule without notifying him.

It’s complete chaos, and there is tremendous incentive to pressure employees to work when they are infected, guidelines be dammed. They and other businesses in our area (including the local pharmacy I use) have had to reduce hours because they are running out of healthy employees.

Meanwhile, half our high schools in the district are now closed because they’ve run out of healthy teachers, subs, and administrative staff to keep the place running. And what’s going on inside the other other school buildings looks more like mass, organized babysitting than classroom instruction. The district put together a snazzy online dashboard to inform folks about the stats on Ill teachers and students in each school and whether instruction was currently in person or online. After a week it was so far behind in reporting that it looks like they just gave up.

I’m afraid that what we’re looking at is the new normal. We’ve got a disease that attacks and damages the lungs, heart, kidneys, brain and other organs. It doesn’t provoke any sort of durable immunity and even the more durable vaccine immunities appear to fall off rather quickly.

This disease isn’t anywhere near endemic, and there is little reason, despite all the bloviating, to expect that it will anytime soon. This wave is seriously damaging our healthcare system, leaving us in worse shape for the next. The education system isn’t far behind.

We need to wean ourselves off of hopium, stop fooling ourselves into thinking that we’ll be back to normal any day now, and start thinking about how to adapt to a periodic waves of illness and death for the foreseeable future.

Thanks for the report. I'm sickened by it. I've read where school districts (not here yet that I know of) are trying to get retired teachers in as subs. I am sure that the medical field is trying to enlist the support of retired health care professionals.

I am a retired teacher. The guy I live with is a retired RN with a current license. Now...think with me here...what does anyone think the actual chances are that any of us who are retired are willing to jump back in the ring when many of us are already at high risk due to age and medical status?

We're chasing rainbows here. We're delusional. The writing is on the wall and we're illiterate.

Our hospitals are going to battle field triage, our schools are falling apart, and so are our businesses. Pharmacies cutting hours of operation? How long before the supply end of it falls apart for the same reasons? Need some Tylenol? Heart meds? Insulin? Yeah, “F” off with that. Your baby has RSV and needs albuterol or a nebulizer? Too damned bad.

We've got vaccines, we've got masks, we've got social distancing, we've got some remote work for many, how in the hell many TIMES must this be repeated before people wake up?

[K Graham]

In my state, there are no government required lockdowns. But schools and businesses are having to close because so many employees are sick. This is exactly the kind of uncontrolled shutdown of the economy that Ajax has been demanding since 2020. He’s whining about lockdowns when the economic disruptions happening in the US now are almost entirely due to “let ‘er rip.”

Thank you. This is something I've been trying to pound into ajax's head for quite some time now.

[Jersey Girl]

Holy crap. Pulled this directly off my NextDoor.

My family has used Walgreens pharmacy on [xxxx] Road for years. I’ve always been happy with them, but lately it’s taking days for them to fill prescriptions unless you go to the store and wait in line for half an hour to let them know you need the prescription. Then you wait another hour to get the prescription. Is this just Walgreens or is it happening with other pharmacies as well?

One of the responses:

I have the same experience, they did hire one more employee to help at the pharmacy, I'll give another month to see improvement and then consider moving elsewhere.

Morons.

[Jersey Girl]

Oh what did I say about pharmacies cutting hours and damned off?

From our ND again:

My wife has diabetes and has been out of her meds for a week. We have also used that Walgreens. Her doctor has called it in numerous times. The other stores are also having trouble. They run out and are having trouble getting it in. I’m glad her numbers have been pretty much in range. Can be dangerous when you need the medication and can’t get it.

There ya go. The damned off has begun.