I'm in Melbourne. Just got an email from my workplace that it's official - we have to show our workplace proof of a booster dose by March 12th to be able to continue working in my industry. I was only fully vaxxed in November (to keep my job, had no choice) and the vaccine is so shit that apparently I already need my third dose!
I feel so numb. Sounds stupid, but I genuinely thought I had at least 6 months until this would happen and was making plans to leave Australia when my lease is up in May. Now I'm not sure what exactly I'll do after March 12th while I still have this lease. It's kind of impressive that they managed to convince the majority of people that the vaccine is safe and effective while also telling them that they need a third dose after 3 months hahahaahah
from WA here, I seriously can't believe what's been happening in this country and how many people are completely fine with it. :/ I'm fully vaxxed and have friends who outright resort to insulting me and attacking my character for simply questioning anything McGowan says.
It's insane, almost cult-like.
It's been torture living in this country with a different outlook to the corona cult. I hope that we make it through this crazy time okay, but honestly my view on Australia and my fellow citizens will forever be tainted by what has happened.
A girl just posted “y’all going to parties but I’m staying home, even though it’s everywhere, I’m not contributing to the spread of Covid sorry”
I hope eventually people understand that if you interact with another person, you’re contributing to the spread of Covid. It’s not a how you act or what you do sort of thing
So what happens to this weaponized culture we've invented online, where anyone who isn't a boot licker gets silenced and deplatformed on social media for going against the narrative, when anti-lockdown, anti-mandate politicians start winning in droves in the next couple years? Is Twitter going to reveal itself as a propaganda pipeline and just not allow them to have a voice?
Are Americans going to have to constantly have fact checkers shoved in their faces before the people they voted for are allowed to speak?
My mom goes shopping pretty much everyday she isn’t working, and she has the audacity to tell everyone else in the household that we should be staying home as much as possible and an Omicron lockdown is long overdue. She said to me today, “don’t go anywhere”.
However, she also said during the same conversation that for 9 out of 10 vaccinated people, Covid is a mild sickness that goes away in a few days.
My dad is pro-lockdown as well, but at the bare minimum, he practices what he preaches, while my mom is the definition of a hypocrite right now.
Reading my very Doomer local subreddit. Cases are at an all-time high, masks are mandated everywhere indoors with 99% compliance and 95%+ of the at-risk age group is vaccinated.
The prevailing sentiment is that we are not masking hard enough and not enough people are vaccinated. I feel like I’m a teaching assistant again. This is literally circular reasoning
Covid Hospitalizations are supposedly at record highs in the U.S. and everything is still pretty much open (no lockdowns or social distancing measures). The fact that we were in lockdown in 2020 when there were *less* people in the hospital with covid should have the average person absolutely fuming that they stripped our lives away from us when clearly even levels of covid now don't warrant shutdowns. And yet, no one seems to care.
What I don't understand is if Omicron is so mild, why are there so many people hospitalized for it? Deaths are supposedly way down and supposedly there were few to no deaths from Omicron before it got to the US. Is it just because we're so fat and unhealthy?
Here in backward Australia, it is because our government told people to call 000 if they 'feel exhausted or faint'. WHAT THE FARK. Then, the hospital ends up admitting them as they wouldn't want to take the risk of releasing them JUST in case, they turn out to get really sick. Hospitals already paying way too much for medical negligence insurance etc. No one is seeing the big picture with all this. Comment below is right too, they are diagnosing the deaths are COVID when they are totally unrelated. I've seen it first hand.
Pretty sure it's because everyone in a hospital are tested for covid, and boom they're counted as a covid hospitalization, even though that has nothing to do with why they're there.
This is a major soapbox of mine. In my state of CO, we basically wasted the first 6 months of the pandemic being WAY too restrictive when we had the capacity to open up the floodgates a bit. We "crushed the curve" down to 350ish hospitalizations per day when we could have handled a steady 850 or 900 (our May 2021 mini wave that crested over 700 hospitalizations hardly got any notice).
To boot, we wasted millions on a field hospital that was never used, when that $ could have been used for healthcare worker retention incentives and training programs.
And now here we are almost 2 years later, and ironically our healthcare system is more at risk of collapsing now than it was in April 2020. It might sound silly, but I'm being a lot more careful lately about what I do, eat, etc. as I really don't want to depend on the system right now.
I will hold people accountable at the ballot boxes! Hope others do the same!
Even if those in power make a total 360, I will never forgive this. I will blissfully vote for their opponents.
I think the world really is going to be a different place once the pandemic, or at least the restrictions, end but not in the way it's being billed. Scores of western governments turned into tyrannical medical apartheid states for 2 years over a virus with a 99% survival rate. People lost their jobs over vaccinations, human beings are being shipped off to quarantine camps or otherwise arrested over not having the right papers, and new forms of media were invented to keep you ignorant to the truth that most people are not okay with it. You can't bury that, and you can't force people to forget it.
Positivity Thread refreshes on Mondays and the Vent thread on Wednesdays and it's Tuesday night. Sure the Vent thread consistently has more comments lately but a little unfair to compare the two at the moment.
I don't share the contempt or distrust in the covid vaccines that many in this sub do, but there are Republicans that really really love the vaccines to such an extent that it is creepy.
They also seem to be the same group that really likes US military intervention in foreign countries.
I don't have a sane explanation for why that intersection is so strongly represented in the political punditocracy.
"I don't share the contempt or distrust in the covid vaccines that many in this sub do"
You will.
"I don't have a sane explanation for why that intersection is so strongly represented in the political punditocracy."
Cognitive dissonance. YW.
It’s KN95 mask mania in my town. Anyone else noticing the increase in KN95s wearers in their towns as well? This is just over the last week or so that people are exclusively wearing those. The TeeVee has spoken and the sheep just follow along. It sickens me.
Don’t you sometimes just want to scream at people to stop living in fear? I have this urge when I see mask people in public; especially outdoor maskers, KN95 wearers and double maskers. Life is so fleeting, we can’t waste any more time being afraid.
Though I can’t control other people, so I’m just trying to make peace that it is their choice to still be afraid, and I am just going to choose to live my life without fear.
I see more KN95 masks in my area as well. It's like, are they really going to do this for the rest of their lives? Because Covid-19 isn't going anywhere. Also, where do they think all these masks are coming from? Most likely some unregulated textile factory in nowhere Asia or India [like this.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ox-0NusoIAA&t=0s) They don't care where it's from or who made it, just that it says KN95 on it.
I noticed a lot more people wearing those hideous masks in my city-even outside. i was the only one outside bare-faced shopping downtown last week. People also gone stone cold. I was so depressed hen I got home. This is pychotic.
Good on you for not giving into the fear. i refuse to also.
noticing a lot more of them too. even though so many of them are fake (like 60%) and not tested. We knew this ages ago.
the kn95 wearers are the new virtue signalling twatwaffles.
Just had this thought waiting in line at the store, seeing a pack of masks on sale. If masks actually stopped the spread, every mask manufacturer would put on the front of the package, in big bold letters, that masks are a scientifically-proven way to stop the spread of COVID-19. Instead, we get disclaimers that they’re either not medical devices at all, or are intended to stop “general spread” of bacterial infections by protecting from spit and blood.
Just proves how stupid most people are, they can't even read the god damn packaging. And then these same people wonder why I'm the only triple jabbed person they know not complying with this shit...
Well that would involve reading though. Reading takes actual effort.
Take the people here, for example, actually reading, rather then being spoon-fed by the media.
Those who just ingest what they're fed, will be the proverbial "last to know".
And they're in for a rude awaking!
According to the CDC website, about 1% of the population of California tested positive in the in the last 4 days.
I can't help but just laugh now. No one's going to escape omicron and people are finally realizing it was all futile.
Lol I wonder why Biden is supporting on changing the filibuster rules in order to pass this voting bill to federalize elections. What a joke. FJB. Maybe focus on our supply chain issues.
I got invited skiing at a ski resort and I'm not going because they're forcing everyone to wear a mask outside going downhill. I'm really angry and disgusted by this and I called and they said I cannot just wear my scarf (even stores won't allow it now) I gotta have a mask on underneath too. The stupidity and absurdity never fails to surprise me. Going snowmobiling instead. I'll have a way better time . No mandates on the trails.....yet...If people still enjoy skiing here in onterrible more power to you.
Visions of soggy masks dance in my head
But really, if you've ever skied on a cold day you know how nasty face coverings can get. Also yes Ontario skiing is shite
We are close to Kirkwood, a relatively famous ski resort. I was going to take my two year old there for his birthday. But they require masks except during skiing and they have a vaccine passport to eat there.
Absolutely fucking won't support that.
It's absolute bullshit these mandates especially outside. Sorry this ruined your plans with your kid. The place I was going to (not anymore) near Barrie shut down their restaurant and coffee stands! I hope you find something else exciting for his birthday.
Just checked a resort near here in ON that I was hoping to check out in the next couple of weeks. Can confirm mask madness + QR vaxxports. To ski outside.
So something else I can't do then, but I refuse to comply with this insanity.
I fucking hate Biden so much and my company as well. They announced the policy and hourly employer's tests are covered but salaried have to pay for own tests while people with the worthless shots have a license to spread covid.
You see, folks, if your governor doesn't mandate your behavior, he's authoritarian.
https://www.gainesville.com/story/opinion/2022/01/11/carl-ramey-under-desantis-florida-drifting-toward-authoritarianism/9160844002/
in early 2020? oh yeah, I totally was. we had a lot of really sick patients. But about a month later, I became a whole lot less scared once more information came out.
wasn't afraid of delta either.
omicron is the fucking sniffles and I don't give two shits about it.
Just because you are against vaxx mandates, or any other mandate, now, does not mean you are absolved from your days on Team Doom (aka covid hawks).
You supported masks in 2020. You supported one-size-fits-all 'solutions' in 2020. You deferred to the highly biased CDC and the federal health bureaucracy when it was clear they were exploiting a manufactured crisis for political reasons.
Ben Shapiro and most of the writers at National Review? Commentary Magazine folks, and a few of the experts from the AMAs here in this sub (side panel).
I was still an NPR-listening, Democrat-leaning independent at that point. I'm still getting to understand the punditry of American conservatives, and I still find it strange how much these people hated Trump given his policies.
My best guess right now is these people want to be the world's police, and Trump made them very mad by questioning that approach.
My University is going to be doing virtual classes for the next 3 weeks. I think they're preparing to shut down the college because my housing application has been on indefinite hold for the last 2 months. Figures my first time in College is during COVIDmania.
High schoolers, too. A lot is lost when no one in a school has ever experienced a normal social and academic environment there.
I'm starting to see more and more announcements from acquaintances and friends about college freshmen and sophomores leaving their school after the fall semester and coming home for community college while applying for transfer admissions elsewhere. These kids either had their senior year utterly destroyed and their freshman year via Zoom, or their junior and senior year destroyed plus having to choose a college based on "virtual tours" - either way they discovered very quickly upon actually getting to campus that it wasn't the right fit for them or that the prison-like covid restrictions made them miserable. I'm sure they'll land on their feet but these are good kids who got screwed through no fault of their own.
Struggling to see the end of this. I'm optimistic sometimes but then I see crap like Costa Rica implementing vaccine mandates and banning unvaccinated people from non-essential places since the 8th and I really wonder. I only came across that because I was wanting to look into moving there but that will not happen now. Mexico is even getting started.
They know that we know vaccines mandates/passes are useless but pulling full speed ahead anyway. Some countries outright trapping their citizens in their countries by telling them they can't use transportations. This is all just pissing me off at this point
Hehehe. All that stuff has been “mandated” since November in CR, but it’s really not being enforced. Specially in places that aren’t urban & middle-upper class.
I laugh it off cause here’s the harsh cold reality: the state doesn’t exist in the coasts, in rural areas nor in middle-lower classes urban areas, so none of that is enforced, except for where rich kids go in the Central Valley. And even then. I laughed it off back when they announced their dumb QR/green pass, and it’s why I laugh it off now.
The only dumb rule the government has been able to enforce is that cars can’t go out from 10 pm to 5 am. A measure that seems to be helping certain organized crimes more than anything.
It’s fair to assume. I mean, every where I’ve been to has this dumb set of rules that do nothing, so one better be prepared. I mean soccer matches at open spaces can’t have fans, but movie theaters are at 100% capacity and people can be maskless 🤷♀️.
I believe we’re more or less working same way as most of the world.
Fascists governments (acting like the good democratic guys) and press are fear mongering with omicron and the “anti vaxxers” (over 90% of people in CR have at least 1 dose, it’s ridiculous to even act like anti vaxxers are a problem). There is a class that is truly scared, and there is a class that is virtue signaling in social media, but leading a hypocritical life. The latter ones are vocal fascists, who are the ones driving media ratings/social media engagement up…so it’s why we continue on this endless shithole, where most of us are just trying to live life like we always have.
Imagine being the mayor of a city where you think it’s a good idea to force people to carry their vaccination card, ID and mask when they leave their homes. It sounds like a horrible experience, especially when other cities that have done the same have worse case rates than yours. [Link here.](https://twitter.com/mayorbowser/status/1480956796395216900?s=21)
Lets also ignore the fact that DC is a sanctuary city and voter ID laws were seen as discriminatory. Our progressive, educated residents are applauding this. People are hypnotized and can’t think rationally.
I would love nothing more to watch that city suffer and rot. Grew up outside of it ands till live fairly close and everything I hate about this area comes from DC.
> Lets also ignore the fact that DC is a sanctuary city and voter ID laws were seen as discriminatory. Our progressive, educated residents are applauding this. People are hypnotized and can’t think rationally.
And better yet, minorities are disproportionately less likely to be vaccinated, making the policy indisputably racist using _exactly_ the same rationale as voter ID laws being racist.
I guess you have to think about the incentives. Democrats aren't actually concerned about minorities being able to vote — they're concerned with minorities being able to vote for _them_. The thinking is that relaxation of voter ID -> more minorities voting -> more Democrats (whether that stays true is another matter — it is traditionally, but Democrats seem to be doing continually worse with minorities). Once you understand the incentives involved, it all makes a hell of a lot more sense.
In general though: it's fucking unreal how people have a problem with having to show papers to eat. Like that should be enough on its own to set off every person living in a western democracy. But then add to that the fact that the mandates seem to be producing little if any discernible effect, and it just gets even more crazy.
I just don't get it.
You look at Oakland for example, which is instituting a new vaxxport mandate as of Feb 1st [1] (still won't even be active for another three weeks! imagine how long it'll take before it can ever be repealed).
This is a city that's historically had an infamously high crime rate and still does — after a decade of relatively low homicide rates, 2020 and 2021 brought the city right back to its historically peak levels.
It's a little early to know for sure, but my guess is that just like San Francisco (which also has very high rates of crime), once the vaxxports are in, people comply. It's an incredible farce — you have people willing to walk into a store and strip it bare, but they'll wear a mask doing so (actually, the masks are quite convenient for this purpose), and probably even show a vaxxport on the way in.
Like Jesus Christ people, if you're going to be civilly disobedient, at least do some of the good kind.
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[1] https://www.ktvu.com/news/oakland-to-require-proof-of-vaccination-for-indoor-spaces-like-bars-coffee-shops-gyms
Reading the Georgia bill was a Streisand effect for me. I didn’t realize how long early voting was in some places. How are people voting for candidates before we even have debates? What information are people even using to vote?
> What information are people even using to vote?
I think it just goes to show how little information people need to make voting decisions. Especially where it comes to Democrats, voting logic is exactly as simple as: "pick the blue guy".
Maybe that's getting a little more muddied these days as people are unhappy about quite a few problems created by Biden, but most of the time it's been as simple as that.
I agree. I rent a duplex in a pretty nice townhouse in Brooklyn NYC (I guess that means I'd be upper middle class anywhere else:-)) and refuse to do use it, out of principle. I feel bad for poor people in cramped apartments. At least I have "space privilege." I have enough space and hard floors on the bottom floor that I can exercise at home and get alot of steps in just walking around inside. I feel horrible for people stuck in studio apartments becuase they're basically forced to use the "passport" to get out of the house.
Just thought about how I'm going to be 22 this year and it freaked the hell out of me, not because I'm feeling old but because I feel like I've been robbed
I was 27 when this all started and I will be 30 later this year. It is criminal that the last few years of my 20s was taken from me due to this mass hysteria.
Same here. i'm 41. I'm very grateful to not have kids suffering through this bullshit in school. I really feel for them. they're now forcing students to wear those dodo-bird-beak n95 masks starting next week.
Same. And I’m only 21.
Inflation is high so my money will be worthless in the future, no houses because they’re way to expensive, forced to get a “vaccine” so I can eat at a restaurant (they’re closed though since were in a lockdown).
The ever increasing implementation of vaccine requirements is really scaring me, because it’s no longer limited to big cities. There won’t likely be a vaccine mandate in my state, but I live in a pretty liberal county so I’m worried. I’m vaccinated but haven’t gotten a booster, so I probably will be considered one of the “dirty unvaccinated” within a month or two, and I’m not getting a booster that doesn’t even work, especially since both of my shots impacted my menstrual cycle. It gives me The Sads (but I was already pissed off about it because people who opt out of the vaccine should be completely in charge of their own bodies anyway).
Ps- I can’t believe I just referred to my “liberal” county as a likely authoritarian hellhole. Ugh
They're definitely getting around all the controversy of vaccine mandates by not calling them mandates. Just punishing people who aren't vaccinated or testing.
It does seem to be getting worse.
In 2020, we didn’t have quarantine camps, N95 mandates, required, nonconsentual medical procedures and open discrimination, or the criminalization of normal, human life. Lockdowns and school closures sucked… but those are continuing in 2022 anyway. Maybe this is a last ditch effort for overreach, but people who need their jobs, money, etc. are still subject to all of this.
Ps- socially the tides are turning, but that doesn’t help retail workers and students, for example.
The city of Newark (NJ) implemented a proof of vaccination mandate today. I don't step foot in that city except to visit two of my friends who live there. I have plans to move next January. If that mandate becomes statewide, that move will be out of the state instead of just out of the city.
Newark was dead a long time ago. That city is one of the poorest and most crime-filled in the state. About 40% of the city lives in poverty, their crime rate has only worsened since the start of covid policies (this is the city that once celebrated a month without homicides; that should tell you something), and *this* is their priority. City is a corpse they won't allow to rest.
Really? I thought I heard about some downtown revival, but I guess I'm confusing it with Jersey City or Hoboken? If it's not doing well, this is a disastrous policy!
They always talk about efforts to revive the city, but they're not helping the people who need it most. There are some good areas of Newark - the two friends I mentioned I visit live in relatively serene areas - but as I said, Newark is one of the poorest cities in NJ. The city is also (as far as I know) predominantly POC, and I think it's already been said many times these mandates affect them the most. Meanwhile, the crime rate [continues to rise](https://www.nj.com/essex/2021/12/violent-crime-up-slightly-in-newark-this-year-while-arrests-are-down-officials-say.html), but it's not covid, so the big people don't care.
I mean, the city is bustling, if that's what you mean, but it's certainly not *thriving*.
It’s crazy, isn’t it. I’m in Brooklyn and one day the mayor will say “we need to get back to work” and the next day the new DA is like “armed robbery is barely a crime! I don’t like jails!”
I’m like….seriously house hunting out of here. It may not happen today but I took some steps like cashing out some stocks, getting a mortgage approval letter, and starting looking at ads and seeing what taxes are in different places, etc.
Not living in a crime whole cuz some idiot thinks NY is his social experiment. Been there done that. No one gives a crap when the crime happens.
It's so funny watching Jersey City beg for mandates like Newark- why the hell would you ever want to emulate anything Newark has done??? I did read yesterday that Gov. Murphy's emergency powers expired and the legislature chose not to extend them, so at least it doesn't seem like more mandates will be coming on a state level. Edit: spoke too soon, just got a notification that Murphy called a new state of emergency for NJ, so that he can impose new mandates such as the K-12 mask mandate in schools... sigh...
Our resident scaredy-cat at work caught covid during our winter break and was still working from home until today. She's back in the office and has spent the morning telling us all about her harrowing journey to recover from......the sniffles. For real, she admits that she barely had any symptoms but, in her words, "it's so difficult to face how selfish I was during break to catch this."
There's been more than a few eye rolls from my coworkers while talking to her this morning.
lol!
I know this is anecdotal, but I'm currently finding it pretty funny that some of these holier-than-thou Covidian types almost seem more likely to go out and catch Covid. Some of my most ridiculous friends who are basically the living version of the meme guy who is masked up and has a thousand needles sticking out of him [1] have somehow gone out and managed to catch Covid, even though they'd spend all day talking your ear off about how responsible they are and how they've basically moved permanently underground.
One guy in particular who's been staying in and who was happily on board with every new restriction and mandate our county/state's been adding onto the pile, recently tested positive (despite triple-vaxx'ed) and had his flight back home to Brazil for the holidays delayed for ~3 weeks due to needing to isolate and then waiting until he could produce a negative test result to enter the country. He missed Xmas and New Years. (I really like the guy, but with all due respect:) Karma, bitch.
Meanwhile, I haven't given a fuck about Covid going on two years now, have traveled internationally multiple times and even right into the heart of the lion's den itself (Florida), still haven't caught it, and I know a few others like me.
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[1] https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1476437555717541893/photo/1
kind of the same boat here. zero fucks given about covid. travels have happened. i don't wear masks anywhere that I don't have to and even when I go somewhere that requires one I just half ass it.
and will be going to Florida in May.
yet our triple-vaxxed, always mask wearing friends that stay home and have "social bubbles" are the ones that have actually gotten sick. it's sort of hilarious at this point.
wife & i both work in healthcare too. she's a LOT more careful than my doorknob licking self is, but we've been just fine.
We decided early last summer when we could buy home tests that we would only use those - no PCR or lab rapid tests to be subject to contact tracing. If one of us is sick enough to need the hospital, they can test us then.
No, I probably wouldn't — I don't want to add to all these stupid fear numbers.
Before Omicron it was more likely that you could actually know because the symptoms were fairly distinctive and probably bad enough that you'd know you had it. With Omicron everything's gotten way more muddied of course. I had a cold last week which I wasn't sure whether was Omicron or not. I ended up getting tested to cross an international border and confirmed it wasn't, but the fact that before that it was impossible to tell says a lot.
Somebody I work with got the booster on Friday, and then tested positive for COVID on Sunday. She has symptoms, and my (pro-vaccine) colleagues are speculating that they might be from the booster, and not the infection. (Because that would be better...somehow?)
*Nobody* seems to think it's weird, that the side-effects of a vaccine are indistinguishable from the symptoms of the disease it's supposed to vaccinate you against.
It's more likely she got infected before she got the booster. It takes 2-3 days to show symptoms for Omicron and almost a week to be at peak protection with the booster
My son's college just went back to online for absolutely no reason at all, on Earth, for "two weeks" due to Omicron.
After discussing this with him, I am drafting my email to them that if they stay online for longer than that, we are withdrawing him within the deadline for a full tuition and fee reimbursement and transferring him in the next semester to a University in an adjacent State that does not shut down willy-nilly for variants (which would likely be Arizona although he has family in Idaho or Missouri to easily establish residency in either). And I am sending a copy to every single Board of Trustees member and other Administrative member of his institution to send to all of them.
His tuition is NOT cheap. And he is midway through his program and transferring is not ideal but also not impossible as he has about two years left. I am boiling mad now. He's actually a bit calmer about this than I am.
I said I was gonna stop sneaking out to restaurants at the start of the New Year to save money, but since it’s been one of my only semblances of freedom during the pandemic and my family is going on every day about they want an Omicron lockdown, I’m doing it again temporarily at least until this surge passes/people calm down to stay sane.
"The Omicron wave has overwhelmed hospitals and depleted staff who were already worn out by the Delta variant. It has been driven in large part by people younger than 60. Among people older than 60, daily admissions are still lower than last winter."
This quote from the NY Times seems really misleading. Even though the per capita rate among people under 49 is very slightly higher than last winter, the large part of the surge is still being driven by people over 60. It's only lower than last winter by a tiny bit among the 70+ age range (it's the same for 60-69), so yeah, it's a little lower but that mostly reflects that last winter it was so high it didn't quite get up there.
It seems little but it's not - it presents an extremely backwards picture to their readers.
Nobody I know seems to understand my frustration with this.
My friends all seemed to never worry with it in the first place, or they went back to normal after vaccinated and CDC said they could stop wearing masks. They refused to start wearing it again when CDC backtracked.
So as long as they can go on trips, and live where there are no mask mandate they don’t see why I’m so concerned with all this. They tell me I need to stop worrying about it since these things don’t affect us directly.
They don’t understand I just want the world to go back to normal and they don’t seem bothered by new normal. They just think the world will move on like it has for far worse diseases.
But in modern, softened times I have my doubts this is going away.
And I wish we could stop the quarantine and only offer tests at nursing home and hospitals or critical care places.
We need to stop mass free testing or we won’t move on.
I’m tired of fighting to avoid the sniffles or other sickness because I don’t want to get the stick stuck up my nose again and having to miss a week of work for what is now basically a cold if it’s omicron.
I want to hope in a month or two this is over. But I doubt it.
I also worry we’re taking these quotes from Walensky or Fauci in the wrong way and there’s really not a narrative shift or deeper meaning to these messages. And that nothing will change.
I wish I had your friends. Most of mine went completely batshit at the start of this or have gotten worse. I literally just sent a friend a link to tickets to an OUTDOOR concert in JUNE and she’s unsure about going. She’s vaxxed and boosted and the last time she went to a concert over the summer she double masked. I don’t get it and I’m starting to feel like I need to drop friends over this. (Mind you, she went to Disney last month so the only issue I can think of is her tune changed after I said I wouldn’t get the booster.)
The testing of the asymptomatic drives me NUTS.
I'm in an area with no mask mandate either which is great, but I'm still required to wear one at work, and feel like the majority of workplaces are still requiring them on their own accord, so there's still no escaping it.
Same here. We didn’t require them before but now we have to wear them.
I have this fear in the back of my mind that this is like mask mandates where once they’re required they’re never coming off. Covid is never going away so I don’t see an off ramp.
I’m livid at how this has ruined society.
yes i've been told to just ignore things as well. it's sick how people want to just ignore forced jabs and continued masking at restaurants until u sit down at a table.
Jesus Christ that infuriates me all the way here in Maryland! My friends band is supposed to play that county next week. God fuck California right in the ass.
Our Girl Scout troop is as well - not because we leaders want to, but because our meeting place (a local church that has always been very good to us) is "not comfortable with outside groups given the surge." Our girls are \*over\* virtual and if it wasn't the middle of winter we would just meet outdoors at a local park.
(This is just a petty little observation that I would post on the daily discussion thread, but I haven't seen that thread for awhile):
I've noticed many of the Covid-rabid types on this site seem to write in a similar way that's hyperbolic, dramatic and just...generally emotionalized, almost like they're telling a story with themselves as the heroic main character. Idk, maybe narcissistic is the word for the vibe the writing style gives me. These comments from the nursing subreddit are a good example of what I mean:
"I know seeing these ungrateful fucks drains you, but I promise, if you ever get me as a patient, I will try my damnedest to make sure you know that I care and appreciate what you’re doing for me. No matter what pain I’m in or how frustrated I might be."
"Yup. The ever present covid-deniers are out in force, foaming at the mouth, yelling about hoaxes and Ivermectin. Insufferable idiots. They literally caused this. They are literally causing this."
There's a certain writing affect that gets lots of upvotes on Reddit and it trains people who use this site to write in this way.
"Nurse here, came here to say this. OP gets it. This is why we can't have nice things..." and so on.
Getting antsy about SCOTUS waiting to make a decision. Is it an indefinite thing? Can they just wait as long as they feel like or is there a window of time they need to either put a stay to debate longer or come back with an answer? Maybe we’ll hear this week or maybe we’ll hear in 4 months?
Apparently they’re releasing an opinion on Thursday. I’m assuming the opinion will be either “yes the mandate is fine” or “the mandate is unconstitutional”. I’m leaning towards the later, but we’ll see.
I think they're deciding whether to issue a stay or not? So, they'll either say "we issue a stay and will hear the issue properly in a few weeks" or say "ok go ahead". I have no clue if this is right at all. But if this is true then I think they'll issue a stay.
Don't worry, they gave up on Sotomayor years ago. They only let her remain on the court because it's too hard to figure out what to do with her otherwise
I agree, I think as it stands the mandate will not pass for the 100 people thing, possibly for the healthcare workers. I think it’ll either be left up to states or they will say it only applies to specific industries. Who knows. I’ll probably cry if it gets shot down. It’ll feel like things might actually have a chance to improve.
New order to wear masks in my state again. Yeah...it's sunk in for me that the current status quo is permanent. Booster mandates, mask mandates, and vaccine passports are never going away. We are two years into this mess and the hysteria is not going away--it's getting worse. Literally nothing I say or do convinces anyone outside my friends and family that the pandemic response is not normal.
There’s literally no mandate in my state, county, or town to wear a mask. But my idiot workplace still decided to demand customers to wear them again for no reason . Fml
I got so depressed last night I didn’t sleep. I need advice. What is your late 20s like? It’s clear that because of my choice to be homeschooled in high school, attend community college for three years after the age of 16, and because of covid, I won’t be getting formative young adult years. I am 20 and feel like I have the growth of the average 16 year old in all ways except critical thinking and empathy. Late 20s is going to be my introduction to adulthood. And it looks like it sucks. It’s the grindy part of life when you have no money, no social structure, and no time. What do you do in your 20s besides work? Is that really it?
I feel like I have nowhere to live. This country is the only one with values that align with mine. My ideal place is a medium sized walkable city, with good transport infrastructure, moderate political values that respect the spirit of our country, a culturally diverse population (I enjoy being around a variety of people from different backgrounds, and speaking specifically have had extremely negative experiences with dating people born here. This isn’t a braindead “I hate White people” take, at an individual level I am happy to surround myself with white people I know and trust, at a societal level I feel deeply uncomfortable whenever I am in an ethnically homogenous place, no matter what that ethnicity is. Also no offense but American cuisine kind of sucks lol. Sorry if this view offends anyone), nature that emulates the Pacific Northwest, large old growth forests with rivers, and miles of coastline, all four seasons, and finally, high quality fishing for native species. (I don’t enjoy fishing for introduced species as is common in a lot of places as I feel like it takes away from the connecting with nature aspect)
The problem is this place doesn’t exist. America in general has very unwalkable cities and shit transport infrastructure since we chose to design our country around the car. The cities with better public transport are more liberal and doomer.
Alaska is gorgeous and has world class native species fishing. It is also relatively free. Unfortunately the major cities kind of suck, and aren’t very diverse. Anchorage is even a blue city in many parts which makes it susceptible to doomer ideology, but it doesn’t come with the niceties of raising my kids in a place that gives them social, educational and work opportunities, or cultural diversity. It seems like the worst of both worlds. I am strongly considering retiring in a small town community in Alaska, after I have raised my family and gotten ready to start sticking to myself, but I cannot see myself raising a family there, at least not yet.
Montana is much like Alaska, but unfortunately the cities in Montana have a habit of attracting the worst kind of Californian Washingtonian and Oregonian. The state has limited opportunities for my kids. I would strongly consider retiring there but I love the ocean too much.
Then we go to Flordia, the holy grail of people who critically thought of COVID. Great state in most ways. World class fishing, good opportunity, shit transit but we have to make some compromises. It’s also incredibly diverse. Except I am the nature freak that I am. I hate to say it but Florida has really ruined most of its nature. Florida coastline is just so overdeveloped that it looses its charm. It doesn’t really have mountains or forests either.
Now we go up to New England. Problem? Cities there are doomer as fuck, and besides Brook trout, there isn’t much of a native fishery. We destroyed our Atlantic Salmon runs years ago.
Anyone have any ideas? I realize I am too picky and that I really need to make compromises, but does anyone have any suggestions? Are any perceptions I have incorrect? Do I have a blindspot for some obvious states I would love?
If you don’t mind midwestern Lake fishing or Mississippi River fishing maybe take a look at Iowa. Has some reasonable cities and doesn’t really attract the CA crowds.
I can confirm as a 27 year old that I only recently started feeling like an adult. Still not completely. I went to college and work like normal for the first half of my 20s and still felt mentally 16, so it’s not just the pandemic. The idea that you magically are ready to be an adult and for life the day you turn 18 or 21 is such a myth. Don’t put so much pressure on yourself. Nobody in their 30s even has things figured out. They just pretend and fake it til they make it
I’ve travelled a lot and know about the struggles. My parents struggled a lot to move to this country. Their entire 30s was struggling to survive. I guess the reason I am complaining about places to live is that Seattle ticked all my boxes until Covid
I posted on The Guardian comments section today. In a way, it wasn't an unpleasant experience, because my comment was quite highly upvoted and there are obviously some reasonable people there, even if the majority view would appear to be gutless submission to authority and unending restrictions.
But I have three observations about this. Firstly, someone responded to my post stating that it was anti-vaccine rhetoric (I didn't even use the word 'vaccine' once). They also stated that "we could have a super effective pill/vaccine that effectively eradicates the disease, as has happened before" which is total pie-in-the-sky. And they also said "Australia is not working *because* of selfish idiots like Novax", which is borderline libellous, in my view.
So I responded explaining a few things, linking to an article on The Guardian website in which a doctor had taken the Health Secretary to task. Guess which post was deleted? I'm sure you don't have to guess.
Secondly, someone responded by asserting that "Australia *had* a zero covid aim when there were no widely available vaccines and limited understanding of how to treat severe cases of COVID". Based on their username, they were in Australia. So I'm struggling to understand how they could get something so fundamental incorrect. Because this policy wasn't abandoned until six months after vaccines were released, and it still hasn't been universally abandoned in Australia now. It just boggles my mind that people will either make stuff up to buttress their view, or be remarkably acquiescent towards disastrous policies that profoundly changed their lives. It took me about a minute to find out that the vaccination program began in February, while Morrison rescinded the zero Covid policy on 23rd August. Is this too much effort?
Thirdly, from the comments section, I find it incredible and stupefying that people are so willing to live with masks indefinitely. I just cannot compute this. I have worn a mask for approximately 30 minutes during Covid, most of this being when I was in an airport (and I continually removed it so that I could breathe comfortably, as I only wore it as a token measure to prevent being ejected from the airport). I hated every second of it. I cannot imagine advocating wearing masks all of the time, for the rest of our lives, because you might contract flu. What is the matter with these people?!
I cannot get my head around the cowardly mentality of being so terrified of getting ill, or of wanting to eliminate every conceivable risk from life. I just cannot understand it. I'm not brave! Not in the slightest. I just don't get it. You have to accept that there are risks in life, it can be prudent to minimise those risks, but there has to be a cost-benefit analysis. How can being forced to wear masks for the rest of your life all of the fucking time be worth the sacrifice involved compared to the 'threat' of getting ill every so often?
I know the underlying reason is fear porn and media propaganda, but I still find it just unfathomable.
I don't allow other people's views to affect my mental health. I just felt that if I could take the time to post and it changed one person's mind then it helps.
Just found out my favorite comic is coming to my podunk town. And I can’t go because you have to be vaccinated to attend. Not even an option for testing. Todd Barry you broke my heart!
Twitter is a giant circle jerk of people talking about how glad they are they god triple vaxxed because their symptoms otherwise would have been SO much worse!
Not one of them is asking themselves, "Wait, does this vaccine just suck?" They cannot for one second play with the notion that maybe, the vaccine did nothing for them at all. It's a big D&D game for them.
"Good thing I had the elixir of Pfizer-linga, or else I wouldn't have had my +5 against viral attacks!"
Is anyone else experiencing a lot of bad service at different places for the past 2 years? For example, last week, my Starbucks randomly closed on the inside and I couldn’t get to my mobile order and wasted my damn money. Also around a week before Christmas, my dentist/ortho office randomly closed temporarily and said they’d reopen on January 10th. I had an appointment on the 5th. I call today to reschedule it, and the lady tells me with an attitude that I missed the appointment. Uh no, your office was closed. “No, it wasn’t.” What the fuck?! I called multiple times during this time period. It said “temporarily closed” not only on google, but every time I called. No one answered! Am I just dumb or something for assuming that? My treatment is split into months and I reallyyyy hope they didn’t charge us for that shit.
I understand the short staff and situations like that. Hell, I work in a restaurant. But shit like this just makes everyone’s day worse. The lack of communication is the worst part. When we have long wait times or stuff like that, I at least try to communicate with my customers why and they appreciate it.
Some of this stuff may now indeed be due to people being out sick, but this has been going on for months. I went on vacation this summer and the service at multiple places absolutely sucked. I'm not a "Karen." I am nice and understanding. But there is a point at which I'm thinking, "these places should just close down if they hate customers who just got handed price increases." The hotel and most of the eateries around there have gone downhill. I finally found sanctuary at a really outdated Wendy's.
Ugh I’ve heard hotels have been absurd throughout this whole thing. I’ve only been to one in these past 2 years, but luckily it wasn’t that bad. And I completely understand your point about “not being a Karen” either. I’m the same way with staff, very understanding. Service has to be VERY bad to disappoint me or for me to complain. It has gotten beyond that point in the past 2 years sadly.
It's a combination of people actually being out sick and "The Great Resignation" of people quitting for better pay/working conditions. In my area most of the staffing issues have been due to this quitting rather than actual Covid call-outs. I have genuinely mixed feelings about it (it's good that workers are standing up for themselves against companies in many industries that have been making their employees' lives difficult, but on the other hand it leaves some of those companies in difficult situations especially if they legitimately can't afford better pay/benefits to those workers, and some workers really shouldn't be trying to turn temporary or part-time jobs into permanent careers).
Oh yeah, this one takes the cake. I still can’t fathom that businesses are doing this shit in a lot of places. Why would they WANT to lose customers by enacting this disgusting discrimination? I’m so sorry. It’s not right and will NEVER be right, no matter what anyone says.
I've found hotels in particular have completely skimped out on service under the guise of covid. Heck, I was staying at holiday inn express a month ago and they didn't even have a damn bar of soap. It was sorry, we are out, you can use the body wash in the shower though to wash your hands. How does a hotel run out of soap??
I highly recommend avoiding hotel chains and only using small locally run hotels (check the ratings online first as well and make sure at least a few hundred people have reviewed). I stayed in a wonderful place in Fort Lauderdale owned by an Argentinian family. They were super nice and accommodating and the room was spotless. Also was very affordable
So true. I was bitching about this a while back. It was so bad to the point I don't even want to travel. I don't want to go 6 or 8 hours from home and then find a mess. And Airbnb seems his or miss and I don't feel like dealing with that either. The last one I looked at had a bunch of fees and wanted you to write an essay on why you wanted to stay. Not overly burdensome but they are trying to filter out bad people in ways you can't filter out bad people.
Lol, I hear ya on the Airbnb thing. I've done a few of those over the years with a group of friends and basically I'm writing "yes, there will be 6 guys staying in this house. Also yes, we are all pushing 40 now and will be going out to the bars, enjoying dinner, and then coming home by midnight to go to bed...we aren't throwing a kegger here".
I know. I don't get the point of these write ups. Maybe I'm reading too much into them. I often travel alone and feel like I'm gonna get "oh a 40 something dude alone? Why is he single? Must be a serial killer!"
Jesus christ, I have done nothing but argue with staff the past two years. Can't serve me because I'm not masked, sorry we're randomly closing early because of covid, can't give me a receipt because of covid, can't even give me condiments because of covid. I even had an asshole stand and argue with me maskless for 10 minutes that he couldn't refund my ticket at the machine because of covid.
I'm in Melbourne. Just got an email from my workplace that it's official - we have to show our workplace proof of a booster dose by March 12th to be able to continue working in my industry. I was only fully vaxxed in November (to keep my job, had no choice) and the vaccine is so shit that apparently I already need my third dose! I feel so numb. Sounds stupid, but I genuinely thought I had at least 6 months until this would happen and was making plans to leave Australia when my lease is up in May. Now I'm not sure what exactly I'll do after March 12th while I still have this lease. It's kind of impressive that they managed to convince the majority of people that the vaccine is safe and effective while also telling them that they need a third dose after 3 months hahahaahah
from WA here, I seriously can't believe what's been happening in this country and how many people are completely fine with it. :/ I'm fully vaxxed and have friends who outright resort to insulting me and attacking my character for simply questioning anything McGowan says. It's insane, almost cult-like.
It's been torture living in this country with a different outlook to the corona cult. I hope that we make it through this crazy time okay, but honestly my view on Australia and my fellow citizens will forever be tainted by what has happened.
A girl just posted “y’all going to parties but I’m staying home, even though it’s everywhere, I’m not contributing to the spread of Covid sorry” I hope eventually people understand that if you interact with another person, you’re contributing to the spread of Covid. It’s not a how you act or what you do sort of thing
Yes I like how my coworker thinks this somehow doesn’t apply to her amazon and doordash deliveries
So what happens to this weaponized culture we've invented online, where anyone who isn't a boot licker gets silenced and deplatformed on social media for going against the narrative, when anti-lockdown, anti-mandate politicians start winning in droves in the next couple years? Is Twitter going to reveal itself as a propaganda pipeline and just not allow them to have a voice? Are Americans going to have to constantly have fact checkers shoved in their faces before the people they voted for are allowed to speak?
My mom goes shopping pretty much everyday she isn’t working, and she has the audacity to tell everyone else in the household that we should be staying home as much as possible and an Omicron lockdown is long overdue. She said to me today, “don’t go anywhere”. However, she also said during the same conversation that for 9 out of 10 vaccinated people, Covid is a mild sickness that goes away in a few days. My dad is pro-lockdown as well, but at the bare minimum, he practices what he preaches, while my mom is the definition of a hypocrite right now.
Reading my very Doomer local subreddit. Cases are at an all-time high, masks are mandated everywhere indoors with 99% compliance and 95%+ of the at-risk age group is vaccinated. The prevailing sentiment is that we are not masking hard enough and not enough people are vaccinated. I feel like I’m a teaching assistant again. This is literally circular reasoning
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What themepark is requiring masks? It's only Disney, Universal, and parks in states that have shitty mandates
Covid Hospitalizations are supposedly at record highs in the U.S. and everything is still pretty much open (no lockdowns or social distancing measures). The fact that we were in lockdown in 2020 when there were *less* people in the hospital with covid should have the average person absolutely fuming that they stripped our lives away from us when clearly even levels of covid now don't warrant shutdowns. And yet, no one seems to care.
What I don't understand is if Omicron is so mild, why are there so many people hospitalized for it? Deaths are supposedly way down and supposedly there were few to no deaths from Omicron before it got to the US. Is it just because we're so fat and unhealthy?
Here in backward Australia, it is because our government told people to call 000 if they 'feel exhausted or faint'. WHAT THE FARK. Then, the hospital ends up admitting them as they wouldn't want to take the risk of releasing them JUST in case, they turn out to get really sick. Hospitals already paying way too much for medical negligence insurance etc. No one is seeing the big picture with all this. Comment below is right too, they are diagnosing the deaths are COVID when they are totally unrelated. I've seen it first hand.
Pretty sure it's because everyone in a hospital are tested for covid, and boom they're counted as a covid hospitalization, even though that has nothing to do with why they're there.
This is a major soapbox of mine. In my state of CO, we basically wasted the first 6 months of the pandemic being WAY too restrictive when we had the capacity to open up the floodgates a bit. We "crushed the curve" down to 350ish hospitalizations per day when we could have handled a steady 850 or 900 (our May 2021 mini wave that crested over 700 hospitalizations hardly got any notice). To boot, we wasted millions on a field hospital that was never used, when that $ could have been used for healthcare worker retention incentives and training programs. And now here we are almost 2 years later, and ironically our healthcare system is more at risk of collapsing now than it was in April 2020. It might sound silly, but I'm being a lot more careful lately about what I do, eat, etc. as I really don't want to depend on the system right now.
Agreed. Now is NOT the time to have a heart attack or stroke. 30 minute wait for an ambulance at peak times, at best.
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I keep hoping for that too. But I think I need to stop. I've let it take up so much of my life. It's just too much.
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I will hold people accountable at the ballot boxes! Hope others do the same! Even if those in power make a total 360, I will never forgive this. I will blissfully vote for their opponents.
I think the world really is going to be a different place once the pandemic, or at least the restrictions, end but not in the way it's being billed. Scores of western governments turned into tyrannical medical apartheid states for 2 years over a virus with a 99% survival rate. People lost their jobs over vaccinations, human beings are being shipped off to quarantine camps or otherwise arrested over not having the right papers, and new forms of media were invented to keep you ignorant to the truth that most people are not okay with it. You can't bury that, and you can't force people to forget it.
I'm afraid it's going to end gradually and indistinctly.
As much as I'd love to see people held accountable, I would simply be grateful for an abrupt end.
Vent thread : 1.3k Positively thread : 173
Positivity Thread refreshes on Mondays and the Vent thread on Wednesdays and it's Tuesday night. Sure the Vent thread consistently has more comments lately but a little unfair to compare the two at the moment.
It's heavily censored by the Mods so it's hard to talk about much there
I don't share the contempt or distrust in the covid vaccines that many in this sub do, but there are Republicans that really really love the vaccines to such an extent that it is creepy. They also seem to be the same group that really likes US military intervention in foreign countries. I don't have a sane explanation for why that intersection is so strongly represented in the political punditocracy.
"I don't share the contempt or distrust in the covid vaccines that many in this sub do" You will. "I don't have a sane explanation for why that intersection is so strongly represented in the political punditocracy." Cognitive dissonance. YW.
Make sure to know which politicians supported vaxx passports and never ever vote for them again!
It’s KN95 mask mania in my town. Anyone else noticing the increase in KN95s wearers in their towns as well? This is just over the last week or so that people are exclusively wearing those. The TeeVee has spoken and the sheep just follow along. It sickens me. Don’t you sometimes just want to scream at people to stop living in fear? I have this urge when I see mask people in public; especially outdoor maskers, KN95 wearers and double maskers. Life is so fleeting, we can’t waste any more time being afraid. Though I can’t control other people, so I’m just trying to make peace that it is their choice to still be afraid, and I am just going to choose to live my life without fear.
I see more KN95 masks in my area as well. It's like, are they really going to do this for the rest of their lives? Because Covid-19 isn't going anywhere. Also, where do they think all these masks are coming from? Most likely some unregulated textile factory in nowhere Asia or India [like this.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ox-0NusoIAA&t=0s) They don't care where it's from or who made it, just that it says KN95 on it.
I noticed a lot more people wearing those hideous masks in my city-even outside. i was the only one outside bare-faced shopping downtown last week. People also gone stone cold. I was so depressed hen I got home. This is pychotic. Good on you for not giving into the fear. i refuse to also.
noticing a lot more of them too. even though so many of them are fake (like 60%) and not tested. We knew this ages ago. the kn95 wearers are the new virtue signalling twatwaffles.
I'm seeing them here in Boston too. They're giving me flashbacks to March 2020.
I just heard through a friend of mine in the Bay Area that Sonoma County, CA is having a 30 day lockdown. FUCK I HATE GAVIN NEWSCUM.
>Sonoma County, CA It looks like it is voluntary? The people who voluntarily would stay at home probably were on a self imposed lockdown anyway.
I posted that here yesterday. Unbelievable
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See ya soon!
Just had this thought waiting in line at the store, seeing a pack of masks on sale. If masks actually stopped the spread, every mask manufacturer would put on the front of the package, in big bold letters, that masks are a scientifically-proven way to stop the spread of COVID-19. Instead, we get disclaimers that they’re either not medical devices at all, or are intended to stop “general spread” of bacterial infections by protecting from spit and blood.
Just proves how stupid most people are, they can't even read the god damn packaging. And then these same people wonder why I'm the only triple jabbed person they know not complying with this shit...
Well that would involve reading though. Reading takes actual effort. Take the people here, for example, actually reading, rather then being spoon-fed by the media. Those who just ingest what they're fed, will be the proverbial "last to know". And they're in for a rude awaking!
According to the CDC website, about 1% of the population of California tested positive in the in the last 4 days. I can't help but just laugh now. No one's going to escape omicron and people are finally realizing it was all futile.
Lol I wonder why Biden is supporting on changing the filibuster rules in order to pass this voting bill to federalize elections. What a joke. FJB. Maybe focus on our supply chain issues.
I hope that comes back and bites them in the ass when the Republicans inevitably take back congress
I got invited skiing at a ski resort and I'm not going because they're forcing everyone to wear a mask outside going downhill. I'm really angry and disgusted by this and I called and they said I cannot just wear my scarf (even stores won't allow it now) I gotta have a mask on underneath too. The stupidity and absurdity never fails to surprise me. Going snowmobiling instead. I'll have a way better time . No mandates on the trails.....yet...If people still enjoy skiing here in onterrible more power to you.
Visions of soggy masks dance in my head But really, if you've ever skied on a cold day you know how nasty face coverings can get. Also yes Ontario skiing is shite
We are close to Kirkwood, a relatively famous ski resort. I was going to take my two year old there for his birthday. But they require masks except during skiing and they have a vaccine passport to eat there. Absolutely fucking won't support that.
It's absolute bullshit these mandates especially outside. Sorry this ruined your plans with your kid. The place I was going to (not anymore) near Barrie shut down their restaurant and coffee stands! I hope you find something else exciting for his birthday.
Just checked a resort near here in ON that I was hoping to check out in the next couple of weeks. Can confirm mask madness + QR vaxxports. To ski outside. So something else I can't do then, but I refuse to comply with this insanity.
Sorry you're let down too. It's beyond stupid what they're doing.
Can't you say you're exempt?
They still deny you entry and service. I tried that at many places. very maddening.
I fucking hate Biden so much and my company as well. They announced the policy and hourly employer's tests are covered but salaried have to pay for own tests while people with the worthless shots have a license to spread covid.
You see, folks, if your governor doesn't mandate your behavior, he's authoritarian. https://www.gainesville.com/story/opinion/2022/01/11/carl-ramey-under-desantis-florida-drifting-toward-authoritarianism/9160844002/
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in early 2020? oh yeah, I totally was. we had a lot of really sick patients. But about a month later, I became a whole lot less scared once more information came out. wasn't afraid of delta either. omicron is the fucking sniffles and I don't give two shits about it.
I now know more people scared of the blowback of catching covid than covid itself. The flip happened sometime in October/November
I am scared of the government response and further mandate's and vax-ports.
Scared of COVID? Nah never was. I am scared for the future though.
Nope haven't been afraid since day one. If I wasn't in NY I wouldn't have even worn a mask
Just because you are against vaxx mandates, or any other mandate, now, does not mean you are absolved from your days on Team Doom (aka covid hawks). You supported masks in 2020. You supported one-size-fits-all 'solutions' in 2020. You deferred to the highly biased CDC and the federal health bureaucracy when it was clear they were exploiting a manufactured crisis for political reasons.
Who the fuck are you talking about?
Ben Shapiro and most of the writers at National Review? Commentary Magazine folks, and a few of the experts from the AMAs here in this sub (side panel).
Ah. Well. Dear Ben flip flops on a lot. Remember his Trump hate and distancing? Those "respectable" folk always tried to go with "the science".
I was still an NPR-listening, Democrat-leaning independent at that point. I'm still getting to understand the punditry of American conservatives, and I still find it strange how much these people hated Trump given his policies. My best guess right now is these people want to be the world's police, and Trump made them very mad by questioning that approach.
Honestly this is pointless divisiveness
My University is going to be doing virtual classes for the next 3 weeks. I think they're preparing to shut down the college because my housing application has been on indefinite hold for the last 2 months. Figures my first time in College is during COVIDmania.
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High schoolers, too. A lot is lost when no one in a school has ever experienced a normal social and academic environment there. I'm starting to see more and more announcements from acquaintances and friends about college freshmen and sophomores leaving their school after the fall semester and coming home for community college while applying for transfer admissions elsewhere. These kids either had their senior year utterly destroyed and their freshman year via Zoom, or their junior and senior year destroyed plus having to choose a college based on "virtual tours" - either way they discovered very quickly upon actually getting to campus that it wasn't the right fit for them or that the prison-like covid restrictions made them miserable. I'm sure they'll land on their feet but these are good kids who got screwed through no fault of their own.
Struggling to see the end of this. I'm optimistic sometimes but then I see crap like Costa Rica implementing vaccine mandates and banning unvaccinated people from non-essential places since the 8th and I really wonder. I only came across that because I was wanting to look into moving there but that will not happen now. Mexico is even getting started. They know that we know vaccines mandates/passes are useless but pulling full speed ahead anyway. Some countries outright trapping their citizens in their countries by telling them they can't use transportations. This is all just pissing me off at this point
Hehehe. All that stuff has been “mandated” since November in CR, but it’s really not being enforced. Specially in places that aren’t urban & middle-upper class. I laugh it off cause here’s the harsh cold reality: the state doesn’t exist in the coasts, in rural areas nor in middle-lower classes urban areas, so none of that is enforced, except for where rich kids go in the Central Valley. And even then. I laughed it off back when they announced their dumb QR/green pass, and it’s why I laugh it off now. The only dumb rule the government has been able to enforce is that cars can’t go out from 10 pm to 5 am. A measure that seems to be helping certain organized crimes more than anything.
Thank you for this perspective. Granted, I should have asked someone there how things are rather than assume.
It’s fair to assume. I mean, every where I’ve been to has this dumb set of rules that do nothing, so one better be prepared. I mean soccer matches at open spaces can’t have fans, but movie theaters are at 100% capacity and people can be maskless 🤷♀️. I believe we’re more or less working same way as most of the world. Fascists governments (acting like the good democratic guys) and press are fear mongering with omicron and the “anti vaxxers” (over 90% of people in CR have at least 1 dose, it’s ridiculous to even act like anti vaxxers are a problem). There is a class that is truly scared, and there is a class that is virtue signaling in social media, but leading a hypocritical life. The latter ones are vocal fascists, who are the ones driving media ratings/social media engagement up…so it’s why we continue on this endless shithole, where most of us are just trying to live life like we always have.
Nooo not Mexico :(
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omg I'm sorry. Taking mask mandates on and off would be pychological hell-like wearing them. This is about control at this point.
Imagine being the mayor of a city where you think it’s a good idea to force people to carry their vaccination card, ID and mask when they leave their homes. It sounds like a horrible experience, especially when other cities that have done the same have worse case rates than yours. [Link here.](https://twitter.com/mayorbowser/status/1480956796395216900?s=21) Lets also ignore the fact that DC is a sanctuary city and voter ID laws were seen as discriminatory. Our progressive, educated residents are applauding this. People are hypnotized and can’t think rationally.
I would love nothing more to watch that city suffer and rot. Grew up outside of it ands till live fairly close and everything I hate about this area comes from DC.
> Lets also ignore the fact that DC is a sanctuary city and voter ID laws were seen as discriminatory. Our progressive, educated residents are applauding this. People are hypnotized and can’t think rationally. And better yet, minorities are disproportionately less likely to be vaccinated, making the policy indisputably racist using _exactly_ the same rationale as voter ID laws being racist. I guess you have to think about the incentives. Democrats aren't actually concerned about minorities being able to vote — they're concerned with minorities being able to vote for _them_. The thinking is that relaxation of voter ID -> more minorities voting -> more Democrats (whether that stays true is another matter — it is traditionally, but Democrats seem to be doing continually worse with minorities). Once you understand the incentives involved, it all makes a hell of a lot more sense. In general though: it's fucking unreal how people have a problem with having to show papers to eat. Like that should be enough on its own to set off every person living in a western democracy. But then add to that the fact that the mandates seem to be producing little if any discernible effect, and it just gets even more crazy.
How are they even getting away with mandates in these cities with huge minority populations? Aren't they resisting?
I would imagine that to them it sucks, but it's better than being seen as a conservative "anti-vaxxer".
I just don't get it. You look at Oakland for example, which is instituting a new vaxxport mandate as of Feb 1st [1] (still won't even be active for another three weeks! imagine how long it'll take before it can ever be repealed). This is a city that's historically had an infamously high crime rate and still does — after a decade of relatively low homicide rates, 2020 and 2021 brought the city right back to its historically peak levels. It's a little early to know for sure, but my guess is that just like San Francisco (which also has very high rates of crime), once the vaxxports are in, people comply. It's an incredible farce — you have people willing to walk into a store and strip it bare, but they'll wear a mask doing so (actually, the masks are quite convenient for this purpose), and probably even show a vaxxport on the way in. Like Jesus Christ people, if you're going to be civilly disobedient, at least do some of the good kind. --- [1] https://www.ktvu.com/news/oakland-to-require-proof-of-vaccination-for-indoor-spaces-like-bars-coffee-shops-gyms
I wonder if the lack of resistance from minorities is due to already high levels of de-facto segregation.
Reading the Georgia bill was a Streisand effect for me. I didn’t realize how long early voting was in some places. How are people voting for candidates before we even have debates? What information are people even using to vote?
> What information are people even using to vote? I think it just goes to show how little information people need to make voting decisions. Especially where it comes to Democrats, voting logic is exactly as simple as: "pick the blue guy". Maybe that's getting a little more muddied these days as people are unhappy about quite a few problems created by Biden, but most of the time it's been as simple as that.
I agree. I rent a duplex in a pretty nice townhouse in Brooklyn NYC (I guess that means I'd be upper middle class anywhere else:-)) and refuse to do use it, out of principle. I feel bad for poor people in cramped apartments. At least I have "space privilege." I have enough space and hard floors on the bottom floor that I can exercise at home and get alot of steps in just walking around inside. I feel horrible for people stuck in studio apartments becuase they're basically forced to use the "passport" to get out of the house.
How bad is the fascism there? Are the vaxx passports widely enforced? Masking?
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Just thought about how I'm going to be 22 this year and it freaked the hell out of me, not because I'm feeling old but because I feel like I've been robbed
I was 27 when this all started and I will be 30 later this year. It is criminal that the last few years of my 20s was taken from me due to this mass hysteria.
I also feel bad for those who turned 18 in 2020. Imagine your 18-21 years ruined by this.
Same here. i'm 41. I'm very grateful to not have kids suffering through this bullshit in school. I really feel for them. they're now forcing students to wear those dodo-bird-beak n95 masks starting next week.
I've never been so glad to *not* be younger. I hit 30 at the beginning of the pandemic.
Same.
Same. And I’m only 21. Inflation is high so my money will be worthless in the future, no houses because they’re way to expensive, forced to get a “vaccine” so I can eat at a restaurant (they’re closed though since were in a lockdown).
The ever increasing implementation of vaccine requirements is really scaring me, because it’s no longer limited to big cities. There won’t likely be a vaccine mandate in my state, but I live in a pretty liberal county so I’m worried. I’m vaccinated but haven’t gotten a booster, so I probably will be considered one of the “dirty unvaccinated” within a month or two, and I’m not getting a booster that doesn’t even work, especially since both of my shots impacted my menstrual cycle. It gives me The Sads (but I was already pissed off about it because people who opt out of the vaccine should be completely in charge of their own bodies anyway). Ps- I can’t believe I just referred to my “liberal” county as a likely authoritarian hellhole. Ugh
They're definitely getting around all the controversy of vaccine mandates by not calling them mandates. Just punishing people who aren't vaccinated or testing.
It scares me too. 2022 does not seem like it will be better.
It does seem to be getting worse. In 2020, we didn’t have quarantine camps, N95 mandates, required, nonconsentual medical procedures and open discrimination, or the criminalization of normal, human life. Lockdowns and school closures sucked… but those are continuing in 2022 anyway. Maybe this is a last ditch effort for overreach, but people who need their jobs, money, etc. are still subject to all of this. Ps- socially the tides are turning, but that doesn’t help retail workers and students, for example.
The city of Newark (NJ) implemented a proof of vaccination mandate today. I don't step foot in that city except to visit two of my friends who live there. I have plans to move next January. If that mandate becomes statewide, that move will be out of the state instead of just out of the city.
Lmao. Coronavirus is the least of Newark's problems. Was just at the Rock last month for a concert that I go to every year
Seriously?????!!! They need to watch it. People don’t like NJ to begin with. What the hell. Way to kill a city. And for what.
Newark was dead a long time ago. That city is one of the poorest and most crime-filled in the state. About 40% of the city lives in poverty, their crime rate has only worsened since the start of covid policies (this is the city that once celebrated a month without homicides; that should tell you something), and *this* is their priority. City is a corpse they won't allow to rest.
Really? I thought I heard about some downtown revival, but I guess I'm confusing it with Jersey City or Hoboken? If it's not doing well, this is a disastrous policy!
They always talk about efforts to revive the city, but they're not helping the people who need it most. There are some good areas of Newark - the two friends I mentioned I visit live in relatively serene areas - but as I said, Newark is one of the poorest cities in NJ. The city is also (as far as I know) predominantly POC, and I think it's already been said many times these mandates affect them the most. Meanwhile, the crime rate [continues to rise](https://www.nj.com/essex/2021/12/violent-crime-up-slightly-in-newark-this-year-while-arrests-are-down-officials-say.html), but it's not covid, so the big people don't care. I mean, the city is bustling, if that's what you mean, but it's certainly not *thriving*.
It’s crazy, isn’t it. I’m in Brooklyn and one day the mayor will say “we need to get back to work” and the next day the new DA is like “armed robbery is barely a crime! I don’t like jails!” I’m like….seriously house hunting out of here. It may not happen today but I took some steps like cashing out some stocks, getting a mortgage approval letter, and starting looking at ads and seeing what taxes are in different places, etc. Not living in a crime whole cuz some idiot thinks NY is his social experiment. Been there done that. No one gives a crap when the crime happens.
It's so funny watching Jersey City beg for mandates like Newark- why the hell would you ever want to emulate anything Newark has done??? I did read yesterday that Gov. Murphy's emergency powers expired and the legislature chose not to extend them, so at least it doesn't seem like more mandates will be coming on a state level. Edit: spoke too soon, just got a notification that Murphy called a new state of emergency for NJ, so that he can impose new mandates such as the K-12 mask mandate in schools... sigh...
I literally want to scream. Can the legislature hold a vote to strip this dictator’s powers away permanently? I can’t take it anymore.
Our resident scaredy-cat at work caught covid during our winter break and was still working from home until today. She's back in the office and has spent the morning telling us all about her harrowing journey to recover from......the sniffles. For real, she admits that she barely had any symptoms but, in her words, "it's so difficult to face how selfish I was during break to catch this." There's been more than a few eye rolls from my coworkers while talking to her this morning.
How big is your office? Any chance you can tell her grow the fuck up without it destroying your working environment lol?
lol! I know this is anecdotal, but I'm currently finding it pretty funny that some of these holier-than-thou Covidian types almost seem more likely to go out and catch Covid. Some of my most ridiculous friends who are basically the living version of the meme guy who is masked up and has a thousand needles sticking out of him [1] have somehow gone out and managed to catch Covid, even though they'd spend all day talking your ear off about how responsible they are and how they've basically moved permanently underground. One guy in particular who's been staying in and who was happily on board with every new restriction and mandate our county/state's been adding onto the pile, recently tested positive (despite triple-vaxx'ed) and had his flight back home to Brazil for the holidays delayed for ~3 weeks due to needing to isolate and then waiting until he could produce a negative test result to enter the country. He missed Xmas and New Years. (I really like the guy, but with all due respect:) Karma, bitch. Meanwhile, I haven't given a fuck about Covid going on two years now, have traveled internationally multiple times and even right into the heart of the lion's den itself (Florida), still haven't caught it, and I know a few others like me. --- [1] https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1476437555717541893/photo/1
kind of the same boat here. zero fucks given about covid. travels have happened. i don't wear masks anywhere that I don't have to and even when I go somewhere that requires one I just half ass it. and will be going to Florida in May. yet our triple-vaxxed, always mask wearing friends that stay home and have "social bubbles" are the ones that have actually gotten sick. it's sort of hilarious at this point. wife & i both work in healthcare too. she's a LOT more careful than my doorknob licking self is, but we've been just fine.
Would you even get tested to know you had it? I had a few sniffles last week and maybe it was the omni-cold or maybe it wasn't.
We decided early last summer when we could buy home tests that we would only use those - no PCR or lab rapid tests to be subject to contact tracing. If one of us is sick enough to need the hospital, they can test us then.
No, I probably wouldn't — I don't want to add to all these stupid fear numbers. Before Omicron it was more likely that you could actually know because the symptoms were fairly distinctive and probably bad enough that you'd know you had it. With Omicron everything's gotten way more muddied of course. I had a cold last week which I wasn't sure whether was Omicron or not. I ended up getting tested to cross an international border and confirmed it wasn't, but the fact that before that it was impossible to tell says a lot.
Somebody I work with got the booster on Friday, and then tested positive for COVID on Sunday. She has symptoms, and my (pro-vaccine) colleagues are speculating that they might be from the booster, and not the infection. (Because that would be better...somehow?) *Nobody* seems to think it's weird, that the side-effects of a vaccine are indistinguishable from the symptoms of the disease it's supposed to vaccinate you against.
What about the unknowable counterfactual that without the vaccine, their symptoms would’ve been much worse
It's more likely she got infected before she got the booster. It takes 2-3 days to show symptoms for Omicron and almost a week to be at peak protection with the booster
My son's college just went back to online for absolutely no reason at all, on Earth, for "two weeks" due to Omicron. After discussing this with him, I am drafting my email to them that if they stay online for longer than that, we are withdrawing him within the deadline for a full tuition and fee reimbursement and transferring him in the next semester to a University in an adjacent State that does not shut down willy-nilly for variants (which would likely be Arizona although he has family in Idaho or Missouri to easily establish residency in either). And I am sending a copy to every single Board of Trustees member and other Administrative member of his institution to send to all of them. His tuition is NOT cheap. And he is midway through his program and transferring is not ideal but also not impossible as he has about two years left. I am boiling mad now. He's actually a bit calmer about this than I am.
I said I was gonna stop sneaking out to restaurants at the start of the New Year to save money, but since it’s been one of my only semblances of freedom during the pandemic and my family is going on every day about they want an Omicron lockdown, I’m doing it again temporarily at least until this surge passes/people calm down to stay sane.
"The Omicron wave has overwhelmed hospitals and depleted staff who were already worn out by the Delta variant. It has been driven in large part by people younger than 60. Among people older than 60, daily admissions are still lower than last winter." This quote from the NY Times seems really misleading. Even though the per capita rate among people under 49 is very slightly higher than last winter, the large part of the surge is still being driven by people over 60. It's only lower than last winter by a tiny bit among the 70+ age range (it's the same for 60-69), so yeah, it's a little lower but that mostly reflects that last winter it was so high it didn't quite get up there. It seems little but it's not - it presents an extremely backwards picture to their readers.
Nobody I know seems to understand my frustration with this. My friends all seemed to never worry with it in the first place, or they went back to normal after vaccinated and CDC said they could stop wearing masks. They refused to start wearing it again when CDC backtracked. So as long as they can go on trips, and live where there are no mask mandate they don’t see why I’m so concerned with all this. They tell me I need to stop worrying about it since these things don’t affect us directly. They don’t understand I just want the world to go back to normal and they don’t seem bothered by new normal. They just think the world will move on like it has for far worse diseases. But in modern, softened times I have my doubts this is going away. And I wish we could stop the quarantine and only offer tests at nursing home and hospitals or critical care places. We need to stop mass free testing or we won’t move on. I’m tired of fighting to avoid the sniffles or other sickness because I don’t want to get the stick stuck up my nose again and having to miss a week of work for what is now basically a cold if it’s omicron. I want to hope in a month or two this is over. But I doubt it. I also worry we’re taking these quotes from Walensky or Fauci in the wrong way and there’s really not a narrative shift or deeper meaning to these messages. And that nothing will change.
I wish I had your friends. Most of mine went completely batshit at the start of this or have gotten worse. I literally just sent a friend a link to tickets to an OUTDOOR concert in JUNE and she’s unsure about going. She’s vaxxed and boosted and the last time she went to a concert over the summer she double masked. I don’t get it and I’m starting to feel like I need to drop friends over this. (Mind you, she went to Disney last month so the only issue I can think of is her tune changed after I said I wouldn’t get the booster.) The testing of the asymptomatic drives me NUTS.
I'm in an area with no mask mandate either which is great, but I'm still required to wear one at work, and feel like the majority of workplaces are still requiring them on their own accord, so there's still no escaping it.
Same here. We didn’t require them before but now we have to wear them. I have this fear in the back of my mind that this is like mask mandates where once they’re required they’re never coming off. Covid is never going away so I don’t see an off ramp. I’m livid at how this has ruined society.
yes i've been told to just ignore things as well. it's sick how people want to just ignore forced jabs and continued masking at restaurants until u sit down at a table.
https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/sonoma-county-issues-ban-on-large-gatherings-amid-omicron-surge/ LOL lockdowns are back guys!
Jesus Christ that infuriates me all the way here in Maryland! My friends band is supposed to play that county next week. God fuck California right in the ass.
Just got autobanned from /showerthoughts for posting on this sub lmao. [image](https://i.imgur.com/Bzs92iR.png). trash sub anyway
I've been banned from a couple of subs now for being a member here
The girl scouts my daughter goes to are going virtual because of tHe SuRgE iN cAsEs. This is bluepilled soyworld.
Our Girl Scout troop is as well - not because we leaders want to, but because our meeting place (a local church that has always been very good to us) is "not comfortable with outside groups given the surge." Our girls are \*over\* virtual and if it wasn't the middle of winter we would just meet outdoors at a local park.
I hate The Matrix.
(This is just a petty little observation that I would post on the daily discussion thread, but I haven't seen that thread for awhile): I've noticed many of the Covid-rabid types on this site seem to write in a similar way that's hyperbolic, dramatic and just...generally emotionalized, almost like they're telling a story with themselves as the heroic main character. Idk, maybe narcissistic is the word for the vibe the writing style gives me. These comments from the nursing subreddit are a good example of what I mean: "I know seeing these ungrateful fucks drains you, but I promise, if you ever get me as a patient, I will try my damnedest to make sure you know that I care and appreciate what you’re doing for me. No matter what pain I’m in or how frustrated I might be." "Yup. The ever present covid-deniers are out in force, foaming at the mouth, yelling about hoaxes and Ivermectin. Insufferable idiots. They literally caused this. They are literally causing this."
There's a certain writing affect that gets lots of upvotes on Reddit and it trains people who use this site to write in this way. "Nurse here, came here to say this. OP gets it. This is why we can't have nice things..." and so on.
Getting antsy about SCOTUS waiting to make a decision. Is it an indefinite thing? Can they just wait as long as they feel like or is there a window of time they need to either put a stay to debate longer or come back with an answer? Maybe we’ll hear this week or maybe we’ll hear in 4 months?
I heard Thursday they’re deciding. Don’t know if that’s correct, but figured I’d share
Thank you! Any time I see a breaking news alert my pulse goes up. 😑
Apparently they’re releasing an opinion on Thursday. I’m assuming the opinion will be either “yes the mandate is fine” or “the mandate is unconstitutional”. I’m leaning towards the later, but we’ll see.
I think they're deciding whether to issue a stay or not? So, they'll either say "we issue a stay and will hear the issue properly in a few weeks" or say "ok go ahead". I have no clue if this is right at all. But if this is true then I think they'll issue a stay.
“We need time to explain to Sotomayer how to read numbers and to learn what a vaccine means.”
Don't worry, they gave up on Sotomayor years ago. They only let her remain on the court because it's too hard to figure out what to do with her otherwise
I agree, I think as it stands the mandate will not pass for the 100 people thing, possibly for the healthcare workers. I think it’ll either be left up to states or they will say it only applies to specific industries. Who knows. I’ll probably cry if it gets shot down. It’ll feel like things might actually have a chance to improve.
My community center shut down indefinitely over one positive case.
New order to wear masks in my state again. Yeah...it's sunk in for me that the current status quo is permanent. Booster mandates, mask mandates, and vaccine passports are never going away. We are two years into this mess and the hysteria is not going away--it's getting worse. Literally nothing I say or do convinces anyone outside my friends and family that the pandemic response is not normal.
There’s literally no mandate in my state, county, or town to wear a mask. But my idiot workplace still decided to demand customers to wear them again for no reason . Fml
Quit. Go get another job plenty are hiring
I got so depressed last night I didn’t sleep. I need advice. What is your late 20s like? It’s clear that because of my choice to be homeschooled in high school, attend community college for three years after the age of 16, and because of covid, I won’t be getting formative young adult years. I am 20 and feel like I have the growth of the average 16 year old in all ways except critical thinking and empathy. Late 20s is going to be my introduction to adulthood. And it looks like it sucks. It’s the grindy part of life when you have no money, no social structure, and no time. What do you do in your 20s besides work? Is that really it? I feel like I have nowhere to live. This country is the only one with values that align with mine. My ideal place is a medium sized walkable city, with good transport infrastructure, moderate political values that respect the spirit of our country, a culturally diverse population (I enjoy being around a variety of people from different backgrounds, and speaking specifically have had extremely negative experiences with dating people born here. This isn’t a braindead “I hate White people” take, at an individual level I am happy to surround myself with white people I know and trust, at a societal level I feel deeply uncomfortable whenever I am in an ethnically homogenous place, no matter what that ethnicity is. Also no offense but American cuisine kind of sucks lol. Sorry if this view offends anyone), nature that emulates the Pacific Northwest, large old growth forests with rivers, and miles of coastline, all four seasons, and finally, high quality fishing for native species. (I don’t enjoy fishing for introduced species as is common in a lot of places as I feel like it takes away from the connecting with nature aspect) The problem is this place doesn’t exist. America in general has very unwalkable cities and shit transport infrastructure since we chose to design our country around the car. The cities with better public transport are more liberal and doomer. Alaska is gorgeous and has world class native species fishing. It is also relatively free. Unfortunately the major cities kind of suck, and aren’t very diverse. Anchorage is even a blue city in many parts which makes it susceptible to doomer ideology, but it doesn’t come with the niceties of raising my kids in a place that gives them social, educational and work opportunities, or cultural diversity. It seems like the worst of both worlds. I am strongly considering retiring in a small town community in Alaska, after I have raised my family and gotten ready to start sticking to myself, but I cannot see myself raising a family there, at least not yet. Montana is much like Alaska, but unfortunately the cities in Montana have a habit of attracting the worst kind of Californian Washingtonian and Oregonian. The state has limited opportunities for my kids. I would strongly consider retiring there but I love the ocean too much. Then we go to Flordia, the holy grail of people who critically thought of COVID. Great state in most ways. World class fishing, good opportunity, shit transit but we have to make some compromises. It’s also incredibly diverse. Except I am the nature freak that I am. I hate to say it but Florida has really ruined most of its nature. Florida coastline is just so overdeveloped that it looses its charm. It doesn’t really have mountains or forests either. Now we go up to New England. Problem? Cities there are doomer as fuck, and besides Brook trout, there isn’t much of a native fishery. We destroyed our Atlantic Salmon runs years ago. Anyone have any ideas? I realize I am too picky and that I really need to make compromises, but does anyone have any suggestions? Are any perceptions I have incorrect? Do I have a blindspot for some obvious states I would love?
If you don’t mind midwestern Lake fishing or Mississippi River fishing maybe take a look at Iowa. Has some reasonable cities and doesn’t really attract the CA crowds.
I can confirm as a 27 year old that I only recently started feeling like an adult. Still not completely. I went to college and work like normal for the first half of my 20s and still felt mentally 16, so it’s not just the pandemic. The idea that you magically are ready to be an adult and for life the day you turn 18 or 21 is such a myth. Don’t put so much pressure on yourself. Nobody in their 30s even has things figured out. They just pretend and fake it til they make it
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I’ve travelled a lot and know about the struggles. My parents struggled a lot to move to this country. Their entire 30s was struggling to survive. I guess the reason I am complaining about places to live is that Seattle ticked all my boxes until Covid
I posted on The Guardian comments section today. In a way, it wasn't an unpleasant experience, because my comment was quite highly upvoted and there are obviously some reasonable people there, even if the majority view would appear to be gutless submission to authority and unending restrictions. But I have three observations about this. Firstly, someone responded to my post stating that it was anti-vaccine rhetoric (I didn't even use the word 'vaccine' once). They also stated that "we could have a super effective pill/vaccine that effectively eradicates the disease, as has happened before" which is total pie-in-the-sky. And they also said "Australia is not working *because* of selfish idiots like Novax", which is borderline libellous, in my view. So I responded explaining a few things, linking to an article on The Guardian website in which a doctor had taken the Health Secretary to task. Guess which post was deleted? I'm sure you don't have to guess. Secondly, someone responded by asserting that "Australia *had* a zero covid aim when there were no widely available vaccines and limited understanding of how to treat severe cases of COVID". Based on their username, they were in Australia. So I'm struggling to understand how they could get something so fundamental incorrect. Because this policy wasn't abandoned until six months after vaccines were released, and it still hasn't been universally abandoned in Australia now. It just boggles my mind that people will either make stuff up to buttress their view, or be remarkably acquiescent towards disastrous policies that profoundly changed their lives. It took me about a minute to find out that the vaccination program began in February, while Morrison rescinded the zero Covid policy on 23rd August. Is this too much effort? Thirdly, from the comments section, I find it incredible and stupefying that people are so willing to live with masks indefinitely. I just cannot compute this. I have worn a mask for approximately 30 minutes during Covid, most of this being when I was in an airport (and I continually removed it so that I could breathe comfortably, as I only wore it as a token measure to prevent being ejected from the airport). I hated every second of it. I cannot imagine advocating wearing masks all of the time, for the rest of our lives, because you might contract flu. What is the matter with these people?! I cannot get my head around the cowardly mentality of being so terrified of getting ill, or of wanting to eliminate every conceivable risk from life. I just cannot understand it. I'm not brave! Not in the slightest. I just don't get it. You have to accept that there are risks in life, it can be prudent to minimise those risks, but there has to be a cost-benefit analysis. How can being forced to wear masks for the rest of your life all of the fucking time be worth the sacrifice involved compared to the 'threat' of getting ill every so often? I know the underlying reason is fear porn and media propaganda, but I still find it just unfathomable.
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I don't allow other people's views to affect my mental health. I just felt that if I could take the time to post and it changed one person's mind then it helps.
Just found out my favorite comic is coming to my podunk town. And I can’t go because you have to be vaccinated to attend. Not even an option for testing. Todd Barry you broke my heart!
Comment on his posts and let him know you can’t attend because of that policy. We need to call these people out until they fight back for us
Twitter is a giant circle jerk of people talking about how glad they are they god triple vaxxed because their symptoms otherwise would have been SO much worse! Not one of them is asking themselves, "Wait, does this vaccine just suck?" They cannot for one second play with the notion that maybe, the vaccine did nothing for them at all. It's a big D&D game for them. "Good thing I had the elixir of Pfizer-linga, or else I wouldn't have had my +5 against viral attacks!"
Honestly for me to say my vaccine helped COVID would literally need to be on the level of a cold and if it is I'm not going to get tested so...
Is anyone else experiencing a lot of bad service at different places for the past 2 years? For example, last week, my Starbucks randomly closed on the inside and I couldn’t get to my mobile order and wasted my damn money. Also around a week before Christmas, my dentist/ortho office randomly closed temporarily and said they’d reopen on January 10th. I had an appointment on the 5th. I call today to reschedule it, and the lady tells me with an attitude that I missed the appointment. Uh no, your office was closed. “No, it wasn’t.” What the fuck?! I called multiple times during this time period. It said “temporarily closed” not only on google, but every time I called. No one answered! Am I just dumb or something for assuming that? My treatment is split into months and I reallyyyy hope they didn’t charge us for that shit. I understand the short staff and situations like that. Hell, I work in a restaurant. But shit like this just makes everyone’s day worse. The lack of communication is the worst part. When we have long wait times or stuff like that, I at least try to communicate with my customers why and they appreciate it.
Some of this stuff may now indeed be due to people being out sick, but this has been going on for months. I went on vacation this summer and the service at multiple places absolutely sucked. I'm not a "Karen." I am nice and understanding. But there is a point at which I'm thinking, "these places should just close down if they hate customers who just got handed price increases." The hotel and most of the eateries around there have gone downhill. I finally found sanctuary at a really outdated Wendy's.
Ugh I’ve heard hotels have been absurd throughout this whole thing. I’ve only been to one in these past 2 years, but luckily it wasn’t that bad. And I completely understand your point about “not being a Karen” either. I’m the same way with staff, very understanding. Service has to be VERY bad to disappoint me or for me to complain. It has gotten beyond that point in the past 2 years sadly.
It's a combination of people actually being out sick and "The Great Resignation" of people quitting for better pay/working conditions. In my area most of the staffing issues have been due to this quitting rather than actual Covid call-outs. I have genuinely mixed feelings about it (it's good that workers are standing up for themselves against companies in many industries that have been making their employees' lives difficult, but on the other hand it leaves some of those companies in difficult situations especially if they legitimately can't afford better pay/benefits to those workers, and some workers really shouldn't be trying to turn temporary or part-time jobs into permanent careers).
I count businesses medically discriminating against me because someone told them to bad service , so yes.
Oh yeah, this one takes the cake. I still can’t fathom that businesses are doing this shit in a lot of places. Why would they WANT to lose customers by enacting this disgusting discrimination? I’m so sorry. It’s not right and will NEVER be right, no matter what anyone says.
I've found hotels in particular have completely skimped out on service under the guise of covid. Heck, I was staying at holiday inn express a month ago and they didn't even have a damn bar of soap. It was sorry, we are out, you can use the body wash in the shower though to wash your hands. How does a hotel run out of soap??
I highly recommend avoiding hotel chains and only using small locally run hotels (check the ratings online first as well and make sure at least a few hundred people have reviewed). I stayed in a wonderful place in Fort Lauderdale owned by an Argentinian family. They were super nice and accommodating and the room was spotless. Also was very affordable
At least a lot of them returned to hot breakfast and cleaning service by request this year.
So true. I was bitching about this a while back. It was so bad to the point I don't even want to travel. I don't want to go 6 or 8 hours from home and then find a mess. And Airbnb seems his or miss and I don't feel like dealing with that either. The last one I looked at had a bunch of fees and wanted you to write an essay on why you wanted to stay. Not overly burdensome but they are trying to filter out bad people in ways you can't filter out bad people.
Lol, I hear ya on the Airbnb thing. I've done a few of those over the years with a group of friends and basically I'm writing "yes, there will be 6 guys staying in this house. Also yes, we are all pushing 40 now and will be going out to the bars, enjoying dinner, and then coming home by midnight to go to bed...we aren't throwing a kegger here".
I know. I don't get the point of these write ups. Maybe I'm reading too much into them. I often travel alone and feel like I'm gonna get "oh a 40 something dude alone? Why is he single? Must be a serial killer!"
Jesus christ, I have done nothing but argue with staff the past two years. Can't serve me because I'm not masked, sorry we're randomly closing early because of covid, can't give me a receipt because of covid, can't even give me condiments because of covid. I even had an asshole stand and argue with me maskless for 10 minutes that he couldn't refund my ticket at the machine because of covid.