Ditto man. For years while I read the news, and I read DEEP into it and not just taking what I read as gospel but always thinking “there has got to be more to this story…”, listened to the talk radio shows, (Neil Bortz sp. was the best) the youth, as I described them back in the day, were "FM’ers. Just listening to music. Never knowledgeable on Current Events.
As I look back, at Anderson Middle School in Cincinnati when I was a kid, 7th grade, the teacher gave each kid a brand new smelling good newspaper every Tuesday. He would right down on the board 1 or 2 articles from each section we were supposed to read. He even said we had to read one on sports which he would assign even though he said sports were stupid and meant nothing other than creating jobs and helping the local economy. In 7th grade I enjoyed reading the articles!
Things I read about, The Big Red Machine (Cincinnati Baseball, Johnny Bench, Pete Rose, Joe Morgan,) Jimmy Carter with the oil embargo, hostages, The coming of the second Ice Age and then shortly after this fizzled Acid Rain and all trees dead in Canada by 1983, USSR nukes, Developing troubles in Central America,…
well, when my tin-foil hat is on too tight, I think it’s a drill for seeing what we’ll put up with, or a test-flight for martial law. The rest of the time I think its just a bug, but its turning out to be an excellent lab for seeing what we’ll put up with.
I have no doubt that some folks are watching it with an eye to seeing how we deal with having our rights curtailed.
Among the young, that’s the natural product of low serotonin levels - the production of that brain chemistry is naturally low in teens to twenties and it removes healthy fear and reduces the ability to assess threats. Its a species survival thing but it also results in that age group doing a whole lot of stupid.
Regardless, the “it won’t happen to me” is pretty pervasive. Not so much in this room, but in the US in general. We’re WAY into the ‘bread and circuses’ stage of a civilization I think. keep the masses occupied - and having a Panic Du Jour and the Nightly News with their Dinner Disaster Hour and now the cable 24/7 OMG News channels is certainly keeping a good majority of folks occupied. And its the evident bread and circuses that gets my tin-foil hat on too tight.
@Fizbin, I did go back and read a couple of these threads from the top. It is an educational exercise for sure.
Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence
I dont think this is a case of any sort of bio-weapon. It would be poorly designed one if so, it doesnt target anything in particular except maybe more towards older and already compromised. What use is that coming from any government’s agency?
@Aaron25 has it right. Those markets are virus breeding grounds, this isnt the first time theyve had a cross-over. The one positive out of this is maybe they stop breeding these animals in small dirty cages for food.
As far as conspiracy theories and Alex Jones goes… Gubments around the world (including ours) have done some bizarre and heinous stuff over the years (Google “conspiracy theories that were actually true” if you would like to ruin your day). So I dont put anything past anyone. Having said that… I have some very real limits on what I’ll accept as remotely plausible. The more people involved and have to keep their mouth shut… the less likely it is. There are some theories rolling around that require whole towns to keep quiet, and I just dont buy it. But if you tell me you could influence/coerce a handful of folks to do something? Now im listening. Mind you, I’m not saying I believe it… but I’m listening, lol
This, I dont understand. This is the EXACT SAME demographic that marched onto Washington DC in fear of their lives that they’d be mowed down on the streets at any given moment by a mass shooter. Which has shockingly low percentage of actually happening. But this virus, which is highly contagious and if it doesnt kill them, will kill someone they know… they are totally fine just saying #YOLO “no one is going to ruin my spring break!”
I’m going to bookmark several of those spring break videos to show the next time someone says “young people are intelligent and responsible and should make decisions for this country” regarding gun control.
I hold no hope of that. There’s too much appeal in the magical thinking that if you eat a rigid part of a hard-to-find animal, it will restore similar qualities to body parts who have long since given up the fight.
Ok, its not just a guy thing. It’s also youth, health, vigor in every sense of those words.
Human beings want magic, we always have and always will. It used to be (and still is in many places) the transfer of an animal’s qualities to us by consumption. In other places it’s miracle face creams and testosterone boosting supplements, or the latest FDA approved drug to cure whatever it is you have.
personally, I love magic. And it works often enough to keep people doing it. But it makes us righteously stupid sometimes.
Just look at the Magical Search for Enough Toilet Paper we’ve just experienced.
you’re familiar with the phrase “rearranging the deck chairs on the titanic”?
When a real fear is too big and makes you too anxious to tolerate the experience, people choose to ignore it. The most effective way to do that is to replace it with a smaller fear, one with less real risk, one that you feel you can do something to control, and then go after THAT instead.
THAT is typical human psychology. You can see it in kids as young as 2 or so… monsters under the bed stand in when there’s separation anxiety from the parents.
Those folks who protested and rioted about mass shooters weren’t scared. They were enjoying the sense of power they got from “taking control” of a perceived risk in their lives. That empowerment is a potent antidote to feeling powerless in many areas of their lives.
There’s no exhilaration in protesting traffic accidents, or life-choice and diet-choice generated diseases. Nobody gets a rush from a hundred thousand people showing up to protest glazed donuts… because the they just won’t, and it wouldn’t be dramatic if they did anyway. protesting mass shooters and the common evil of guns now… THAT’s empowering. And safe. And thrilling. And massively distracting from the real day-to-day issues of life.
So, now Hays County, the county that affects my work, an adjoining county to Austin, Texas, has implemented an 11pm-4am curfew. How in the world does this help prevent the spread of a virus?!!!
Now that most people in this highly populated county can’t go to work (Note: Liquor Stores are aloud to be open), people I think are going to start getting desperate and the crime rate will start to spike.
This Soft Marshall Law edict is to prepare people for looting and civil arrest which will happen unless people are ALLOWED (Land of the Free) to go back to work.
Rules like this are to prevent idiots from going out and partying at bars, clubs, etc. No one with any sense is out at those hours in this situation unless its a dire emergency.
The bars and clubs are already closed, but I totally understand what you’re driving at.
My operations employees can’t even go to work. They would see NO ONE from the public. Even if I just sent one in and rotated them every day so they wouldn’t even see each other, or worked on opposite sides of the grounds (10 acres) they would not be exposed to CV or spread it.
This makes NO SENSE to throw the big net out there, so to speak.
My employees are begging me to work, they have mortgage payments to make, food to buy, credit card payments. They all said a stupid check for a $1,000 bucks doesn’t pay their mortgage.
Unfortunately, it’s because of those who would not follow the original self-moderating suggestions that all of us are paying the price.
The frustration and fear are real.
Have they contacted their mortgage companies and landlords? I’ve heard some are giving extensions or skipping a mortgage payment (interest still accrues).
My mrs keeps up daily on all the no fake news. We also believe there is some sort of hidden agenda. WE have been lied to over the years…at my age, I have studied the Kennedy assassination, over and over. The governor of Idaho, yesterday declared a lockdown, or what ever one may call it. One of our favorite trap ranges just announced a closure. On my bucket list is to build our own trap range. Not to detract here, sorry.
The industry we serve as a small business, we are just booked with work. Maybe 3 months down the road, different story. People on shut downs and businesses…sad. We pray.
Maybe some Chinese dude ate a dead mouse with Hanta virus, mixed with a dead bat. Flying Hanta virus!
As I understand it, these kinds of actions are meant to slow, not prevent the spread of the virus. After all, there is no treatment, there is no vaccine. That’s what “flattening the curve” is all about. Spreading out the time it takes to reach all of us.
You’re right, wrong word choice on my part. Time for more coffee!
But I still have to wonder how does limiting the time people can leave their house reduce the spread of coronavirus? If you reduce the timeframe when people can leave their homes, you are encouraging more people to be out during the limited timeframe. Does that make sense or do I need an espresso today?
