Mostly Apolitical Thread for Discussing/Venting our Rational/Irrational COVID-19 Fears and Experiences in 2020

6 days into the government making it mandatory to wear a face covering in shops and I've made my first trip to my local mini Tesco. Face coverings more necessary in smaller shops than larger you would think? Think again! Half the customers and none of the staff wearing face coverings. Not that much difference from a month ago.

I went to everyone's favorite, the Post Office, a couple of days ago, and one of the two workers behind the counter was not wearing a mask. She wasn't helping me, and I did not have the heart to scold her. The person she *was* helping was not wearing a mask, either. They were both the only ones in the post office that I saw sans mask.

I'm here in one of the worst hit areas of the US where masks are mandatory and just had a run-in with a militant anti-masker at the store here. It can be so unnerving.

I just never would have imagined that masks would become this much of a political firestorm. Obviously, yes, there would be dissenters and fringe idiots, but never to the centerstage like this. It's soul crushing, really. To know that just that simple fucking step, while not being able to solve this crisis, would have put us all in a much better position right now.

It really is the fight scene from "They Live," except on a huge scale.

this country was deeply broken before Trump came along but he's very much ushered in the era of "trust no one smarter than you"

We don't even have that excuse here, seems to be more people can't be arsed wearing them.

see also death cult

the only explanation for anything in the USA is that 40% or so of the population worships death

Just sitting here hoping that Trump starts riding hard for some Covid 'cure' that's legitimately toxic and that his flock will unquestioningly start guzzling down like a bottle of sarsaparilly.

Well, his "cure" seems to be just waiting it out, which will take out some people, but slowly, and not just his idiots.

The 'quin actually already did kill some people, so eh no effect

Anyone else besides that couple that ate fish food?

Regardless, the virus in America is killing minorities disproportionately. There's a lot to be galled at but seeing Governor Abbot in TX refuse to allow a mask order in the worst-hit border area is egregious.

the only explanation for anything in the USA is that 40% or so of the population worships death

What's the overlap between the cult of Thanatos and the cult of Mammon?

Honky death cult is the MO of much of the US.

More like 'death for you, immortality for me'.

^^^ this

It's not death for themselves, they are all going to be saved in the rapture. It's death for all the rest of us they are actively cheering on.

idk some of them were saying "don't shut down the economy to save me!!!" mere weeks ago. I think they want to die.

Honky death cult is the MO of much of the US.

― blue light or electric light (the table is the table

this is a little harsh on Missouri, but fair, it is fair

lol I wanted to make that joke but I'm glad you did

i'm happy to deputize you to make fun of MO whenever you want. however bad you think it is, it's worse

my dad's family moved around a few times so he was a Hickman High School Kewpie

yeah, those damn Hickman babies destroyed our marching band in every contest, every year. sucks to get yr ass kicked in MO

I have a question no one I know can seem to answer: what can/will companies do with their office spaces, especially the ones they own, as WFH becomes the new norm in so many industries? Like I'm glad I have the luxury of coming to an office, but there's no denying it's a tremendous waste of resources. Has anyone written about this?

i was going to say "they could open them up to the general public" but my nose kept growing

death cultism, i.e. valorizing certain forms of death as the only way to make life meaningful (succinctly depicted in the mad max reboot), in the us is very real imo and i know no one thinks anything of freud these days but he was onto something wrt sex drives and death drives being closely related.

i'd say that it's more than 40% of the u.s. that believes in death cultism to some degree, it's the logical endpoint of a lot of power structures including patriarchy, racism, etc.

The Reformation was a cosmic mistake

... for the US maybe.

i know no one thinks anything of freud these days but he was onto something wrt sex drives and death drives being closely related.

Time for Wilhelm Reich to be rehabilitated... partially.

More like 'death for you, immortality for me'.

― pomenitul, Wednesday, July 29, 2020 10:48 AM (fifty-two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Sure, but the inner life of an Evangelical absents itself of any sort of logic, so whether or not these honkies believe in the Rapture or whatever, there's the fact that they are happy to watch "their own" die because to show compassion and empathy toward people is read as weakness. Metzl's Dying of Whiteness does a nice job of showing how white supremacy and religious fundamentalism have warped so many peoples' minds in this country that the average white Evangelical's mother could be dying and they'd reject the medical care she'd receive if it meant that a Black person or a queer person could also get that same medical care.

So, honky death cult it is.

Underrated Bernje Taupin lyric

Simon there was this slice of life story about Midtown Manhattan the other day in the NY Times, but no answers:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/26/nyregion/nyc-coronavirus-time-life-building.html

update -- when i learned about the info students received re: fall instructional modalities (masks, video, bad scene) it was Wednesday night
by Friday morning, faculty received a message that everything would be online through the end of fall semester. ok. so that is an improvement i guess but can we get it together with the messaging?

communication has never been more important, more life and death for more people, than it is right now. maybe it is time we focused on clear and consistent messaging/giving instructions? apparently this is really hard for some people.

Fair enough, table.

xps

got another COVID test today (precautionary, no symptoms), and they jammed the swabs so far up my nose tears came out of my eyes

Re Simon’s question the office real estate market in the DC area has been soft for years with a high vacancy rate in the suburbs especially and this will just accelerate. Old office buildings are now being converted to apartments.

I'll also just add that I've been thinking about Metzl's book a lot during the pandemic, and how many of the patterns he identifies are playing out in exactly the way one would expect during a pandemic.

Notably, many people are unwilling to extend any good will past their own identity groups, even if that places their own identity group at risk. It's illogical and infuriating but alas, honky death cult.

I had no idea about this, and really, MEGA FUCK YOU, DISNEY!

https://wdwnt.com/2020/07/gofundme-launched-to-help-cultural-representatives-cast-members-still-in-america/

(I knew about the suspension of the Cultural Representative Program, but not that some were still stranded here without money or any assistance)

my hometown in Australia now has the highest # of cases outside of Melbourne for the state of victoria & it’s scaring the fuck out of me

most of my family are there!
they are being super careful & my parents are quarantining hardcore & have been before this blew up but still, it just so horrible

even in years past when i was at my most homesick it has never felt this awful to be so far from home

had someone come into my shop without a mask because they have, direct quote, "a touch of that OCPD, that breathing thing"

in Glasgow it feels like everything has gone back to normal except 80% of people are wearing masks. People are out in groups, just about everything is open, nobody seems interested in staying a metre away from each other.

“Daniel A. Biederman, executive director of the Bryant Park Business Improvement District, said that for the sake of the neighborhood’s very identity, Midtown executives who fled the city to work remotely should feel a moral purpose to come back as soon as safely possible.

“They’ve almost made the unpatriotic decision for Midtown Manhattan,” he said.“


Unpatriotic!!!!

Alex in NYC and I both used to work in that building. Touch of nostalgia for the grandeur of going to work through that lobby and all the ways to spend my little money in the underground concourse (the flower stand was the most alluring).

sorry VG, may your family continue their hardcore ways

the “identity” of Bryant Park? give me one (1) break

okay starting to get very nervous about September. not only is school starting but my wife is likely to be forced back into the office. my kids are 5 and 3 and cases are rapidly accelerating in my town. if we send the boy to kindergarten then we have to send the girl to day care, and since we're friends with some of the day care teachers we know that they have been all over the place and are going to large gatherings. they already had one outbreak there, nobody got seriously ill luckily. we don't really have anyone who can come to help. everyone works or has kids of their own. neither one of us can really quit right now. there's just no good answer here. I know many of you are in the same situation or worse. If we knew this would only go until November or December I think we could just scrap through it but who fucking knows. schools are about to open and in 10 weeks it'll be too cold here to really hang outside.

:( yeah man, can't blame you for being freaked out by all that. it's hard when you have no idea how long of a ride you're in for and the government is doing next to nothing to help.

my dumbass brother can't come to town and socialize because his work/state would make him quarantine for two weeks after going back - overjoyed, because I was going to have to kill him if he gave my mom the 'rona.

frogbs, that is awful, i am sorry.

if anyone ever asks what is cruel and unnecessary in USA’s handling of this crisis, this story is why i want to fight.

stay well. xp.

I go back in to work on Monday. My job is usually pretty physical but I'm still recovering from a broken leg. Rather than go in to work and sit around on a computer I convinced them to let me sit around on a computer at home. But I can walk unassisted now and I've done everything I can do from here. At one point I felt like Houston was on the verge of closing, but Abbott's not going to let it happen.

Can't imagine what it's going to feel like to be back at work after being gone for almost 6 months.