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

(addendum: looks like it'll first only be approved for 12-16 age group, if they're under 12 it might be a while)

I'm getting my first shot tomorrow (Pfizer) and I feel nervous like I do when I'm about to go on a long trip to another country!

My guess is that even if we see another modest uptick now, cases and hospitalizations will be low by summer, as they were last summer. It seems pretty likely that there's some kind of seasonal aspect to this, plus big #'s will be vaccinated by then.

So I got my first Pfizer in a small town, a Walgreen's right next to the bookstore I used to work at in high school. Open slots all day/week, also observed around 5 people straight up not wearing masks in the store in the ~20 min I was there.

I've yet to encounter anyone indoors without a mask (aside from people eating food or drinking or whatever). I assume when we drive south into the hinterlands of Redneckistan this week we will see a lot more.

i got my shot in a small town in a giant pop-up site set up in an abandoned kmart and there were many staff(!) chinstrapping their masks or wearing w/noses out. i was able to stay far the fuck away from them though.

xp to f. hazel, I felt the same way! All anxious and jumpy, constantly checking to make sure I had everything I needed, even though I didn't actually need anything except my printed QR code.

"the hinterlands of Redneckistan"

really dude?

Says the resident of the Village of Chicago

uk news yesterday had two stories back to back about

a) not stockpiling vaccine, giving the surplus to developing contries because of the 'pan' part of pandemic

b) over 50s should arrange a jab quickly because there are about to be shortages (and, or maybe because, april is going to be focused more on second jabs for the earlier crowd)

stories seemed to be complete opposites of each other.

I believe JiC meant "the fertile, black soil of southern Illinois, where one can see majestic thunderheads roll across the horizon while bathing in the green and delicious scent of young cornstalks"

Yeah, that place. Specifically by Anna, Illinois, subject of this very unflattering Atlantic story from a couple of years ago:

https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2019/11/anna-illinois-sundown-towns/601111/

(Btw, re: cities, towns, villages et al. in Illinois, that's partly because Illinois has more units of local government than any other state - something like 8000 - and they're often all called something else. I can walk a mile or two in any direction and literally be in a different city, town, village, etc.)

Y'all do realize that a lot of rednecks proudly self-identify as rednecks, right? Signed, someone who has lived deep in the bosom of several rural redneck enclaves

Bosom Holler

I would say 40% of the male members of my high school graduating class in central Illinois would proudly have identified themselves as rednecks if asked. That said, I understand why the blanket dismissals of rural areas with such names are stupid and diminish the lives of people who are stuck there by family or circumstance.

cool, now you all can explain why it's amusing to say "-istan" when you're talking about a place filled with people you disdain

Second Pfizer jab complete!

xpost - I didn't see that particular part, was just addressing the recent "redneck" talk. Yes, that is not cool either, but maybe call out the person who posted instead of expecting everyone else to do it?

Congrats Alfred!

Specifically by Anna, Illinois,

I grew up near here until I moved away at age 14. All I will say is, I've never been back.

WHO WANTS TO PARTY ON APRIL 12

Sorry, gotta wait until May 12th.

All I will say is, I've never been back.

So am I way off base? The "-stan" suffix was not intended as a slight on the people, just as in "a place abounding in." Calling the people down there "rednecks," that part I'll own, with the acknowledgment that of course they're not all bad people down there (very fine people on both sides, etc.) and that there are plenty of people there for family or through circumstances. I'm just going by all the warnings I've either read or been given by people actually from the area. But I honestly look forward to be proven wrong!

I have been guilty of redneck shaming during my adult life and the recent pushback on ILX has made me reconsider it.

I did plenty of redneck shaming when I was in the middle of it growing up, definitely. It's been easier to see as I've gotten older, though, how unfair it is to paint an entire region or area, because I do know some people that stick in those areas, fighting the good fight to keep progressive politics alive.

Taking an aggressive pride in one's ignorance is an understandable reaction to being shamed for one's ignorance, and it's a reaction that's in no way confined to just 'rednecks', but it is never a helpful reaction and it usually ends up stunting otherwise functional adult humans.

That's all true. So should someone not be shamed for being a vaccine denier, a Q supporter, carrying an assault weapon, flying a confederate flag, and so on? Obviously society as a whole is struggling with how to deal with ignorance/misinformation and its effects, particularly when it mingles with already malignant ideologies.

I've experienced a deep shift in how I think about parts of the American south (including Tennessee where half my family comes from), especially in the context of "maker and taker," ie blue and red, states and who benefits "disproportionately" from federal support. West Virginia isn't "taking" federal funds when they come in near the top of funds received per capita. They are suffering under GENERATIONS of ruthless resource extraction where all their natural wealth flowed to centers of capital and was consolidated in the hands of industry & energy barons, providing the fossil fuel that powered this country's development.

Starting with that kind of reasoning has profoundly recast rural poverty for me.

Beginning Tuesday, all New Yorkers 30 years of age and older will be eligible to receive the vaccine.

-- Beginning April 6, universal eligibility goes into effect, and all New Yorkers 16 years of age and older will be eligible to receive the vaccine...

lol "30 years and older" these people have too much time on their hands, just open it up.

The "-stan" suffix was not intended as a slight on the people, just as in "a place abounding in."

Josh, I believe you're sincere here. But while you are correct about the etymology, I rarely see someone come up with a new -stan that has a positive meaning/intention. I see it primarily used to designate a contemptible place filled with ideologically homogeneous, brainwashed and/or barbaric people (e.g., "Wokeistan" is pretty popular on the right). IMO, the reason for this is pretty clearly a few centuries of Orientalism, more recent anti-Muslim hatred, bigoted jokes about interchangeable countries in central Asia, and frequently ignored Western imperialist campaigns in that region. Again, I do believe that you didn't intend to invoke all that, but that is why I objected to the usage.

rob otm though I also believe Westerners do this all the time without bad intentions.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/91/LondonistanUK.jpg

The intentions are never less than bad in the UK, can't speak for the US.

Though LOL at How Britain Is Creating A Terror State Within Melanie Phillips. She is terrible and a state.

i feel like in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, Americans totes did it in a malign way, and sometimes still, but a lot of it just seems like an unthinking attempt to say something "colorfully." See also sprinkling speech with "Allahu akbar" or "insha'Allah," which always REALLY WEIRDS ME OUT when it's white non-Muslims and not, like, my mom.

So should someone not be shamed for being a vaccine denier, a Q supporter, carrying an assault weapon, flying a confederate flag, and so on?

Individually, yes, these people should absolutely be shamed. What I'm arguing is that the areas where these people live should not be completely dismissed and shamed, as a whole, because of those people.

See also sprinkling speech with "Allahu akbar" or "insha'Allah," which always REALLY WEIRDS ME OUT when it's white non-Muslims and not, like, my mom.

People do this?

not a lot, but yes, i swear it sometimes happens!

Jesus... sorry, wow.

ime it is usually middle-aged white dudes of indeterminate center-liberal politics who are trying to be jaunty in speech.

i wish i understood why they do it.

lol "Londonistan" is such a dumb neologism, too. what a maroon.

"insha'Allah" is kind of an internet thing too (also biden said it).

i don't say it, but it's not easily translatable and i guess it's a useful phrase?

I have assumed such uses are people trying to apostrophically tweak right-wingers freaking out about sharia law xps

"god willing" is the translation.

it was already an expression in the US...

not sure what's untranslatable about a phrase that means "God willing" xp

oops lol