How COVID-19 is affecting society

Kara Spengler · Jul 9, 2020

Innula Zenovka said:

This gives one of the bellend twins way too much credit.

GoblinCampFollower · Jul 9, 2020

Aribeth Zelin said:
I do neither of those.

Also, when I go to stores, I wear a mask. We know children will be terrible at keeping masks on.

Kara Spengler · Jul 9, 2020

bubblesort said:
The anti-maskers around here are out of control. They started getting more aggressive on my facebook wall in recent weeks, but I figure trolls gonna troll. Then a few days ago my 86 year old mother told a guy who was coughing up a lung at the local grocery store they should wear a mask. He flipped out on her. I wasn't there, and my mother has anxiety issues, so I can't get an objective account of what exactly happened. He did not strike her, but he threatened her enough that the grocery store offered to escort my mother to her car. She accepted. Then I see more news reports of people snatching masks off little old ladies faces. It seems to be a trend.

So these disease spreading maskless assholes want to get violent. Why? I looked into it...

The maskless read the regulations from the state and try to come up with technicalities for why they don't have to wear masks. Acute asthma and PTSD are exceptions to the 'regulations' (which have no enforcement mechanism), so they claim that they have these ailments, even if they don't, just to give them cover to be jack asses. One of the things the state keeps saying in press conferences and in documentation is to avoid confrontation with the maskless. The maskless read this as they can go maskless if they escalate every request to wear a mask into a confrontation. Then they think everybody has to back down to them.

I don't back down. In fact, I hope one of them takes a poke at me. They probably won't, because the cowards typically target little old ladies, but I do have a way with people sometimes. I'm pretty good at pulling aggro and soaking punches. I don't plan to fight, but I would gladly take a black eye in exchange for sending one of these maskless assholes to jail for assault or harassment (we don't have battery in PA).

I need a T-shirt that identifies me as a mask advocate, so they know who to come after. Something so short and simple even the illiterate maskless hillbillies can comprehend it. Maybe "WEAR A MASK" in big white block print on a black shirt? IDK.

I was watching a disabled person from the uk talk about why some disabled people can not wear masks. I quickly jumped on his youtube page to explain that the antimask/antivaccine ppl in the us are using that argument to try and get out of mask regs. Which makes it even more hard for disabled ppl over here to avoid the virus, mask or no.

Kara Spengler · Jul 9, 2020

Free said:
Yup, that's what the Dems fear most about that!

Plus of course if the Dems were screaming to open everything he would change his tune fast. Just because they agree with what experts say does not make them wrong.

Kara Spengler · Jul 9, 2020

Romana said:
Florida governor DeSantis (or DeSatan, as some would have it, and I can see why) compares going to or teaching school with going to Home Depot:

Thread:

That is because they are essential industries you berk. Education, while important, is not as essential as food and nearly all of it can be done online.

Katheryne Helendale · Jul 9, 2020

Romana said:
Florida governor DeSantis (or DeSatan, as some would have it, and I can see why) compares going to or teaching school with going to Home Depot:

Thread:

Except, in Home Depot and Walmart, you're not stuffed 30 faces in a 10ft x 20ft room. Plus, with those places, you go in, get your shit, and get out. Try that in school, and you'll have the truant officer after you.

Free · Jul 10, 2020

Free · Jul 10, 2020

How Many Sick Children and Teachers Are Worth It? What About Dead Ones?

The Trump administration is leaving parents and school districts with an impossible decision this fall.

www.esquire.com

Let’s face it: We’re fucked.

It goes on from there.

Kathryn Elisabeth · Jul 10, 2020

Don't just call them anti-maskers. 'Pro-Virus' or 'Pro-COVID' fits, too.

danielravennest · Jul 10, 2020

Kathryn Elisabeth said:
Don't just call them anti-maskers. 'Pro-Virus' or 'Pro-COVID' fits, too.

I call them a death cult.

Innula Zenovka · Jul 10, 2020

Pandemic sidelines more than 1,000 incarcerated wildfire fighters in California

Low-paid inmates have become a vital part of state’s firefighting efforts, sparking concern over exploitation

www.theguardian.com

A dozen California firefighting camps that house incarcerated firefighters have been quarantined and taken out of commission after a coronavirus outbreak at a state prison, highlighting the precarious situation for these crews.

Since the second world war, California has trained and deployed thousands of prisoners to fight fires each year, recruiting those who are willing to fight wildfires at great personal risk in exchange for low wages and reduced sentences.

[....]

“Every fire season it’s the same,” said Romarilyn Ralston, who leads Project Rebound, a California State University program that supports formerly incarcerated students. “The pay is so little, the work is so dangerous. Now we add Covid-19 to the story, and it gets even worse.”

The crews are both crucial and heavily exploited, said Ralston, who worked at a fire camp while incarcerated. In exchange for extremely dangerous work, prisoners earn time off their sentences and are paid between $2 and $5 a day, plus $1 per hour when they are on a fire. Because incarcerated firefighters are paid so little, the program saves the state of California $90m to $100m a year.

“It’s a super imbalanced system; it’s much like the system of slavery,” said Deirdre Wilson, a master’s student of social work at the University of Southern California and a member of the California Coalition of Women Prisoners. “There’s a reliance on this population, on this cheap labor.”

[....]

Across the state, devastating outbreaks at prisons have left more than 5,700 people who are incarcerated sick with the infection. Of the 192 crews of incarcerated firefighters, only 94 are currently available, Governor Gavin Newsom announced on Thursday.

Grey Mars · Jul 10, 2020

Exploitation is the point. This is a highly capitalist country, with an extremely high prison population. It's only a tiny cognitive leap to realize someone is profiting highly from the convicts. Slavery is quite literally still legal in the case of prison inmates.

Free · Jul 11, 2020

Innula Zenovka · Jul 11, 2020

I was a foreign student. The new Ice rule is shortsighted and cruel | Ayelet Haimson Lushkov

Sending international students home during the pandemic will do lasting harm, not least to America’s reputation

www.theguardian.com

Education, at all levels, is a space uniquely devoted to kindness. It is rooted in the belief that one can get there from here, that people can learn and grow and thrive, and that all the students in the room are worth investing in. This is why education is so often at the root of the pursuit of happiness, and the American university is part of why people come here to seek it.

Sending international students back home during a global pandemic, by contrast, is cruel. It demands that these young people choose between risking their lives or risking their education. And even that is no choice at all. The pandemic has restricted flights, and the US’s hotspot status means that even returning citizens are not always welcome in their home countries. Travel means increased exposure in transit and for those back home.

Universities and academics are moving rapidly to challenge the decision, and so should we all. Not just because of the many benefits international students bring, but because sending them away is a betrayal of the contract of education: it declares, loudly and clearly, that some people are not worth investing in. And what does it say about us when we are sending away some of the rest of the world’s best students?

American higher education is already in crisis. Tearing away at its international reputation will do lasting harm, not only to American universities, but to America’s reputation in the world, a reputation that is already suffering. I fear that the world will soon decide that we are the ones not worth the investment, and, worse, that they won’t be wrong.

Kara Spengler · Jul 11, 2020

Kara Spengler · Jul 11, 2020

Kathryn Elisabeth said:
Don't just call them anti-maskers. 'Pro-Virus' or 'Pro-COVID' fits, too.

Yes, it is what they do with other things. Like they do not call themselves antichoice.

Innula Zenovka · Jul 11, 2020

Thread

Innula Zenovka · Jul 11, 2020

Sredni Eel · Jul 11, 2020

I had an epiphany. Do you think people would give me candy if I have a costume on and carry a pumpkin bucket? I'm *not* missing out on Halloween. If COVID makes it impossible in October, I will make it happen on a later date.