Populist Fury

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Unless you are in full protective gear, which you are able to change in between each person you see, I would not buy masks with the thought that it's protecting YOU from getting Covid-19. The idea behind the masks is that it will limit droplet spread to decrease your ability to transmit it to others. Just about anything you put in front of your face (as long as it's not a mask with one of those one-way valves) will do.

I'm in favor of the Sweden herd immunity approach + I probably already had the virus pass through me back in Feb.

The masks are for someone else who needs a new one every day, & to have a few extra dozen available @ home in case anyone else I know needs some. Ended up ordering 2 large batches of N95 & KF94 respirators from an Amazon-like China site, from sellers with a US stock. The Korean style is a better design ?

I agree with Tasso that these masks are much more protective for the wearer than some poorly-made cloth mask made out of an old sock or something else. They also make people feel safer when they go outside regardless of the actual science.

Has anyone bought face masks or anything else from the following site: https://www.g2best.com/ ?????

I'm wanting to order those 60 n95 masks for someone, but don't wanna get scammed. There's a SoKo site that sells KF94 & 3M carbon masks, but are sold individually, & I'm looking for a batch of 50+

Everything about this band makes me happy ?

WTF are you talking about? The reason the death count is low is precisely BECAUSE of the shelter in place orders. It's like saying PreP doesn't work because so many fewer people get HIV now it's not a big deal....

Uhm no, two very different things. + I never said that social distancing isn't effective. The problem is the OTT hysteria & fearmongering in the media... it's as bad, or maybe even worse than back in the TERROR ALERT! days, when they wanted us to live in constant fear of terrorist attacks that never came after that initial one. I can't discuss politics here, but I think we all know what all that disgusting fearmongering led to in the end. People never think rationally when hysterical & in fear.

The other bigger problem is the kneecapping of the economy do to these lockdowns, which will ultimately end up affecting poor & working class people the most. The middle class will be hit hard too, many will probably end up losing their homes, etc, just like in the last economic crisis. It's possible that we end up with more death & suffering from these lockdown measures than from the actual virus itself in the end.

People forget that around 40,000 die in a regular flu season here in the U.S. alone. The vast majority of people dying from Covid-19 are 70+ & those with severe preexisting conditions. They should be the ones on lockdown, isolated from the rest of us. The rest of us in good health should be out there living our lives, working, going places, developing herd immunity, keeping the economy afloat. Locking everyone down & instituting $1,000 fines is a tyrannical, political, & emotional fear response.

People still worshiping these so-called royalty creatures in the year 2020 is scary...

Lol @GregM always keeping it real ?

It's amazing to see how easily people are willing to give up their civil liberties/freedoms when in fear.

So, I just looked @ official Covid-19 numbers, & the worldwide death count so far is 67,999. May sound like a lot, but it's actually almost nothing when we consider the fact that world population is over 7 billion & close to 150,000 people die each & every day on average. People need to chillax & not allow the media's fearmongering get to them... keeping them living in constant fear of death.

A national shutdown won't do much at this point other than keep people prisoner in their own homes. Herd immunity is the answer.

For those of you on isolation/lockdown, I recommend https://drizly.com

They deliver in under an hour & their selection is vast ?

Joachims attraction for me is that he seems "authentic" and really means what he says, and follows his passions. Although his acceptance was long and rambling, it was touching. In contrast to Renee Z's who was also long, but unfocused and pointless and seemed pandering and forced.

Everything about her is forced, including her acting.

Loved:

- Laura Dern winning :')

- Phoenix's speech ?

- The Koreans taking best director & picture ?

Hated:

Pitt & Zellwegger winning.

Joe Pesci & ScarJo or Charlize should've won. Pesci still has the best winning speech ever.

Eddie Fox, a fireman from New Jersey. He played dumb and sexy because that is his personality. Eddie missed the final three, but finished Fourth.

 

He was on Survivor a while ago, but we are still Facebook friends

 

.

I was rooting for the black mamba (Brenda) that season, but thought he was hot.

I haven't really watched since the season where Sarah won. Wouldn't touch any of those guys from this season with a 10-foot pole, none of them even close to my type.

I miss the old days when they'd cast hot mactors on the show & King Russell/Queen Parvati dominated everyone.

Pete Yurkowski will always be the hottest guy ?

No. I can't even imagine what it'd be like.

I was lucky to be born into a tradional marriage with good loving parents. Actually wish my dad had been tougher on us when we were younger.

I was advised to take B12 methyl & iron supplements after going vegetarian back in '06

Also take a daily multivitamin + a separate magnesium taurate supplement.

For workout: NOW unflavored whey isolate & TransparentLabs stim-free pre-workout

I had a bad experience with pre-workout shit loaded with stimulants once, never again!

That does it. Give me you Gay card. You've lost it, permanently.

Even if Far From Heaven was my #1 movie that same year??????

I lost all faith in the Best Pic category after Shitcago won over The Pianist 16 years ago. The following 3 years had even worse outcomes. -_-

Fargo & Network not winning in their respective years was beyond criminal too. The entire awards show should been cancelled after Rocky won best pic.

The Academy owes her one for Fatal Attraction. Will this be her year, or will the voters go gaga over Gaga?

 

~Boomer~

They owe her for that epic role + she's also been nominated 6 times, & not a single win. This is her time!

I only caught the last hour of the re-airing, & was glad to see Glenn Close win over Lady Gaga & the others. Great humble/honest speech too. Hope she also wins @ the Oscars next month. ?

This was an extremely weak year for movies, nothing really excited me from the ones I got to see. The ones I didn't get to see look pretty meh, so I'm not even going to bother with them. Bohemian Rhapsody is as overrated as the band was... It winning best pic, & for drama, was a joke. Gaga's movie looks even worse -_-

There are like 2mins of Xmas left here... Hope everyone had a good time... I did

???

 

You too can open your heart of our lovely Gay spirit and pray for others to receive the joy of what our President Donald Trump called the "LGBTQ" community, which is of love and peace.

Vive La Revolution!!

They should bring back the guillotine! ???

http://smileys.newbeginningsnetwork.com/piwigo/galleries/AGGRESSION/violence/guillotine-smiley-emoticon.gif

Which makes my point. Thank you, @Corporate Shill.

 

When things like wisdom and intelligence and free will boil down to whether you have a choice of 5, 50, or 500 emojis, I think it's fair to say that the emojis in question are the symptom of the problem. They are certainly not the solution. This is a perfect illustration of the argument that social media is leading to, at best, dumbed-down democracy, and at worst digitally-regulated authoritarianism.

 

What's up for grabs in this "testing" period, as far as I can tell, is whether there is any website to be had that contains any type of discussion or debate worth actually having. :oops: And that's me being a bit hysterical, I know. :eek:

 

I assumed this website was offline until January. The reason I found out it was up is that last week I called someone after I got a call from a family member of @Traveler North informing me he had passed. The forum member I called informed me @tristanbaldwin had already posted a message here, thankfully. I think all of us would agree that type of information sharing is one very important community function this website has served, and will hopefully continue to serve. And we've all just shown we're adults who are perfectly capable of expressing genuine sadness at the loss of a dear member of our community, without needing a sad face emoji to do so.

 

But while we are on the subject of death:

 

"The collapse of our civilizations and the extinction of much of the natural world is on the horizon."

 

You can take a statement like that, or leave it. It was just spoken by David Attenborough, narrator of Planet Earth, at the keynote to the UN conference on climate change in Poland. If you choose to leave such rubbish, one might rather appreciate having an emoji to communicate one's contempt for such a statement. So, for example, let's posit that there is - for sake of argumentation - someone I will refer to as "Individual 1." And let's say - just for the sake of argumentation - that "Individual 1" likes to tweet every morning. Said "Individual 1" might feel that a "fake news" emoji (o_Oo_Oo_O ???) communicates the appropriate level of contempt for stupid concerns about the future of civilization perfectly adequately. In our new era of digital authoritarianism, a new and proper "fake news" emoji might be all we actually need to survive and prosper. Hell, my guess is we could even all be perfect gentlemen, and simply agree that the "meh" emoji is perfectly adequate to express our common contempt for idiots like Attenborough who are concerned about the future of civilization.

 

Then again, there is always the possibility that a few among us might prefer the idea of reading and sharing and debating hundreds or even thousands of pages of government and scientific reports that suggest that perhaps Attenborough actually has a point. Surely, no one in their right mind would think we can't get enough of that kind of reason. Right? Nobody would actually prefer dry reams of data when a lively "fake news" emoji will do, right? I mean, why would anybody actually fight passionately about data, or ideas, as if the collapse of civilizations was actually at stake? I mean, can't it all be adequately summed up like this: :mad:. Then can't we all just agree to move on to the next emoji? :)

 

Because once you go down that rabbit hole, you find out very quickly that tweets and emojis and rants about "fake news" are not the solution to the problem. They offer no discernible advancement to civilization. One might even conclude that the kind of tweets and emojis and rants about "fake news" we experience daily from my figurative "Individual 1" are in fact part and parcel of the grave threats our civilization actually faces.

 

Having a nice little pyramid on how to make an argument is all well and good. And if I were a school marm, I'd give extra points to any ambitious student who tried to make a well-documented argument using a nifty pyramid like that. But it still remains a good question as to whether just posting a nice little pyramid that explains the rules of logic and reason to a bunch of very smart people even begins to address the real problem.

 

As recently as - hmmm, let's see, today! - we had a perfect example of what one might argue is the real problem. Somebody real, who I will again refer to as "Individual 1" - said that unless people accept his facts - which are widely refuted - and his way of doing things, he is going to shut the entire US government down. No, this is not a test. This is real. I'm not sure there is an emoji to communicate concern that you won't be getting your Social Security check this month. Or that you'd best not plan a trip to a national park anytime soon. It all feels rather bullying to me. Surely, there must be a "bully" emoji?

 

So we might consider this: until we figure out a way to actually discuss and address the problem as it exists in the real world, and have civil and civilized discussions instead of digital authoritarianism and tweets and bullies, the choice of whether we have 5 or 50 or 500 emojis may have no real meaning. Surely that warrants a sad face, right? :(

 

Then again, others will surely disagree.

 

After all, what more choice do any of us really need? :D:eek::rolleyes::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

Welp, I did ask about enabling emojis back before the update took place, so I can't act like I'm not loving this now

Can't respond in full to your post w/o getting the thread sent to the Politics forum, but I do gotta say I disagree that social media is authoritarian & dumbing-down democracy. The opposite is true actually... social media has empowered regular citizens with no money or power to become politically active, allowing #PeoplePowered movements to rise up all across the world. The Gilets Jaunes protests wouldn't be taking place in France w/o social media organizing, for example. ✨

We should embrace the change & be thankful the upgrade didn't ruin the forums like it's happened @ other sites... it only made things better, more up-to-date... the site used to feel hella outdated before.

I must be the only one who loves all these new goodies/options. Not sure why anyone would want less choices

I say keep them all, & maybe add a ? or a ? for those rare posts you can't get enough of.