Topic: Coronavirus outbreak

@Heavyarms55 No need to apologize, I get what you're saying. I'm a Catholic in the south, so I know how rigid others can be in their beliefs when they feel unease or are asked simple questions
Anyway, I don't really have any advice. I just don't even engage on levels of pure disbelief like that. There isn't sound reasoning being used, so I'm not gonna waste my own energy on it. I know my opinions are, I know how to use critical think and look for information myself.

@HobbitGamer I wish I were still able to do that. When it wasn't issues that were actively endangering my family and friends I just ignored it. But part of me thinks maybe that's the problem, if I had had that discussion with them at an earlier point, perhaps then it would have made a difference. Now it simply feels too late.

Of course dwelling on "what if" never helps anyone of course...

all my neighbors keep leaving.
everyday in the same manner.
in and out, in and out, in and out.
1:30 am they come back, leave again at 2:30 am.
yall dont have jobs, what the hell are you doing?
its really annoying to see so many people refusing to take this matter seriously.

@ogo79 So they are only home for an hour? Or they are only gone for an hour?

I mean, going out for a late night walk is a lot better than marching around Lansing Michigan with AR-15s and confederate flags and calling yourself a patriot because you can't stand to stay home...

@Heavyarms55 While I don't agree with the armed marches (because that's just being a bully), and really don't understand the Confederate flag (because Michigan was a strong Union state), I can understand some people's frustrations there. They can't even mow their lawns, they're restricted to what they can buy in stores that are open; They can't buy seeds to grow in a garden. People that own businesses are probably mad that they can't open and only have a few people at a time, yet it's open season at the grocery stores, gas stations, and home improvement stores. I think folks in Michigan are starting to feel as if control is more prevalent than reason. But I'm not there, so I don't really know.

@HobbitGamer I'm not there myself either, but I'm from there, and I can tell you there's a lot of openly racist folk who wish that Michigan had been a confederate state. People used to hang only that flag in front of their house, rather than the American flag, and still call themselves "patriots".

I don't really have sympathy for the folks complaining about gardening seeds or hair cuts while thousands are dead or dying and hundreds of thousands sick with a highly contagious disease.

But I do understand the more valid issues about economics. The economy is suffering badly and many people simply can't pay their bills anymore and the government is, on one hand, ordering them to stay home, and on the other hand, refusing to do more than hand out breadcrumbs to help actual people, after giving a gargantuan handout to big business. And members of the government, especially certain prominent senators are making comments about how they'll increase unemployment benefits over their dead body and saying that stupid lie about people who apparently would happily lose their job and go on unemployment because they are just lazy and don't want to work. Without ever citing any examples of such people beyond a handpicked single case here or there...

And for the protests, there's just such a massive dissonance I don't understand. I thought people would be protesting - protesting a government that failed them and let 92k people die and 1.6 million people get sick with a virus they knew was coming nearly 6 months ago. But hey, for these people it's not their family or their friends so they don't care. If anything, this pandemic has shown me that my standing opinion on basic human empathy was wrong, I had a low opinion of people before this pandemic but my opinion was still that, if a massive catastrophe happened that affected anyone regards or age, race or wealth, that people would have basic empathy for each other. But I was wrong, not even a disaster like this is enough for people to care. It's not in their group so it's not their problem.

And for the gun thing, I respect the right to own weapons is legally established in the US but frankly I don't see it as a peaceful protest. There's a very clear and obviously implied threat in showing up armed like that, a statement of "you're gonna listen to us, or we're gonna use these weapons".

@Heavyarms55 Trust me about the conspiracy nutters, they are everywhere. Every time I see my parents it's another story; coronavirus is made by the Russians, or the Americans, or the Chinese, it's this, or that. Well, my mom doesn't care, but my dad has always these ''theories'' he heard somewhere. Though I'm certain that if I ask my mom about 5G she'll say something along the lines of; ''well, it can't be good for you all that radiation'', and then some nonsense how they didn't have mobile phones and the internet and how everything was much better when they were young

Everything was much better when they were young. Because......... they were young.

I distinctly remember those times! Nope, they definitely weren't better ....

@BruceCM Gaming life was a LOT better, though: no spoilers whatsoever, no crazy internet rumor mongers ruining E3 reveals and no endless fanboy disputes or whiners in comments sections...

Only the monthly gaming magazines, and the odd trailer or "E3 Special" DVD. FAR more surprises, and so in some ways, also FAR more excitement.

But gaming aside: in some ways, the world was actually also better where situations like these are concerned, especially in our grandparent's time: no disease would have traveled around the world this fast, if we didn't have a worldwide commercial airplane network. In post WW2 times, hardly anybody ever traveled by plane, except for the crazy rich or privileged, meaning that the disease might have very well stayed in China, or at most would have entered only the directly surrounding area, but not Western Europe or the United States.

The objectively best time to be alive in all of human history if you live in "the west", was probably the 1990s. Modern technology and science, no major geopolitical threats for the whole of the decade, and sky-high economic growth for most of the decade.

The best time to be alive in anywhere outside of "the west", is probably right now. Or last year before the virus. The median wealth increase in the rest of the world has been huge over the last 30 years, whereas it's been tiny in the west.

Everything was better when we were young. I bought a house and it was affordable.
Now I fear for the next generation or my children buying one.
Was born in the late 70s and children being born now need at least ten different vaccines and immunisation and follow ups before they are ready to go home.

Starting to get a bit nervous. My brother said that he thinks someone he works with has it. They apparently sent this person home when they came to work Friday as the thermometer had them at 103°F (they tried again & had them at 97°F, but sent them home for 2 weeks to be safe), and today he learned that they are now apparently sick in bed (with some difficulty breathing beforehand).

@Dezzy I wasn't looking at it with a "best economic time" perspective, but from the perspective of how we would not have been bothered with the disease all that much, if the world wouldn't have had become that much smaller, due to the many ways we can now quick travel around it. So, that would make post WW2 up until the early 60's the best times to be alive in, regardless of any economic troubles and so on.

I was only looking at the virus-related aspect of it.

@ThanosReXXX

I dunno, there were plenty of international pandemics in the past. The worst in history was probably the Black Death, and that was nearly 1000 years ago, and somehow wiped out nearly half of Europe, despite the fact that the only inland transport at that time was by horses.

I assume it's because the lower amounts of international travel are counterbalanced by the extremely inferior scientific understanding. When everyone thinks it's either being caused by Witchcraft, or a punishment from God, it does slightly mess up your ability to respond properly.

@Octane What I want to know is why first through 4G were okay. I don't recall that conspiracy prior to 5G starting. :/

@Heavyarms55
lol man, these 2 chicks by me go out all morning, all day and all night. its really 24-7. im not the only one noticing it either now.

@Heavyarms55 Because it's 5! Five fingers, five toes. I'm sure Nicholas Cage could get to the bottom of it for us in National Treasure 3

@ogo79 I mean, if they're gone so often it sounds more like they are visiting that house than living there. :/

@HobbitGamer I didn't know there was a National Treasure 2. I enjoyed the first one. I mean yeah it's real dumb, but it's a kids movie. And I was still just a teenager when it came out.

@Heavyarms55
especially one of them...at first i thought she was just visiting for the past few months.
since my last comment here tonight, shes already left and came back twice. hahaha.
who comes home at 1:30 am and leaves again at 2:30 am?
stay home, theres a virus goin on and you got 3 kids!
why you changin clothes every time you leave?
edit
4 kids!