h/t illustr8r
My late father-in-law, Charlie, grew up in a tiny, thatched roof, stacked stone farmhouse in County Mayo, in stark, cold northwest Ireland. He was the youngest of ten children, four of whom died in infancy. Charlie would rarely mention his childhood. When he did, he said food was starchy and scarce; hunger was common. Piecing the chronology together, I suppose his grandparents survived the Famine.
Ireland’s employment prospects were bleak. England needed construction laborers because so many of England’s young men had been conscripted for World War II. Thus, in his early twenties, Charlie emigrated to London. As Shane MacGowan sang of his Irish brethren, “Wherever we go, we celebrate the land that made us refugees.”
Charlie wasn’t a big storyteller and I didn’t know him to exaggerate. But during one Sunday afternoon dinner, he told a short story about life during The Blitz. He said that, when they heard sirens signaling German nighttime bombing raids, he and his London neighbors would run out of their “flats” into adjacent Hyde Park. They felt safer in the park because they knew the Germans wouldn’t waste bombs on unlit, building-less spaces.
He said that one night, the apartment building next door was flattened during an overnight Luftwaffe run. All of the building’s inhabitants were killed; I guess the bombers had flown under the radar and there had been no warning. Tired from working, Charlie slept through the blast. That’s a heavy sleeper. Maybe he had downed a few pints before turning in; he didn’t say.
I have continually wondered why so many people have reacted so irrationally and fearfully to the Coronavirus(es). I perceive several reasons. Sadly, many Americans have high baseline anxiety. Others were driven by political rooting interests; they knew that disrupting society over Covid would enable Trump’s ouster and facilitate continuing, encompassing social and electoral control. And many consume, and actually believe, alarmist mainstream media. more here
There are 2 people I know with exactly that self righteous attitude the author describes. They’re eager for the next booster because it’s saving lives & it’s right thing to do. They all in on We’re in this Together.
And they are most definitely ready & willing to build some camps for us.
Sick fucking assholes and they have lit up like pinball machines when I tell them it’s been an IQ test & they’ve failed.
MMinWA
‘Zactly the description of so many! A client of mine boasted (breathlessly) about the dozens and dozens(!) of cloth masks she (tirelessly) stiched up on her sewing machine. “We’re all vaxxed up, including boosters!”, she declared. Her otherwise extremely healthy hubs suffered a “strange” heart condition (heart attack) just weeks after the 2nd stab. Totally incurious about the cause. He tested positive again in November.
AA, I sent one of these people a list of 50 recent studies from over a dozen countries detailing myriad problems with this experimental drug that has resulted in 10s of 1,000s of deaths and literally millions of adverse effects.
Some of the fittest athletes on the planet are dropping dead after getting the vax.
1,000s of flights cancelled again because…snow in WA?
Totally blew it off as disinformation.
It’s hopeless Dear.
@Abigail Adams
As a big-time sewist, I, too, could have sewn up dozens of masks but refused to do so on principle. When I must, I wear whatever paper mask I can find in the bottom of my purse, the kind issued by doctors offices, etc., until they fall apart.
My socialist mom went from making pink pussy hats to masks. Right now she’s dealing with what I believe to be a bad reaction to her booster/flu shot combo. She says, “oh no, I’m just old”. Anyway, she’s too tired for anything.
Hilda Matilda — No way was I going to diminish my lovely stash by making useless masks! And they aren’t giving elastic away these days, either. I’ll make lap quilts for children in shelters and long-stay hospitalization, but NOT for silly people who think a mask protects them.
(I scrounge up a mask in the same way to do.)
A generation that has never faced true adversity seeks to fight the most ridiculous battles and willingly die on the most barren hills.
This article expresses a lot of what I’ve been feeling lately.
I’m burned out on the self righteous circle templates on FB and hashtags on Twit etc that say, “I’m vaccinated!” Well, whoop de doo! It’s not like “you’ve”stormed the beaches of Normandy and getting that shot in arm doesn’t make you Batman either. Ugh!
COVID is the Catalyst for mail in votes for the Nazis. It must be preserved at all costs. And now it looks like it’s cured itself. Unacceptable.
I lost a friend of over thirty years due to disagreement over masks and vaccines. He’s NYPD, married to an L&D nurse. I live in AZ and my husband and I both work from home.
I had a major health issue this year but my family had covid in 2020, so we felt/feel no need to get the jab. I was given a mask to wear every time I went for treatment and in order to get treatment I wore it, but that comprised the vast majority of my mask-wearing this past couple of years.
My friend couldn’t wrap his mind around the fact that things were very different between NY and AZ. He got the shot as soon as he could and chided me for choosing otherwise. He told me I would get used to wearing a mask, that it protected me as well as others, and that I was being selfish when I chose not to wear one. So much Kool-Aid drinking.
I miss him, but I don’t miss the sense of moral superiority that he radiated about things I think are bullshit and I really don’t miss his complete lack of faith in my ability and my right to evaluate the risk and make my own healthcare decisions.
Maybe we’ll talk again, maybe we won’t; but in the interim I’ve learned some surprising things about who one of my oldest friends truly is at heart.
Thanks, covid, you ridiculous bastard.
It’s all so exhausting….. I guess that’s the reason.
Circle the wagons.
Us v. Them.
Divide and Conquer.
Fear ALWAYS causes a reaction – increased heart-rate, increased respiration, &c.
Fight or Flight.
Doesn’t matter if the “enemy” are the Kulaks, the Jews, or the Microbes.
“Truth is the first casualty of War.”
(Aeschylus)
And this particular war must be in its intermediate stages because facts are rare and truth is non-existent – we scream slogans at each other and ignore objective reality. Learned Doctors (who should certainly know better) are wearing masks which CANNOT stop a virus and are jabbing their patients with inoculations of which they know nothing. Similarly to the Learned Doctors practicing their crafts (burning incense and ringing bells) during the Plague Years.
We’ve learned nothing.
mortem tyrannis
izlamo delenda est …
I’m beginning to feel as if our beliefs are the controlling factor in our lives so much to the point that if you believe you may or even worse “would” die if you get covid you probably will.
I’ve read that in come cultures when a person received a curse upon them they would die, not because of some magic in the curse but because of their faith in the curse. I have faith in God and His will for me. So I don’t worry about the virus, take minimal precautions and haven’t had it. I figure if I do get it I’ll survive as I’m healthy. Either way I won’t worry about it. I think the people who are worried the most will suffer the most because they are expecting to. Not to say I won’t get it and die I’m just not worried about that!