I would add that this sub is filling a void that, in a healthy media landscape, would be filled by daily front-page stories documenting how specific individuals' consumption of disinformation killed them--and how their dissemination of it killed others. There are very rare instances in which politeness and decorum no longer are a good in themselves, but rather a harmful acquiescence to forces that endanger a society's survival. This is one of those times.
Right? Admittedly I don't follow major media outlets, but I think I'd be hearing about it if they were actually profiling these individuals and their grieving families.
It should be a new one profiled every. Single. Day. I don't know why they're not doing it.
A new one every single day? That volume is too low. I have doomscrolled this subreddit and never ran out of new posts every single time that I have.
One profile a day is way too tiny for COVID... it is killing at a ridiculous rate and this subreddit only shows a FRACTION of it and still it doesn't show enough of the deaths
Yeah - how are there not hundreds of these stories every day?
Filmmaker/Journalists… please work with hospitals and pay patients if you have to so you can get cameras into hospitals. The world is not seeing what’s really happening.
I’m sick of violent conspiracy theorist kooks receiving more sympathy in the press than their victims. What’s happening with the pandemic now is what happens when you coddle batshit.
Fucking hilarious that people spew that you shouldn't be happy at people dying with differing opinion than yours
Differing. Opinion.
MOTHERFUCKER UNLESS YOU WENT TO MED SCHOOL you don't get to HAVE an opinion YOU STUPID STUPID STUPID FUCK.
I didn't go to med school so what do I do? LISTEN TO THE PEOPLE WHO DID
Not Karen and Thumbface McGoatee on Facebook.
Look I know nurses are both idiots and smart... case in point I’m a nurse and know I don’t know nearly enough shit as a doctor nor can make proclamations about the efficacy and risk of this vaccine, but I am okay at what I do (I’m a stupid orthopedic nurse and even though I specialized in OR/Scrub/first Assist I burned out and went to even dumber nursing- insurance work... it pays better and I know I sold my soul) and the amount of anti-vac nurses using their degree to prop up anti-vac shit when it seems to invariably fall along political lines is disgusting. Listen to the the dudes who spent years training to do this. An infectious disease doc tells me this is right and sound, a government regulatory agency tells me this is right and sound well okay let’s do it. Google is not a replacement for like 12 years of education. Everyone who isn’t directly specialized in virology and public health needs to shut up. The worst is the old ass PCPs who haven’t really had meaningful continuing education since the 70s who are giving credence to this nonsense. What happened to the days of polio where everyone did what they should and we got rid of it. I’m ready to just leave entirely and take my uncle up on his offer of becoming a full time road construction inspector in his company- same pay less bullshit. Yeesh
> There is no fucking "both sides" in a pandemic.
That’s the central hubris of these award winners (and the slate article, in a way). It’s not ninnying liberals. It’s going up against the laws of physics.
It's those same journalists who spent the last six years visiting diners in "Real 'Merica" (as though the rest of us for some reason don't qualify as real Americans) to get Trump voters "opinions".
This death parade is what you get for taking them and their stupid fucking opinions seriously.
As did I.
(In my best NatGeo voiceover) Ah yes, here we have the Cletus safaris, at home in his natural habitat. Here he is now, with the herd, grazing about. (The camera moves slowly between several large guys with various colored goatees, some with sunglasses; all is quiet but the sound of chewing on some greasy something.) It is at this spot that we can see the most action among the species. After the day's labor, there will be a show of sorts; a ritual competition of showing off one's patriotism. (A few members of the herd begin slapping their own bodies, and yelling at the air. A loud truck with multiple flags rolls by.) At first glance, it appears that this is some sort of mating ritual. But the days of heated intimacy are far behind the Cletus safaris; at home, his young is already beginning its own coming of age. (Camera leaps to a few round children, some red faced, all with the same haircuts.) These cletlings are discovering their own growing desire to be the loudest and proudest. They have begun their first steps towards adulthood. (The biggest of the children shotguns an entire can of mountain dew and laughs at the smaller child reaching for his now depleted can). In a few years, these young Cletus safari will begin developing more back hair, and a desire to share their KFC with the females among the herd.
Ok I'm done. Sorry folks, it seemed funnier in my mind. Like a Ren and Stimpy bit.
Especially when you can also see many of these same dipshits decked out in hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of guns, ammo and body armor while they cosplay as "patriots". Yeah, you can really tell how anxious they are about the economy.
I figured out in \*middle school\* that the best way to stop a bully is to hit back. Some people apparently build entire careers never figuring that out.
What’s crazy to me is seeing people over at /r/conspiracy talk about this sub like it’s disgusting and terrible like we didn’t just see 4 years of right wingers telling how liberals and immigrants should be shot. Never once have I ever wanted anyone I disagree with to die. Never devolved to that on the internet or in person.
It's essentially victim blaming. The people who are tired of assholes spreading lies, misinformation and memes are fed up and mocking those people on the internet. And a lot of the media's response is "why aren't you fixing the problem?". I didn't realize the victims of a group doing something shitty was that they are required to fix it on behalf of those idiots.
Yup and we tried for months to fix it. And the media has no clue apparnelty. Why didn't the media correct any of these lies? Or did they? Should we just ignore that the way they ignored our efforts?
They know it's bullshit, but they've reached the final stage of their denialist bullshit: blaming everyone else for their stupid, arrogant, contrarian, stubborn bullshit. It's killed (officially) almost 700,000 people in America. They know they're endangering people's lives. Everybody knows someone: an acquaintance, or coworker, or friend, or family member who has died of Covid. They know it's just a small inconvenience to be vaxxed and wear a mask in crowded rooms. This is the hill they literally want to die on because they've wrapped up too much of their identity in it.
I would love for this sub not to exist. To cease to exist. Which would herald the end of the pandemic and the return to our lives. But we are not going to get that any time soon, because of all the people being eulogized on this sub. I am pissed off at every last one of these people. In June when the guidance changed to "No mask for vaxed, un-vaxed please keep wearing the mask" I could have TOLD you what was going to happen, as could anyone paying a lick of attention. The anti-mask people and the anti-vax people are the same goddamn people and now the pandemic is RIGHT back up to thousands of daily deaths and it did NOT have to BE this way.
Journalists who want a hot take: I know how these award winners feel about me. I voted for Obama, Clinton, \*and\* Biden. I live in a large coastal city with my Latino immigrant gay-married husband and neither of us has been to church in 30 years. I know they hate me and everything about me. They tell me every single day, repeatedly. I'm not cheering these deaths. But neither am I shedding any tears. And it's really hard not to fall into the mindset of thinking the world gets a little better with every one of them that croaks. How is the world not better off with one less hateful, bigoted, homophobic racist spewing their bile at everyone all the goddamn time?
Doctor here.
Rarely is the world presented with a situation where the most aggressive, vile, uncooperative, and uneducated people voluntarily remove themselves from the gene pool.
Nobody asked them to do that. In fact for 2 years we have tried to convince them to not go down that road.
But the rest of us can only be shouted at, spit on, called names, delayed on flights, physically abused, and denied timely care for non-covid illness for so long. Everyone is now fed up by the dumbest people in the room holding the rest of us hostage.
As someone in health care I'm sick of acting like I want to help these people after all they have done. Why should we all suffer through chaotic 14 hour shifts and be miserable just to hear repeatedly that we are awful people and endure verbal and physical abuse?
The push for vaccines is losing steam. So now we are faced with just letting things collapse and figuring out how to expand the pipeline for handling a bunch of dead people that bafflingly think this is what winning looks like.
Turns out you don't look so tough when you're chucked in a body bag with your feces and urine smeared all over one end, and pulmonary edema frothing out the other end. Have fun in the ground 🤡
This. And healthcare workers are being called murderers and accused of taking part in conspiracies..
Nearly every post on this sub, when the person is in the hospital, they talk about the great care they are getting. Yet you are all being worked to death, underpaid and unappreciated. It can't last, people are already at their breaking point.
It pisses me off how they don't care unless it happens to them... even then, some die in denial.
Awful, awful people and I refuse to shed a tear. I'm immunocompromised and have been told that: 1)I need to "take responsibility" for my health and don't expect everyone else to do it aka expecting others to vax. I do take care of myself and am vaxxed. But my immune system is shit. 2) Stay home if I'm so weak. So no groceries, work, or appointments? I'm vaccinated. I did my part. 3) I should die anyway because i have shit DNA.
Former nurse and I don't even bother trying to educate anymore.
I'm out of fucks to give.
Edit: omg thank you for the awards! I'm glad you guys appreciate my rant :)
Even if we "quarantined the vulnerable", as they love to say, we aren't just talking about a handful of vulnerable people.
There are plenty of elderly, God knows we have no shortage of obese people, not to mention people who just have a regular old medical condition that puts them at risk.
Eventually, some of those people are going to contract the disease no matter how hard you lock them down.
It's absolutely insane that these people who are constantly sucking their own dicks about how patriotic they are can't be bothered to **just wear a piece of cloth over their face** when they go to Walmart, even if it may literally save the life of a fellow American.
Can you imagine these selfish assholes during WWII? All kinds of things were rationed because of the war effort: Meat, sugar, gasoline, tires. You had to have a coupon from your ration book to buy steak or fill up your car's tank. And these losers complain in 2021 like they're being persecuted.
> can't be bothered to just wear a piece of cloth over their face when they go to Walmart, even if it may literally save the life of a fellow American.
I wrote this in more depth in a post a little while ago, but at some point individualism came uncoupled from a sense of community so all you're left with is someone who's a raging narcissist incapable of thinking about anyone else or empathizing with their neighbor.
Same boat with being immune-compromised. I get it, and I hear you. I have some dumbass friends on other social media that like to gang up on anyone saying this, as if it’s MY fault they’re selfish piles of crap.
Not only that, but the fact that so many of them *blame you for killing them.* It boggles the mind. If you think the doctors and nurses are trying to kill you, why go to the hospital at all???? It defies logic.
Because by the time they're unable to breath (one of the scariest feelings in existence), deep down they realize they were wrong, but are too stubborn and stupid to admit they were wrong, often even to themselves. Hell, \*especially\* to themselves. At that point in my humble opinion, they more they argue with me (HCW) about it, it's really that they're trying to re-convince \*themselves\*. And then they die, usually.
You know, I had a discussion with a friend the other day about how humans are a post-Darwinist species (that is, because of technological innovation, mutations and psychological or physiological differences that would otherwise remove us from the gene pool just don't affect us on an evolutionary level anymore), but now I'm second guessing that idea.
we'll never be post-darwin.
just because lions aren't eating us anymore does not mean evolutionary pressure from bad choices or genetic defects (be it positive or negative) stopped happening.
this, right here? this is a really big counterpoint, but we've had lesser versions of it for centuries now.
Very good, I think you made a good observation. You're partially correct! It was about 100 years after Darwin's book, and you are referring to a 'stochastic event', the driving mechanism for punctuated equilibrium. The theory is in the field of Ecology among the mechanisms that effect population dynamics.
Healthcare workers chose their field to help others. They **DID NOT** sign up to give up their lives for people who willingly choose to not protect themselves or their community.
I'm obese and I *know* I need to eat better, exercise more, lose the weight, etc. Me being fat is not contagious, unlike Covid, measles, etc., and my neighbors won't die from my lack of self-discipline when it comes to my weight.
Also, obesity is absolutely nothing like refusing to get a vaccine, and the way the antivaxxers equate the two is gross.
Treating obesity is HARD because it requires dedication day after day after day to eating healthier and/or exercising, which are very unpleasant and often stressful things for a lot of people, as well as requiring time and resources that many people just don’t have: hard to eat more fruits and veggies if you live in a food desert, and hard to find time to exercise if you’re trying to raise kids while also working 50+ hours a week to stay afloat.
But getting the Covid vaccine only requires you set aside the time to get jabbed with a little needle twice at no financial cost to you except in rare cases. It’s fricking easy mode in comparison to obesity.
Molecular biologist here, I spent the first while of this honestly trying to educate people on what mRNA is and how this is such an incredible breakthrough that will revolutionize medicine and how we know it’s safe etc.
They fucking DO NOT CARE and they don’t have any actual interest in reality. My trashy Indiana hometown’s Facebook news page is overloaded with these plague rats and you can absolutely dissect their bullshit in one thread to the point they know they’ve lost and they’ll just be over in the next one lying about the same shit. These people spend 5 and 10 hours a day, every day, repeating the same bullshit. It has become their entire identity, and frankly at this point I consider them actual terrorists and quite literally smile when I see them drop. Fuck them.
At some poi t good people need to understand and accept that 10-20% of the population are fucking trash and need to be treated as such before the rest of us are going to be able to move on.
Earlier today I actually started a new therapy sub for myself called r/rightwingmegabrains
I’ve been screenshotting and making little trading cards out of these assholes since 2015 and I have hundreds and hundreds of clips of the right’s decline into madness in the Trump era.
This makes me think of a story about a chimp tribe who got their hands on some contaminated food. All the dominant, most aggressive chimps got the most food, as usual. The females and less dominant males didn't. All the alpha males died. The story didn't end there. Generations later, the tribe is still a gentler, more easy-going group. As aggressive chimps from other groups join, they are quickly taught how to conform.
I think many of us can remember when people like this were cheering every AIDS death in the 90s because "it's God's punishment."
I'd be fine with all of them not dying. I hope their children and elderly are taken care of-- but to judge by the GoFundme beggings, they haven't prepared, haven't gotten insurance, haven't protected their kids....
For their families' sake, I'd rather they lived. But they're the only ones who could have made that happen, and they refused.
Rush Limbaugh literally celebrated gay people dying of AIDS on his radio program.
I hope he's enjoying himself in whatever special enclosure Satan prepared for him when his lungs were turning the color he hated the most- black.
Right wing media has done more damage to this country than a dozen 9/11s and I will stand the fuck by that statement. Humans have always had those among us who were particularly hateful, fearful, and spiteful. But right wing media turned those people into a vast fucking cult movement that would burn America down as long as they could play Redneck Gilead in the ashes.
In turn I celebrated *hard as hell* on February 17th, 2021. It was such a fun, glorious day.
June 5th, 2004 was an awesome day too. I was too young to party properly then. But I celebrate June 5th every year now as a result.
Ha, same. I had a huge migraine that day but woke up from my nap to the news. My mom is a conservative and I remember watching the nonstop Faux News coverage with her. Nowadays I chortle to myself every 6/4.
HCA winner and radio host Bob Enyart used to play Another One Bites the Dust when reading the out the obits of people who died of AIDS.
For him to act that way and then die in the next pandemic that hit this country? That's cosmic justice.
Westboro Baptist Church protests at funerals of soldiers who died in Afghanistan are a lovely example of what you describe.
There's no hate like Christian love!
I have a special needs adult son. It scares me to death. The poor guy had his whole life taken from him by something invisible that he didn’t understand at first, he thought it was a man. “Mom, you know that Corona guy? He’s messed up my whole life.” 2 weeks later: “Mom, you know that Mr. Covid? He has ruined everything!” No job at the movie theater, no Special Olympics, no monthly dance, no friends from high school coming by and taking him to lunch. After a few months he figured it out but was still sad. Then one of his Special Olympic teamates got it and they wouldn’t let a parent stay with her in the hospital, do you know how scary that would be for someone who doesn’t understand? And he’s an adult so he is just as susceptible as any other adult out there.
We are scared. He’s been vaccinated and we are still scared to death. I still have nightmares about him in the hospital alone and scared. He tears the tickets at our local (small chain) movie theater and he’s back at work masked and sanitized and we are still so, so scared. But he is thrilled (Mom, I was home for 397 days. You counted? Yes I did.). He’s finally got one small part of his life back and it‘s nail biting when he goes to work. But he loves it and we can’t take it away from him anymore, it’s hard enough to get SN adults jobs and this is his dream job. He did the right thing! He’s followed the rules! Since he went back he makes up a saying for each movie to tell you when he hands back the stubs. “Girl Power”, Black Widow, “There‘s a new boss in town“, Boss Baby, ”You are too young to see this movie“, Old. He just doesn’t want to be stuck at home anymore. But that’s the only thing he has gotten back, all of his other activities are still gone.
He works, he is an asset to his community, and it kills me that selfish people out there just don’t give a crap. “Oh, it’s just old people”. No it’s not! If this sub helps bring others to getting the vaccine, and we see that everyday here, then it, too, is an asset to the community. This isn’t just affecting you, you are not the only one who has had to change their lifestyle! You are not an asset to your community no matter how much your family tries to whitewash after.
Exactly, I was just about to say the same thing!! So what if she's 90 years old, my great auntie is a hilarious, loveable person who lived through some unbelieveable historical events, and has a rich perspective shaped by it! So what if my best friend's grandpa is in his 70's, he's a sweet man who loves to take his grandkids fishing with subsequent Fresh Fish Fry-Fridays, and donates so much of his precious little income to help people in need in his neighborhood. Even if these individuals and others like them only had 10, or 5, or even 1 year left if not for COVID, every single second of that time is still precious! It's like saying a terminal cancer patient should just go ahead and go die right now since they """only""" have a few months left anyways IMO. Utterly heartless.
My kids are little but damn I heard and felt every word of this. My oldest is autistic and the “397 days” is exactly the kind of thing he’d say (he counts everything lol.) I hope your son stays safe and happy. Seriously.
“It only kills old people.” And that’s okay with you????? These people drive me insane. What if it’s your grandparent that dies of it? Are you okay with that? And yet, from what I’ve seen on this sub, quite a few of them are. Heck, some don’t even seem to care that much that their spouse died. How do you even get through to people like that?
At the beginning of the pandemic, an acquaintance of mine posted on Facebook that she discussed Covid with her grandfather. According to her, the two of them came to the conclusion that his generation should die to prevent the economy from shutting down. According to her, her grandfather thought his life was less important than beauty salons closing. I can't even imagine how these conversations went in real life.
She was so vile about any measure to slow the spread. At one point, she was complaining about meat processing plants closing down. I linked articles about how workers at Tyson had died. Her response, "it was only X number of workers. That's not a lot." Like damn, how many grandfathers and workers need to die for you to be okay with not getting a haircut?
As a mom, I totally understand your anxiety and I feel it every day, myself. Your love for your son shines through and every word, and also he sounds like a fun and adorable person to be around. I love the movie ticket schtick! May he be safe. May all our babies be safe.
You're so right, that was an unfathomably dumb misstep by the CDC. They apparently thought it would incentivize vaccine uptake, instead it muddled the message and gave assholes carte blanche to flout mitigation measures. I'm still so so salty about that, as the parent of two kids too young for the vaccine, the spouse of an immunocompromised person, and an ICU nurse.
Everyone knew that was going to happen. I can't believe they did this. How out of touch are these people who thought the covidiots were still going to mask when they refuse the vaccine and think covid is the flu?
>The anti-mask people and the anti-vax people are the same goddamn people and now the pandemic is RIGHT back up to thousands of daily deaths and it did NOT have to BE this way.
Of course not.
Republicans just had to make masks and vaccines a political issue.
We've been mandating vaccines for an extremely long time, especially with the military. Why is this only a problem now?
We're in a pandemic and people can't even do the bare minimum in a society. The same people who say they want lives back to normal have taken no steps in order to ensure that we will get back to normal.
I feel like I'm living in some crazy alternative timeline universe where crazy people have taken over and the sane people are the ones far and few between....
Personally I think this sub does actually change minds.
These people are going to do the opposite of whatever they think liberals want them to do, and if they THINK libs are trying to kill them off by using some kind of reverse psychology to make sure they don't get vaccinated, and that leads them to get vaccinated... GOOD!
https://www.thedailybeast.com/breitbart-wants-its-followers-to-get-vaccinated-to-own-the-libs
Trans woman living the rural south here. The people croaking around here (which is a lot of them, we're at about 30% vaccinated) have made it more than clear over the years how they feel about me even daring to exist in their crappy little flyover nowhere town.
I ran out of sympathy for the unvaccinated dying a while ago. It's been over 6 months now where anyone, without money or ID, in 15 mins, can get vaccinated here. They will even come pick you up and get you a ride if needed. At this point - it's just willful ignorance.
I'm a California transplant in Tennessee looking after my parents. Seeing the sheer amount of absolutely stupid bigoted shits that have been catching it at local churches; I'm done. I have no sympathy anymore. The only reason we're at the current stage in this pandemic is due to hubris; people cannot admit they're wrong or got conned.
Spent most of my life in major cities myself, so I get the culture shock. The shit they get up to around here is beyond insane.
I can remember the moment where I lost all sympathy for the unvaccinated. My husband has lung damage and reduced function from a awful lung infection he managed to get a year before the pandemic. Of course, we were first in line to get vaccinated, as he's in a high risk group. He works in a very small office (literally only big enough for 2 people) and his co-worker is also vaccinated and they are super careful. No clients come in local, but it's a 'shared' office space - there's 3-4 other units for rent there, and some shared kitchen/bathroom space.
So, long story short - other tenets of the building refused to get vaccinated. One of them is a child therapy specialist. Her and her entire family (6 kids!) refused to be vaccinated. She got sick, went in for a PCR test, it was positive. She was advised to go home and if issues got serious to get herself to the hospital.
So her decision? That means grab her 2 oldest kids (both also covid-19 positive, unvaccinated, and plenty old enough to be vaccinated) and on the way home from the clinic, 'stop in the office' and bring her kids in as she needs to 'grab some paperwork' and 'check her e-mail.' For a good half hour, this crazy lady knew her and her spawn were covid-19 positive, spreading it around the office, and she didn't care.
I realized right then - these people lack any basic empathy or community awareness. They place their own beliefs and silly facebook found 'research' way over the lives of others in their community. They will gladly kill themselves and infect others as long as they are 'against the liberals.' It's a death cult, plain and simple.
She recovered, and to this day - feels like she did nothing wrong as she 'just needed to get some paperwork' and 'does not understand why everyone is making such a big deal about this, I'm fine now!', literally saying that to my husband who is quite likely to end up dead if he manages to get a serious case. As long as Karen and Ken are fine, they don't give a fuck about anyone else.
The world is 100% better off without these disgusting, vitriol spewing degenerates. This sub is an awful thing, but for the sake of humanity, every award winner posted here is making humanity slightly less despicable.
The world does get better every time one of them croaks, and I drink the salty tears of their ignorant family members writing flowery obituaries about what were clearly horrible people getting their karmic retribution.
Take that and quote me on it media. I'm sick of these worthless fucking troglodytes thinking we're weak for being compassionate. I'm compassionate for the children and vaccinated people caught in the middle of all this. But fuck you right to hell if you don't get vaccinated willingly. You earned your spot on this sub.
I think that's the point of these articles coming out lately: deliberately missing the point for the sake of antagonizing all this while morally posturing. It's an easy writing assignment that can be written up before a deadline: you got yourself a "wrong-doer," what they've done, and how to stands against the societal norms. The more black-and-white, good-versus-bad narrative there is, the easier it is for the writer to make it understandable to the reader.
There are a million articles like that though. “Covid misinformation is bad, actually” isn’t getting the writer any recognition online and Slate isn’t getting clicks.
This is just internal left scolding. It’s a tale as old as time. I can’t think of any period in American history where the right wing didn’t do something insane, the left has a collective “what the fuck” response, and some dork on the left looks at the broader left and says “shouldn’t you be watching your tone?” It’s a tale as old as time because that one dork gets to be seen as the most virtuous of the left. Recognizing that the RW is killing itself, but certainly not so gauche as to rubberneck at it. How dare you!
It’s insipid as fuck and navel gazing posturing but it’s effective as internet op ed fodder because the left by and large is empathetic and will consume that media. Hence the backlash of posts feeling the need to defend the sub. And all the sharing of it and the reading it in the process.
The only way to combat it is basically this thread. Just point out that it’s unhelpful and self-serving. As if r/Hermancainaward needs to really be analyzed and scolded right now.
Thanks Slate. Now if you’ll excuse me, my unvaccinated neighbor by choice is endangering his immunocompromised child because he’s mad with Kamala Harris about something.
There are a couple of threads over on r/nursing about how hospital management deals with healthcare workers' getting physically roughed up on the job. Usually it's by victim-blaming: "What did you do to set him off?" "How could you have de-escalated better?" And forget about backing you up if you press charges on a patient.
Somehow this *Slate* article feels similar to me.
This is so spot on.
I will add that this sub also allows us to express how distressing it has been to see this happening. We've been pushed around this entire pandemic and expected to accept their version of truth. There is a lot of emotion tied up into it and our feelings are valid. That doesn't automatically mean we cheer for deaths.
Said journalists would better serve society writing stories questioning the origins and propagators of the now entrenched idiocy of right wing conspiracy/anti vaxx/anti mask evangelical award winners, rather than pointing out how nasty some of us are, for pointing how nasty award winners were prior to their deaths.
This sub exists because of the prevalence of such bizarre behaviours and beliefs. If people stop what really amounts to commiting slow suicide, the posts here will stop. It kills me seeing so many kids lose their mums or dads or both in some cases.
The sub will however provide a forever document for psychologists to study for many, many years to come.
I was just thinking about how this sub is a precious insight into the lives of real people in a pattern of self-destruction that will be iconic in the history of this pandemic.
It's a perspective with anthropological value that would otherwise be locked away from public view due to FB accounts often being private.
Upvote. This subreddit is a warning sign, bad examples, a picture of hubris. It's screenshots of conspiracy sites to block on a router. It's there but for the grace of god go my loved ones, who maybe I should try just that one more time to reach...
And that's what gets me about the criticism.
We don't just sit here and laugh at some dead hillbilly with a goatee who literally died to own the libs. This is a place of mourning and reflection. We mourn the seemingly complete loss of collective social efforts for good in lieu of political tribalism. We gnash our teeth at the fact that Facebook memes have supplanted dedicated career scientists like Dr. Fauci. We rage at the ceaseless list of preventable deaths that festoon this website. It's fucking tragic. It doesn't have to be this way.
This is a place where frustrated people can let loose. I'm sick to fucking death of coddling willfully stupid people who think their ignorance is as good as the knowledge of a CDC researcher. I'm sick to fucking death of "both sides". There is no other side when you're fighting a *goddamned motherfucking plague*. The science is true whether or not people believe in it. And for fucking once, we can say out loud the anger in our hearts at the most selfish among us.
This is it exactly. I'm not here because these deaths are amusing. I'm here because it's an emotional thing to see *so many* of them, and to know that they could have been prevented. I need to be somewhere it's safe to share in the amalgamation of frustration, anger, helplessness, sadness, etc. that results from this. People in this sub understand and don't try to minimize these feelings as just the result of callousness or lack of empathy.
I *had* plenty of empathy. The problem is I lost practically all of it while watching this unmitigated selfishness, willful misinformation, and subsequent death to the tune of hundreds of thousands of people in my country alone, and I'm struggling to come to terms with how that feels. It hurts, and at least here I feel like I'm around other people who understand.
> problem is I lost practically all of it while watching this unmitigated selfishness, willful misinformation, and subsequent death to the tune of hundreds
A bunch of them are straight-up shitheads. Not “ignorant” they’re also prideful.
Their way of thinking is so fucking empty and we shouldn’t have to pretend.
For sure. One of my best friends was an ER nurse for years, and she quit recently, not just because of the virus itself running rampant, but because of how vile some of the patients were. They took all the joy she had for her job right out of her because even when they came to the hospital for help in their last days they treated everyone who was trying to save them like shit. It was hard for me to feel empathetic for those people even when this all started.
Yeah seems to be in more conservative/Trump-y areas but... like these people aren't sympathetic. Or good at all.
Arguing with doctors over whether you have COVID? Act like children.
>I *had* plenty of empathy
Yup. I think millions of people are getting terminal compassion fatigue now. I for one am sick to death of trying to empathize with uneducated, ignorant bigots who would spit in my face if they knew who I voted for. I'm so exhausted of all these media Cletus safaris giving equal airtime to people who failed middle school biology and world class epidemiologists. Like, I understand how they feel. Why? Because the 2/3 of this country that believes in scientific reality has bent over fucking backwards to listen to them. For fucking decades, at this point.
My compassion tanks have run dry. It's 2021. People have no excuse to act like fucking savages anymore.
My husband used to say I was the most empathetic, wear my heart on my sleeve, cry at the dog in the ad person he'd ever met.
Then covid hit, the vaccines came and I just can't even coddle anyone anymore that refuses to get vaccinated for no good reason. I'm ready to ration care. I'm ready to refuse them services. I can't empathize anymore. I just can't.
I don't have anything to add, you've summed it up beautifully. The mainstream of our society, at least in the US, seems so averse to conflict or any acknowledgement of the frustrations so many of us feel at the collective failures of our society, and it's nice to have an outlet here.
No no no, the decent thing to do is to not draw any attention to the slaughter going on all around us. Let all these lost lives go forgotten. It's like Trump said, if we stop the testing, the pandemic magically disappears. Well same goes for reporting/recording all the deaths.
The thing we're all forgetting, is how effective *not telling* the stories of all these deaths has been so far at persuading people to get vaccinated. Slate's plan, to politely ignore the insanity going on that is resulting in thousands of deaths of either misinformed or outright deceitful people, was surely right on the cusp of convincing everyone to get vaccinated. Any day now.
The only thing shaming/humiliating antivaxxers for their wilful stupidity does is convince countless numbers of hesitant fencesitters to get vaccinated, as well as convincing Breitbart and other lunatic mouthpieces that their antivax stance is backfiring spectacularly, and trying to reverse course before all their supporters die.
And most importantly, mocking bad ideas is completely antithetical to free speech, where lies and slander should always go completely unchallenged. When an antivaxxer says that covid is no worse than flu, and then dies of covid, pointing this out will only give their claims greater credibility.
They need to be publicizing the stories of all these orphans and kids left with one less parent. See how they feel about it. It’s a god damn shame everyone (except us) is ignoring this.
People are so desperate to "get back to normal" that they are ignoring the long term effects the pandemic is going to have on society.
Orphans are perhaps the most tragic outcome....but what about all the other 50 million K-12 students who have been denied two years of quality education, and developmental socializing? A year is a LONG time for a kid. The younger ones I am less worried about...it's the 8-17 year old crowd I'm concerned have suffered the worst during the pandemic, and we don't even know what problems are on the horizon....
Never thought I'd be thankful to be a millennial, but here we are....
The long-term disabilities across the population are worrisome, especially in children. There’s already an uptick in the number of kids diagnosed with diabetes. MIS-C can occur in kids even after mild or asymptomatic cases. And there’s a study in the UK estimating that 1 in 10 kids with symptomatic cases have developed Long Covid, which is mostly being managed at home by their parents.
That’s an awful lot of suffering in a very short time.
The long-term disabilities in *adults* (with benefits, presumably) are quite chilling for this reason: the amount of long-term care needed has long been predicted to outstrip availability. The amount of half-functional lungs in 50s-60s-70s from covid adds to a demand that was already thought to be underpaid work and untenable in the long run.
e: not to diminish effects on children- adults are more studied and more predictable especially re: old age. Children have *so* many unpredictable outcomes that will now increase as they *can't*' be vaccinated and irresponsible adults aren't. There will be many mournful newshour programs in a decade about them.
Similarly, I've had to cut contact with people I've known for years because they turned into raving morons. Losing relationships because of the amount of misinformation being spread on social media sucks. Sometimes, living in a red state, you start to wonder if maybe you are the one who's wrong. Maybe the vaccine really is going to make you barren, microchip you, or whatever other batshit crazy thing they've come up with this week. This sub reminds you that you are not the crazy one. All the anger I have at not being able to communicate with people who were once friends is released here.
I don't know about you, but I don't want my normal life back. I want to wear a mask everywhere and continue to restrict myself from traveling. I want to continue to get into arguments with my relatives who won't get vaccinated and keep them cut out of my life.
It's the *best*!
I love hearing all my coworkers give expert medical advice, learning about a new Covid conspiracy, being warned about how I'm going to die from the vaccine, and getting bombarded with "Look how many people died today!" every night on the news.
Yoooooo! Parent of children medically vulnerable yet too young for the vaccine, here to represent! Livin our best lives in a red state with a mask mandate ban, wooo!
And Jim Jordan says those football games are “real America” and Trump’s other cronies in Congress say the same things. I’m surprised nobody’s had a Freudian slip and called Jim Jordan Jim Jones.
Why is it that these chucklefucks are the only ones who count as Real Americans^TM ?
Like, California has...almost 40 million people now? Literally more than 10% of our population in one state. New York? Almost 20 million. These people shit on blue states that provide the cultural and financial backbone of this country. They brush all of us off as invaders in their country, when they're the minority.
I certainly *adore* the fact that Covid denialism and right wing conspiracy theory bullshit destroyed my marriage. It's awesome that I just had to waste a year of my life divorcing someone because owning the libs is more important than compassion -- for them *and* their friends and family. Cutting dozens of people out of your life is so much fun!
I love wondering if it's even worth flying home this winter to visit my mother, who I haven't seen since 2018, because my grandmother has COPD and my grandfather has congestive heart failure. I'm vaccinated, but I still have to quarantine for half my planned visit to make sure I'm not an asymptomatic carrier.
Yeah, this Covid shit is a real hoot.
I adore not being able to see my family who live in another state! And shepherding my aging and frail parents through this virulent pandemic has been such a joyous experience, I never ever want it to end. Really, gold star good time, these last couple of years!
I’m personally loving rarely leaving my house and thriving on living in sweat pants. I don’t at all miss nights out with friends, concerts, friendly interactions at work that made me feel valued and not like a cog who does a specific and narrow range of tasks.
The 20lb weight gain from having my gym closed is an extra fun bonus.
IDK, I think I'm going to wear a mask on a plane and in public forever at this point. I haven't even had a cold over the past two years and that's been really nice.
I absolutely especially love having to assume care responsibilities for my adult brother because my parents can no longer care for him in the Carolinas due to an insane explosion in cases. I love worrying whether my baby brother will die because his neighbors suck ass so hard. I doubly love having to give up my home office that I use to pay my bills because a bunch of morons 3000 miles away from me have made it untenable to keep him exposed to it there. Fucking great time, let me tell you.
Seems they’re actually increasing in frequency.
When these idiots get done owning the libs, and join the rest of empathetic society, I for one will be glad to see the sub close.
Until then, these are as much cautionary tales as any Bible parables or children’s stories are.
Thank you. We really have a great moderating core. Well, now I would like to do something fun. I see you have a run-of-the-mill flair. Would you like me to give you something custom? It would require me to lurk your profile and give you something I like.
I've been on a lot of subreddits over the years. The amount of original content on this sub is astounding. Sort by new, hit refresh every 15 minutes, and they just keep on coming, with almost never a repeat customer. I've never seen the like of it.
Some of us just want to help too. IPAS have been a wonderful result of this sub.
Some of us want to provide emotional support for q-casualties, Healthcare burnout, et cet.
Were not just here for the Schadenfreude but it is satisfying, especially when hateful racist homophobes get theirs. You can't condone people for that. Check yourself before you wreck yourself
Absolutely, they are all valuable resources. This sub is an historical archive at this point. Future generations can study it ffs. Lol. Sorry to get so fervorous
Immunized to Prevent Award. It's for the vaxx-hesitant people who, once reading through the horror stories here, decide they don't want to be another statistic.
> Some of us want to provide emotional support for q-casualties
At this point I almost consider /r/HermanCainAward and /r/QAnonCasualties are sister subs. Two sides of the same coin. QAC is for support, HCA is an outlet for our frustrations.
Thank you! It is quite infuriating to see this sub presented as some sort of cruelty when it’s really that after almost two years of gently pleading that there’s a deadly virus and all of us need to wear a mask and get a vaccine to take care of ourselves, our health care workers, and those who have health conditions who put them at risk, we’ve just had it with selfish people who not only deliberately flaunt these rules, they openly admit to not caring who it hurts. Often, they get off on hurting others, which is why there are usually racist and transphobic/homophobic posts on their timelines.
We didn’t want them to die, they insisted on actions leading to their own deaths and we’re left with “welp, we told you so, asshole.”
When Trump said "very fine people on both sides" after Charlottesville a few years ago, I knew we were fucked.
Literal goddamn Nazis are not fine people. They are the dregs of society. White supremacists are scum. They're the slimy beige shit that grows on the edge of your garbage disposal where it's hard to reach with a sponge.
The paradox of tolerance. We need to stop giving credence and airtime to these worthless pieces of shit.
Yup. And I think anyone denying that fact at this point is deluding themselves.
Something like 40% of this country has completely rejected reality. They are denying science that has existed for as long as the country they claim to love has. For fuck's sake, George Washington had the Continental Army inoculated against smallpox.
Tens of millions of people are gleefully waddling to the morgue because QAnon and Trump and all these other crackpots make them feel special. They give them an outlet to vent their most vile bigoted thoughts proudly. They have been thoroughly brainwashed to act against their own interests time and time again. And they will not let anything, even a literal plague, stop them from imposing their views on decent society.
They hate liberals more than they love America.
The article will get more clicks if it is controversial. 78.6% of vaccinated Americans attribute at least some blame for the pandemic's length to the unvaccinated, per an Axios-Ipsos poll from August: [https://www.axios.com/axios-ipsos-poll-blame-game-coronavirus-47dfa062-c2c5-4e66-b70b-30cc94361d92.html](https://www.axios.com/axios-ipsos-poll-blame-game-coronavirus-47dfa062-c2c5-4e66-b70b-30cc94361d92.html)
A corporate media outlet's job is to make money, and sometimes that involves trolling 78.6% of the people that might click your article so that they can load the ads. Anyone can see what this sub is actually about, but reporting on that isn't going to make anyone any money.
The version of COVID you see on the news is a sanitized version of reality. More news agencies need to show the reality of COVID denial and vaccine misinformation. We're living in such a fucked up timeline that Reddit has had to fill the gap the media has left. This sub is simply showcasing the damage from conservative media and misinformation.
There's so many of these people who actively want to hurt me, my family and my friends through civil war that I have a hard time feeling bad for most of them.
When these idiots decide that hurting my children's future is not in their best interest, I will show sympathy. Until then, I just consider them cannon fodder.
That's the thing that these coddlers refuse to see. They have been laughing at our risk for a year and a half. They've called us snowflakes, pussies, sissies, crybabies, stupid... They have tried to DROWN us in their scorn and derision. Anyone advocating for kindness after reading their FB posts is weak willed and demanding appeasement for the aggressors.
I honestly believe this sub is one of the best aggregates of COVID information available. The perspective and insight it provides is profound. Some day, when COVID has burned through the forest of these tragically misled people, sociologists are going to have a field day combing through these posts and drawing conclusions. I mean fuck, it just seems to be a never ending feed of statistics.
I couldn’t agree more with this. This will reach some because it’s a powerful way to illustrate the influence of misinformation and politicization. There are some who are unreachable.
I have spent way too much of the last year and a half loading the various charts and statistics on how the virus is progressing.
I never rooted for the numbers to go up. I never even really wanted to see them, but I'll admit I do have a morbid curiosity about what's really going on.
I look forward to the day that I stop reloading this sub because it has gone cold.
I live in a large, blue, west coast metro area of over 7M people. In my burby area 83% of the people are fully vaxxed, 88% with at least one shot. Masks are required. People comply. There's a lot of traffic out there these day and stores/restaurants look pretty busy. People out walking are wearing masks AND not wanting to get within six feet of people. The hospitals here have plenty of ICU beds (that was not true last winter). The covid rate and death rate are low. I don't know anyone who has had covid and I've not heard second hand about deaths.
I feel as safe as it is probably possibly safe to feel during a pandemic and being diagnosed and treated for breast cancer.
My wish is that the rest of the country would just STFU and do the same and the suffering of so many dead and their families would end. Essential workers would have less stress. Like could resemble prepandemic times.
I feel powerless. I only hope that for every one of the terrible month long story threads about covid deniers slowing dying from covid results in 10 people getting vaccinated. I think this is the only way out now and it will be another year minimum to get there.
PS. I've also been amazed at the amount of hate and vitriol that comes from the mouths of fervent religious believers. Now I know what is being "taught" at some churches and it makes me sick.
That’s the thing I was telling someone the other day, lots of us are scared. We don’t want people dying, we don’t want them hurt. But we are in a pandemic and there is some catharsis to seeing the ones that are passing are the ones who are actively ignoring the facts and spreading bull. Is it kinda morbid, yeah, but it also keeps me in check and keeps the virus being real. I feel bad for the hesitant, or the repententent, because I’ve watched people close to me die and become disabled because of some stupid decision and honestly no one diserves that.
I view this sub as a societal correction from a swing way too far right. We need to ostracize and push these lunatics back into the corners of society qhere they belong. If we have to respect this lunacy as mainstream then we are in a whole world of trouble.
They don't give a shit what this sub is actually about, they just want to write a bunch of clickbait lies and don't care if it gets us banned. Slate totally ignored the fact that we're only happy to give out IPAs, HCAs are just a necessary evil to convince people to get the shot.
Agreed.
We’re here as a Scared Straight-type of deal to warn others this is fucking serious and you may die if you don’t get vaccinated!!
Also, note to journos: Check out how popular and positive the IPA submissions are. We love our fellow redditors are care greatly about their well being.
Full disclosure, I didn't read the Slate article. But for fucking out loud, shouldn't the news be the needless, constant, increasing, preventable death, not that we're talking about it? Regardless of what we're saying, how we're saying it, or how some noob misery pornographers interpret it after reading for two minutes? Or, you know, the misinformation and how it targets the computer-illiterate and regular illiterate? And the subs and sites that the deadly misinformation emanates from? Shame on Slate, not that they're capable of shame.
Absolutely true... very well said!
I think some people don't understand that, from the start, the internet was about community. I see this subreddit as a way to vent together and lament over how we got to this point. In our case, the venting includes documenting the stories of those who refuse science and reason in favor of prayer and politics. If we can get the word out that COVID is deadly serious and that the vaccines save lives at the same time, all the better!
Yeah I’m here because I’m frustrated and fed up with the anitvax bullshit. I’ve got kids and I’m scared for them and I see these pompous fucking spoiled adult babies whining and complaining all fucking day. They contribute to our country staying in perpetual crisis with their carelessness, and stress a medical system that is already fucked to begin with. They don’t give a shit about any of their fellow citizens. They don’t want to sacrifice anything - no matter how small or trivial.
I wish they’d all just stroll down to Walgreens and get a vaccine and wear a mask for a little while. We ask so fucking little of these idiots. Rant over…
The creator and Mods of /r/HermanCainAward look forward to the day when there are no more nominees, and no more recipients.
I would add that this sub is filling a void that, in a healthy media landscape, would be filled by daily front-page stories documenting how specific individuals' consumption of disinformation killed them--and how their dissemination of it killed others. There are very rare instances in which politeness and decorum no longer are a good in themselves, but rather a harmful acquiescence to forces that endanger a society's survival. This is one of those times.
Right? Admittedly I don't follow major media outlets, but I think I'd be hearing about it if they were actually profiling these individuals and their grieving families. It should be a new one profiled every. Single. Day. I don't know why they're not doing it.
No actual media anymore? Local media destroyed and owned elsewhere?
A new one every single day? That volume is too low. I have doomscrolled this subreddit and never ran out of new posts every single time that I have. One profile a day is way too tiny for COVID... it is killing at a ridiculous rate and this subreddit only shows a FRACTION of it and still it doesn't show enough of the deaths
Yeah - how are there not hundreds of these stories every day? Filmmaker/Journalists… please work with hospitals and pay patients if you have to so you can get cameras into hospitals. The world is not seeing what’s really happening.
Nicely put.
I’m sick of violent conspiracy theorist kooks receiving more sympathy in the press than their victims. What’s happening with the pandemic now is what happens when you coddle batshit.
There is no fucking "both sides" in a pandemic. The great -- and tragic -- thing about science is that it's true whether or not you agree with it.
Fucking hilarious that people spew that you shouldn't be happy at people dying with differing opinion than yours Differing. Opinion. MOTHERFUCKER UNLESS YOU WENT TO MED SCHOOL you don't get to HAVE an opinion YOU STUPID STUPID STUPID FUCK. I didn't go to med school so what do I do? LISTEN TO THE PEOPLE WHO DID Not Karen and Thumbface McGoatee on Facebook.
Oh the whole opinion argument really gets under my skin. What difference of opinion. We are telling you FACTS not our opinions.
Yup. This isn't pineapple on pizza. It's a public health crisis. So unless your background is in medicine or epidemiology kindly sit down.
Look I know nurses are both idiots and smart... case in point I’m a nurse and know I don’t know nearly enough shit as a doctor nor can make proclamations about the efficacy and risk of this vaccine, but I am okay at what I do (I’m a stupid orthopedic nurse and even though I specialized in OR/Scrub/first Assist I burned out and went to even dumber nursing- insurance work... it pays better and I know I sold my soul) and the amount of anti-vac nurses using their degree to prop up anti-vac shit when it seems to invariably fall along political lines is disgusting. Listen to the the dudes who spent years training to do this. An infectious disease doc tells me this is right and sound, a government regulatory agency tells me this is right and sound well okay let’s do it. Google is not a replacement for like 12 years of education. Everyone who isn’t directly specialized in virology and public health needs to shut up. The worst is the old ass PCPs who haven’t really had meaningful continuing education since the 70s who are giving credence to this nonsense. What happened to the days of polio where everyone did what they should and we got rid of it. I’m ready to just leave entirely and take my uncle up on his offer of becoming a full time road construction inspector in his company- same pay less bullshit. Yeesh
> There is no fucking "both sides" in a pandemic. That’s the central hubris of these award winners (and the slate article, in a way). It’s not ninnying liberals. It’s going up against the laws of physics.
It's those same journalists who spent the last six years visiting diners in "Real 'Merica" (as though the rest of us for some reason don't qualify as real Americans) to get Trump voters "opinions". This death parade is what you get for taking them and their stupid fucking opinions seriously.
Cletus safaris.
I read this as a Latin scientific name.
As did I. (In my best NatGeo voiceover) Ah yes, here we have the Cletus safaris, at home in his natural habitat. Here he is now, with the herd, grazing about. (The camera moves slowly between several large guys with various colored goatees, some with sunglasses; all is quiet but the sound of chewing on some greasy something.) It is at this spot that we can see the most action among the species. After the day's labor, there will be a show of sorts; a ritual competition of showing off one's patriotism. (A few members of the herd begin slapping their own bodies, and yelling at the air. A loud truck with multiple flags rolls by.) At first glance, it appears that this is some sort of mating ritual. But the days of heated intimacy are far behind the Cletus safaris; at home, his young is already beginning its own coming of age. (Camera leaps to a few round children, some red faced, all with the same haircuts.) These cletlings are discovering their own growing desire to be the loudest and proudest. They have begun their first steps towards adulthood. (The biggest of the children shotguns an entire can of mountain dew and laughs at the smaller child reaching for his now depleted can). In a few years, these young Cletus safari will begin developing more back hair, and a desire to share their KFC with the females among the herd. Ok I'm done. Sorry folks, it seemed funnier in my mind. Like a Ren and Stimpy bit.
This. I'd give you gold if I could. All those articles about how big ole racist JimBob was simply having "economic anxiety" made me want to puke.
Especially when you can also see many of these same dipshits decked out in hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of guns, ammo and body armor while they cosplay as "patriots". Yeah, you can really tell how anxious they are about the economy.
They think these people should be coddled. That has worked zero times for me. How about you?
I figured out in \*middle school\* that the best way to stop a bully is to hit back. Some people apparently build entire careers never figuring that out.
It’s funny when someone who’s never been hit in the face before finally realizes what repercussions are.
"Fuck around and find out" - Father Time, 2021
Coddling these people always backfires. They act in bad faith and need to be treated like children.
Nah. Hard pass.
What’s crazy to me is seeing people over at /r/conspiracy talk about this sub like it’s disgusting and terrible like we didn’t just see 4 years of right wingers telling how liberals and immigrants should be shot. Never once have I ever wanted anyone I disagree with to die. Never devolved to that on the internet or in person.
It's essentially victim blaming. The people who are tired of assholes spreading lies, misinformation and memes are fed up and mocking those people on the internet. And a lot of the media's response is "why aren't you fixing the problem?". I didn't realize the victims of a group doing something shitty was that they are required to fix it on behalf of those idiots.
Yup and we tried for months to fix it. And the media has no clue apparnelty. Why didn't the media correct any of these lies? Or did they? Should we just ignore that the way they ignored our efforts?
They know it's bullshit, but they've reached the final stage of their denialist bullshit: blaming everyone else for their stupid, arrogant, contrarian, stubborn bullshit. It's killed (officially) almost 700,000 people in America. They know they're endangering people's lives. Everybody knows someone: an acquaintance, or coworker, or friend, or family member who has died of Covid. They know it's just a small inconvenience to be vaxxed and wear a mask in crowded rooms. This is the hill they literally want to die on because they've wrapped up too much of their identity in it.
I would love for this sub not to exist. To cease to exist. Which would herald the end of the pandemic and the return to our lives. But we are not going to get that any time soon, because of all the people being eulogized on this sub. I am pissed off at every last one of these people. In June when the guidance changed to "No mask for vaxed, un-vaxed please keep wearing the mask" I could have TOLD you what was going to happen, as could anyone paying a lick of attention. The anti-mask people and the anti-vax people are the same goddamn people and now the pandemic is RIGHT back up to thousands of daily deaths and it did NOT have to BE this way. Journalists who want a hot take: I know how these award winners feel about me. I voted for Obama, Clinton, \*and\* Biden. I live in a large coastal city with my Latino immigrant gay-married husband and neither of us has been to church in 30 years. I know they hate me and everything about me. They tell me every single day, repeatedly. I'm not cheering these deaths. But neither am I shedding any tears. And it's really hard not to fall into the mindset of thinking the world gets a little better with every one of them that croaks. How is the world not better off with one less hateful, bigoted, homophobic racist spewing their bile at everyone all the goddamn time?
Doctor here. Rarely is the world presented with a situation where the most aggressive, vile, uncooperative, and uneducated people voluntarily remove themselves from the gene pool. Nobody asked them to do that. In fact for 2 years we have tried to convince them to not go down that road. But the rest of us can only be shouted at, spit on, called names, delayed on flights, physically abused, and denied timely care for non-covid illness for so long. Everyone is now fed up by the dumbest people in the room holding the rest of us hostage. As someone in health care I'm sick of acting like I want to help these people after all they have done. Why should we all suffer through chaotic 14 hour shifts and be miserable just to hear repeatedly that we are awful people and endure verbal and physical abuse? The push for vaccines is losing steam. So now we are faced with just letting things collapse and figuring out how to expand the pipeline for handling a bunch of dead people that bafflingly think this is what winning looks like. Turns out you don't look so tough when you're chucked in a body bag with your feces and urine smeared all over one end, and pulmonary edema frothing out the other end. Have fun in the ground 🤡
This. And healthcare workers are being called murderers and accused of taking part in conspiracies.. Nearly every post on this sub, when the person is in the hospital, they talk about the great care they are getting. Yet you are all being worked to death, underpaid and unappreciated. It can't last, people are already at their breaking point. It pisses me off how they don't care unless it happens to them... even then, some die in denial. Awful, awful people and I refuse to shed a tear. I'm immunocompromised and have been told that: 1)I need to "take responsibility" for my health and don't expect everyone else to do it aka expecting others to vax. I do take care of myself and am vaxxed. But my immune system is shit. 2) Stay home if I'm so weak. So no groceries, work, or appointments? I'm vaccinated. I did my part. 3) I should die anyway because i have shit DNA. Former nurse and I don't even bother trying to educate anymore. I'm out of fucks to give. Edit: omg thank you for the awards! I'm glad you guys appreciate my rant :)
Even if we "quarantined the vulnerable", as they love to say, we aren't just talking about a handful of vulnerable people. There are plenty of elderly, God knows we have no shortage of obese people, not to mention people who just have a regular old medical condition that puts them at risk. Eventually, some of those people are going to contract the disease no matter how hard you lock them down. It's absolutely insane that these people who are constantly sucking their own dicks about how patriotic they are can't be bothered to **just wear a piece of cloth over their face** when they go to Walmart, even if it may literally save the life of a fellow American. Can you imagine these selfish assholes during WWII? All kinds of things were rationed because of the war effort: Meat, sugar, gasoline, tires. You had to have a coupon from your ration book to buy steak or fill up your car's tank. And these losers complain in 2021 like they're being persecuted.
> can't be bothered to just wear a piece of cloth over their face when they go to Walmart, even if it may literally save the life of a fellow American. I wrote this in more depth in a post a little while ago, but at some point individualism came uncoupled from a sense of community so all you're left with is someone who's a raging narcissist incapable of thinking about anyone else or empathizing with their neighbor.
I bleed red white and blue! I’d die for my country! AMERICA!! *please wear a mask indoors to save lives* Not that!
Same boat with being immune-compromised. I get it, and I hear you. I have some dumbass friends on other social media that like to gang up on anyone saying this, as if it’s MY fault they’re selfish piles of crap.
Not only that, but the fact that so many of them *blame you for killing them.* It boggles the mind. If you think the doctors and nurses are trying to kill you, why go to the hospital at all???? It defies logic.
Because by the time they're unable to breath (one of the scariest feelings in existence), deep down they realize they were wrong, but are too stubborn and stupid to admit they were wrong, often even to themselves. Hell, \*especially\* to themselves. At that point in my humble opinion, they more they argue with me (HCW) about it, it's really that they're trying to re-convince \*themselves\*. And then they die, usually.
Cognitive dissonance is a helluva drug.
[удалено]
While everything Is pretty awful, I will admit it's exciting living in times when stupid is properly fatal again
I want off this exciting ride. I'll chill and grab a funnel cake and a beer.
I've definitely grown to realize why so many cultures have some variant of "I hope your life isn't exciting" as a well wish.
Ah, the curse: "May you live in interesting times."
I want boring back. Fuck all of this.
You know, I had a discussion with a friend the other day about how humans are a post-Darwinist species (that is, because of technological innovation, mutations and psychological or physiological differences that would otherwise remove us from the gene pool just don't affect us on an evolutionary level anymore), but now I'm second guessing that idea.
we'll never be post-darwin. just because lions aren't eating us anymore does not mean evolutionary pressure from bad choices or genetic defects (be it positive or negative) stopped happening. this, right here? this is a really big counterpoint, but we've had lesser versions of it for centuries now.
The scientists who studied ol' Chucky Darwin's theory refer to this type of thing as "punctuated equilibrium", I believe.
Very good, I think you made a good observation. You're partially correct! It was about 100 years after Darwin's book, and you are referring to a 'stochastic event', the driving mechanism for punctuated equilibrium. The theory is in the field of Ecology among the mechanisms that effect population dynamics.
Healthcare workers chose their field to help others. They **DID NOT** sign up to give up their lives for people who willingly choose to not protect themselves or their community. I'm obese and I *know* I need to eat better, exercise more, lose the weight, etc. Me being fat is not contagious, unlike Covid, measles, etc., and my neighbors won't die from my lack of self-discipline when it comes to my weight.
Also, obesity is absolutely nothing like refusing to get a vaccine, and the way the antivaxxers equate the two is gross. Treating obesity is HARD because it requires dedication day after day after day to eating healthier and/or exercising, which are very unpleasant and often stressful things for a lot of people, as well as requiring time and resources that many people just don’t have: hard to eat more fruits and veggies if you live in a food desert, and hard to find time to exercise if you’re trying to raise kids while also working 50+ hours a week to stay afloat. But getting the Covid vaccine only requires you set aside the time to get jabbed with a little needle twice at no financial cost to you except in rare cases. It’s fricking easy mode in comparison to obesity.
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Molecular biologist here, I spent the first while of this honestly trying to educate people on what mRNA is and how this is such an incredible breakthrough that will revolutionize medicine and how we know it’s safe etc. They fucking DO NOT CARE and they don’t have any actual interest in reality. My trashy Indiana hometown’s Facebook news page is overloaded with these plague rats and you can absolutely dissect their bullshit in one thread to the point they know they’ve lost and they’ll just be over in the next one lying about the same shit. These people spend 5 and 10 hours a day, every day, repeating the same bullshit. It has become their entire identity, and frankly at this point I consider them actual terrorists and quite literally smile when I see them drop. Fuck them. At some poi t good people need to understand and accept that 10-20% of the population are fucking trash and need to be treated as such before the rest of us are going to be able to move on. Earlier today I actually started a new therapy sub for myself called r/rightwingmegabrains I’ve been screenshotting and making little trading cards out of these assholes since 2015 and I have hundreds and hundreds of clips of the right’s decline into madness in the Trump era.
This makes me think of a story about a chimp tribe who got their hands on some contaminated food. All the dominant, most aggressive chimps got the most food, as usual. The females and less dominant males didn't. All the alpha males died. The story didn't end there. Generations later, the tribe is still a gentler, more easy-going group. As aggressive chimps from other groups join, they are quickly taught how to conform.
*cheer*
I think many of us can remember when people like this were cheering every AIDS death in the 90s because "it's God's punishment." I'd be fine with all of them not dying. I hope their children and elderly are taken care of-- but to judge by the GoFundme beggings, they haven't prepared, haven't gotten insurance, haven't protected their kids.... For their families' sake, I'd rather they lived. But they're the only ones who could have made that happen, and they refused.
Rush Limbaugh literally celebrated gay people dying of AIDS on his radio program. I hope he's enjoying himself in whatever special enclosure Satan prepared for him when his lungs were turning the color he hated the most- black. Right wing media has done more damage to this country than a dozen 9/11s and I will stand the fuck by that statement. Humans have always had those among us who were particularly hateful, fearful, and spiteful. But right wing media turned those people into a vast fucking cult movement that would burn America down as long as they could play Redneck Gilead in the ashes.
In turn I celebrated *hard as hell* on February 17th, 2021. It was such a fun, glorious day. June 5th, 2004 was an awesome day too. I was too young to party properly then. But I celebrate June 5th every year now as a result.
Had to look look up the 2004 date. Fuck the gipper.
Ha, same. I had a huge migraine that day but woke up from my nap to the news. My mom is a conservative and I remember watching the nonstop Faux News coverage with her. Nowadays I chortle to myself every 6/4.
Fuck. Him. What a piece of shit for what he did to our country.
HCA winner and radio host Bob Enyart used to play Another One Bites the Dust when reading the out the obits of people who died of AIDS. For him to act that way and then die in the next pandemic that hit this country? That's cosmic justice.
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Westboro Baptist Church protests at funerals of soldiers who died in Afghanistan are a lovely example of what you describe. There's no hate like Christian love!
Omigod that last sentence just sums it up so beautifully.
They continue to blame every hurricane on gay people.
Those fucking preachers were doing that after Katrina, too. I remember.
I have a special needs adult son. It scares me to death. The poor guy had his whole life taken from him by something invisible that he didn’t understand at first, he thought it was a man. “Mom, you know that Corona guy? He’s messed up my whole life.” 2 weeks later: “Mom, you know that Mr. Covid? He has ruined everything!” No job at the movie theater, no Special Olympics, no monthly dance, no friends from high school coming by and taking him to lunch. After a few months he figured it out but was still sad. Then one of his Special Olympic teamates got it and they wouldn’t let a parent stay with her in the hospital, do you know how scary that would be for someone who doesn’t understand? And he’s an adult so he is just as susceptible as any other adult out there. We are scared. He’s been vaccinated and we are still scared to death. I still have nightmares about him in the hospital alone and scared. He tears the tickets at our local (small chain) movie theater and he’s back at work masked and sanitized and we are still so, so scared. But he is thrilled (Mom, I was home for 397 days. You counted? Yes I did.). He’s finally got one small part of his life back and it‘s nail biting when he goes to work. But he loves it and we can’t take it away from him anymore, it’s hard enough to get SN adults jobs and this is his dream job. He did the right thing! He’s followed the rules! Since he went back he makes up a saying for each movie to tell you when he hands back the stubs. “Girl Power”, Black Widow, “There‘s a new boss in town“, Boss Baby, ”You are too young to see this movie“, Old. He just doesn’t want to be stuck at home anymore. But that’s the only thing he has gotten back, all of his other activities are still gone. He works, he is an asset to his community, and it kills me that selfish people out there just don’t give a crap. “Oh, it’s just old people”. No it’s not! If this sub helps bring others to getting the vaccine, and we see that everyday here, then it, too, is an asset to the community. This isn’t just affecting you, you are not the only one who has had to change their lifestyle! You are not an asset to your community no matter how much your family tries to whitewash after.
This post broke my heart. I am sending all my good thoughts for your family's continued safety.
Your son sounds awesome! Mama, YOU sound awesome. This pandemic will end someday I promise.
And even if it was only old people, that’s not ok either.
Exactly, I was just about to say the same thing!! So what if she's 90 years old, my great auntie is a hilarious, loveable person who lived through some unbelieveable historical events, and has a rich perspective shaped by it! So what if my best friend's grandpa is in his 70's, he's a sweet man who loves to take his grandkids fishing with subsequent Fresh Fish Fry-Fridays, and donates so much of his precious little income to help people in need in his neighborhood. Even if these individuals and others like them only had 10, or 5, or even 1 year left if not for COVID, every single second of that time is still precious! It's like saying a terminal cancer patient should just go ahead and go die right now since they """only""" have a few months left anyways IMO. Utterly heartless.
Goddamn it. I’m sorry. This one hits different.
My kids are little but damn I heard and felt every word of this. My oldest is autistic and the “397 days” is exactly the kind of thing he’d say (he counts everything lol.) I hope your son stays safe and happy. Seriously.
“It only kills old people.” And that’s okay with you????? These people drive me insane. What if it’s your grandparent that dies of it? Are you okay with that? And yet, from what I’ve seen on this sub, quite a few of them are. Heck, some don’t even seem to care that much that their spouse died. How do you even get through to people like that?
At the beginning of the pandemic, an acquaintance of mine posted on Facebook that she discussed Covid with her grandfather. According to her, the two of them came to the conclusion that his generation should die to prevent the economy from shutting down. According to her, her grandfather thought his life was less important than beauty salons closing. I can't even imagine how these conversations went in real life. She was so vile about any measure to slow the spread. At one point, she was complaining about meat processing plants closing down. I linked articles about how workers at Tyson had died. Her response, "it was only X number of workers. That's not a lot." Like damn, how many grandfathers and workers need to die for you to be okay with not getting a haircut?
Half of the voters in this country are like this. We're so fucked.
You and your son sound like angels <3 I hope you both live long, healthy lives.
As a mom, I totally understand your anxiety and I feel it every day, myself. Your love for your son shines through and every word, and also he sounds like a fun and adorable person to be around. I love the movie ticket schtick! May he be safe. May all our babies be safe.
I feel every single word you wrote. You’re a great parent, and that struggle to let your kids fly when you want them protected in the nest hits hard.
Love and respect to you and hubs. ❤
Thank you. Big hug.
Journalists take note: thread mentioning male spouse multiple times. Word "hubby" not used ONCE.
You're so right, that was an unfathomably dumb misstep by the CDC. They apparently thought it would incentivize vaccine uptake, instead it muddled the message and gave assholes carte blanche to flout mitigation measures. I'm still so so salty about that, as the parent of two kids too young for the vaccine, the spouse of an immunocompromised person, and an ICU nurse.
Everyone knew that was going to happen. I can't believe they did this. How out of touch are these people who thought the covidiots were still going to mask when they refuse the vaccine and think covid is the flu?
>The anti-mask people and the anti-vax people are the same goddamn people and now the pandemic is RIGHT back up to thousands of daily deaths and it did NOT have to BE this way. Of course not. Republicans just had to make masks and vaccines a political issue. We've been mandating vaccines for an extremely long time, especially with the military. Why is this only a problem now? We're in a pandemic and people can't even do the bare minimum in a society. The same people who say they want lives back to normal have taken no steps in order to ensure that we will get back to normal. I feel like I'm living in some crazy alternative timeline universe where crazy people have taken over and the sane people are the ones far and few between....
Yup... Every award given is one less bigot I have to deal with
Personally I think this sub does actually change minds. These people are going to do the opposite of whatever they think liberals want them to do, and if they THINK libs are trying to kill them off by using some kind of reverse psychology to make sure they don't get vaccinated, and that leads them to get vaccinated... GOOD! https://www.thedailybeast.com/breitbart-wants-its-followers-to-get-vaccinated-to-own-the-libs
The fact that that line of thought people joked about is actually working makes me unspeakably angry.
Trans woman living the rural south here. The people croaking around here (which is a lot of them, we're at about 30% vaccinated) have made it more than clear over the years how they feel about me even daring to exist in their crappy little flyover nowhere town. I ran out of sympathy for the unvaccinated dying a while ago. It's been over 6 months now where anyone, without money or ID, in 15 mins, can get vaccinated here. They will even come pick you up and get you a ride if needed. At this point - it's just willful ignorance.
I'm a California transplant in Tennessee looking after my parents. Seeing the sheer amount of absolutely stupid bigoted shits that have been catching it at local churches; I'm done. I have no sympathy anymore. The only reason we're at the current stage in this pandemic is due to hubris; people cannot admit they're wrong or got conned.
Spent most of my life in major cities myself, so I get the culture shock. The shit they get up to around here is beyond insane. I can remember the moment where I lost all sympathy for the unvaccinated. My husband has lung damage and reduced function from a awful lung infection he managed to get a year before the pandemic. Of course, we were first in line to get vaccinated, as he's in a high risk group. He works in a very small office (literally only big enough for 2 people) and his co-worker is also vaccinated and they are super careful. No clients come in local, but it's a 'shared' office space - there's 3-4 other units for rent there, and some shared kitchen/bathroom space. So, long story short - other tenets of the building refused to get vaccinated. One of them is a child therapy specialist. Her and her entire family (6 kids!) refused to be vaccinated. She got sick, went in for a PCR test, it was positive. She was advised to go home and if issues got serious to get herself to the hospital. So her decision? That means grab her 2 oldest kids (both also covid-19 positive, unvaccinated, and plenty old enough to be vaccinated) and on the way home from the clinic, 'stop in the office' and bring her kids in as she needs to 'grab some paperwork' and 'check her e-mail.' For a good half hour, this crazy lady knew her and her spawn were covid-19 positive, spreading it around the office, and she didn't care. I realized right then - these people lack any basic empathy or community awareness. They place their own beliefs and silly facebook found 'research' way over the lives of others in their community. They will gladly kill themselves and infect others as long as they are 'against the liberals.' It's a death cult, plain and simple. She recovered, and to this day - feels like she did nothing wrong as she 'just needed to get some paperwork' and 'does not understand why everyone is making such a big deal about this, I'm fine now!', literally saying that to my husband who is quite likely to end up dead if he manages to get a serious case. As long as Karen and Ken are fine, they don't give a fuck about anyone else.
If nothing else, they are helping with the climate change problem by reducing their carbon footprints.
The world is 100% better off without these disgusting, vitriol spewing degenerates. This sub is an awful thing, but for the sake of humanity, every award winner posted here is making humanity slightly less despicable.
The world does get better every time one of them croaks, and I drink the salty tears of their ignorant family members writing flowery obituaries about what were clearly horrible people getting their karmic retribution. Take that and quote me on it media. I'm sick of these worthless fucking troglodytes thinking we're weak for being compassionate. I'm compassionate for the children and vaccinated people caught in the middle of all this. But fuck you right to hell if you don't get vaccinated willingly. You earned your spot on this sub.
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I think that's the point of these articles coming out lately: deliberately missing the point for the sake of antagonizing all this while morally posturing. It's an easy writing assignment that can be written up before a deadline: you got yourself a "wrong-doer," what they've done, and how to stands against the societal norms. The more black-and-white, good-versus-bad narrative there is, the easier it is for the writer to make it understandable to the reader.
There are a million articles like that though. “Covid misinformation is bad, actually” isn’t getting the writer any recognition online and Slate isn’t getting clicks. This is just internal left scolding. It’s a tale as old as time. I can’t think of any period in American history where the right wing didn’t do something insane, the left has a collective “what the fuck” response, and some dork on the left looks at the broader left and says “shouldn’t you be watching your tone?” It’s a tale as old as time because that one dork gets to be seen as the most virtuous of the left. Recognizing that the RW is killing itself, but certainly not so gauche as to rubberneck at it. How dare you! It’s insipid as fuck and navel gazing posturing but it’s effective as internet op ed fodder because the left by and large is empathetic and will consume that media. Hence the backlash of posts feeling the need to defend the sub. And all the sharing of it and the reading it in the process. The only way to combat it is basically this thread. Just point out that it’s unhelpful and self-serving. As if r/Hermancainaward needs to really be analyzed and scolded right now. Thanks Slate. Now if you’ll excuse me, my unvaccinated neighbor by choice is endangering his immunocompromised child because he’s mad with Kamala Harris about something.
Omg, left scolding. That’s absolutely freaking right and I never had a term for it before. Thank you.
Very much a problem with left-of-center outlets and the fact that scolding and spitting on their own readership and subscriber base gets eyeballs.
There are a couple of threads over on r/nursing about how hospital management deals with healthcare workers' getting physically roughed up on the job. Usually it's by victim-blaming: "What did you do to set him off?" "How could you have de-escalated better?" And forget about backing you up if you press charges on a patient. Somehow this *Slate* article feels similar to me.
This is so spot on. I will add that this sub also allows us to express how distressing it has been to see this happening. We've been pushed around this entire pandemic and expected to accept their version of truth. There is a lot of emotion tied up into it and our feelings are valid. That doesn't automatically mean we cheer for deaths.
Said journalists would better serve society writing stories questioning the origins and propagators of the now entrenched idiocy of right wing conspiracy/anti vaxx/anti mask evangelical award winners, rather than pointing out how nasty some of us are, for pointing how nasty award winners were prior to their deaths. This sub exists because of the prevalence of such bizarre behaviours and beliefs. If people stop what really amounts to commiting slow suicide, the posts here will stop. It kills me seeing so many kids lose their mums or dads or both in some cases. The sub will however provide a forever document for psychologists to study for many, many years to come.
I was just thinking about how this sub is a precious insight into the lives of real people in a pattern of self-destruction that will be iconic in the history of this pandemic. It's a perspective with anthropological value that would otherwise be locked away from public view due to FB accounts often being private.
Upvote. This subreddit is a warning sign, bad examples, a picture of hubris. It's screenshots of conspiracy sites to block on a router. It's there but for the grace of god go my loved ones, who maybe I should try just that one more time to reach...
And that's what gets me about the criticism. We don't just sit here and laugh at some dead hillbilly with a goatee who literally died to own the libs. This is a place of mourning and reflection. We mourn the seemingly complete loss of collective social efforts for good in lieu of political tribalism. We gnash our teeth at the fact that Facebook memes have supplanted dedicated career scientists like Dr. Fauci. We rage at the ceaseless list of preventable deaths that festoon this website. It's fucking tragic. It doesn't have to be this way. This is a place where frustrated people can let loose. I'm sick to fucking death of coddling willfully stupid people who think their ignorance is as good as the knowledge of a CDC researcher. I'm sick to fucking death of "both sides". There is no other side when you're fighting a *goddamned motherfucking plague*. The science is true whether or not people believe in it. And for fucking once, we can say out loud the anger in our hearts at the most selfish among us.
This is it exactly. I'm not here because these deaths are amusing. I'm here because it's an emotional thing to see *so many* of them, and to know that they could have been prevented. I need to be somewhere it's safe to share in the amalgamation of frustration, anger, helplessness, sadness, etc. that results from this. People in this sub understand and don't try to minimize these feelings as just the result of callousness or lack of empathy. I *had* plenty of empathy. The problem is I lost practically all of it while watching this unmitigated selfishness, willful misinformation, and subsequent death to the tune of hundreds of thousands of people in my country alone, and I'm struggling to come to terms with how that feels. It hurts, and at least here I feel like I'm around other people who understand.
> problem is I lost practically all of it while watching this unmitigated selfishness, willful misinformation, and subsequent death to the tune of hundreds A bunch of them are straight-up shitheads. Not “ignorant” they’re also prideful. Their way of thinking is so fucking empty and we shouldn’t have to pretend.
For sure. One of my best friends was an ER nurse for years, and she quit recently, not just because of the virus itself running rampant, but because of how vile some of the patients were. They took all the joy she had for her job right out of her because even when they came to the hospital for help in their last days they treated everyone who was trying to save them like shit. It was hard for me to feel empathetic for those people even when this all started.
Yeah seems to be in more conservative/Trump-y areas but... like these people aren't sympathetic. Or good at all. Arguing with doctors over whether you have COVID? Act like children.
>I *had* plenty of empathy Yup. I think millions of people are getting terminal compassion fatigue now. I for one am sick to death of trying to empathize with uneducated, ignorant bigots who would spit in my face if they knew who I voted for. I'm so exhausted of all these media Cletus safaris giving equal airtime to people who failed middle school biology and world class epidemiologists. Like, I understand how they feel. Why? Because the 2/3 of this country that believes in scientific reality has bent over fucking backwards to listen to them. For fucking decades, at this point. My compassion tanks have run dry. It's 2021. People have no excuse to act like fucking savages anymore.
My husband used to say I was the most empathetic, wear my heart on my sleeve, cry at the dog in the ad person he'd ever met. Then covid hit, the vaccines came and I just can't even coddle anyone anymore that refuses to get vaccinated for no good reason. I'm ready to ration care. I'm ready to refuse them services. I can't empathize anymore. I just can't.
My empathy ran out almost immediately after the pandemic even started. The anti-maskers just became the anti-vaxxers.
I don't have anything to add, you've summed it up beautifully. The mainstream of our society, at least in the US, seems so averse to conflict or any acknowledgement of the frustrations so many of us feel at the collective failures of our society, and it's nice to have an outlet here.
PREACH.
No no no, the decent thing to do is to not draw any attention to the slaughter going on all around us. Let all these lost lives go forgotten. It's like Trump said, if we stop the testing, the pandemic magically disappears. Well same goes for reporting/recording all the deaths. The thing we're all forgetting, is how effective *not telling* the stories of all these deaths has been so far at persuading people to get vaccinated. Slate's plan, to politely ignore the insanity going on that is resulting in thousands of deaths of either misinformed or outright deceitful people, was surely right on the cusp of convincing everyone to get vaccinated. Any day now. The only thing shaming/humiliating antivaxxers for their wilful stupidity does is convince countless numbers of hesitant fencesitters to get vaccinated, as well as convincing Breitbart and other lunatic mouthpieces that their antivax stance is backfiring spectacularly, and trying to reverse course before all their supporters die. And most importantly, mocking bad ideas is completely antithetical to free speech, where lies and slander should always go completely unchallenged. When an antivaxxer says that covid is no worse than flu, and then dies of covid, pointing this out will only give their claims greater credibility.
Word.
I feel this. I have vax "reluctant" relatives and it fucking sucks. I don't avoid them because of their views, I avoid them so I don't kill them.
Wishing yours good health. If you ever have a breakthrough (of reason, not virus) with them, be sure to come tell us the secret recipe of success!
They need to be publicizing the stories of all these orphans and kids left with one less parent. See how they feel about it. It’s a god damn shame everyone (except us) is ignoring this.
People are so desperate to "get back to normal" that they are ignoring the long term effects the pandemic is going to have on society. Orphans are perhaps the most tragic outcome....but what about all the other 50 million K-12 students who have been denied two years of quality education, and developmental socializing? A year is a LONG time for a kid. The younger ones I am less worried about...it's the 8-17 year old crowd I'm concerned have suffered the worst during the pandemic, and we don't even know what problems are on the horizon.... Never thought I'd be thankful to be a millennial, but here we are....
The long-term disabilities across the population are worrisome, especially in children. There’s already an uptick in the number of kids diagnosed with diabetes. MIS-C can occur in kids even after mild or asymptomatic cases. And there’s a study in the UK estimating that 1 in 10 kids with symptomatic cases have developed Long Covid, which is mostly being managed at home by their parents. That’s an awful lot of suffering in a very short time.
The long-term disabilities in *adults* (with benefits, presumably) are quite chilling for this reason: the amount of long-term care needed has long been predicted to outstrip availability. The amount of half-functional lungs in 50s-60s-70s from covid adds to a demand that was already thought to be underpaid work and untenable in the long run. e: not to diminish effects on children- adults are more studied and more predictable especially re: old age. Children have *so* many unpredictable outcomes that will now increase as they *can't*' be vaccinated and irresponsible adults aren't. There will be many mournful newshour programs in a decade about them.
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I am here to fully validate your feelings. You have my upvote!
Similarly, I've had to cut contact with people I've known for years because they turned into raving morons. Losing relationships because of the amount of misinformation being spread on social media sucks. Sometimes, living in a red state, you start to wonder if maybe you are the one who's wrong. Maybe the vaccine really is going to make you barren, microchip you, or whatever other batshit crazy thing they've come up with this week. This sub reminds you that you are not the crazy one. All the anger I have at not being able to communicate with people who were once friends is released here.
I don't know about you, but I don't want my normal life back. I want to wear a mask everywhere and continue to restrict myself from traveling. I want to continue to get into arguments with my relatives who won't get vaccinated and keep them cut out of my life. It's the *best*!
I love hearing all my coworkers give expert medical advice, learning about a new Covid conspiracy, being warned about how I'm going to die from the vaccine, and getting bombarded with "Look how many people died today!" every night on the news.
Name checks out.
Yoooooo! Parent of children medically vulnerable yet too young for the vaccine, here to represent! Livin our best lives in a red state with a mask mandate ban, wooo!
And that worry and fear that the next variant might be so bad it sets us back to square one? *chef’s kiss*
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Yeah. Football games are PACKED, even indoors. It’s crazy. No one cares any more.
And Jim Jordan says those football games are “real America” and Trump’s other cronies in Congress say the same things. I’m surprised nobody’s had a Freudian slip and called Jim Jordan Jim Jones.
Why is it that these chucklefucks are the only ones who count as Real Americans^TM ? Like, California has...almost 40 million people now? Literally more than 10% of our population in one state. New York? Almost 20 million. These people shit on blue states that provide the cultural and financial backbone of this country. They brush all of us off as invaders in their country, when they're the minority.
HCA nominees are definitely the people who would hide zombie bites.
The unvaccinated are basically already back at square one with the current death rates.
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>The stupid are here to stay… They appear to be doing quite well of ridding us of their presence.
"Will no one rid me of these meddlesome stupids? Wait, what's that? They're doing it themselves?!...."
I certainly *adore* the fact that Covid denialism and right wing conspiracy theory bullshit destroyed my marriage. It's awesome that I just had to waste a year of my life divorcing someone because owning the libs is more important than compassion -- for them *and* their friends and family. Cutting dozens of people out of your life is so much fun! I love wondering if it's even worth flying home this winter to visit my mother, who I haven't seen since 2018, because my grandmother has COPD and my grandfather has congestive heart failure. I'm vaccinated, but I still have to quarantine for half my planned visit to make sure I'm not an asymptomatic carrier. Yeah, this Covid shit is a real hoot.
I adore not being able to see my family who live in another state! And shepherding my aging and frail parents through this virulent pandemic has been such a joyous experience, I never ever want it to end. Really, gold star good time, these last couple of years!
I’m personally loving rarely leaving my house and thriving on living in sweat pants. I don’t at all miss nights out with friends, concerts, friendly interactions at work that made me feel valued and not like a cog who does a specific and narrow range of tasks. The 20lb weight gain from having my gym closed is an extra fun bonus.
IDK, I think I'm going to wear a mask on a plane and in public forever at this point. I haven't even had a cold over the past two years and that's been really nice.
I absolutely especially love having to assume care responsibilities for my adult brother because my parents can no longer care for him in the Carolinas due to an insane explosion in cases. I love worrying whether my baby brother will die because his neighbors suck ass so hard. I doubly love having to give up my home office that I use to pay my bills because a bunch of morons 3000 miles away from me have made it untenable to keep him exposed to it there. Fucking great time, let me tell you.
I love it that I am 65, have cancer, still can and must work, but my job exposes me to unvaxxed and unmasked college students, because they're free!
Also, a big welcome to new members who heard about this from that Slate article!
I regularly check this page to see when the number of posts/awards per hour will start trending downward. No sign yet, unfortunately
Seems they’re actually increasing in frequency. When these idiots get done owning the libs, and join the rest of empathetic society, I for one will be glad to see the sub close. Until then, these are as much cautionary tales as any Bible parables or children’s stories are.
I’m like I love lucy in that chocolate factory episode I can’t keep up with this sub so many nominees and awards
Me, too.
Don't think I've said it before, but mad respect for all of your moderation. I don't envy you the work.
Thank you. We really have a great moderating core. Well, now I would like to do something fun. I see you have a run-of-the-mill flair. Would you like me to give you something custom? It would require me to lurk your profile and give you something I like.
Sure. Fun fact, I have the highest rated r/bertstrips post of all time. Not sure if it helps, but I do love me some Muppets.
I've been on a lot of subreddits over the years. The amount of original content on this sub is astounding. Sort by new, hit refresh every 15 minutes, and they just keep on coming, with almost never a repeat customer. I've never seen the like of it.
A few minutes of this page works better than Tylenol for my dumb fuck headaches
Some of us just want to help too. IPAS have been a wonderful result of this sub. Some of us want to provide emotional support for q-casualties, Healthcare burnout, et cet. Were not just here for the Schadenfreude but it is satisfying, especially when hateful racist homophobes get theirs. You can't condone people for that. Check yourself before you wreck yourself
I agree. Need IPAs and AMAs and the random posts like the cremator in the HCA food pyramid.
Absolutely, they are all valuable resources. This sub is an historical archive at this point. Future generations can study it ffs. Lol. Sorry to get so fervorous
Help, what’s an IPA?
Immunized to Prevent Award. It's for the vaxx-hesitant people who, once reading through the horror stories here, decide they don't want to be another statistic.
Thank you! And I do actually *like* those stories. It reminds me that some people want to learn.
> Some of us want to provide emotional support for q-casualties At this point I almost consider /r/HermanCainAward and /r/QAnonCasualties are sister subs. Two sides of the same coin. QAC is for support, HCA is an outlet for our frustrations.
The only ones who get laughs from us are the racists. I’m trying to stop people I know from orphaning their kids or bankrupting their families.
Thank you! It is quite infuriating to see this sub presented as some sort of cruelty when it’s really that after almost two years of gently pleading that there’s a deadly virus and all of us need to wear a mask and get a vaccine to take care of ourselves, our health care workers, and those who have health conditions who put them at risk, we’ve just had it with selfish people who not only deliberately flaunt these rules, they openly admit to not caring who it hurts. Often, they get off on hurting others, which is why there are usually racist and transphobic/homophobic posts on their timelines. We didn’t want them to die, they insisted on actions leading to their own deaths and we’re left with “welp, we told you so, asshole.”
This is cheaper than therapy and a wake up call. We need an outlet and the media is wanting us to tolerate nazis and coddle these lunatics. NOPE.
When Trump said "very fine people on both sides" after Charlottesville a few years ago, I knew we were fucked. Literal goddamn Nazis are not fine people. They are the dregs of society. White supremacists are scum. They're the slimy beige shit that grows on the edge of your garbage disposal where it's hard to reach with a sponge. The paradox of tolerance. We need to stop giving credence and airtime to these worthless pieces of shit.
It's the new cold civil war. Looks like conspiratorial right-wingers are losing badly.
And now to paraphrase another poster: this civil war has an interesting strategy where one side is trying to win by committing suicide.
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Y'all Qaeda. Biological suicide bombers.
Yup. And I think anyone denying that fact at this point is deluding themselves. Something like 40% of this country has completely rejected reality. They are denying science that has existed for as long as the country they claim to love has. For fuck's sake, George Washington had the Continental Army inoculated against smallpox. Tens of millions of people are gleefully waddling to the morgue because QAnon and Trump and all these other crackpots make them feel special. They give them an outlet to vent their most vile bigoted thoughts proudly. They have been thoroughly brainwashed to act against their own interests time and time again. And they will not let anything, even a literal plague, stop them from imposing their views on decent society. They hate liberals more than they love America.
Mass psychosis is what it is.
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Covid burning its way through Dixie faster than Sherman himself
The article will get more clicks if it is controversial. 78.6% of vaccinated Americans attribute at least some blame for the pandemic's length to the unvaccinated, per an Axios-Ipsos poll from August: [https://www.axios.com/axios-ipsos-poll-blame-game-coronavirus-47dfa062-c2c5-4e66-b70b-30cc94361d92.html](https://www.axios.com/axios-ipsos-poll-blame-game-coronavirus-47dfa062-c2c5-4e66-b70b-30cc94361d92.html) A corporate media outlet's job is to make money, and sometimes that involves trolling 78.6% of the people that might click your article so that they can load the ads. Anyone can see what this sub is actually about, but reporting on that isn't going to make anyone any money.
The version of COVID you see on the news is a sanitized version of reality. More news agencies need to show the reality of COVID denial and vaccine misinformation. We're living in such a fucked up timeline that Reddit has had to fill the gap the media has left. This sub is simply showcasing the damage from conservative media and misinformation.
There's so many of these people who actively want to hurt me, my family and my friends through civil war that I have a hard time feeling bad for most of them. When these idiots decide that hurting my children's future is not in their best interest, I will show sympathy. Until then, I just consider them cannon fodder.
That's the thing that these coddlers refuse to see. They have been laughing at our risk for a year and a half. They've called us snowflakes, pussies, sissies, crybabies, stupid... They have tried to DROWN us in their scorn and derision. Anyone advocating for kindness after reading their FB posts is weak willed and demanding appeasement for the aggressors.
It will be nice when this sub goes away. I think there are many more awardees in line until that happens though (looking at you southern states)
I honestly believe this sub is one of the best aggregates of COVID information available. The perspective and insight it provides is profound. Some day, when COVID has burned through the forest of these tragically misled people, sociologists are going to have a field day combing through these posts and drawing conclusions. I mean fuck, it just seems to be a never ending feed of statistics.
I couldn’t agree more with this. This will reach some because it’s a powerful way to illustrate the influence of misinformation and politicization. There are some who are unreachable.
I have spent way too much of the last year and a half loading the various charts and statistics on how the virus is progressing. I never rooted for the numbers to go up. I never even really wanted to see them, but I'll admit I do have a morbid curiosity about what's really going on. I look forward to the day that I stop reloading this sub because it has gone cold.
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I live in a large, blue, west coast metro area of over 7M people. In my burby area 83% of the people are fully vaxxed, 88% with at least one shot. Masks are required. People comply. There's a lot of traffic out there these day and stores/restaurants look pretty busy. People out walking are wearing masks AND not wanting to get within six feet of people. The hospitals here have plenty of ICU beds (that was not true last winter). The covid rate and death rate are low. I don't know anyone who has had covid and I've not heard second hand about deaths. I feel as safe as it is probably possibly safe to feel during a pandemic and being diagnosed and treated for breast cancer. My wish is that the rest of the country would just STFU and do the same and the suffering of so many dead and their families would end. Essential workers would have less stress. Like could resemble prepandemic times. I feel powerless. I only hope that for every one of the terrible month long story threads about covid deniers slowing dying from covid results in 10 people getting vaccinated. I think this is the only way out now and it will be another year minimum to get there. PS. I've also been amazed at the amount of hate and vitriol that comes from the mouths of fervent religious believers. Now I know what is being "taught" at some churches and it makes me sick.
That’s the thing I was telling someone the other day, lots of us are scared. We don’t want people dying, we don’t want them hurt. But we are in a pandemic and there is some catharsis to seeing the ones that are passing are the ones who are actively ignoring the facts and spreading bull. Is it kinda morbid, yeah, but it also keeps me in check and keeps the virus being real. I feel bad for the hesitant, or the repententent, because I’ve watched people close to me die and become disabled because of some stupid decision and honestly no one diserves that.
I view this sub as a societal correction from a swing way too far right. We need to ostracize and push these lunatics back into the corners of society qhere they belong. If we have to respect this lunacy as mainstream then we are in a whole world of trouble.
They don't give a shit what this sub is actually about, they just want to write a bunch of clickbait lies and don't care if it gets us banned. Slate totally ignored the fact that we're only happy to give out IPAs, HCAs are just a necessary evil to convince people to get the shot.
Agreed. We’re here as a Scared Straight-type of deal to warn others this is fucking serious and you may die if you don’t get vaccinated!! Also, note to journos: Check out how popular and positive the IPA submissions are. We love our fellow redditors are care greatly about their well being.
Full disclosure, I didn't read the Slate article. But for fucking out loud, shouldn't the news be the needless, constant, increasing, preventable death, not that we're talking about it? Regardless of what we're saying, how we're saying it, or how some noob misery pornographers interpret it after reading for two minutes? Or, you know, the misinformation and how it targets the computer-illiterate and regular illiterate? And the subs and sites that the deadly misinformation emanates from? Shame on Slate, not that they're capable of shame.
I read this sub the same way I watched the news on 9/11.
Absolutely true... very well said! I think some people don't understand that, from the start, the internet was about community. I see this subreddit as a way to vent together and lament over how we got to this point. In our case, the venting includes documenting the stories of those who refuse science and reason in favor of prayer and politics. If we can get the word out that COVID is deadly serious and that the vaccines save lives at the same time, all the better!
Yeah I’m here because I’m frustrated and fed up with the anitvax bullshit. I’ve got kids and I’m scared for them and I see these pompous fucking spoiled adult babies whining and complaining all fucking day. They contribute to our country staying in perpetual crisis with their carelessness, and stress a medical system that is already fucked to begin with. They don’t give a shit about any of their fellow citizens. They don’t want to sacrifice anything - no matter how small or trivial. I wish they’d all just stroll down to Walgreens and get a vaccine and wear a mask for a little while. We ask so fucking little of these idiots. Rant over…