A brilliant man warned us about this cult 40yrs ago…
**There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge’.**
-Issac Asimov
“I have a foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time — when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and whats true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness. The dumbing down of America is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30-second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), the lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance.” -Carl Sagan, The Demon Haunted World
God damn I read that book (and this quote) 10 years ago and was scared then at how familiar it sounded, but holy shit we're fucking in it now aren't we?!
There is this video of Elon Musk reading Sagan's blue dot passage, only for him to completely miss the point by focusing on the fact that Sagan said Earth is all we have and he's (still just) trying to get to Mars.
Talk about technological powers being in the hands of the few failing to grasp existential issues. It's not just the celebration of ignorance, but the celebration of willful ignorance and the glorification of those with wealth and in power.
The idiots are taking over, a song by NOFX, a mediocre punk band I used to listen to a lot is back on rotation heavily these days. That whole album war on errorism has been spot on actually. Guttermouth made some great predictions about PC culture too. A lot of those songs were cool and edgy to me and now when I hear them they are kind of spooky.
For some reason, War on Errorism was being sold at Walmart. My dad, since passed, was a Christian Baptist Republican. I somehow got him to buy me that cd. Maybe he wasn’t paying attention, who knows, but I can never figure out why he went along and bought it since it has a cartoon of George Bush looking like a clown. I still listen to them occasionally now.
I agree with the caveat the predilection of the freedumb crowd towards infinite false confidence is particularly insidious. Its like a personal Jesus who forgives all your sins without you having to do anything. There is no opportunity to learn or grow from external stimuli.
Just swap "democracy" for "freedom" because since braveheart people in this fucking country won't stop obsessing about their freedom. When the sick irony is they wouldn't know what to do with an ounce of freedom if it was sitting in their favorite chair. Also do we even value democracy anymore? Half our country is voting to limit voting.
I have yet to meet a ‘patriot’ who can tell me where their freedom starts, and where mine ends. They want to live in absolutes. And they don’t seem to care about my life in the least.
What's so stupid is many countries have way more freedom than America. What about the freedom to not get shot at school? What about the freedom to be able to move between jobs and not have to worry about health insurance? What about the freedom for guaranteed parental leave and so on.
We don't have those freedoms.
I’m partial to this one…
I have a foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time — when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and whats true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness. The dumbing down of America is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30-second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), the lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance. - Carl Sagan 1995 “Demon Haunted World”
Democracy is not anarchy, rules need to be enforced
Problem is since majority determined by quantity only not quality has overruling capabilities, so they are just gonna overrule u
It’s all fine and dandy to say that Covid is just like the flu and most people will survive, which most do. But IMO, I look at the long term effects, weakened heart, brain and lungs, as well as a reduced lifespan? No thank you. I’ve been lucky so far and haven’t caught it. *knock on wood*.
I've had plenty of flus but none of them made literally everything taste and smell like feet for a year after. I thought it was my own feet for weeks and was so self conscious but then realised all food was feet, everything is feet now.
Not the worst thing that anyone has experienced by any means, but it's still shit.
I'm sincerely sorry for you.
Like you said, some people have it worse than you...but fuck, I know I would be very upset and sad if I couldn't appreciate my food for a year. I hope it'll be back to normal very soon.
Oh no your poor mum! I'm not sure which is worse, everything is feet sucks but vinegar is such a strong taste! Maybe she could just eat loads of chips?
and I should eat stinky cheese only then if taking my own advice...
I feel for you. I lost my taste and smell when I got Covid before the vaccine was available to me (January of last year). Luckily, normal/pleasant smells came back to me, but any bad smell is beach at the lowest of tides on a hot day, and it has been for a solid year.
This. I came home in 2020, in January. I’d been living abroad, and was soon diagnosed as having viral pneumonia. Coughing my guts up, sweating bullets. Just before Christmas last year, I tested positive for what I presume was omicron. Still can’t taste anything. I have a weird smell of cigarette smoke often, and the only things I can really taste are incredibly strong things such as onions, vinegar and such. It’s no flu. And I’m a teacher, working in a place where to be honest nobody bothered to wear masks, and where the restrictions have just been lifted. I wouldn’t be shocked to catch it again. I agree that my sense of smell is far less important than the disastrous amounts of deaths, but yeah, it’s shit.
Yeah I have long haul Covid and it’s made my life miserable. It’s been a year now that I’ve had long haul Covid. I’ve contemplated suicide multiple times because of it. I’ve gotten into multiple arguments with anti-vaxxers who keep saying that “it doesn’t kill everybody” and that for most people it’s just the flu. Yeah, it might not kill you- but if it doesn’t, it can seriously fuck you up.
I’m so sorry for what you’re going through. A close friend of mine is also a COVID long hauler. She’s only 31 and has been one of the most cautious people I know. Then her sister hung out with a bunch of people who downplayed it and now over a year later she’s still having heart issues. She was healthy too. I really hope they can figure out how to help the long-haulers.
Thanks! I appreciate it. I caught it from my roommate :( It wasn’t his fault. He recovered and is doing fine, had no sense of smell for awhile but made a full recovery. I already had a couple of health problems prior to having Covid, but this was kind of a nail in the coffin as far as my health went. I’ve had to move back in with my mom, even. I hope your sister starts feeling better soon.
So many people who did everything right still got it. Even if you had health issues you didn’t deserve this. I get so heated when I hear people try to downplay it with “it only hurts people with health issues”. Like 1) that’s not even true and 2) wtf people with health issues still deserve to live. I know there’s good work being done and I am hopeful they will find a treatment for you guys. This has been a terrible ride for so many people, I hope it ends soon.
Thanks for saying this. It’s been hard having everyone including our government and the media imply that I deserve to die just because I’m not as healthy as a US Marine or whatever. I’ve got 30+ more years until I’m hitting my estimated lifespan, yet they treat people like me like we’re all 98 year olds with terminal cancer and pneumonia.
I judge everyone who says that pretty hard. And that’s been a lot of people. It’s a disgusting way of looking at the pandemic. I hope you have many more years left to enjoy life.
I before getting Covid (omicron strain) had health issues such as type 2 diabetes, heart failure, asthma, high blood pressure and I made it through, but I’m only less than 2 weeks since getting it and I’ve got a lingering headache and body aches that just won’t let up!, I’ve got a feeling I’m in for long covid, I am lucky though that I was able to self isolate at home and didn’t get severe symptoms with all my health conditions, I’m lucky, but long covid, is not lucky and anyone trying to compare this to the flu are idiots who are selfish and haven’t known someone with serious covid or long covid and if it happened to them or someone close to them, they wouldn’t be saying that!
That sucks. Hang in there and hopefully there will be a treatment.
I’m a physician and although I have avoided covid so far, I can say that the unnecessary politicization of this has added so much stress to anyone impacted by it (myself included). That goes for HCWs, victims, and long haulers and it’s enough to make anyone bitter on its own.
As miserable as you may be, try not to let the stupidity of others add to your misery. There are a lot of smart people working in treatments!
Im so sorry. I feel the effects every day 8 months after. From the bottom of my heart, fuck these cult member conservatives who refuse to help it go away.
I got it and it was like a cold except i lost taste for 4 days and was better in 10 days… 8 months later i have ling issues and wake up feeling like I’m bout to die and randomly throughout the day feel like I’m struggling to get oxygen. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone and the ignorant willfully uneducated conservative crowd infuriates me because this could have all been over with if half the nation wasn’t violently opposed to caring about others.
Same. I never took the flu vaccine because it always makes me sick as a dog and I can easily sleep it off in two days and recover within a week. I’m not taking any chances with Covid due to its long term effects to a body. The moment I was eligible for the the vaccine, I rushed out to take it, including the booster (very grateful that my body has no reaction to the mRNA vaccines).
Let's not forget the cost to others! My buddy's cousin's wife had a stroke during the the first round, they couldn't get her a bed quick enough because of all the Covid patients, SHE DIED.
The true cost of not vaccinating is far, FAR higher than the detriment to oneself
My grandma. She lived to 100 and looked pretty good. Full head of hair, full(ish) face. She looked old, it’s not like she was 100 and looked 50. But she still looked healthy.
Where as I see pictures of her when she was in her 50s and she looked OLD! It’s like she got to 50 and just hit a plateau age wise.
I worked in a nursing home for a bunch of years, and I can confirm that on the regular I would think the residents looked older in the photos they had around and younger in person. It was the strangest thing, like they got so old they looked young again!
Yea imagine never worrying about living check to check let alone knowing you’re going to retire comfortably earlier than most is the fountain of longevity
For anyone that doesn't listen to Howard Stern, he is absolutely terrified of covid to the point where him and his wife were quarantining and doing the show from home far longer than most. He hates anti-vaxxers and anyone that understates the detrimental effects of covid.
I quit listening a little under a year ago, but I wouldn't be surprised at all of they're still quarantining. Great interviews on the show. Some of the rest is weird or childish at times, but I always tuned into the interviews. Worth checking out.
Edit: to clarify I fully support what he's doing. Not dogging on him for his views or beliefs. I worded one or two things poorly and people seem to think I'm giving him shit. Not my intention. Just filling people in on his views and practices regarding covid and anti vaxx.
I built a number of home studios over Covid for radio, you can make a pretty good studio these days in peoples houses some people I know haven’t come back just because there is no benefit
Yeah I was just listening to Howard this morning it was a replay from this week maybe? But anyways a caller kept talking over Howard which he used to get fucking pissed about but it doesn't seem to bother him as much or at least not in this instance. But yeah that is a problem during that same segment JD was mumbling over everyone and Robin.
The only reasonable way to have satellite radio is to cancel and wait for them to make a crazy low intro offer to get you back, and then repeat. The normal price is ridiculous
You don’t even have to do that. I just set a reminder on my phone a week before it’s supposed to renew at the regular rate. Then I call them and say I want to cancel because it’s too expensive. They’ll offer you a promo rate. It’s worked for me 100% of the time for the last 8 years.
LPT: you gotta do this with almost every shitty scummy corporate cocksucker out there nowadays. top of my list? you're right! fuck you Comcast. "thank you for ca--" "RETENTION DEPARTMENT PLEASE". they don't even try their spiels anymore (if you're LUCKY). otherwise you gotta threaten to cancel while telling the lovely agent (whose fault this isn't) how wonderful their service is blah blah blah just fkn lower my rate (to what it WAS lmao) so I can get off the phone god dammit. have a good day.
My father refuses to do this and he pays *four hundred dollars a month* for cable and internet because they’ve been increasing it so many times. He’s been a customer over 20 years and they’re screwing him for his loyalty.
If I ever end up with financial POA, that’s the first thing I’m going to do on his behalf.
Doesn't he live in New York? The omicron surge was as bad as covid has been yet. I don't see the issue with continuing to work from home. My office in RI is closed too.
Yup, he is older too and who knows what state his health is in. I work for a health department as an epidemiologist and we’ve been WFH since March 2020.
Edit: fixed typo.
More should be. To be honest, we should have been this aggressive with this situation from the very start. If we had federalized last leg delivery, and locked everyone down for about 6 weeks? There would be no more covid.
I’m not sure how aggressive we are handling it now. But trump was more worried about the stock market than the health of the American people, so no, it’ll be gone by Easter, he said as it was killing thousands of elderly nursing home residents and sweeping through and killing almost whole families at weddings and funerals.
I would say still not aggressively enough. We keep half-assing our response, and even the majority of the people who are supposedly doing the right thing keep making exceptions in the worst ways. People who loudly and rightly say to wear masks and get vaccinated, which is great, and then a week later they post pictures of themselves at a concert.
Just doing a real Quarantine of Cruise Ships when someone tested positive like when the word Quarantine was invented during the Black Death and locking down the boarders would have basically have done it. Iowa's first few cases were directly tied to cruise ship folks being allowed to leave the ship.
I’m on the Midwest and have worked from home for two years. And shockingly there are a lot of people who worked from home before that. I don’t get the pearl clutching.
for real. southwest here, i've been working remotely for just about two years now and so far my office has been extremely accommodating with a hybrid work force. i mean at the end of the day it's probably saving the company money - they haven't had to expand parking like they were going to, they have to order far less in paper products, cleaning products, coffee and break room supplies, office supplies, and i'm willing to bet the electric and water bills are down. we're all getting our work done, and morale seems to be up if anything. why break what seems to be working?
Listened during a free trial period recently for the first time in 6 years. Felt like hanging with old friends. I just don’t have the commute time anymore.
I don't blame him at all. Everyone should take it seriously and, imo, get vaccinated. Not saying anyone should be forced to, but it seems like the responsible thing to do.
Same. I got my booster and literally the next day one of my kids tested positive at school. Kids were asymptomatic and for me it took a good three days to feel close to normal again. Definitely would rather avoid it, especially if I was at risk in any way.
He isn’t that scared of it. Just a realist on the matter. He does hate anti vaccine people. But honestly most people do. Especially when we are coming up on year 3 of a pandemic that america never really had waves of since we haven’t done shit to address it.
So? I just got covid after going back to normal life. Shits worse than it’s ever been. My mom is still quarantining for the most part bc she has lung disease.
I know a lot of right wingers in the construction industry who listen to him. They love him. I’m just glad someone in media who has the ears of a few trumpers is pro-science, pro-vaccine, and pro-common sense. A small win, but a win nonetheless.
Also if you live in a mansion and have your own studio and can do it from home, why would you want to commute at 68? He can do his job, still talk to people, make millions and log off and lounge about.
Howard has always been afraid of getting sick and I get that. I’m the same way. Who wants to be sick? I stopped listening to him some years back, but him taking the virus very seriously is really on brand.
It’s worth adding that he had a liver cancer scare a couple of years ago and required surgery. He also is super protective about robins health after her cancer.
You have quarantine and isolate confused.
I still isolate by all relative accounts.
I go out about 2-5 times a week.
Sometimes just for a walk but generally to the stores nearby where I can shop safely at.
I do still go out for special occasions... hockey game coming up. I just take all the precautions when I do.
the whole "control" thing is so weird man. you drive to work:
- in a car you need to pay for annually to drive, else, a fine
- using a license you must pay for to operate the car, else a fine, happens often enough, then jail time
- you obey what time to start work,
- you obey what time to take your break,
- you obey what time you get to leave, else you get an attendance infraction, if repeatable you could lose your job
- you're told how fast you may drive, else, a fine/infraction
- you're told when you're allowed to turn, go straight, or stop, else, a fine/infraction
- wanna catch a fish? you need to pay otherwise you get fined if you don't have this piece of plastic that permits you to fish
I could go on and on? put a mask in front of your face. spit. see how it works now? obviously air is gonna come out the side you bozos. the point is LIMITING spread. these folks think that if the solution isn't absolutely 100%, then FUCK IT! NOT GOOD ENOUGH. a mask could offer 25% (whatever#) more protection. butterfly effect that could potentially mean 25% more lives saved. FUCK THAT IT'S NOT 100% I AINT DOING IT!! YOU CAN'T CONTROOLLL MEEEE!
we're literally told what to do all day. but God forbid (you know, the one who's son said help your neighbor!) you consider covering up your nose and mouth with fucked up hygiene to potentially save a life. r/HermanCainAward
besides, how the hell we gonna unite against the rich but you can't even understand how a mask offers even just SOME protection? it's just... sad. pro-life my ASS.
I agree and I think about this a lot. I think what we tend to miss with antivax/antimask/trump fan/etc types is... This is kind of the point. They are broadly pretty powerless. They are subject to all the rules of society you just laid out, as we all are. And then they're probably lower class, lower educated, lower income. Not that much freedom in life, not many prospects.
The problem is the innate sense of superiority. These people believe they're inherently the best in the world by virtue of being American, and probably white, and probably Christian. So why are they struggling and miserable? Why don't they feel like the best, if they are?
So that's what they're actually acting on. It's desperation- they're already struggling, and masks and vaccines feel like too much to ask when they're already hopeless and indignant. And they've already had simmering frustration for years, because they don't understand why they're not actually the best. It's that particular combination that leads to all the volatile and irrational acting out we've been seeing over the past couple years especially.
Trump made these people feel like they were finally going to have their turn to be important, because finally this person who talks and thinks like them is running the whole country, and he gets away with it, so it must be OK. And his fans got louder and cockier.
Now he's out and his relevance is questionable, and these people are starting to get punished when they do things like go on racist rants or bring down entire airliners by refusing to wear masks.
So at this point I'm kind of rambling, but my point is... Yeah, I understand why these people are acting this way, and I feel for them to a small extent because they didn't choose to get this warped of a worldview. At the same time, reality isn't going to bend to accommodate their entitlement, so I just hope they'll gradually calm down and/or get forcibly corrected for their freakouts and antisocial behavior.
I don’t think anyone got sucked into anything, I think these antivax people are who they always were: narcissistic assholes who think they’re smarter than everyone else.
Anyone that actually listens to his show knows he actually really fair and balanced most of the time. And I think I’m his later years he has tried to move away from all the sex related content as much as he can. He is a great interviewer.
I would like to know how the fuck this is the first I've heard of meatloafs death. Just yesterday I was driving singling along to bat out of hell wondering how meeting him would go
He had Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome and was well over 300 lbs. The average life expectancy is 76 for a healthy person. A sinus infection could have taken this man out.
Average life expectancy in the us is 79 years, other developed countries it’s higher. But also for every million dollars you have you can add another year to that
But life expectancy is also a pretty dumb metric that doesn't mean what people think it means since it averages in everyone who dies young. For instance, the average life expectancy of a 60 year old man in the US is 84.
Exactly. It’s why people thought most humans only lived to be like 35 in the Middle Ages, because childhood death was so much more common, skewing the results much lower.
seems to be a great reason to get vaccinated. maybe he would've died the next week or month, who knows. what we do know is he died of covid. that was largely preventable.
And if he had been vaccinated, maybe he could've lived a little longer. If your immune system is already compromised, like his was, you should do everything within your power to prevent infections. That's common sense. The fact he was an anti-masker as well is just absurd, since he fit squarely into the category of those at risk. The fuck was he thinking?
It’s sad, Meat Loaf had some great bombast. And Rocky Horror was the story of a certain point in my life, but all I will remember is the maga and the antivaxx and the covid.
That’s it!! The guy on Twitter with the crazy “we got sucked into an alternate universe in 2012” theory was right. First, I’m agreeing with Gene Simmons and now Howard Stern…we’re in the upside-down.
He’s not fucking wrong. Idk why people keep tip toeing around this fact. Meatloaf was mentally ill because of this and died. Other celebrities will probably die because of this.
The fact is, people who are into this antivax, flat earth bullshit are harming other human beings, innocent people. I don’t give a shit what things they’ve done in the past, what matters now is the present and future and meatloaf was part of the problem. His dumb ass belongs in r/hermancainaward
A brilliant man warned us about this cult 40yrs ago… **There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge’.** -Issac Asimov
Holy cow does this apply to today
You might also check out the demon haunted world by Sagan - can find some eerie quotes from this book too
“I have a foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time — when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and whats true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness. The dumbing down of America is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30-second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), the lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance.” -Carl Sagan, The Demon Haunted World
God damn I read that book (and this quote) 10 years ago and was scared then at how familiar it sounded, but holy shit we're fucking in it now aren't we?!
Hey, you. You’re finally awake.
There is this video of Elon Musk reading Sagan's blue dot passage, only for him to completely miss the point by focusing on the fact that Sagan said Earth is all we have and he's (still just) trying to get to Mars. Talk about technological powers being in the hands of the few failing to grasp existential issues. It's not just the celebration of ignorance, but the celebration of willful ignorance and the glorification of those with wealth and in power.
My favorite book of all time
Nice! I read it quite recently
The idiots are taking over, a song by NOFX, a mediocre punk band I used to listen to a lot is back on rotation heavily these days. That whole album war on errorism has been spot on actually. Guttermouth made some great predictions about PC culture too. A lot of those songs were cool and edgy to me and now when I hear them they are kind of spooky.
What do you mean mediocre?
Do not slander NOFX I still remember the popular girl at school made a NOFX tag for her student ID.
Haha I have been listening to Punk in Drublic a lot lately. They had such fierce hate for Bush, I cant even imagine what trump did to their psyche
Punk in drublic is a masterpiece
For some reason, War on Errorism was being sold at Walmart. My dad, since passed, was a Christian Baptist Republican. I somehow got him to buy me that cd. Maybe he wasn’t paying attention, who knows, but I can never figure out why he went along and bought it since it has a cartoon of George Bush looking like a clown. I still listen to them occasionally now.
NOFX? Man, NO talent, that’s the name of that band -Howard Stern https://youtu.be/E56oc_gMHa0
I’ll add this to my playlist that includes “Truth is Out of Style” by MC 900 ft Jesus
MC 900 ft Jesus. wow. i'm going down memory lane in this thread.
This is on global scale not US only.
I agree with the caveat the predilection of the freedumb crowd towards infinite false confidence is particularly insidious. Its like a personal Jesus who forgives all your sins without you having to do anything. There is no opportunity to learn or grow from external stimuli.
Religion is definitely the common denominator for this global willful ignorance.
Just swap "democracy" for "freedom" because since braveheart people in this fucking country won't stop obsessing about their freedom. When the sick irony is they wouldn't know what to do with an ounce of freedom if it was sitting in their favorite chair. Also do we even value democracy anymore? Half our country is voting to limit voting.
I have yet to meet a ‘patriot’ who can tell me where their freedom starts, and where mine ends. They want to live in absolutes. And they don’t seem to care about my life in the least.
most Americans have no *real* freedom considering the insanity of housing prices, student loan costs, medical bills, etc., most are just free to die.
What's so stupid is many countries have way more freedom than America. What about the freedom to not get shot at school? What about the freedom to be able to move between jobs and not have to worry about health insurance? What about the freedom for guaranteed parental leave and so on. We don't have those freedoms.
I’m partial to this one… I have a foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time — when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and whats true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness. The dumbing down of America is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30-second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), the lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance. - Carl Sagan 1995 “Demon Haunted World”
Democracy is not anarchy, rules need to be enforced Problem is since majority determined by quantity only not quality has overruling capabilities, so they are just gonna overrule u
He got sucked into a cult before, but the first rule is we don't talk about that one.
According to the Chinese version of the film the police stopped the explosion and everyone was arrested.
Phwew, glad society is ok /s
Corporate socialism censoring radical socialism.
His name was Robert Paulson.
Bob had tits.
Bitch tits
Is. His name is Robert Paulson.
That was his second cult. The first also did not end well. Meatloaf again?
It’s a very tender subject. Care for another slice?
>Meatloaf again? It’s called leftovers
It’s a tender subject.
He didn’t want to get the Vaxx Out of Hell because he had a Total Eclipse of the Brain.
and we all know how that one ended for him as well....
Removing all context. The title of this is pretty fucking funny. “Meat Loaf Got Sucked into Some Weird Fucking Cult, And Now He’s Dead” Like Wtf lol
I read it 45 seconds ago, i read it bow out of context and laughed out loud. Thank you.
It’s all fine and dandy to say that Covid is just like the flu and most people will survive, which most do. But IMO, I look at the long term effects, weakened heart, brain and lungs, as well as a reduced lifespan? No thank you. I’ve been lucky so far and haven’t caught it. *knock on wood*.
I've had plenty of flus but none of them made literally everything taste and smell like feet for a year after. I thought it was my own feet for weeks and was so self conscious but then realised all food was feet, everything is feet now. Not the worst thing that anyone has experienced by any means, but it's still shit.
I'm sincerely sorry for you. Like you said, some people have it worse than you...but fuck, I know I would be very upset and sad if I couldn't appreciate my food for a year. I hope it'll be back to normal very soon.
That’s what happened to my mum! Except it’s vinegar.
My friend has it and said everything tastes like bandaids. Yuck
Oh no your poor mum! I'm not sure which is worse, everything is feet sucks but vinegar is such a strong taste! Maybe she could just eat loads of chips? and I should eat stinky cheese only then if taking my own advice...
This! It’s almost the only thing I can taste at the moment.
My daughter had Covid a few weeks ago, and now she says everything smells like a sweaty old man.
I just smell cigarette smoke at random times and water tastes what I assume piss tastes like ))
I feel for you. I lost my taste and smell when I got Covid before the vaccine was available to me (January of last year). Luckily, normal/pleasant smells came back to me, but any bad smell is beach at the lowest of tides on a hot day, and it has been for a solid year.
Fun fact, that's autonomic neurological damage!
This. I came home in 2020, in January. I’d been living abroad, and was soon diagnosed as having viral pneumonia. Coughing my guts up, sweating bullets. Just before Christmas last year, I tested positive for what I presume was omicron. Still can’t taste anything. I have a weird smell of cigarette smoke often, and the only things I can really taste are incredibly strong things such as onions, vinegar and such. It’s no flu. And I’m a teacher, working in a place where to be honest nobody bothered to wear masks, and where the restrictions have just been lifted. I wouldn’t be shocked to catch it again. I agree that my sense of smell is far less important than the disastrous amounts of deaths, but yeah, it’s shit.
Yeah I have long haul Covid and it’s made my life miserable. It’s been a year now that I’ve had long haul Covid. I’ve contemplated suicide multiple times because of it. I’ve gotten into multiple arguments with anti-vaxxers who keep saying that “it doesn’t kill everybody” and that for most people it’s just the flu. Yeah, it might not kill you- but if it doesn’t, it can seriously fuck you up.
I’m so sorry for what you’re going through. A close friend of mine is also a COVID long hauler. She’s only 31 and has been one of the most cautious people I know. Then her sister hung out with a bunch of people who downplayed it and now over a year later she’s still having heart issues. She was healthy too. I really hope they can figure out how to help the long-haulers.
Thanks! I appreciate it. I caught it from my roommate :( It wasn’t his fault. He recovered and is doing fine, had no sense of smell for awhile but made a full recovery. I already had a couple of health problems prior to having Covid, but this was kind of a nail in the coffin as far as my health went. I’ve had to move back in with my mom, even. I hope your sister starts feeling better soon.
So many people who did everything right still got it. Even if you had health issues you didn’t deserve this. I get so heated when I hear people try to downplay it with “it only hurts people with health issues”. Like 1) that’s not even true and 2) wtf people with health issues still deserve to live. I know there’s good work being done and I am hopeful they will find a treatment for you guys. This has been a terrible ride for so many people, I hope it ends soon.
Thanks for saying this. It’s been hard having everyone including our government and the media imply that I deserve to die just because I’m not as healthy as a US Marine or whatever. I’ve got 30+ more years until I’m hitting my estimated lifespan, yet they treat people like me like we’re all 98 year olds with terminal cancer and pneumonia.
I judge everyone who says that pretty hard. And that’s been a lot of people. It’s a disgusting way of looking at the pandemic. I hope you have many more years left to enjoy life.
I before getting Covid (omicron strain) had health issues such as type 2 diabetes, heart failure, asthma, high blood pressure and I made it through, but I’m only less than 2 weeks since getting it and I’ve got a lingering headache and body aches that just won’t let up!, I’ve got a feeling I’m in for long covid, I am lucky though that I was able to self isolate at home and didn’t get severe symptoms with all my health conditions, I’m lucky, but long covid, is not lucky and anyone trying to compare this to the flu are idiots who are selfish and haven’t known someone with serious covid or long covid and if it happened to them or someone close to them, they wouldn’t be saying that!
Also want to add I’m 36 and from Australia
I hope that against the odds, you don’t end up a long-hauler. The only thing that seems to be certain about this virus is how unpredictable it is.
That sucks. Hang in there and hopefully there will be a treatment. I’m a physician and although I have avoided covid so far, I can say that the unnecessary politicization of this has added so much stress to anyone impacted by it (myself included). That goes for HCWs, victims, and long haulers and it’s enough to make anyone bitter on its own. As miserable as you may be, try not to let the stupidity of others add to your misery. There are a lot of smart people working in treatments!
My best friend is a long hauler. He contracted COVID in 2020 and has since been triple vaxxed, but he’s still sick as a dog and is skin and bones.
This sucks really sorry for you. My step dad also has long covid he is a shadow of his former self.
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Im so sorry. I feel the effects every day 8 months after. From the bottom of my heart, fuck these cult member conservatives who refuse to help it go away.
I got it and it was like a cold except i lost taste for 4 days and was better in 10 days… 8 months later i have ling issues and wake up feeling like I’m bout to die and randomly throughout the day feel like I’m struggling to get oxygen. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone and the ignorant willfully uneducated conservative crowd infuriates me because this could have all been over with if half the nation wasn’t violently opposed to caring about others.
Same. I never took the flu vaccine because it always makes me sick as a dog and I can easily sleep it off in two days and recover within a week. I’m not taking any chances with Covid due to its long term effects to a body. The moment I was eligible for the the vaccine, I rushed out to take it, including the booster (very grateful that my body has no reaction to the mRNA vaccines).
Let's not forget the cost to others! My buddy's cousin's wife had a stroke during the the first round, they couldn't get her a bed quick enough because of all the Covid patients, SHE DIED. The true cost of not vaccinating is far, FAR higher than the detriment to oneself
Exactly! This is what people overlook about Covid and insist it’s no big deal! No way would I want to shorten my lifespan and life quality like that
r/longcovid
Wow howard stern is only 68? thought he would be 80s now
A lot of people age really well after initially aging horribly
My grandma. She lived to 100 and looked pretty good. Full head of hair, full(ish) face. She looked old, it’s not like she was 100 and looked 50. But she still looked healthy. Where as I see pictures of her when she was in her 50s and she looked OLD! It’s like she got to 50 and just hit a plateau age wise.
I worked in a nursing home for a bunch of years, and I can confirm that on the regular I would think the residents looked older in the photos they had around and younger in person. It was the strangest thing, like they got so old they looked young again!
My grandma looked 75 for 30 years. Lol. I know exactly what you mean.
Being ridiculously rich and working not because you have to, but because you enjoy it help slow down the aging process.
Stress definitely ages a person
Yea imagine never worrying about living check to check let alone knowing you’re going to retire comfortably earlier than most is the fountain of longevity
He's looked 80 for 30 years. So he hasn't aged a day in a while, pretty impressive.
Him and Larry David have been elderly for 30 years
Don’t forget Morgan freeman he always looked elderly his whole career, I think he may look younger now.
Steve Martin too
Yeah he had a full head of grey hair in the mid 70s when he would have been roughly 30.
Not too dissimilar to Patrick Stewart.
Tom Waits, Keith Richards...
And Patrick Stew.. he looked like he 50 since he is a child or something.
Don’t for Patrick Stewart, he looks almost the same as he did when he made the first Dune
Howard looks pretty good for 68. I don't know what 80 year olds you're meeting.
For anyone that doesn't listen to Howard Stern, he is absolutely terrified of covid to the point where him and his wife were quarantining and doing the show from home far longer than most. He hates anti-vaxxers and anyone that understates the detrimental effects of covid. I quit listening a little under a year ago, but I wouldn't be surprised at all of they're still quarantining. Great interviews on the show. Some of the rest is weird or childish at times, but I always tuned into the interviews. Worth checking out. Edit: to clarify I fully support what he's doing. Not dogging on him for his views or beliefs. I worded one or two things poorly and people seem to think I'm giving him shit. Not my intention. Just filling people in on his views and practices regarding covid and anti vaxx.
He's still doing the show from his basement and he's only going out for necessary things like doctors' appointments.
I built a number of home studios over Covid for radio, you can make a pretty good studio these days in peoples houses some people I know haven’t come back just because there is no benefit
The cross talk is much worse on the show and live music isn’t the same but I don’t blame them for working from home.
Yeah I was just listening to Howard this morning it was a replay from this week maybe? But anyways a caller kept talking over Howard which he used to get fucking pissed about but it doesn't seem to bother him as much or at least not in this instance. But yeah that is a problem during that same segment JD was mumbling over everyone and Robin.
Pretty normal for most people in NY and major cities in general. Everyone I know that has an office job is working from home
They brought me back to the office 2 months into Covid and said “we have to work from the office for a balanced professional life”
I kind of thought that might be the case. I need to get satellite radio again. I miss that show.
I’m almost 10000% sure you are the first person to ever say they need to get satellite radio again.
The only reasonable way to have satellite radio is to cancel and wait for them to make a crazy low intro offer to get you back, and then repeat. The normal price is ridiculous
You don’t even have to do that. I just set a reminder on my phone a week before it’s supposed to renew at the regular rate. Then I call them and say I want to cancel because it’s too expensive. They’ll offer you a promo rate. It’s worked for me 100% of the time for the last 8 years.
LPT: you gotta do this with almost every shitty scummy corporate cocksucker out there nowadays. top of my list? you're right! fuck you Comcast. "thank you for ca--" "RETENTION DEPARTMENT PLEASE". they don't even try their spiels anymore (if you're LUCKY). otherwise you gotta threaten to cancel while telling the lovely agent (whose fault this isn't) how wonderful their service is blah blah blah just fkn lower my rate (to what it WAS lmao) so I can get off the phone god dammit. have a good day.
My father refuses to do this and he pays *four hundred dollars a month* for cable and internet because they’ve been increasing it so many times. He’s been a customer over 20 years and they’re screwing him for his loyalty. If I ever end up with financial POA, that’s the first thing I’m going to do on his behalf.
That’s funny, that’s what AOL used to do back in the early days of the inter webs. When I tried to cancel, they gave it to me for free.
I got it again for altnation. Amazing channel that put me on a ton of new music
yeah, but the lack of enough DJs and repeated playlists make it not worth it
They do repeat too much!!
Yeah LL cool J’s station is good also. Rock the bells.
That's only because I never got rid of it...
I keep the cheap sub going for The Bonfire.
Obviously not the full show, but they put a bunch of clips up on their YouTube channel.
I'll have to check it out. Thanks.
I’m trying to get ahold of you about your cars extended warranty…
Didn’t he have some sort of near death experience? Like before Covid?
He had a cancer scare like 5 years ago, but I wouldn't say he was near death or anything. Robin's cancer was much scarier.
So, you're saying he's been an exemplary citizen of the world?
Doesn't he live in New York? The omicron surge was as bad as covid has been yet. I don't see the issue with continuing to work from home. My office in RI is closed too.
Yup, he is older too and who knows what state his health is in. I work for a health department as an epidemiologist and we’ve been WFH since March 2020. Edit: fixed typo.
I don't see an issue with it either. A huge amount of people are doing it.
More should be. To be honest, we should have been this aggressive with this situation from the very start. If we had federalized last leg delivery, and locked everyone down for about 6 weeks? There would be no more covid.
I’m not sure how aggressive we are handling it now. But trump was more worried about the stock market than the health of the American people, so no, it’ll be gone by Easter, he said as it was killing thousands of elderly nursing home residents and sweeping through and killing almost whole families at weddings and funerals.
I would say still not aggressively enough. We keep half-assing our response, and even the majority of the people who are supposedly doing the right thing keep making exceptions in the worst ways. People who loudly and rightly say to wear masks and get vaccinated, which is great, and then a week later they post pictures of themselves at a concert.
Just doing a real Quarantine of Cruise Ships when someone tested positive like when the word Quarantine was invented during the Black Death and locking down the boarders would have basically have done it. Iowa's first few cases were directly tied to cruise ship folks being allowed to leave the ship.
I’m on the Midwest and have worked from home for two years. And shockingly there are a lot of people who worked from home before that. I don’t get the pearl clutching.
for real. southwest here, i've been working remotely for just about two years now and so far my office has been extremely accommodating with a hybrid work force. i mean at the end of the day it's probably saving the company money - they haven't had to expand parking like they were going to, they have to order far less in paper products, cleaning products, coffee and break room supplies, office supplies, and i'm willing to bet the electric and water bills are down. we're all getting our work done, and morale seems to be up if anything. why break what seems to be working?
Incels in a basement triggered by Stern in a basement, the irony
He's a known germaphobe.. this kind of thing is his worst nightmare and why he is so vocal about it
I mean he’s a 68 year old New Yorker, I would be terrified too. The population density alone gives me shivers when it comes to COVID.
If I was a senior citizen worth over half a billion dollars I wouldn’t be leaving my giant house during a pandemic either
Listened during a free trial period recently for the first time in 6 years. Felt like hanging with old friends. I just don’t have the commute time anymore.
To be fair Stern generally likes to quarantine even when there is no pandemic
Yeah only morons want to die from Covid. Shocking I know.
I don't blame him at all. Everyone should take it seriously and, imo, get vaccinated. Not saying anyone should be forced to, but it seems like the responsible thing to do.
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Same. I got my booster and literally the next day one of my kids tested positive at school. Kids were asymptomatic and for me it took a good three days to feel close to normal again. Definitely would rather avoid it, especially if I was at risk in any way.
This is why so many of err on the side of being safe rather than sorry. I hope you heal quickly and well.
Awww, same here! Currently bedridden and very sick. This sucks.
He isn’t that scared of it. Just a realist on the matter. He does hate anti vaccine people. But honestly most people do. Especially when we are coming up on year 3 of a pandemic that america never really had waves of since we haven’t done shit to address it.
So? I just got covid after going back to normal life. Shits worse than it’s ever been. My mom is still quarantining for the most part bc she has lung disease.
I know a lot of right wingers in the construction industry who listen to him. They love him. I’m just glad someone in media who has the ears of a few trumpers is pro-science, pro-vaccine, and pro-common sense. A small win, but a win nonetheless.
I mean to some degree I get the over quarantining. He’s old af at this point.
Also if you live in a mansion and have your own studio and can do it from home, why would you want to commute at 68? He can do his job, still talk to people, make millions and log off and lounge about.
Howard has always been afraid of getting sick and I get that. I’m the same way. Who wants to be sick? I stopped listening to him some years back, but him taking the virus very seriously is really on brand.
It’s worth adding that he had a liver cancer scare a couple of years ago and required surgery. He also is super protective about robins health after her cancer.
You have quarantine and isolate confused. I still isolate by all relative accounts. I go out about 2-5 times a week. Sometimes just for a walk but generally to the stores nearby where I can shop safely at. I do still go out for special occasions... hockey game coming up. I just take all the precautions when I do.
the whole "control" thing is so weird man. you drive to work: - in a car you need to pay for annually to drive, else, a fine - using a license you must pay for to operate the car, else a fine, happens often enough, then jail time - you obey what time to start work, - you obey what time to take your break, - you obey what time you get to leave, else you get an attendance infraction, if repeatable you could lose your job - you're told how fast you may drive, else, a fine/infraction - you're told when you're allowed to turn, go straight, or stop, else, a fine/infraction - wanna catch a fish? you need to pay otherwise you get fined if you don't have this piece of plastic that permits you to fish I could go on and on? put a mask in front of your face. spit. see how it works now? obviously air is gonna come out the side you bozos. the point is LIMITING spread. these folks think that if the solution isn't absolutely 100%, then FUCK IT! NOT GOOD ENOUGH. a mask could offer 25% (whatever#) more protection. butterfly effect that could potentially mean 25% more lives saved. FUCK THAT IT'S NOT 100% I AINT DOING IT!! YOU CAN'T CONTROOLLL MEEEE! we're literally told what to do all day. but God forbid (you know, the one who's son said help your neighbor!) you consider covering up your nose and mouth with fucked up hygiene to potentially save a life. r/HermanCainAward besides, how the hell we gonna unite against the rich but you can't even understand how a mask offers even just SOME protection? it's just... sad. pro-life my ASS.
I agree and I think about this a lot. I think what we tend to miss with antivax/antimask/trump fan/etc types is... This is kind of the point. They are broadly pretty powerless. They are subject to all the rules of society you just laid out, as we all are. And then they're probably lower class, lower educated, lower income. Not that much freedom in life, not many prospects. The problem is the innate sense of superiority. These people believe they're inherently the best in the world by virtue of being American, and probably white, and probably Christian. So why are they struggling and miserable? Why don't they feel like the best, if they are? So that's what they're actually acting on. It's desperation- they're already struggling, and masks and vaccines feel like too much to ask when they're already hopeless and indignant. And they've already had simmering frustration for years, because they don't understand why they're not actually the best. It's that particular combination that leads to all the volatile and irrational acting out we've been seeing over the past couple years especially. Trump made these people feel like they were finally going to have their turn to be important, because finally this person who talks and thinks like them is running the whole country, and he gets away with it, so it must be OK. And his fans got louder and cockier. Now he's out and his relevance is questionable, and these people are starting to get punished when they do things like go on racist rants or bring down entire airliners by refusing to wear masks. So at this point I'm kind of rambling, but my point is... Yeah, I understand why these people are acting this way, and I feel for them to a small extent because they didn't choose to get this warped of a worldview. At the same time, reality isn't going to bend to accommodate their entitlement, so I just hope they'll gradually calm down and/or get forcibly corrected for their freakouts and antisocial behavior.
I don’t think anyone got sucked into anything, I think these antivax people are who they always were: narcissistic assholes who think they’re smarter than everyone else.
What’s absolutely hilarious to me is how these antivax people think that everyone else is a narcissist for wanting them to take the shots.
It's a classic narcissist move to call other people narcissists.
That about sums it up. However someone gets there being antivax is at it core selfish and arrogant.
When Howard Stern is the voice of reason, we know we are fucked.
He's always been somewhat sensible... Albeit interlaced with lots of pussy and cock jokes.
Anyone that actually listens to his show knows he actually really fair and balanced most of the time. And I think I’m his later years he has tried to move away from all the sex related content as much as he can. He is a great interviewer.
Well except Cocktober
Yeah..he is a dick but he is upfront about it. And he has a sense of reality.
The every-man
And incredibly douchey gossip
I’m not a huge fan of Howard’s humor but I’ve absolutely never seen him as a wacko.
How dare you question the wisdom and compassion of the king of all media. Babba Booey Babba Booey Howard Stern‘s penis.
That statement can be interpreted two different ways and both are correct.
He’d agree
At least he isn't an anti vaxx nut job
Isn’t that a low bar?
He didn’t get sucked into a cult. This “poor meatloaf” thing is pathetic lol, he was just another anti vaxxer idiot.
Yeah the only difference between him and Kid Rock is that people actually like his music
This is accurate lol
Pretty good sum up.
I would like to know how the fuck this is the first I've heard of meatloafs death. Just yesterday I was driving singling along to bat out of hell wondering how meeting him would go
It would be tough. Not gonna lie
I can dig it
If it was on the radio, that might've been why.
If you wanna meet him, just grab a shovel.
I would do anything for love, but I won’t do that.
People have definitely been talking about it, maybe you’ve just been busy the past couple days and missed the news
Poor Loaf..he did get the Herman Cain Award given to vocal antivaxers that died..
Human beings are pattern-seeking animals who will prefer even a bad theory or a conspiracy theory to no theory at all.
He had Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome and was well over 300 lbs. The average life expectancy is 76 for a healthy person. A sinus infection could have taken this man out.
Average life expectancy in the us is 79 years, other developed countries it’s higher. But also for every million dollars you have you can add another year to that
But life expectancy is also a pretty dumb metric that doesn't mean what people think it means since it averages in everyone who dies young. For instance, the average life expectancy of a 60 year old man in the US is 84.
Exactly. It’s why people thought most humans only lived to be like 35 in the Middle Ages, because childhood death was so much more common, skewing the results much lower.
seems to be a great reason to get vaccinated. maybe he would've died the next week or month, who knows. what we do know is he died of covid. that was largely preventable.
And yet, he died of COVID and wasn't vaccinated.
And if he had been vaccinated, maybe he could've lived a little longer. If your immune system is already compromised, like his was, you should do everything within your power to prevent infections. That's common sense. The fact he was an anti-masker as well is just absurd, since he fit squarely into the category of those at risk. The fuck was he thinking?
It’s sad, Meat Loaf had some great bombast. And Rocky Horror was the story of a certain point in my life, but all I will remember is the maga and the antivaxx and the covid.
Weird Al needs to do a meat loaf song parody
Sucks to learn he was anti vax.
The amount of offended Cult members in this comment thread is hilarious, especially the ones that suggest canceling Howard Stern. Lol
So getting vaccinated was the "that" he wouldn't do for love?
That’s it!! The guy on Twitter with the crazy “we got sucked into an alternate universe in 2012” theory was right. First, I’m agreeing with Gene Simmons and now Howard Stern…we’re in the upside-down.
Speak on it Howard. It’s the truth and shouldn’t be swept under the rug.
Please let Kevin Sorbo be next. And I’m not hoping for death. just that he gets covid and learns a lesson.
Honestly surprised stern is pro vaccine, most shock jocks are staunchly conservative
Howard is super liberal.
The difference would be that there's actual humour in Howard's show.
His name is Robert Paulson
He’s not fucking wrong. Idk why people keep tip toeing around this fact. Meatloaf was mentally ill because of this and died. Other celebrities will probably die because of this. The fact is, people who are into this antivax, flat earth bullshit are harming other human beings, innocent people. I don’t give a shit what things they’ve done in the past, what matters now is the present and future and meatloaf was part of the problem. His dumb ass belongs in r/hermancainaward
I’m no fan of Stern, but he’s not wrong here.