I’m not so sure about that. So many of the religious think in-person religious services (or giant religious weddings) are important enough to risk their lives attending. Mix in how some of those religions have large proportions of anti-maskers in the congregation and the recent SCOTUS decision and we might end up with an areligious society in the next 30 years. So many will die in the next year and then probably a whole bunch more in the next 30 as the permanent damage from COVID19 survival is compounded by aging. It’s pretty horrifying to think about.
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That is the only approach given our current state of knowledge. WDKS until proven otherwise.
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No mention of the fact that some people might be unemployed.
although he added that many residents in the Tucson, Arizona, area where he is based seem to be going about their business more or less as usual.
Marcotte attributed this to a combination of locally low transmission rates and a Wild West frontier spirit. “Some of it is cultural. It’s very much a libertarian mindset,” he said.
Fuck off and die.
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Can you dig out the source? I like it.
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[1] Crabtree, Steve. “Religiosity Highest in World’s Poorest Nations”. Gallup. Retrieved 27 May 2015. (in which numbers have been rounded)
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And many don’t. I’ve argued about this before here, I don’t think we should give the far right that ground anymore, because there are plenty of religious folks who are not ignorant bigots.
I do agree that the ones who are are more vocal are a problem who are going to kill lots of people by their selfish ignorance.
I agree with all of that. I’m angry about what a minority of our population is willing to do to the rest of us.
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Indeed, I have had my perception changed by meeting and even friendships with a few religious (some Xians, some others) who have made it clear that #not_all_ are to be regarded with something other than fear or disgust.
IMO this vocal minority needs to be de-platformed. Its messaging should be treated itself like a virus, a pandemic, with all the attendant infrastructure and yes medically-trained personnel to address the pathology inherent in its toxic culture.
The alarms about this whole thing have been sounding for decades. I really don’t want the house we all live in to burn down, though it’s clear that we have been coexisting with people who would just rather watch the world burn and they love all the attention they are finally getting.
I can’t think of another fruitful way to address the bonkers behavior I see regularly here in my own central Texas neighborhood. It’s always a question in my mind if the very vocal angry people [who I know own guns] (and yes, MAGAs) will have some kinda mental breakdown and Something Worse Happens. How the twitchiest of those in my neighborhood are handling the pandemic is truly food for thought, and I find myself trying hard to avoid them.
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I think it’s more than that. I think they see themselves, against all facts to the contrary, as a beleaguered minority, constantly under threat from a society that wishes to wipe them out. They firmly believe they are fighting in existentialist war of sorts that will end in Jesus coming back to save them and kill the rest of us. That’s why they don’t care about issues like climate change, because history is ending.
[ETA] fixed grammar shit.
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US is very religious: checks out.
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I apologize that I am going off-topic here. Mea culpa.
I talked a few months ago with a old psychotherapist friend with a medium-sized practice. She mentioned seeing a new trend in a particular, identifiable (but she did not specify) group of men who were absolutely 100% convinced that a majority minority America presents a clear and present danger to said group of men and their families.
Yep.
This is without a doubt the most troubling part of what the late great Terence McKenna called “the cultural operating system” that currently dominates the nation we find ourselves in now: Christianity 3.3 (or whatever version it is these days, I can’t keep track of it).
This McKenna video had a “must be 18 and over” caution attached to the beginning so I am blurring it out FWIW. Hey! Be 18 or older before y’all click it, ok?
“You don’t have to be the victim of your culture. It’s not like your eye color or your height or your gender. It’s fragile. It can be remade. If you wish it to be.”
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What’s scary to me is that this is not off topic. The virus is a terrible and effective weapon when used by these groups, because you don’t need a permit to carry it. We’re dealing with some folks who believe whatever happens to them is the will of their deity, so they won’t follow any medical advice or take precautions against diseases. We’ve got others who follow an impatient model of evangelical Christianity (why wait for the end times when we can make it happen) and believe they’re doing a good thing. De-platforming these groups is tough, because if they’re also aligned with the methods of prosperity Christians, they’ve got a lot of money to spread those beliefs.
On top of all that, we’ve got those who want to see the virus spread for racist and/or ageist reasons. They believe the virus only kills old people or POC, and they think that’s a good thing. The elderly have been demonized as draining social resources, preventing social change/progress, and/or existing as an untapped source of wealth to be inherited/redistributed. Also, they can’t participate in programs/movements that supremacists promote to increase their numbers.
This is why the messaging about masks and distancing went over these groups the same way as warnings about climate change - like a lead balloon.
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The 18th-century Bostonians were all too familiar with the danger that smallpox and any other contagious disease presented. Today, there are way too many people who have no personal, visceral understanding of that danger, which makes them susceptible to all sorts of denialist bullshit and disingenous bleating about Free-Dumb.
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I hope that’s a joke…
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I’m not sure. I don’t follow either of those tweeters, but the data seems legit, re: online ratings of the scented candles. Spotted over on naked capitalism.
ETA: I went to check more and the original post you quoted definitely was a joke. The response was someone who saw and thought, “hmmm, I wonder” and dug into to the numbers to determine, lo and behold, ratings have really gone down throughout 2020.
And the jokester is an amazing scientific illustrator living in Antarctica, so thanks for the prompt to go check out her feed! I never would’ve seen this:
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didn’t even know mink farms in the us were a thing.
And as of Nov. 4, 11 mink farms in the three states had reported COVID-19 outbreaks.
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The mink farms in Europe are probably stocked with American mink, which has superior fur.
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Shit. I’ve seen wild mink in some of my favorite fishing areas. I hope they steer clear of the farms.
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