Sortaish. I mean. Let’s say we handled this pandemic in the worst way possible–we are not talking societal collapse still.
Yes, this. /\
The other big difference today versus the past is the difference in utility for any alleged microchip. Let’s say you were a mustache twirling antichrist type character in 1990, and you put RFID chips into the entire US population.
Today, that would get you less and less interesting data about people’s lives and habits than what you can buy (cheaply) from data brokers who scraped that information off your phone. No implantation required! Although, this idea doesn’t map well to the book of Revelations…
Both, but both were under different threats post-op, the more serious of which required a whole separate operation to install an artificial valve in his tear duct so he didn’t lose sight in that eye due to over pressure.
He really doesn’t need to see out of both eyes, but it is nice to be N+1 redundant, and more importantly that over pressure situation is very painful (although it can be released by a simple injection, that also causes blindness, so really if I had been unable to pay for that second operation a pain free choice was available, I just really really wanted to give him the maximum chance of being able to see things not just today, but say six months to two years from now).
All of that though is me being seriously privileged to actually have a job that pays enough that I can afford that stuff. It isn’t because I’m a better person then the vast majority of people that have blind dogs, I just happen to have been lucky in that the talents I have are currently talents people pay non-trivial money for, as opposed to say, someone that is a 90th percentile good painter. They may have worked harder then I have to hone their craft. They may have worked harder to commercially leverage it as well. It just so happens that programmers get more money for less effort then painters. Or singers. Or professional drivers. Or a million other things. (maybe not less per unit effort then lawyers though, and maybe doctors still ear more in the long run per unit effort although most of those professions start at a disadvantage due to high schooling costs…then again if you get to choose a job based on low effort and high pay, I totally recommend trust fund recipient, I hear it is very nice for very little effort)
Right? I suspect that’s true for many here. I’m glad that you’re able to help your puppers out! I always felt that if we have pets living in our houses, we should do the best we can for them. I sort of feel like we’ve taken on that responsibility.
Xtian zealots used to distribute Chick tracts on the Redline in Boston. I amassed a good sized collection back in the ‘80s, including the one quoted above.
I found the tracts amusing back then — fringey and unsophisticated and weirdly paranoid. The ideas have persisted though and they seem less funny now.
Same fears then as now. I’ve never understood the Xtian willingness to cede moral and spiritual agency to God, while shrieking in terror over perceived slights to their mundane freedoms.
People will say they believe all kinds of shit, but one problem is what it means to ‘believe’. If just means 'check this box to answer the survey question’’ then people may do it to reinforce their own private sense of tribal identity, knowing that there are zero consequences to their choice. A lot of supposed beliefs fall into this category. It’s more useful to know how people behave when the stakes are higher – eg whether they choose to get themselves or their kids vaccinated. Actions speak louder than words!
Why is it so easy for them to believe something ridiculous like this, but so hard for them to believe the guy who’s buddy-buddy with a former KGB agent turned President would welcome help from Russia?
This! And we have weaponized communication at an unprecedented scale. Newspapers are to social media as swords are to nuclear weapons. The John Birch Society was just a bunch of cranky old white men printing nutty pamphlets and complaining to each other in whiskey bars. Now their ilk run everything because of their outsized influence via weaponized communication.
26 Million Independents. 
28 Million Democrats. 
55 Million Republicans. 
