Super-rich head off to their doomsday bunkers

No, Musk is dead right. Concern over the virus is perfectly sensible. Panic is idiotic and dangerous. In any situation, panic is almost always more dangerous than the thing people panic about.

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You know you can bookmark that comment, should you feel the need to follow up on that?

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We have seven canisters of CN20. I say we roll them in there and nerve-gas the whole Q@%#$! nest.

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While I agree in theory, in practice my concern starts bordering on outright fear. Being an asthma patient the stories form Italy hit a little too close to home for comfort. I suspect the situation will be similar here in 2-3 weeks tops.

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My wife had an observation last night: the panic is coming straight from the One Percent. The rest of us are used to suffering; this pandemic is hitting them in the pocketbooks, and that hurts them much more than watching people die.

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“Hi? Mr Rich Dude? Am I catching you at a good time? It’s just – What? Yeah, it’s been terrible out here. Tens of millions dead. You see, the virus mutated. The final strain was over 90% lethal, highly-contagious. Horrible, just horrible. Anyway, reason I’m calling is this: those of us who were exposed to the earlier strains developed immunity. Nobody out here is getting it any more, so we just canceled the research aimed at finding a vaccine. Didn’t seem necessary. But then we remembered you guys. Seems you locked yourselves away in your bunkers before the virus had really spread in the population. So you’ve got no natural immunity. Yeah, that’s 90% lethal. Nine-oh. Like nine-tenths. And trust me, it’s a nasty way to go. Anyway, what I’m saying is, it’s probably not safe for you to come out. You should probably just stay in the bunkers for now. OK, been great talking to you. I’ll give you a call if anything changes. Bye now.”

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Joe Rogan had Michael Osterholm on his podcast. Rogan asked him specifically about vitamin shots and saunas.

Repeatedly. Like Rogan really wanted those to be helpful. Like he paid for it already wanted it to be helpful.

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There is a Twilight Zone story about that

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i’m not defending panic as much as i’m saying that being cavalier at this point is the thing that’s dumb.

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Yeah. I’m, frankly, finding it difficult to calibrate the right level of concern over this situation. I personally don’t think I’m in much personal danger from this, since I’m (relatively) young and (relatively) healthy, but also I am an avid vaccine collector and very concerned about not putting other people at risk.

My bigger concern from the beginning has been that (1) the people who are “in charge” right now are absolute bumblefucks who delight in spreading disinformation, and (2) panic is a real danger.

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I’m delighted at the thought of an avid vaccine collector. Like “yes, I know I’m not at risk for smallpox or yellow fever, but you do technically have vaccines for them, right? I would like one please.”

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And after the internet is cancelled watch for the orange one to CANCEL THE ELECTIONS.

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The Rise of the IP over HAM

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He had come like a thief in the night. And one by one dropped the revellers in the blood-bedewed halls of their revel, and died each in the despairing posture of his fall. And the life of the ebony clock went out with that of the last of the gay. And the flames of the tripods expired. And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all. - The Mask of the Red Death, by Edgar Allen Poe.

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Has anyone really been panicking? I mean, apart from hoarding toilet paper for some reason, most of the virus-related things I’ve been reading about seem like fairly sensible precautions. Is any change to the status quo caused by coronavirus concerns now classified as “panic” by certain people? Are they by chance the same people who made the phrase “fake news” meaningless?

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The stock market has been panicking and in some parts of the country there apparently have been runs on toilet paper, bottled water and hand sanitizer. I couldn’t find any hand sanitizer earlier in the week in Toronto.

We’re also still seeing lots of denial. On the sports forum I frequent, users were accused of panicking for supporting the NCAA in its decision to play its tournament in front of empty arenas. The virus is not that, accusers said–look at how few deaths there have been in China.

You know, China. The country which early on took aggressive measures to prevent the virus from spreading.

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My actions are sensible, your actions are dumb panic moves.

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I don’t think £350 is “excessive” grift; not for these people. Anything less than £10,000 for a woo-woo treatment qualifies as run-of-the-mill grift.

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Maybe that is how we got the pyramids.

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