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You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 Coronavirus / With Choices Come Consequences

With Choices Come Consequences

by John Cole|  August 11, 202110:11 pm| 78 Comments

This post is in: COVID-19 Coronavirus, Assholes

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I am so tired of these covidiots:

Hannah Lindeborg wanted to pull out all the stops for her daughter’s second birthday in July, especially after the pandemic derailed the family celebration for her first last year.

The second birthday would be the first big gathering with extended family since Covid-19 came into their lives, Ms. Lindeborg said, adding that she looked forward to hosting everybody over at her home in St. Paul, Minn.

When she learned some of her family members had chosen not to get vaccinated, “it was just kind of downhill from there,” she said.

From family gatherings to weddings to workplaces, vaccinated Americans are drawing new, sharper lines around who they choose to spend time with amid the rise of the highly-transmissible Delta variant. And the unvaccinated are growing testy over being excluded and feeling judged for exercising their right to make their own health choices. The divisions are straining relationships among families, neighbors and colleagues.

Ms. Lindeborg, 30 years old, is an attorney and mother of four, including a 5-year-old son with asthma. She and her husband tried to figure out how to host everyone while telling the unvaxxed ones to remain outside. They considered uninviting the unvaccinated. Ultimately, they canceled the party.

I hate how all these selfish pricks think they are the only ones who get to make choices. You chose to not get vaccinated, and others choose NOT TO BE AROUND YOU. If you want to die, fine, but you have no right to take me with you.

They really don’t want choices. They want to decide and then the rest of us has to deal with their decisions. That’s not how choices work, and you can just keep your selfish ass at home.

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Reader Interactions

78Comments

  1. 1.

    Chief Oshkosh

    August 11, 2021 at 10:15 pm

    Sounds good to me. I’m writing more and more of them off. Life’s too short and I sure as fuck don’t owe them an explanation or, indeed, another thought. Fuck ’em.

  2. 2.

    Eljai

    August 11, 2021 at 10:16 pm

    That’s it exactly. They want to do whatever they want and not face consequences. Not that long ago, the covidiots were telling us “if you don’t feel safe out in public without a mask, just stay home.”

  3. 3.

    Ken

    August 11, 2021 at 10:17 pm

    Oh, good, a happy ending. I was sure it was going to be a report of a superspreader event, or that the two-year-old was on a ventilator.

  4. 4.

    Roger Moore

    August 11, 2021 at 10:19 pm

    They really don’t want choices. They want to decide and then the rest of us has to deal with their decisions. That’s not how choices work, and you can just keep your selfish ass at home.

    They want choices without consequences.  Same as it ever was.

  5. 5.

    Wag

    August 11, 2021 at 10:20 pm

    The anti-vaxxer‘s are working on destroying our country, and contributing to the evolution of more contagious variants, as shown by Delta. Delta is the real deal, much more contagious than previous strains. Today, doing virtual visits, I saw two fully vaccinated patients who tested positive for Covid.

    I’m afraid that we’re fucked.

  6. 6.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    August 11, 2021 at 10:22 pm

    I like the drinking analogies. You can get drunk and stumble around your own house and sing Jeremiah Was a Bull Frog at teh top of your lungs.  You can’t do it in a restaurant (trust me on this), you can’t do it on a bus, you can’t do it on a plane…. You can’t get behind the wheel like that.

  7. 7.

    rikyrah

    August 11, 2021 at 10:22 pm

    They think people are supposed to sit around and let them infect them without complaint. Phuck that shyt ?

  8. 8.

    rikyrah

    August 11, 2021 at 10:23 pm

    @Ken:

    You are right

    It was a happy ending

  9. 9.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    August 11, 2021 at 10:27 pm

    Ms. Lindeborg, 30 years old, is an attorney and mother of four, including a 5-year-old son with asthma. She and her husband tried to figure out how to host everyone while telling the unvaxxed ones to remain outside. They considered uninviting the unvaccinated. Ultimately, they canceled the party.

    I would’ve just told the un-vaxxed it was cancelled.

    Spinning through my mental rolodex, I can think of one couple I very much like who I wouldn’t be surprised if they were un-vaxxed. They’re very nice people, they’d each give you their right arm if you asked, but they’re a little goofy. That’s the only relationship I would think twice about nuking in those circumastances.

  10. 10.

    Keith P.

    August 11, 2021 at 10:33 pm

    I was at a get-together last weekend where a friend of mine starts blowing his nose on paper towels.  Turns out, he’s feeling sick, but he’s a COVID denier, so he’s angrily telling us all that COVID is bullshit, that the last time he gave a bunch of them COVID (I missed that one), their positive tests were bad PCR tests (PCR tests, vaccines, and masks all don’t work in his mind).  I was LIVID – regardless of whether it’s COVID or not, who the fuck shows up to a gathering of people knowing they are sick and then *tries* to get everyone else sick out of spite.  Seriously, the sooner that high profile lawsuits start getting filed against people infecting others, the better.

  11. 11.

    Parfigliano

    August 11, 2021 at 10:37 pm

    @Keith P.: “Stand your ground” says you can shoot the asshole dead.  Perceived threat.

  12. 12.

    West of the Rockies

    August 11, 2021 at 10:41 pm

    A reworking of a line from As Good As It Gets:

    How do you end up with a Republican?

    Start with a Democrat and remove all reason and accountability..

    (Then add five parts racism, homophobia, misogyny, fear of education…)

  13. 13.

    gwangung

    August 11, 2021 at 10:41 pm

    I hate how all these selfish pricks think they are the only ones who get to make choices.

    Because they think they have rights, and you have none. That’s the only way it makes sense.

  14. 14.

    Chetan Murthy

    August 11, 2021 at 10:42 pm

    @Keith P.: Why are you still his friend, as opposed to, y’know, letting everybody in your/his shared contacts that he’s a Covidiot plague rat, and you want to make sure they all know?

  15. 15.

    dexwood

    August 11, 2021 at 10:42 pm

    feeling judged

    Fuck that, you ignorant, selfish assholes, you are being judged and it’s about damn time. How did that go? Oh, yeah, fuck your feelings.

  16. 16.

    West of the Rockies

    August 11, 2021 at 10:43 pm

    @Keith P.:

    Is he still a friend of yours?

  17. 17.

    Ken

    August 11, 2021 at 10:48 pm

    @Keith P.: “He began choking, but none of us believe the Heimlich works…”

    POLICE: “Didn’t you call 911?”

    “He’d just told us he didn’t trust doctors.”

  18. 18.

    CaseyL

    August 11, 2021 at 10:50 pm

    I’m not sure what I’d do if one of my friends turned out to be a covidiot.  I’ve already pruned every Republican from my circle (not that there were many to start with), and I dropped all the “woo” people ages ago.  I have a lot fewer, but better, friends.

    I saw a map of how far and fast Delta has swamped the country.  It’s horrifying.  And it’s all due to the GQP encouraging and coddling anti-vaxxers and other covidiots for the sake of regaining power.

    I would not at all mind seeing firing squads in their futures.

  19. 19.

    Princess

    August 11, 2021 at 10:50 pm

    Evidently the wife of Rep Johansen, Cindy Johansen, also anti-vax anti-mask, died today. This is the original story about them getting sick:

    https://bangordailynews.com/2021/07/23/news/aroostook/maine-lawmaker-who-opposed-coronavirus-restrictions-reportedly-has-covid-19/

  20. 20.

    Bill Arnold

    August 11, 2021 at 10:52 pm

    THEY stole our freedom, by vigorously asserting their “right” to mass kill random people.
    THEY will never be forgiven.

  21. 21.

    Ohio Mom

    August 11, 2021 at 10:54 pm

    All of my family and friends, nearby and far away, are vaccinated, except for the three of them who are toddlers.

    But all of us are out and about a lot more than we were before we were vaccinated, and even with masks, we are probably putting ourselves more at risk than we like to think about.

  22. 22.

    Bill Arnold

    August 11, 2021 at 10:54 pm

    @Eljai:

    “if you don’t feel safe out in public without a mask, just stay home.”

    House arrest for vaccine refusers (without a valid, validated medical excuse.).
    (Make them explain why this would be bad!)

  23. 23.

    Capri

    August 11, 2021 at 10:54 pm

    The people I talk to who are either unvaxxed or horribly resentful of having to wear a mask can’t seem to wrap their mind around the fact that it’s contageous.  The reason we treat it differently from cancer, or smoking, or ANYTHING ELSE YOU CAN DO TO HARM YOURSELF is because you can spread it to others.

  24. 24.

    Tehanu

    August 11, 2021 at 11:03 pm

    Thank you, John. I come here for a lot of reasons, but your common sense and straight talk — and your way of summing things up concisely — are major among them.

  25. 25.

    sdhays

    August 11, 2021 at 11:04 pm

    @Capri: “What is this ‘others’ you speak of?”

    //

  26. 26.

    scav

    August 11, 2021 at 11:05 pm

    If there was a 1% chance their behavior would result in the death of an American Citizen, wouldn’t they agree we should go to war and take them out? Isn’t waterboarding justified under these circumstances? (ok, so it’s just a teeeeny little bit of water and maybe a few little messenger nonsense included . . . )

  27. 27.

    Chetan Murthy

    August 11, 2021 at 11:09 pm

    @scav: White boys cannot, by definition, be terrorists.

  28. 28.

    Ruckus

    August 11, 2021 at 11:10 pm

    @Chief Oshkosh:

    Life’s too short and I sure as fuck don’t owe them an explanation or, indeed, another thought. Fuck ’em.

    Quoted for absolute agreement.

  29. 29.

    Mart

    August 11, 2021 at 11:14 pm

    Planning on eating at a restaurant outside with another vaxxed couple but too damn hot. With Delta, I cannot go inside unless N95 masked, so cancelled dinner. Tired of it all.

    ETA – Can’t wait for twelve days from now to see the numbers after 700,000 anti mask/vaxx biker Sturgis spread hits.

  30. 30.

    Kent

    August 11, 2021 at 11:16 pm

    @Princess:

    He’s getting a shitload of “thoughts and prayers” on his facebook page

     

    https://www.facebook.com/chris.johansen.7967

  31. 31.

    Mallard Filmore

    August 11, 2021 at 11:16 pm

    @gwangung:

     

    Because they think they have rights, and you have none. That’s the only way it makes sense.

    I have rights.
    You have responsibilities.

  32. 32.

    Ksmiami

    August 11, 2021 at 11:16 pm

    @CaseyL: DeSantis and Abbott are first in line

  33. 33.

    Lyrebird

    August 11, 2021 at 11:19 pm

    @Ken: same thought exactly!  Phew!

  34. 34.

    scav

    August 11, 2021 at 11:20 pm

    @Chetan Murthy: Umumum, oh yes.

    “I don’t see color.”

    (isn’t that the next move?)

  35. 35.

    Chetan Murthy

    August 11, 2021 at 11:22 pm

    @scav: It’s either that, “All Lives Matter” or “stop resisting!  stop resisting!”  Lemme check my White Supremacy flash cards and get back to you.

  36. 36.

    Kattails

    August 11, 2021 at 11:22 pm

    I’ve been reading about WWII and the blitz of London recently.  Blackout was taken with absolute seriousness, and there were wardens who could get your ass in deep trouble if they saw so much as a sliver of light coming through your curtains.  “I’m claustrophobic” was not an excuse.  One screwup by a lazy/careless person could bring a bomb down on an entire neighborhood. I am continually flabbergasted that so many Americans can’t find an analogy in their own brain pans that brings home the reality of this, relative to the threat of the pandemic.

    It’s like people saying, after some horrible murder, “oh it couldn’t happen here”. WTF not?  There is a certain ratio of stupid people; of cranks; of psychopaths. The distribution is randomly interspersed throughout the population.

  37. 37.

    Elizabelle

    August 11, 2021 at 11:22 pm

    @Kent:  And a “womp womp” too.

  38. 38.

    Kattails

    August 11, 2021 at 11:25 pm

    @Elizabelle: here a womp. there a womp, everywhere a womp-womp ee i ee i o.

  39. 39.

    Elizabelle

    August 11, 2021 at 11:27 pm

    @Kent:  She’s been nominated for a Herman Cain Award.

    It is rather entertaining to scroll through that FB thread.  Which will likely be marked private before too long.

  40. 40.

    Ken

    August 11, 2021 at 11:29 pm

    @Elizabelle: Is that a new category of Darwin Award? For people who remove themselves from the gene pool for political reasons, perhaps?

  41. 41.

    JaneE

    August 11, 2021 at 11:30 pm

    Lots of people are making these kinds of decisions.  I am past caring about the feelings of the unvaxxed, but my stepchildren are all vaccinated and over 1,000 miles away so getting together isn’t an issue anyway.  I have no doubt that if I attended an event with unvaccinated adults I would alienate people left and right.

  42. 42.

    Rocks

    August 11, 2021 at 11:37 pm

    @Kent:  What a cesspool.

  43. 43.

    CaseyL

    August 11, 2021 at 11:38 pm

    @Kent:  Too bad I’m no longer on FB; I’d enjoy reading those.

    ETA: Or maybe not.  I thought you were being snarky, but from Rocks’ comment, maybe they’re being sincere.  Ugh.

  44. 44.

    James E Powell

    August 11, 2021 at 11:40 pm

    Has any one of the many talented video compilation makers put together a “loud COVID denier, anti-mask, anti-vaxx people who have ended up in the hospital, lost family members, or died”? They will say it’s cruel, but TFB. It reminds me of all the pro-Iraq invasion people who became anti-war the day their own got killed or wounded.

    Acting out one’s ignorance, hatred, and bigotry is all fun & games until somebody dies.

  45. 45.

    Kent

    August 11, 2021 at 11:42 pm

    @CaseyL: Oh, they are being very very sincere.

    I was just highly amused that it was like 350 comments that are nothing more than various versions of “thoughts and prayers”

  46. 46.

    JaneE

    August 11, 2021 at 11:43 pm

    @Keith P.: Amen to that.

    Even if the disease isn’t possibly lethal you should have enough consideration for others to not spread it around.

  47. 47.

    Elizabelle

    August 11, 2021 at 11:46 pm

    A reddit thread about the deceased Cindy Johansen.  Karma’s a bitch, Cindy.  Maybe you figured that out at the end, maybe you did not.

    https://www.reddit.com/r/HermanCainAward/comments/p2oau5/update_antivaxanti_mask_wife_of_antivax_anti_mask/

  48. 48.

    Chetan Murthy

    August 11, 2021 at 11:47 pm

    @JaneE:

    you should have enough consideration

    Not a libertarian, I see.

  49. 49.

    RaflW

    August 11, 2021 at 11:49 pm

    We just got home from an annual cabin (looong) weekend at a friend’s family lake place (OMG it was so nice to be in the woods, swimming and boating and just hanging out!). This is a group that has met every August for longer than I’ve been going (I got welcomed in via my BF in ’09).

    One of the usuals was told in very clear terms, “nope, sorry, the rest of us are vaccinated and you can’t draft on our doing the right thing.” I guess he took it ok, but it seems like such a dumb choice.

    He’s been saying that the mRNA vaccines have long-term unknowns. OK (not really, but for sake of speed/argument), well then get the J&J. It’s a little less effective against Delta, but still really darn good, and getting it shows that you understand herd immunity and that you respect your friends (and even though you’re being weird about this, we like you and want you to live). But apparently his mRNA argument was just bullshit, since so far he won’t get J&J either.

    He has said that once a vax has ‘full’ approval from the FDA he’ll maybe then get the shot(s). I don’t think I believe him. Proof will have to be in the pudding.

    We had a great time and it’s too bad he was uninvited, but that was his choice.

  50. 50.

    Sister Golden Bear

    August 11, 2021 at 11:52 pm

    Narcissists forget that other people have agency too.

  51. 51.

    Chetan Murthy

    August 11, 2021 at 11:52 pm

    @RaflW: A-fuckin’-men.  You have excellent taste in the friends you’re keepin’.

  52. 52.

    StringOnAStick

    August 11, 2021 at 11:53 pm

    I found out my RW Bircher dad is not vaccinated and has been lying about it.  Delta gives me a solid good reason to not be going back to western CO to visit anytime soon.  He can be a FOX blind idiot like my sister the retired nurse who checks up on him, but I’m not taking the risk to go visit someone who takes every possible opening to berate me for being an evil, evil D.  He’s made his bed, plus Mesa County has a high Covid positivity level right now. No thanks.

  53. 53.

    matt the somewhat reasonable

    August 12, 2021 at 12:01 am

    Often diseased animals will be shot, to protect the others.

  54. 54.

    Chetan Murthy

    August 12, 2021 at 12:02 am

    Today I received a letter from my gym in SF: a wellness poll.  Up to this point, they’ve not once sent out a letter polling the membership about covid mitigation practices.  Instead, they started off (in May) with masking, then dropped masking (in mid-June) and then reinstated it (Aug 3).  At no point did they do a *thing* about vaccine mandates.  So I got sick of waiting.  I sent letters twice to the general membership email address.  Got back pabulum.  Today, I responded to the person who sent the poll:

    Dear XX,
    I just received this wellness survey, and have to ask: in this time of Delta covid, the [gym] hasn’t actually surveyed members about vaccine mandates, even though surely it is at the top of mind of every vaccinated member.  We all have younger relatives we do not wish to infect; we’ve read about possible long covid in breakthrough cases (e.g. the Israeli Pfizer study), and we all continue to wait for the [gym] to do something about vaccine mandates, so that working out can be safer.
    But nothing happens, and as Delta surges, people like me cut back on our visits to the gym out of justified worries.
    It seems like the [gym] could at least poll its membership to find out what members feel about vaccine mandates.

    Their response was not …. responsive:

    Thank you for your feedback. I do hope that you took the survey and included this in your comments so that it is reflected in our survey results.
    The Y is continuously monitoring the Delta variant and following CDC and DPH guidelines to best serve our communities.

    Which is bullshit: 100% bullshit.  So I responded with receipts:

    With respect, your statement below is incorrect.  I refer you to the 22 July guidance from SF DPH: https://www.sfdph.org/dph/alerts/files/07.22.21_Joint_Statement_Workplace_Vaccination_FINAL.pdf
    In it, they are clear that they recommend all businesses adopt *verifiable* vaccine mandates for all workers.
    Furthermore, nothing stops the [gym] from starting *now* to *document* the vaccine status of willing members and workers, and *advertising* that status to members at its facilities, as a way of encouraging members to get fascinated. [ed: “vaccinated”]
    What the [gym] is doing, is merely following the path of the coward: without even any knowledge of that its members feel about the issue, the [gym] is cowering to the worst people in our society, and ensuring that those of us who did our civic duty, continue to be punished, continue to have to keep our lives on hold, continue to have to worry for the safety of our younger relatives.
    You’re not best serving your communities: the way to do that, is to do your part to induce people to get vaccinated, so we can all get past this pandemic.

    Which resulted in more evasion:

    Thank you again for the feedback. I can assure you the health and safety of our communities are our top priorities and will ensure your feedback gets to the appropriate audience.

    Our Senior Leadership in the Organization have been working hard to implement employee policies that follow DPH recommendations as well as continuing to monitor the need for mandatory vaccines for members.  As a community based organization, we do also want to ensure we are not creating additional boundaries to the members of our community who need our services most.
    We will continue to evaluate and follow guidelines with our members and staff at the forefront.

    so this time I drove straight to motherfucking point:

    I realize that you don’t set policy.  So I’m not angry at you.  But I think your management doesn’t understand the depth and ferocity of the anger that we vaccinated people have, that the unvaccinated continue to ruin our lives and endanger the lives of our children and younger relatives.
    Your management is catering to the whims of the worst in our society, participating in a vicious circle downwards, instead of rewarding people who do their civic duty and participating in a virtuous circle upwards.

    Throughout, I should note, she insists that they’re following SF Department of Health recommendations, which they most certainly are not, as a quick read of that linked-to PDF would demonstrate incontrovertibly.
    Gutless cowards.  Gutless cowards.

    We need to hold all these fuckers’ feet to the fire.  People are going to die if we don’t.

  55. 55.

    Kent

    August 12, 2021 at 12:03 am

    @Elizabelle: From the reddit thread

    “this whole thing has evolved from a pandemic to an IQ test overnight”

    Couldn’t have said it better myself.

  56. 56.

    Parfigliano

    August 12, 2021 at 12:06 am

    @Elizabelle: Cindy Johansen.  Dead dumbshit.  Put it on her tombstone.

  57. 57.

    mrmoshpotato

    August 12, 2021 at 12:17 am

    They really don’t want choices. They want to decide and then the rest of us has to deal with their decisions. That’s not how choices work, and you can just keep your selfish ass at home.

    These selfish shitstains have choices – 2 Moderna doses, 2 Pfizer doses, 1 J&J dose, or stay the fuck away from others (especially kids under 12!) and go fuck yourselves.

  58. 58.

    Punchy

    August 12, 2021 at 12:28 am

    @Chief Oshkosh: yup.  So many aquaintances whom I thought were reasonable, only to find out theyre conspiritorial shitheads and anti-maskx/vaxers.  Dropped like a bad habit.  Lifes too short to befriend the clowns.

  59. 59.

    trollhattan

    August 12, 2021 at 12:31 am

    @Chetan Murthy: 
    Indicative of “If we pander to the crazies and keep their business then enough of the not-crazies stay members and we maximize our gross.”

    Pretending to be obtuse only works a short while. This sounds like whileX4.

  60. 60.

    Chetan Murthy

    August 12, 2021 at 12:33 am

    @trollhattan: I’m sure that that’s the case.  Gutless cowards.  My gym is still my gym.  But it’s no longer “the YMCA”, a place that I regard as more than a gym, as a place for the community.  Now, it’s just a fucking gym.

  61. 61.

    WV Blondie

    August 12, 2021 at 12:34 am

    You guys make me feel better. I’ve been sitting here stewing about the stupidity of this mess, getting angrier and angrier. Now at least I know it’s a common feeling (since of course, living in WV, I’m very careful about going out or seeing anyone, so I don’t get a lot of interactions).

  62. 62.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    August 12, 2021 at 12:37 am

    Point of order: the Darwin Awards specifically disqualify people who kill or injure others, and a vaccine-denier with COVID, especially the Delta variant, easily falls into that exception.

  63. 63.

    Chetan Murthy

    August 12, 2021 at 12:38 am

    @WV Blondie:

    getting angrier and angrier

    How do they say?  “You ain’t seen nuthin’ yet!”  I’m single and childless.  I have a friend in Boston with 4 kids — young kids, all <12yo.  He is *incandescent*.  Because the gutless cowards that run his city have arranged things so that his children …. his children must run the risk of Delta covid to go to school soon.  I am on fire partly on his behalf, but it’s nothing as to his level of concern and anger for what his children must endure.

    Don’t feel alone: you are not alone at all.

    And just to be clear: I’m not just angry at the Branch Covidians; I’m also angry at every gutless business/corporate or government enabler.  Every last one.

  64. 64.

    namekarB

    August 12, 2021 at 1:05 am

    Ya know I agree with unvaccinated are clowns and us vaccinated are sane but . . . In our 70’s, 4 boys (middle age men now) and two of them are anti-vaxers. So, #1 son and DIL want to visit. Me: Ain’t happening until yer vaxed. #1 Son bites the bullet and got vaxed 10 days ago and has been down with Covid ever since. DIL thinks he may have had covid when they got vaxed (she got sick 2 days later). He is still not out of the woods at this point and DIL says if he gets worse will call 911.

    So dear readers: Do I hate my own son or not?

  65. 65.

    Another Scott

    August 12, 2021 at 1:06 am

    They really don’t want choices. They want to decide and then the rest of us has to deal with their decisions. That’s not how choices work, and you can just keep your selfish ass at home.

    I’d express it differently.

    They want to live in a black and white world, where their leadership decides what’s good and bad and they don’t have to think about it and society doesn’t change.

    A fairy tale 1950s America where we were the top of the world, every year cars were bigger and faster and more ridiculously styled. Where white men ruled the roost, white women were housewives, and minorities were laborers or maids or servants. The social order was fixed and “everyone” was happy.

    Change is scary. Change is hard. They want society to stay fixed while they have choices of iPhone colors.

    If their leadership is saying things consistent with 1950s America – Freedom solves everything!, then that’s what they want to believe. They don’t want to reexamine America’s sins. They don’t want exceptions for a pandemic – why if there’s an exception for a pandemic, then that means troops will be quartered in our bedrooms before we know it!!1 And if women make as much as men, then men will be emasculated!!1 And why can’t people just accept that they’re not as good as white men anyway??! My dad had a pretty good life without all these changes; why can’t I get ahead the way he did – why is everyone taking my promised future away from me!!1 It’s not fair!!111ONE

    (sigh)

    Life and society moves on. People have to adjust or they get left behind.

    And white men need to realize that the USA is less than 5% of the world’s population. White American men number roughly 75M total in the USA. It’s unreasonable, undemocratic, and non-sensical to think that white men deserve special privileges’ here (or anywhere else). And we will all be better off when we/they realize that fact.

    The GQP is trying to ride this fear of change into perpetual power. They (like Putin) want chaos so that they can claim that only their “firm leadership” can save the country. We have to do what is necessary to end the pandemic, show that government still works, and move on to a better future. The 1950’s gave us lots and lots of problems – we need to leave them behind.

    My $0.02.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  66. 66.

    Chetan Murthy

    August 12, 2021 at 1:11 am

    @namekarB: If my child did something truly, colossaly stupid and self-harming, I wouldn’t hate them: I’d feel really sorry for them.

  67. 67.

    lgerard

    August 12, 2021 at 1:26 am

    Department of Unintended Consequences

    Florida’s Death Toll Now Exceeds DeSantis’ Margin of Victory

  68. 68.

    Citizen Alan

    August 12, 2021 at 2:52 am

    @lgerard: Probably off topic, but dammit, I still think Gwen Graham would have beaten his dumb ass. But no, Floridian Dems had to go with the Bernie Bro choice, Andrew “Meth-fueled Gay Orge” Gillum.

  69. 69.

    Gretchen

    August 12, 2021 at 3:08 am

    @Chetan Murthy: good for you! My mother once said she’d dance on someone’s grave, and I was shocked at the ferocity of her anger.  I am no longer shocked.  I am that angry at people who are selfishly endangering my grandchildren.  I am especially sick of that nod that we can’t create boundaries to underserved communities.  The vaccine is free and widely available.  Sure, work to get those communities  vaccinated.  Come on, someone with a gym membership has access to a CVS. Don’t use that as an excuse to bend to the ignorant loudmouths.

  70. 70.

    Gretchen

    August 12, 2021 at 3:13 am

    @Chetan Murthy: this is enraging.  They don’t want to create additional boundaries by telling people who have access to a gym membership that they have to go to a local drugstore on the way to the gym, and that’s too much to ask of someone with a gym membership.  Come on. If that’s too hard, have a vaccine event at the gym.  But they know that’s not necessary.  I have absolutely no grace left for people who prioritize their selfish desires over the safety of children.

  71. 71.

    Gretchen

    August 12, 2021 at 3:24 am

    @namekarB: No, you don’t hate your own son.  You were right to insist he be vaxxed.  Let’s hope getting the shot got his immune response revved up to fight this and he will be fine.  My 37 year old son had a crisis recently, and I was beside myself with worry.  I was sitting on the stairs telling my daughter about it, her three year old son next to me. She said, he’s an adult, it’s not your problem, and I wondered, looking at that sweet baby and remembering my sweet baby years ago, if she understood what she was saying.  Good luck with your son.

  72. 72.

    Sloane Ranger

    August 12, 2021 at 3:39 am

    @Ken:

     

    Oh, good, a happy ending. I was sure it was going to be a report of a superspreader event, or that the two-year-old was on a ventilator.

    To my mind the happy ending here would have been to tell the unvaccinated to F— Off and hold the party for the socially responsible only . I understand why they didn’t, but their decision means that nobody gets any fun.

  73. 73.

    scottinnj

    August 12, 2021 at 7:05 am

    Just a continuation of what has been happening the last decade or so.

    I think of it as a variant of Cleek’s law, it comes down to:

    A**holes want to be A**holes but without being called an A**hole, updated daily.

  74. 74.

    Chris Johnson

    August 12, 2021 at 8:24 am

    @matt the somewhat reasonable: I don’t like this comment because it brings to mind the ultimate purpose of Russian interference: civil war.

    If you don’t think the Russians would like to goad on the MAGAs to be covidiots while simultaneously goading us on to talk about literally attacking them in the hopes we’ll all kill each other to death, you’re not paying attention.

    REMEMBER not all of this is organic. There’s been quite a bit of reporting by now on how the antivaxxers are sometimes directly hired by third parties with Russian connections. The BBC talked about some whistleblowing influencers who’d been contacted by shady folks offering a lot of money to push antivax messaging.

    This is being DONE TO us, not all of it is organic.

  75. 75.

    Starfish

    August 12, 2021 at 8:29 am

    @Capri: Smoking did affect others. There were people who got lung cancer through secondhand smoke, and heart attacks went down after smoking bans went into effect. It really is that bad.

  76. 76.

    Starfish

    August 12, 2021 at 8:34 am

    I wrote something before I had sense enough to unwrite it.

  77. 77.

    wenchacha

    August 12, 2021 at 9:19 am

    @Ken:

     

    @Chetan Murthy: Do they invite all members to the gym, regardless of illness? Can you visit with ringworm or scabies or TB?

  78. 78.

    Richard

    August 12, 2021 at 8:10 pm

    @CaseyL:

    The hardest people for me to drop was that “woo” couple i was close friends with. They are nice kind generous intelligent people.  I have been friends with them for years. It was only in the past few years that they became more and more paranoid.

    It started with the jetplane trails. I would go visit and that is all they would talk about.  Then, when the trump time started, they just locked the door and threw away the key.

    The last time i visited them they told me i don’t need a mask, it is all a hoax. I still see them around the town and we still say hello

    I miss my friends

    As far as these other idiots go, my life is a lot better without them.

    I lost my sister and mom and dad to the trump troubles.

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