This exactly. Fyre Festival was oddly prescient; a conman finally gripped by the heels of reality and other people mostly paying the price. https://t.co/wwlyRNxMX1
— James "Stay In. Make Masks. Test People" Palmer (@BeijingPalmer) May 1, 2020
We’re all witnessing some ugly reactions to the pandemic and its victims, even from people who have previously shown themselves reasonably intelligent, politically aware, or at at least capable of reading the room. This plague is touching everyone, and one of the oldest primate hindbrain reactions to such a situation is to wrap oneself in the misplaced security that IT CAN’T HAPPEN TO *ME*. It’s probably not really happening at all — crisis actors! — or, if it is, it only happens to bad people, old damaged otherwise ‘weak’ people, people at the mercy of cruel circumstance or nefarious foreign actors (Gyna’s bioweapon lab). Not ME: A good person, pillar of the community, someone who treats their body as a temple, someone who would never lower standards to consort with *those* people!
Trying to reason with people reacting this way is like trying to reason with an injured cat that needs to be transported — wear gauntlets, have heavy blankets at hand, and be prepared for teeth & claws. Or, if at all possible, stand well clear of the operating theatre and let the professionals handle the problem. Walk away, delete that person’s social media contacts from your list, turn your mind and go watch some duck videos or catch up with your most absorbing hobby.
If it’s someone you must deal with — a household member, a boss — well, all I can offer is my sincere sympathy. Just as I would if you had a literal death in your family. For the little that’s worth.
I realize this might sound like hypocrisy coming from The Front-Pager Designated to Hunt Down Stuff Guaranteed to P*ss Us All Off, but seriously: I’m one of those twisted personalities who feel *better* for poking the snakes with a stick. From the comments to my posts, there are others of my kind here, and it’s easier for the optimists when we consort with each other rather than befouling random posts, right? (I do make an effort to headline my nasty threads honestly, to keep the worst bits below the fold, and to intersperse the most depressing link-rants with respite or uplift posts.)
But seriously, remember: Unless you are on the NSA/GRU/DSA clock as the blog’s minder [old hippie joke], you are not required to read any of the posts here. If you want to share your bile, if you need sympathy / suggestions, if you just prefer to know exactly how bad the bad things are, welcome & come sit at a safe internet-intermediated distance from me. But if the situation is simply overwhelming you… taking a break, or at least only reading posts clearly labelled as respite, is very much an option. Like the bar in Cheers, we’ll still be here when you’re ready to come back!
Saturday Morning Open Thread: The Fear Is RealPost + Comments (295)