Wuhan Killer Sneeze (thanks Tea)

[luka]

Mr Tea is like me in that he doesn't beleive in science. He won't read your propellerhead papers. he goes with his gut.

 

[Mr. Tea]

Mr Tea is like me in that he doesn't beleive in science. He won't read your propellerhead papers. he goes with his gut.

I did actually take a look at his latest link over breakfast - my response was to wonder a why a statistician should be trusted over virologists to be correct about a virus.

 

[luka]

that means you didnt read it ,you looked for a reason not to read it. i approve. we should choose our positions and defend them, not endlessly trawl through counter arguements and counter evidence looking for reasons to distrust ourselves.

 

[craner]

Some people have become invested in the idea of the virus being deadly and unprecedented and others have become invested in the idea of the virus being relatively harmless and over-hyped. Like everything else these days, it's just made the argument fucking weird.

 

[mixed_biscuits]

I did actually take a look at his latest link over breakfast - my response was to wonder a why a statistician should be trusted over virologists to be correct about a virus.

Because it's about the virus stats?

 

[luka]

Some people have become invested in the idea of the virus being deadly and unprecedented and others have become invested in the idea of the virus being relatively harmless and over-hyped. Like everything else these days, it's just made the argument fucking weird.

the hysteria of the former is fairly easy to understand and just as easy to forgive but i have a harder time getting inside the heads of the latter. it's a definite class of people, a splinter group of headbanging contrarians. one day they are going to storm the gates of the palace with Peter Hitchens at their head. but what will their demands be?

 

[mixed_biscuits]

To have fewer demands made of them.

 

[luka]

that rings true. the emotional and psychological driver of this being basically grumpiness. grumpiness in middle aged men dovetailing with a desire to buck consensus in the young. and in both a love for argumentation and a pride in defending a marginal position against huge numbers. Spartans at Thermopylae, but with arguing online.

 

[luka]

you're a middle aged man like me i think biscuits. there's less energy available to fall into line with each new dictate of society, more and more reluctance to install the new software.

 

[luka]

i'll be muttering to myself, this bloody BAME stuff, what is a BAME? no one calls themselves a BAME.

 

[luka]

i can imagine you at the breakfast table grumbling about Sainsbury changing their marmelade recipe. "but i liked it the way it was.'

 

[luka]

i think i'm finally getting a clearer picture

 

[luka]

it's probably because at our age we are basically put out to pasture. can't compete for mates. so a lot of the social pressures towards conformity lose their urgency and force.

 

[luka]

we get to our age biscuits and we're sick of being hustled along aren't we. i don't want to listen to a Drake. what's a Drake. i like the Wu Tang Clan. it starts to feel undignified wearing the latest Nike Air Max trainers. you can't buy corderoy trousers yet, that would be an affectation, but you're looking to get off the road of progress. find a layby, 1999 perhaps, somewhere you felt comfortable. ward off anyone trying to drag you back into the traffic. i'm sick of being hustled along. leave me be.

 

[Mr. Tea]

Because it's about the virus stats?

I would naively have assumed that to understand virus stats properly, you need to understand the virus part as well as the stats part.

 

[luka]

You can see it in Peter Hitchens' face. The world always rubbing up against his nerve endings, so he's all tender and touchy., that's why he has become an icon for millions. there's something archetypal in that put upon, hard pressed dignity. he's like a peevish, posh Timothy Spall.

 

[luka]

he looks like there's always a cohort of wasps buzzing around him

 

[luka]

that's why he is the Leader of the Resistance.

 

[HMGovt’s Glorious Return!]

I'm 95% certain, ok, 5% certain, I saw Peter Hitchens "on one" at a back to '92 revival night in Oxford a few years back. He was as close as you are to me, in full PH uniform (pleasant jumper, collared shirt), with the trademark PH face. And yet, gurning and eye-rolling, reaching for the lasers in a polite and considerate manner. Even stranger, his companions were all grizzled crusties.

It were ever so odd.

This is a true story, not my usual bollocks.

 

[luka]

John Eden

@johnedenuk
·
1m

Human life is more important than the economy. That these two things are presented as being in opposition reminds us that the economy needs to be transformed to ensure global human flourishing. No more of this failing dog-eat-dog shitpit. Another world is possible.