Wuhan Killer Sneeze (thanks Tea)

[IdleRich]

But yeah it's very scary. Things simply can't be locked down for a year - just today I was saying that maybe there will be a year or whatever in which shops and so on are open as usual... but with everyone wearing full body hazmat suits every time they leave the house.

 

[version]

I really had to hold my tongue when my gran, who's in her mid-80s, was all "Well I'm not staying cooped up for months! We're Great Britain! We always pull through!".

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

I don't feel the best saying it, but I've definitely had thoughts and feelings along the same lines as that Reddit poster

many of friends have jobs, like me, where no one will pay you to stay home and there's no sick pay

I have savings and I'll at least survive, and try to use the time wisely to retrain for something else, but a lot of people I know don't

I have elderly parents and like most people I'd prefer them not die awful deaths waiting for treatment in an overcrowded hospital

but also, what the fuck are we supposed to do?

 

[version]

Precocious.

:crylarf:

I'm on the fence as to whether that poster's a bot or something tbh. There's something slightly off about their grammar.

 

[version]

They're raising valid points though.

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

they certainly are

more importantly, they're points that are going to become more prominent the longer this goes on and the worse people feel the crunch

 

[IdleRich]

Yeah I got a good friend told me his restaurant will go tits up if it has to close for three weeks. Which it pretty much certainly will. So that's three owners bankrupted and I dunno how many staff with no job. All the bars here are the same, everyone is having their wages cut in half at best. Everyone is fucking depressed, that comes across from the way they type messages, I dread to think what it would be like if we could actually see them face to face.

 

[version]

If you manage to duck death or permanent lung damage then you may still end up in financial trouble. There's also the prospect of civil unrest.

 

[IdleRich]

Advice from Norwegian university...

“In line with the advice from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, I, as NTNU’s Rector, strongly recommend that all NTNU students who are outside Norway return home.
This applies especially if you are staying in a country with poorly developed health services. This also applies for countries with poorly developed collective infrastructure, for example the USA, where it can be difficult to get transport to the airport if you don’t have a car. The same applies if you don’t have health insurance.”

 

[version]

 

[baboon2004]

I imagine many people are already feeling some resentment toward the elderly, even if they obviously can't voice it without sounding monstrous

it's common for people taking care of sick and/or elderly family members to feel resentment toward them, and those are people they love

hopefully it won't boil over into open anti-elderly sentiment as this drags on

Definitely. All the people I know who have said cavalier things about going on with life as normal - almost all have some reason to be resentful about this, either directly related to unworked through feelings about parents, or resentment that they didn't get good/any parenting and so why shd they look after other people's parents. Or that in general theyve been dealt a shit hand in life, and so being asked to take care of others en masse in this way is just too much

I think the 'unthinkingness' is so often hidden resentment, cos our culture simply doesnt allow this to be articulated.
As such, I fear your last hope may be in vain, esp in the UK where elderly ppl are also resented for ensuring a tory government and thus fucking over young ppl before all this happened

 

[pattycakes_]

There's also the prospect of civil unrest.

That's the biggest concern for me. If it pans out like it looks like it will with long term closures, bankruptcy and no jobs, people are going to get desperate. Thousands of people all at the same time. There has already been plenty of underlying tension building since 9/11. Gaining momentum as the years passed. War on terror, climate collapse, police brutality, crazy presidents, refugee crisis the fucken internet etc. Things have gotten progressively darker. This is like the cork slowly popping off a bottle of wine that's been shaken for 2 decades. There are obvious measures in place to avoid panic so far, but there will come a point when there's no way to hide it and that's when I think it will finally pop for good. I'd imagine there people right now thinking 'fuck it.' People in poorer parts of the city, criminal gangs, drug addicts, refugees from war torn areas, disaffected youth and those who hate society for all its injustices. Not to mention those who simply don't give a fuck. You think they're staying home for the good of old people? That's the biggest danger imo. But then put those in among the thousands who have lost their jobs and the rent is due. We all have food now, right? What happens when it runs out?

 

[baboon2004]

Yep, I was just thinking that societal breakdown is scary as fuck right now. In UK, Johnsons lack of any plan to help ppl economically is criminal. Rent strike surely tho? But then food, as you say

 

[pattycakes_]

Which then leads to militarised police entering stage right. We're walking right into it.

 

[yyaldrin]

basically what's happening in france. not saying macron cooked this virus in his own laboratorium at home but this is a perfect chance for him to get rid of the yellow vests.

btw, i think this whole blame old people for brexit/tory is so dangerous. can't stand these ok boomer jokes either. to me it feels like paving the way to get rid of them.

 

[baboon2004]

For clarity, I wasn't advocating that at all, I know lots who didn't vote for either (in my family and without), and it's a crazy over-generalisation. But it's a powder keg of anger.

 

[pattycakes_]

It's been a long time coming. And we've all been in denial. That type of denial leads to inner tension, which leads to fighting amongst ourselves when we should have been talking about this shit and planning for it. But then you're crazy or a survivalist.

The amount of conversations where two people who actually share the same views and want the same things end up attacking each other nowadays is insane. And it's the Internet that's done it. Imo. Tangled up in semantics and trigger words.

 

[Mr. Tea]

I really had to hold my tongue when my gran, who's in her mid-80s, was all "Well I'm not staying cooped up for months! We're Great Britain! We always pull through!".

Weird how many people still think this when in reality we're a country that called the police when KFC ran out of chicken.

 

[pattycakes_]

Some people think we're still an Empire

 

[baboon2004]

The amount of conversations where two people who actually share the same views and want the same things end up attacking each other nowadays is insane. And it's the Internet that's done it. Imo. Tangled up in semantics and trigger words.

Unfortunately this is part of why Labour has totally tanked recently, an inability to stop arguing and find common ground. But I agree that it goes way wider than that - the importance of being right has often trumped solidarity.

But there are certainly many, many cases also where people show unexpected solidarity, so there is another side...