The Lab Leak Theory, because we need several Covid threads when we run out of drama.

[BCR]

Yup...

...totally making shit up again.

https://www.pewresearch.org/journali...knowledgeable/

Ya, for the first six months, all I heard from Trump supporters was some variation of it was a virus to take him down. I can’t tell you how often I heard this will disappear the moment the election is over. I heard this every day. This entire group, which was almost every Trump supporter I know, has collective amnesia that they held this position.

Then as it became obvious it wasn’t going away, the control theories/great reset lunacy became the prevalent theory. Never this occurrence happened and people who had an agenda that think that way are taking advantage of it. That’s not crazy, but they were never arguing it, because I’d clarify with argumentative people trying to get along. I’d say,”do you mean in the never waste a good crisis type of way. They they are taking advantage if it?

Nope. Intentional.

Exactly no one I knew was arguing that. It was intentional. I knew people who had voted for a Trump and knew they made a mistake arguing that.

I also heard how checks and universal basic income would never go away a lot during this time. How these checks will never stop.

I know two Trump supporters for every dem. They are down to control and masks narrative now. It’s all they have left. They’ve been incredibly wrong for two years now and grasping on any tiny sliver of this thing where they can make an argument that they weren’t totally wrong.

Trump’s biggest appeal was always to people who can’t admit they’re wrong. It’s the defining characteristic of an ardent Trump supporter. Supporting him at this point requires viewing admitting you were wrong in the face of overwhelming evidence as weakness. Being stubbornly stupid and willing to double down on stupid until you’ve Martingaled your party into one where anyone making sense and living in reality is now primaried or must resign.

I truthfully don’t hate Trump. I hate what he did to the country, I view him as some broken dude who was clearly broken young and is insane. I think he’s eating Big Macs and losing his mind over being labeled a loser every day while being a billionaire who could be enjoying his life after being one of forty five guys to ever have held an office. I think he’s that nuts.

What I hate is I never gave a fuck what people did, what their education level was, their job. That’s never what I gravitated towards. I liked people I liked. My closest friends were smart dudes, but they’re often busy. So I did shit with everyone. I still try to, but it’s becoming impossible unless listening to nonsense all day interests you.

I can’t tell you how many people will say something like,,“ you’re a smart guy, let me ask you this?” Insert some conspiracy theory or nonsense. Then they argue with you after they asked your opinion. They’re only asking you because they’ve known you forever and know you’re smarter than them, and they’ll launch into what some window licker we went to school with posted on Facebook. This has happened non-stop, and you want to bang your head off a wall. You think, why did you ask me? Why am I hearing about what someone who is retarded and we both know is retarded thinks about the subject? This can only happen so many times before you lose your mind at all of it.

He had such a targeted approach, so targeted people who aren’t traditionally educated and gullible. that you can’t go to a barber, have a drink, run into someone you have known forever, who aren’t babbling about the fixed elections and just absolute nonsense. He so directly targeted a demographic that is so prevalent across the Midwest, and rust belt, that it literally ruined this part of the country. It’s horrible.

It’s like watching someone you care about send their money to some TV preacher or romance scammer in Nigeria who wouldn’t cross the street to piss on them. yet they’re convinced loves them.

It’s so sad and that is the feeling you have, until you’ve listened to them for 18 months and think, I guess you’re not going to get it until you’re living on the street, or in this case, hooked to a ventilator.

[nightmarefish]

Problem is, all the media is shit. A huge % of Dems believe that if you get covid you have over a 50% chance of being hospitalized. They get their news from CNN. The options for nonpolitical news are just hard to find.

[dwai]

99.98% survivability bub

Not even close, but who cares. More interesting part is where did you get that number you keep parroting. Why is it constructed the way it is. That type of stuff.

About 1% of Americans died last year. Do you want to guess what the survivability rate was for all Americans?

99%.

Around 11% of all deaths were attributed to Covid-19. Sure you had almost 18% excess deaths compared to 2019, but who's counting. Even that 11% makes it the 3rd most likely cause of death for that year. That's with a global effort to do more to stop it than what has been done to any other disease since the beginning of time in a single year.

Also "possible". We didn't get unlucky. We actually did stuff. Some more than others.

[country978]

Problem is, all the media is shit. A huge % of Dems believe that if you get covid you have over a 50% chance of being hospitalized. They get their news from CNN. The options for nonpolitical news are just hard to find.

What about Shepard Smith? I'm watching his show now for the 1st time on CNBC. Isn't he a person right and left alike can agree presents fair news or no?

[nightmarefish]

Problem is, all the media is shit. A huge % of Dems believe that if you get covid you have over a 50% chance of being hospitalized. They get their news from CNN. The options for nonpolitical news are just hard to find.

What about Shepard Smith? I'm watching his show now for the 1st time on CNBC. Isn't he a person right and left alike can agree presents fair news or no?

He's probably better than most but the problem with our country isn't just the media, it's the division. So many people are drawn to the anchors that support their preconceived notions thus they're easy to manipulate. The anchors on both Fox and CNN are constantly blaming the other side for everything which is red meat for their audiences and the divide increases.

You're a pretty reasonable guy but you've even been convinced that wearing a mask takes away your freedom. That probably scares me more than the fringe wackos because it shows this shit is spreading to the center.

[Dan Druff]

Wearing a mask doesn't take away your freedom.

Having your young children forced to wear masks in school and keep distance from one another, for anything more than a few weeks, is a disturbing overreach of power when not 100% justified.

For some reason the masking of 5-year-olds is just accepted as completely reasonable by the left, and they ignore all the science and data indicating that kids overwhelmingly do fine with COVID, and may not even be transmitting it much.

If the entire population experienced COVID the way 10-year-olds do, the entire virus would be a non-factor, and something you'd just hear about in passing. Somehow because it's killing older adults (99%+ deaths are people over 35), we're treating the kids like they're at the same risk level. It's insane.

[BCR]

Problem is, all the media is shit. A huge % of Dems believe that if you get covid you have over a 50% chance of being hospitalized. They get their news from CNN. The options for nonpolitical news are just hard to find.

The main problem is they focus on outliers and write a story about them every day. In their mind, it’s a virus and they think it will convince young people to get vaccinated and make society healthier. It never does. Young people aren’t reading CNN.

I click on CNN or Fox to see if there has been a plane crash or a mass shooter over night. That’s where either’s usefulness ends. Fox has been all about scaring people for decades. On in every nursing home I’ve ever visited. Now CNN is all about scaring people from the other direction. They both do the same thing. Convince people gangbangers in Chicago killing each other are a threat in your suburb or that kids are dying in massive numbers. All nonsense.

[country978]

I respect the passion in your what you're saying BCR. And, like you, I hate how divided Mr Trump made us. He is a terrible person who did many terrible things. Many of us felt ashamed to be represented by him. But this is now exactly the problem isn't it? That we are all so divided and angry with one another that nobody is willing to concede that they might be right about some things but wrong about others? There is no one side that is all correct while the other is all wrong and yet that is what folks with simple or no understanding of how an efficient and ethical government is supposed to run. The politicians want us all to be more ignorant and not less because then it becomes easier for them to deceive us over and over again with no fear of consequences.

[country978]

What about Shepard Smith? I'm watching his show now for the 1st time on CNBC. Isn't he a person right and left alike can agree presents fair news or no?

He's probably better than most but the problem with our country isn't just the media, it's the division. So many people are drawn to the anchors that support their preconceived notions thus they're easy to manipulate. The anchors on both Fox and CNN are constantly blaming the other side for everything which is red meat for their audiences and the divide increases.

You're a pretty reasonable guy but you've even been convinced that wearing a mask takes away your freedom. That probably scares me more than the fringe wackos because it shows this shit is spreading to the center.

There are some people who really hate being told what to do. Some in the center, some on the left and some on the right. One of them is me. I will put on a mask when and if I feel it is necessary. I took the shots and so for me that's the end of the discussion on masks. I did not like being told over and over (mostly by my family) to take the vaccine even though I eventually decided it was the best choice for me. I'm usually way over on the left on most issues but on most things covid I am way over on the side of the right.

[country978]

Forced masking of anyone has to end!! Its just not worth the fights and resentment it causes. The general rule should be and should have always been if you feel that a mask is necessary for whatever situation for yourself then by all means, feel free to do so. And if you want your kid to put on a mask all day in school then put the mask on your kid. Anything beyond that is, has been and always will be unacceptable to me.

[nightmarefish]

Forced masking of anyone has to end!! Its just not worth the fights and resentment it causes. The general rule should be and should have always been if you feel that a mask is necessary for whatever situation for yourself then by all means, feel free to do so. And if you want your kid to put on a mask all day in school then put the mask on your kid. Anything beyond that is, has been and always will be unacceptable to me.

Does it bother you that businesses make you wear a shirt and shoes?

Do stop signs bother you?

Does it bother you that you can’t smoke in a public place?

Are you mad people are telling you what you can and cannot do in these situations?

[v12cl]

Forced masking of anyone has to end!! Its just not worth the fights and resentment it causes. The general rule should be and should have always been if you feel that a mask is necessary for whatever situation for yourself then by all means, feel free to do so. And if you want your kid to put on a mask all day in school then put the mask on your kid. Anything beyond that is, has been and always will be unacceptable to me.

Does it bother you that businesses make you wear a shirt and shoes?

Do stop signs bother you?

Does it bother you that you can’t smoke in a public place?

Are you mad people are telling you what you can and cannot do in these situations?

Does other people breathing freely without a mask in public bother you?

[nightmarefish]

Does it bother you that businesses make you wear a shirt and shoes?

Do stop signs bother you?

Does it bother you that you can’t smoke in a public place?

Are you mad people are telling you what you can and cannot do in these situations?

Does other people breathing freely without a mask in public bother you?

Are you claiming masks don’t let you breathe? That’s a joke right? My five year old has never complained about wearing one but you can’t breathe huh? Stop with the nonsense.

[country978]

Forced masking of anyone has to end!! Its just not worth the fights and resentment it causes. The general rule should be and should have always been if you feel that a mask is necessary for whatever situation for yourself then by all means, feel free to do so. And if you want your kid to put on a mask all day in school then put the mask on your kid. Anything beyond that is, has been and always will be unacceptable to me.

Does it bother you that businesses make you wear a shirt and shoes?

Do stop signs bother you?

Does it bother you that you can’t smoke in a public place?

Are you mad people are telling you what you can and cannot do in these situations?

It bothers me that I think the best way to describe your post is patronizing. These things you describe are reasonable expectations of any reasonable person. You and I just don't agree on what is reasonable and what is not in this one instance.

[v12cl]

Does other people breathing freely without a mask in public bother you?

Are you claiming masks don’t let you breathe? That’s a joke right? My five year old has never complained about wearing one but you can’t breathe huh? Stop with the nonsense.

Answer the question - Does other people not wearing a mask bother you?

[nightmarefish]

Does it bother you that businesses make you wear a shirt and shoes?

Do stop signs bother you?

Does it bother you that you can’t smoke in a public place?

Are you mad people are telling you what you can and cannot do in these situations?

It bothers me that I think the best way to describe your post is patronizing. These things you describe are reasonable expectations of any reasonable person. You and I just don't agree on what is reasonable and what is not in this one instance.

If something mitigates risk with zero downside it’s reasonable in my book. I wasn’t be patronizing, those were real questions because all of those are the same to me as throwing on a mask in the middle of a pandemic if a business wants me to.

If I go to pickup my kids and they want me to throw on a mask for 5 minutes then sure. It has no impact on my life. You’re fighting something for no reason.

I’m almost never required to wear a mask anywhere I go in California.

Btw, the same thing happen when seatbelts started being required. Many people were pissed off being told what to do and now it’s not a big deal and shouldn’t have ever been a big deal.

But you’re right, it comes down to some people just don’t want to be told what to do but unfortunately there’s a lot of dipshits in the world that need exactly that. If there was no speed limit by my house instead of 25 you can damn sure bet some dipshits would be driving 60.

[country978]

Are you claiming masks don’t let you breathe? That’s a joke right? My five year old has never complained about wearing one but you can’t breathe huh? Stop with the nonsense.

Answer the question - Does other people not wearing a mask bother you?

Allow me, please. No, I would rather be around a person with no mask than one with a mask. In fact, people who wear a mask may as well write a sign on them that says "don't talk to me" because that's exactly how I treat them. Sometimes I see children walking down the street with a mask on. Today I saw a person from Spectrum Cable on a telephone pole with a mask on. I see people all the time wearing masks alone in a car. Its all very peculiar to me. If you took the shots you have noting to be afraid of. If you didn't take the shots you were never afraid to begin with.

[nightmarefish]

Are you claiming masks don’t let you breathe? That’s a joke right? My five year old has never complained about wearing one but you can’t breathe huh? Stop with the nonsense.

Answer the question - Does other people not wearing a mask bother you?

So you don’t answer my question but want me to answer questions? Interesting. The answer is generally no, unless im inside in a crowded place where they’re required. I just went to a Padre game last week with 40k other people, no one wearing masks.

My point is, it’s not a big deal. If you think it’s a big deal then you’ve been brainwashed.

[nightmarefish]

Answer the question - Does other people not wearing a mask bother you?

Allow me, please. No, I would rather be around a person with no mask than one with a mask. In fact, people who wear a mask may as well write a sign on them that says "don't talk to me" because that's exactly how I treat them. Sometimes I see children walking down the street with a mask on. Today I saw a person from Spectrum Cable on a telephone pole with a mask on. I see people all the time wearing masks alone in a car. Its all very peculiar to me. If you took the shots you have noting to be afraid of. If you didn't take the shots you were never afraid to begin with.

You don’t talk to people that wear masks? Truly bizarre.

[country978]

It bothers me that I think the best way to describe your post is patronizing. These things you describe are reasonable expectations of any reasonable person. You and I just don't agree on what is reasonable and what is not in this one instance.

If something mitigates risk with zero downside it’s reasonable in my book. I wasn’t be patronizing, those were real questions because all of those are the same to me as throwing on a mask in the middle of a pandemic if a business wants me to.

If I go to pickup my kids and they want me to throw on a mask for 5 minutes then sure. It has no impact on my life. You’re fighting something for no reason.

I’m almost never required to wear a mask anywhere I go in California.

Btw, the same thing happen when seatbelts started being required. Many people were pissed off being told what to do and now it’s not a big deal and shouldn’t have ever been a big deal.

But you’re right, it comes down to some people just don’t want to be told what to do but unfortunately there’s a lot of dipshits in the world that need exactly that. If there was no speed limit by my house instead of 25 you can damn sure bet some dipshits would be driving 60.

I'm not fighting it, friend. I've given up. I find that there is even a debate to be frustrating. I respect a persons choice to wear a mask or not wear a mask and for a person to to put a mask on their own kid if they so choose. And so in CA where you're from I'm sure you don't proceed through your life with a mask on anywhere you go, just where you are required to do so? That makes no sense to me. If you think its reasonable to require it then you wear it 100% of the time anywhere you go, otherwise you're a hypocrite, no?