Virus? Don't be a sissy pansy!

[Loren Pechtel]

President SCROTUS' downplaying, misinformation and lies are going to kill more people in the next few months than the 9/11 terrorists could have dreamed of.

Stop the most serious epidemic, Covfefe-19!

 

[crazyfingers]

I got one of those President Trump coronavirus cards in the mail too. Briefly looked at it because I knew that I having followed the real news for so long on this that there would be nothing I didn't already know or know better. I found it offensive that something with Trump's name on it would come onto my property. Trump is such a lying Blowhard.

Please stop insulting blowhards.

I was looking for the word. Perhaps lying buffoon is more appropriate.

 

[blastula]

Pastor Rodney Howard-Browne is another, video shows him telling congregation to shake hands.

Pastor: We’re Never Closing Church Because We’re Not Raising “Pansies” in Here - Friendly Atheist

He's got a conspiracy theory that vaccines will be used to kill off people.

[YOUTUBE]https://youtu.be/KroDylV8Sz0[/YOUTUBE]

This guy had been arrested for continuing to hold services.

Tampa Bay pastor bonds out of jail after arrest for violating ‘safer-at-home’ order amid coronavirus pandemic - WFLA

 

[Patooka]

Is it just me, or does that guy look like Lev Parnas?

 

[barbos]

Is it just me, or does that guy look like Lev Parnas?

It's just you

 

[Keith&Co.]

Is it just me, or does that guy look like Lev Parnas?

He looks like a high school assistant football coach, who runs detention in the off season.

 

[Elixir]

And emotionally based, rather than in the best interest of the species as a whole?

why pretend those are two different things?
One of our advantages as a species is the old people, with memories and the ability yo pass on information when no longer able to wrestle mammoths or bite the heads off sharks. Lore, skills, tricks, pro-tips passed on by generations.

We evolved by having old people at the fire, so we evolved To Treasure old people at our fire. Which is why we tend to invest resources into our old, and sick. We feel good about the decision because we've been selected for that.

So, if a million get sick, we (by which i mean most humans, not sociopaths) will try to save them, much as we can. With that in mind, protecting them limits the number of resources they will demand in the next months.
And extending their health for now increases the chances of a vaccine, and a cure, further protecting our own resources, so that we won't beggar ourselves.

I tend toward Koy's view. Yeah, us old fucks used to be critical containers of accumulated knowledge and sometimes even wisdom. But now we have writing, computers, spreadsheets and shit to preserve the details of knowledge, and really - how many wise people can we expect the youth to listen to? Veneration is soooo last week!

I don't believe this virus is going to solve the overpopulation problem that presents the opportunity for it to wreak havoc, but something will eventually. Even if it killed half of everyone on the planet, there would still be more people left than existed when I first realized that population growth was going to become a problem.

 

[Worldtraveller]

I read a story on the news a few days ago, wish I could find it, showing statistics that Older (at risk) Republicans who watch FOX are far less likely to believe that C-19 is a threat and are far less likely to modify their activities to protect themselves. The story focused on a Sr Home in Florida with an unusually skewed population, like 2-1 republican, where large gatherings are still taking place, packed dance calls, close contact among large groups of seniors is still the norm.

All because the assholes at FOX and Trump are telling them that all is OK. FOX and Trump should be tried and convicted of second degree murder.

The only silver lining is that it's a self correcting problem.

Unfortunately, like most republican 'plans', there's always a lot of collateral damage.

 

[ZiprHead]

 

[Koyaanisqatsi]

I tend toward Koy's view.

Once again, not my view. Devil’s advocate view and, at the time, coming from being sick and just laid off and generally morbid. Never in my wildest fever-nightmares did I imagine that just a few days after posting, actual sociopaths would officially encourage killing yourself for the good of the “economy.”

Just to be painfully clear.

 

[jab]

Because a whole bunch of people getting very sick all at once, and needing medical care all at once, medical care which will save some/ many of them from death, or living with lung damage, stains the medical care facilities for months on end and puts vital health care workers at risk for illness and death themselves, all this undercutting and compromising health care for people who need it but not for Covid. That's one part of a pragmatic response. As well, the infected running free infect people who will die but also people who won't die but get very ill and be removed from the economy as they are recuperating.
As for religion, I think that in the past 2 days some dumbo Preacher in the USA was arrested for holding packed public services and encouraging unsafe behaviour.

 

[jab]

President SCROTUS' downplaying, misinformation and lies are going to kill more people in the next few months than the 9/11 terrorists could have dreamed of.

that mark was passed within the last 48 hours

 

[ZiprHead]

Prosecutors: Engineer deliberately ran train off tracks in attempt to smash the USNS Mercy

SAN PEDRO, LOS ANGELES -- An engineer deliberately ran a train off the tracks at high speed near the Port of Los Angeles in an attempt to crash into and damage the USNS Mercy hospital ship, prosecutors say.

The Pacific Harbor Line train derailed Tuesday, running through the end of the track and crashing through barriers, finally coming to rest about 250 yards from the docked naval ship.

Federal prosecutors allege train engineer Eduardo Moreno, 44, of San Pedro intended to hit the ship, saying he thought it was "suspicious" and did not believe "the ship is what they say it's for.'"

 

[Koyaanisqatsi]

WTF!? Why didn’t the reporter include what the guy thought was the “real” reason for the ship?

 

[bilby]

And emotionally based, rather than in the best interest of the species as a whole?

why pretend those are two different things?
One of our advantages as a species is the old people, with memories and the ability yo pass on information when no longer able to wrestle mammoths or bite the heads off sharks. Lore, skills, tricks, pro-tips passed on by generations.

We evolved by having old people at the fire, so we evolved To Treasure old people at our fire. Which is why we tend to invest resources into our old, and sick. We feel good about the decision because we've been selected for that.

So, if a million get sick, we (by which i mean most humans, not sociopaths) will try to save them, much as we can. With that in mind, protecting them limits the number of resources they will demand in the next months.
And extending their health for now increases the chances of a vaccine, and a cure, further protecting our own resources, so that we won't beggar ourselves.

I tend toward Koy's view. Yeah, us old fucks used to be critical containers of accumulated knowledge and sometimes even wisdom. But now we have writing, computers, spreadsheets and shit to preserve the details of knowledge, and really - how many wise people can we expect the youth to listen to? Veneration is soooo last week!

I don't believe this virus is going to solve the overpopulation problem that presents the opportunity for it to wreak havoc, but something will eventually. Even if it killed half of everyone on the planet, there would still be more people left than existed when I first realized that population growth was going to become a problem.

Population growth has stopped being a problem. It was solved by the invention of the oral contraceptive, and by the increasing wealth, education, and urbanisation in the third world (to the extent that the parts of the third world outside Africa in the mid twentieth century are largely no longer considered third world).

Population will peak between eight and twelve billion, sometime between 2040 and 2050; Already birth rates are below replacement, but the large number of children born in the last couple of decades have mostly yet to have their 1.9 kids per woman, so that demographic lag means it will take a few decades to reach zero growth (particularly as life expectancy has sharply increased, though Covid-19 might throw a spanner in that).

Population growth is not a current problem. However, people who learned of population growth in years before 1990, when it was still not clear that the problem had been solved, are often very worried about it even now - and as those people have a lot of political clout, paradoxically, we have a real problem of people trying to solve the non-existent population problem, often in ways that are frankly terrifying.

Everything from outright fascism, through to a mere acceptance of inaction against pandemic disease (on the basis that "at least it might help with the population problem") is being promoted by this generation of people traumatised by Ehrlich's "Population Bomb".

But the problem is solved. The bomb was diffused, by an invention that pre-dates the book by a few years. Malthus was wrong. Ehrlich was wrong. Geometric population growth doesn't persist, as long as girls get a sound primary education, and then when they mature, have access to safe and effective contraception that cannot easily be controlled by their priests, husbands, or boyfriends.

The world already produces enough food for all the people who will ever occupy it; And famine (as it was known in the 19th and 20th centuries) disappeared in the mid-1980s, and hasn't been seen since. The only remaining famines are small scale and are directly attributable to war and civil conflicts, not to any lack of food.

Population is NOT a problem, and saying that it's a problem is a BIG problem. Stop saying it. It's no longer true.

 

[ruby sparks]

I’m sorry, but that’s just nonsense.

 

[bilby]

I’m sorry, but that’s just nonsense.

I'm sorry, but it's really not.

It's true even if you find it impossible to believe.

Lots of people do find it impossible to believe, because in their early life they were convinced (often with good reason) that it was a huge problem; And people are VERY bad at changing their beliefs for such trivial reasons as there being overwhelming evidence that they are out of date, inaccurate, or just plain wrong.

But it's true nonetheless. Population growth isn't a problem, and within a few decades, won't even be a thing (unless something very radical happens to invert current trends).

 

[Worldtraveller]

I’m sorry, but that’s just nonsense.

I'm sorry, but it's really not.

It's true even if you find it impossible to believe.

Lots of people do find it impossible to believe, because in their early life they were convinced (often with good reason) that it was a huge problem; And people are VERY bad at changing their beliefs for such trivial reasons as there being overwhelming evidence that they are out of date, inaccurate, or just plain wrong.

But it's true nonetheless. Population growth isn't a problem, and within a few decades, won't even be a thing (unless something very radical happens to invert current trends).

I don't believe you. I don't think humans, as a species, have the will/self control/whatever to actually curb population growth.

 

[DrZoidberg]

Shuttlesworth

Right-wing evangelist Jonathan Shuttlesworth has no time for “loser” pastors who are canceling services because of the coronavirus, saying they should instead be holding mass gatherings to demonstrate the power of their faith.

I don't HOPE he gets the Virus. I don't wish anyone get the virus. it puts others at risk. But when this guy EITHER contracts CORVID-19, or is caught taking every step CDC advises and photoshopping believers into his services, then i will probably smile. Just a bit. In the corners of my mouth.

This is like the Darwin Awards, except for that there's many innocent victims from this.

The equivalent of Islamic suicide bombings.

 

[Keith&Co.]

I don't believe you. I don't think humans, as a species, have the will/self control/whatever to actually curb population growth.

He nevrr said it was a choice we're going to make.

I would expect that the reasons we typically have lots of kids will have less and less impact as time goes on.
IIRC, more education tends to correlate with having kids later in life. The later you have kids, the fewer you have. So the easier access to education becomes, the fewer kids, more than likely.

Things like that. Decrease in infant mortality, increase in life expectency, decrease in the influence of religious organizations flogging the mass production of worshipers...

My guess, anyway.