D&D and the rising pandemic

[Thomas Shey]

I regular get Time Magazine's COVID briefing e-mail newsletter, and let me tell you, the U.S. state summaries of case risings the last week has been more than a little disconcerting. Even in places that have some kind of handle on it its going upward, and a couple of the Midwest states have been spiking on rises of more than 64 per hundred thousand.

 

[CleverNickName]

News outlets here are reporting that 1600 people are being hospitalized per day on average, and that mobile morgues are being set up in Texas. Currently the State of Texas alone has more cases of Covid-19 than the entire country of Italy.

It's not even noon, and already we've passed 110,000 new cases for today. They are predicting 200,000 new cases per day as early as next week.

So much for "flattening the curve." It looks like Americans got tired of Covid-19 so we just decided it was over. Or we decided it was all a political stunt, or that it was all a hoax or "liberal conspiracy," as if a friggin' virus was a stranger on the Internet that they could argue with. I mean, hundreds of thousands of people have died but whatever, nothing anybody can do about that, these things happen, anyway did you hear about Trump's latest lawsuit?

It's frustrating to live in a country where people are so enamored with "free speech" that they think their opinions are equally valid as science, that they stop listening as soon as they hear something they don't like. People (and elected officials) in America treat facts and safety guidelines like a pick-and-choose salad bar, to the ruin of all.

Damn it.

 

[Thomas Shey]

The line I always heard was "You have a right to your own opinion, but not a right to your own facts." But because of events in the last few years people are prone to not accepting facts that don't fit with the narrative they've developed, and once that happens (and people decide they're fit to judge what's true and false more than professionals in the field), chaos has really won far more than any civil unrest can do.

 

[Umbran]

And we like to think humans are "intelligent". Sure. sigh

 

[Janx]

It's an example where free speech hurts us. One could easily argue that restricting speech is bad, but the reality is, having it wide open has been weaponized and allowed the stupid and the evil to win. Youtube can make someone a flat-earther in 3 weeks due to how it leads a viewer to more extreme content. Blocking all forms of false content and content producers would nip that in the bud. If anybody spreading falsehoods about Covid got shutdown, we'd have more compliance with guidelines.

Would that be a terrible world? Turns out the one where everybody is allowed to say anything isn't working out because Somebody is actively using that against us. Might be time to settle for "Kind of Free" speech.

 

[Zardnaar]

Maybe not, overnight testing shows it might be linked to a known cluster. Guess I'll find out today what's happening.

1pm briefing season 3. NZs favorite show.

How about South Island becomes independent? We'll take Jacinda, you can have Judith? Deal? We have cookies (Cookie time factory).

 

[Zardnaar]

News outlets here are reporting that 1600 people are being hospitalized per day on average, and that mobile morgues are being set up in Texas. Currently the State of Texas alone has more cases of Covid-19 than the entire country of Italy.

It's not even noon, and already we've passed 110,000 new cases for today. They are predicting 200,000 new cases per day as early as next week.

So much for "flattening the curve." It looks like Americans got tired of Covid-19 so we just decided it was over. Or we decided it was all a political stunt, or that it was all a hoax or "liberal conspiracy," as if a friggin' virus was a stranger on the Internet that they could argue with. I mean, hundreds of thousands of people have died but whatever, nothing anybody can do about that, these things happen, anyway did you hear about Trump's latest lawsuit?

It's frustrating to live in a country where people are so enamored with "free speech" that they think their opinions are equally valid as science, that they stop listening as soon as they hear something they don't like. People (and elected officials) in America treat facts and safety guidelines like a pick-and-choose salad bar, to the ruin of all.

Damn it.

Europe's not doing any better. Different reasons perhaps.

Complacency might get us. The old "she'll be right".

 

[billd91]

Would that be a terrible world? Turns out the one where everybody is allowed to say anything isn't working out because Somebody is actively using that against us. Might be time to settle for "Kind of Free" speech.

It's not like disinformation hasn't been a problem since long before free speech was a concept - history's full of atrocities committed because people got a bad notion in their heads. It's just that modern society and tools make it really easy to spread.

The US has a bigger problem than unregulated speech on social media - or at least we have it worse than a lot of other places. We've got this attitude that a person really is some kind of island and they can ignore any public restriction whether well-intentioned, well-reasoned, or well-constructed just because they feel like it. And it's killing us in so many ways.

 

[cbwjm]

1pm briefing season 3. NZs favorite show.

How about South Island becomes independent? We'll take Jacinda, you can have Judith? Deal? We have cookies (Cookie time factory).

On behalf of the North Island, I'm going to have to decline taking Judith. Maybe we can ship her off to Stuart Island.

I know we have the Chelsea sugar factory, could be the basis for trade between the north and south islands. Cookie time needs to get sugar from somewhere.

 

[Umbran]

Would that be a terrible world? Turns out the one where everybody is allowed to say anything isn't working out because Somebody is actively using that against us. Might be time to settle for "Kind of Free" speech.

Or, actually put an effort into teaching people some critical thinking skills.

The US has a bigger problem than unregulated speech on social media - or at least we have it worse than a lot of other places. We've got this attitude that a person really is some kind of island and they can ignore any public restriction whether well-intentioned, well-reasoned, or well-constructed just because they feel like it. And it's killing us in so many ways.

Make that critical thinking, and a hefty dose of civics courses.