My favorite reply to them is that it’s America and I can do whatever I want, I’ll call them snowflakes too whenever appropriate. They get pissed when you insinuate they’re anti American lul.

Someone once told me that the box in which masks came in says “doesn’t protect from viruses”, as if it was hidden-in-plain-sight proof that masks don’t work.

Yeah, they don’t protect the user from viruses, they protect other people. The box is technically correct, Patricia, there is no conspiracy here.

I think they actually do understand but don’t have enough empathy with other people to see it as their responsibility to protect other people from their viruses.

Not that someone as perfect as them would ever sick enough to potentially infect others…

Claims are not evaluated, in the loyalist worldview. They’re not arguments. They’re slogans. You shuffle your cards and say whatever might justify the ingroup being fundamentally superior to the outgroup. Because of course, it is impossible for someone to simply be wrong. That would require evaluating claims. No: truth is dictated by people above you. They must be right and smart and handsome, or they wouldn’t be above you. Any challenge, any criticism, any disagreement, is a personal attack. You are calling someone lesser.

And I say “you” because these people think this is all we’re doing. They think that’s all there is. It’s reality as a team sport.

Or, more likely, they’re selfish jerks who don’t care about anyone else. “The greater good? What’s that?”

Their actual position is that they don’t give a fuck about anyone other than themself. Everything they claim to believe is just a rationalization they think will sound good to someone else. All they care about is what they can convince others.

Why did she have a problem with you not wearing a jacket? What am I missing here?

You are truly evil… and this story was glorious, thanks for sharing it!:-P

Many of them are religious and believe plenty of things they didn’t directly observe. It’s more that they have been trained through religious thinking that if someone confidently claims something it must be more true than someone who honestly admits that “it is the best we can know right now and we will update our understanding as we obtain more evidence.” These people need the answer now and that answer can’t change because changing your opinion based on new evidence is seen as weakness and opinions should be handed down from on high and never change.

Not a solution but it is fun to put a flat-earther with a hollow-earther and say Earth is a ball. Then you grab some popcorn.

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But I took a course in college Called political Science. So what about that mister science man?

Not really.

The NASA budget has been slashed for decades on a row and is currently a tiny amount compared to what it was before. That they still manage to do what they do is half a miracle in on itself.

It’s so bad that a 3 percent of the military budget given to NASA would double it’s budget instantly.

With that in mind, I would put this on the military industrial complex

Except that it is a proven fact that public health care costs less per capita than private, so actually it sounds less expensive. The people lobbying to keep it private are the only ones who stand to lose and their brainwashed army of sycophants can’t understand anything beyond the points they’ve been trained to parrot.

I blame the obesity epidemic on the weak ass FDA and nutrition labeling. A ‘serving’ is whatever the hell they feel like making it - I’ve seen 1/3 of a cookie, a single tick tack (rounded down to 0g sugar), and every other arbitrary amount so actually comparing products takes so much time that most dont bother. Combine this with the fact that 90% of restaurants dont even bother giving you any information at all so you have to cook or go to specific big chains to actually track calories. Also it’s a safe assumption that everything at a restaurant is packed full of carbs, cheese, and oils for max calorie density.

Smokers?! Have you ever been to France? It’s like a trip back in time to 80s America, with a smoker on every street corner and an ash tray on every cafe patio table.

Also, are we not going to discuss the conspiracy theory that many of the people espousing this ideology were mysteriously killed!? And their families too! In fact, anyone even so much as near them had a chance to be affected, possibly some still here but with permanent brain damage!

Sounds pretty sus if you ask me…

Well, I was going to argue against that, but then I remembered that he is rich - which I guess is the same thing as smart? - so… okay! :-P

I tried explaining universal precautions to a pastor of a church I was attending, and pointed out that there is a Christian commandment to love one’s neighbor that overrides one’s personal desires. He could not dispute my points, but he also didn’t do anything to implement safety procedures.

Guess who left the church after the unsurprising COVID outbreak?

I realize a lot of people here aren’t believers, but my point is that even within the context of religion or common wisdom, masks make sense.

There’s been a lot of talk lately about how decades of lead in gasoline, pipes, and in other places likely damaged generations of people’s ability to reason. I’m sincerely beginning to think this is a bigger problem than we’ll ever truly know.

Or lick their hands when handling money

You learn that most people are disgusting the first time you use a crowded public bathroom.

Mars is obviously a star, since it is in the sky and glows.

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Some of those dumb fucks think that it’s just Earth that’s flat, but other planets are round – probably because it’s so bleeding obvious they are when you look at them through a telescope. Somehow that logic doesn’t apply to the Earth though

That sounds like some pure uncut Dunning-Kruger there!

The Saturn V moon rocket first flew in 1967, first carried a crew in 1968 and flew the first moon landing in 1969.

Bernard Sadow patented the first suitcase with wheels in 1972.

I think you are right. I believe it is somehow related their obsessive belief in their religion.

I am not saying that all religious people are bad. But, somehow, these people excuse their bad behaviour by quoting scriptures. There has to a correlation too.

Too bad they can’t make tulpas with that power

I think the much deeper reason is, that stupid people can’t fathom that knowledge can change. They can’t understand that scientists legitimately didn’t know better, despite their best efforts. They can’t accept, that scientists come to other conclusions based on new data, instead they assume some ulterior motive.

Yes, but the point is, a government official GASLIT THE PUBLIC, which gave a HUGE validation boost to the conspiracy nuts.

He directly aided morons in spreading their moronery, which is the exact opposite purpose of his entire fucking job. IMO he was criminally neglegent.

It’s such a bad idea to prioritize medical personnel having masks. There’s no way they would become high-risk vectors with the multitude of sick people they handle daily. /s

We should have the attitude that protecting others is good.

This flies in the face of North American “exceptional/radical individualism”.

Asian societies are largely collective. You do what you can to serve others, putting the needs of the community ahead of your own, and this leads to tighter-knit, stronger, and more resilient communities.

North American society is based on “muh rights” individualism, where the person is most important, and society needs to serve their needs, and not the other way around. This leads to weak, ephemeral, almost non-existent communities that are there only in name, or by a fluke of geography that makes completely random people cluster together without ever making serious or deep social connections.

Of the two, the former might end up being stifling to creatives and neuroatypicals, but the latter cannot survive any significant challenge without a significantly negative impact on the “community”.

They still do reduce transmission to yourself but yeah, the big win is in not spreading it yourself.

I don’t know about other countries, but the on and off lockdowns in some countries proved to be ineffective. Many experts said it’s better to do lockdown in one go than it being staggered and having different levels of restrictions. But on the one hand, the totalitarian zero-COVID restriction like had happened in China is just as ineffictive.

that initial “don’t use surgical masks” statement was because hospitals were already facing shortages, and a rush on the supply would have caused massive widespread longstanding shortages. Basically, the hospitals needed disposable masks, so the CDC told people not to use disposable masks.

That makes it worse that they said/implied masks won’t protect you, not better. If CDC public health statements are driven by an intention to manipulate public behavior rather than disseminating the best available info about what is true, that means that those statements are unreliable and can’t be trusted, regardless of the good they are hoping to do by trading their long term credibility for temporarily adjusting purchasing habits.

Just because there was an explanation doesn’t magically make it acceptable to lie out your ass and give a HUGE boost to conspiracy nuts while one fucking helms the white house…

The problem with messages 1 and 2 is that too many people will not give a shit about other people, and will also assume they can put a mask on correctly. If your goal is to prevent panic buying and hoarding long enough to build an adequate stockpile for medical workers, you probably want to avoid anything that makes those supplies sound superior and valuable.

If I were crafting such a message, I’d say something like this:

"At this time we aren’t recommending the use of disposable masks by the general public. For now, those who will be wearing a mask should wear one that’s made of tight knit, layered cloth, with a fit that fully encloses the nose and mouth. Cloth masks can be cleaned and reused, and will be easier for most people to wear properly, especially when worn for extended periods of time.

These guidelines reflect our current understanding and will be updated as we learn more."