Very cool that this is happening in big cities, too. Remember to for the Democrats to keep the fascist Republicans out of office! Pay no attention to the fascism already happening under the Democrats!

Also, I’m sure the recent overturning of the Chevron deference couldn’t possibly stifle efforts to fight any potential pandemics (say, H5N1) even further. :yea:

Jeez, that’s grotesque. Seems like the decision to hold an event extremely repugnant like that at a synagogue was also deliberate so then the Zionists could cry antisemitism at the inevitable protests, too.

Even though Ashish Jha doesn’t officially work for Biden anymore, you can tell his morally bankrupt ass is still angling for a position in a future admin cuz he’s still trying to be the admin’s mouthpiece for COVID minimization. Fucking hate that piece of shit and wish for horrible things to happen to him.

Please, just give me this one laugh.

On social media, I cannot believe the number of times I’ve seen self-proclaimed leftists bully/pathologize disabled people who are still taking caution and still talking about the harm of letting it rip. Like they think that disability is something that only happens to other people and chronic illness is made up. And they genuinely cannot understand why trying to make spaces safer for immunocompromised/disabled people makes it safer for all of us.

Real “fuck around and find out” hours.

If you check out the linktree for this Twitter account, they have a Google doc which contains various sites and groups for people who are still COVID-cautious and are a nice respite from all the ableist/COVID-minimizing bullshit.

https://twitter.com/covidisntover

I started being active in some of those communities at the end of last year and have made several online friends and now also know some people in my area.

I find it hard to believe that they couldn’t be aware at this point. It’s not like they need to be convinced that COVID is bad and that will get them to reverse course. They don’t care, they will always protect their own ass and don’t give a shit if poor people become disabled or die. They have access to all the testing, vaccines, upgraded ventilation, and therapeutics, while many working class people do not. There are a lot of examples scattered out there of people in the ruling class still taking precautions while having the nerve to tell us that COVID is over.

Yeah, I agree. I’m glad I made this thread because I feel like I have these many different/conflicting feelings on a regular basis, i.e. thinking the problem is primarily systemic while also often getting upset at seeing individuals not masking. So it’s nice to talk to others about it and to try to make sense of all these different feelings.

I suppose that COVID activism doesn’t even necessarily need to focus on getting individual people to change. Like it could be trying to pressure medical facilities to bring back mask mandates and keep them permanently and being successful with that effort, for example. Because masking is literally the most obvious thing to do if you are trying to do infection control, and doctors/nurses and patients alike suffer if people in medical facilities are just getting infected repeatedly. So targeting things like that, like incremental things which, in and of themselves, won’t exactly stop COVID transmission entirely, but will prevent some chains of transmission, and every chain of transmission prevented is valuable, and we shouldn’t lose sight of that. And if we keep getting these incremental victories, all those victories collectively could make a big difference. And, in this example, if we normalized mask-wearing and mandates in medical facilities, maybe it could have a cultural effect too, in which it could make more people see the utility and virtuousness of masking in medical facilities and potentially make them amenable to masking in other contexts. And then we just keep going from there. Like I suppose some people are trying to already do that with the whole “Keep Masks in Healthcare” thing. And obviously that is just one in many potential examples in which activism could take shape.

Honestly, this resonated with me a lot (and several other comments in this thread), thank you so much.

I’ve been very depressed the last two years (I’m depressed for other reasons and trying to get help for that, but COVID stuff is a big part of the depression, but I digress), as I’ve watched all the communal protections get hollowed out over time, and simultaneously, many people around me went back to normal, including friends and family. It is very disappointing and also very atomizing, but sometimes it’s also not hard to feel like it’s a betrayal. And maybe framing it as a betrayal is wrong to begin with, because I think I’m giving credence to this notion I so often see in COVID-cautious communities that every single person who is not masking or decides to drop masking is a huge piece of shit who is completely irredeemable and who will not, under any circumstance, ever change their behavior for the better. And I don’t know, accepting that framing, i.e. people can’t change and that our family and friends are deliberately trying to hurt us by no longer masking, is very depressing to me. Because if that is some incontrovertible fact with all things in the world, then what the fuck is the point of advocating for anything?

But the truth is, we live in a world–and not just my own country

Edit: I believe you’re also right about reasons for not masking can be very complex and vary person to person. Some people might be shitheads and nothing will convince them ever, fuck those people, they don’t matter. But I think many people don’t know any better, or they trust our institutions that tell them that COVID is over and no big deal (propaganda works and anyone can be susceptible to it, even us). Or they’re coerced at work by their shithead bosses to not mask. Or they don’t want to mask because no one else is around them and they’re worried about drawing attention to themselves, maybe worried about getting harassed or assaulted by ardent anti-maskers. Like I think we’d be remiss to deny that there is a social/psychological element in all of this, too. I personally still feel weird sometimes being the only one in a setting who is masking, even though I know I’m in the right.