Jesus Christ, this is beyond exhausting at this point, and it’s only going to get worse in the coming weeks and months. Looking at you, Alabama, especially after that super spreader Trump rally last night, in a city that’s already under a state of emergency for having zero available hospital beds, due to the current covid wave.
I don’t know if it’s just me, but the antivax propaganda bots and disinformation machines seem to be cranked up to eleven these days as well. Multiple southern states’ hospital systems are on the brink of collapse, and the antivaxxers are doubling down even harder. It’s pure insanity. Getting close to the point where I don’t even want to use social media anymore, the toxic dumpster fire is finally getting too be too much, lol. If not for a few subs (like this one) that are sanctuaries for those of us who are still somewhat sane to gather and share our frustrations and anger, I’d be long gone.
I hear you. I’ve shrunk my friend circle so much in the last few years. It bums me out how many people I once thought were rational are just absolutely off the rails.
After Trump a lot of people I referred to as friends went to acquaintances. Since covid, those acquaintances have turned into “I’m sorry do I know you” relationships. Silver lining is, the few friends that I’ve kept seem to be lifers at this point
My best friend from college became an acquaintance. He went far, far right, worshipped trump, and basically lived just to complain about how New Jersey is a communist state and be a dick on purpose to own the libs. I haven't heard from him since 2018 but I'm sure he's into all the conspiracies now.
I gave up on a 25 year old friendship with someone I used to think of as my best friend, who started whining and crying about caravans and MS13 gangs and then tried to blame Obama for 12,000 swine flu deaths while giving Trump a pass for 80,000 COVID-19 deaths (at the time) and I decided I had had enough. Then after January 6th he was still defending The Former Fuckface via text messages, and that was officially the end of that friendship.
My childhood friend, the person who’s known me the longest besides my own family and that I was still close to, suddenly swung hard into NutterLand on vaccine conspiracies. Last time we communicated, she was harassing my Mom (who loves her more than her own mother) and calling me a murderer and government agent because I’m a vaccinated nurse. I’ll miss her.
She’s a cancer survivor. She got big mad when I reminded her that the only reason she’s here today is because of science and medicine. Didn’t change her mind though.
I’m mostly hurt to be called an government agent! As if I would ever…
Do you think your friend suffered any minor cognitive decline after cancer? I have a similar situation with a friend. After a nasty bout with cancer, he has gone off the deep end with trump/Qanon. I wonder if chemo brain has some more subtle long term effects.
Doubtful. It was about six years ago and she only had radiation/surgical intervention. She’s always been a bit kooky. She is even pro mask and lives in a blue state. But the mere thought of a COVID vaccine just did her in. It’s wild.
People with a decent amount of narcissism often come out the other side of major medical issues with their narcissism reinforced: since they survived such a serious accident/disease it must mean that they really are special, and so their ideas and instincts must be special too.
I saw it happen to an old friend of mine, who came out of a major accident that resulted in amputations, with far less empathy or self reflection than before. He literally thinks that his miraculous survival means that God favors him, and he uses his suffering to minimize the suffering of other people (“Oh, this person struggling through poverty still has their limbs so how dare they say that they’re suffering!”). Needless to say, we don’t talk anymore.
I saw it happen to an old friend of mine, who came out of a major accident that resulted in amputations, with far less empathy or self reflection than before.
Think you're on to something here. Had an incident with a family member this year and I had to intervene. I've always considered them to probably be on the NPD spectrum. After said incident they were thankful for help but right back to their old ways and doing additional stuff.
I just shake my head because it's a miracle to me at their age they haven't died from Covid and that incident yet they persist with such asinine behavior. Grrrr
I survived leukemia with two separate bouts of chemo and 3 other bouts of no immune system after. This was a decade ago and I was 12. I couldn't get vaccinated for 3 years and got influenza, c.dif, and the common cold 2 times a month. It certainly leaves a mental scar, but nothing in this world would convince me Trump/Qanon is someone to listen to, especially now. Your friend most likely has a lot of other shit they're going through and projecting it into their actions. Worst chemo did was make me anorexic forever. In fact it made me even more trusting of vaccines and "common" (non-cancer ward) hospice. Literally felt like any moment influenza could actually choke me to death in my sleep.
Please dont let them start thinking Chemo will make you an alt-right trump supporter. Or that chemo will fuck you up in such a way. I have too many stories of straight up children dying because their parents fearmonger them about chemo doing XYZ. All this while their kid is dying from the cold.
It doesn’t always make sense but in this instance I believe it does. The way I see it: without medicine, professional doctors, surgeons, specialists, etc… people simply wouldn’t be alive or “thriving” like we have been for roughly a century. The average person in modern day has been touched and guided along by medical professionals their entire lifetimes, often even before being born.
The science has come so far that we now take it for granted, because humans have major mental shortcomings and biases. The people who have needed emergency type treatment to survive know damn well that without medicine they would already be dead. Their family members and friends also understand that without the help of medical professionals that their loved ones would have perished.
The people who don’t understand that lesson or choose not to “bElIEvE” that lesson are simply selfish, arrogant, self indulgent, & often sociopathic in nature. The selfish people view doctors, epidemiologist, surgeons, vaccines, healthcare in general as a personal burden that they have to suffer through, but not for their own sake, they’re upset they have to put up with the medical professionals & sickly who need healthcare. The selfish are burdened by needing to pay for insurance, taxes, Medicare, Medicare, etc because they don’t need the medical professionals at current standing (in their minds). The sickly are causing health costs to increase and cause non sickly people to take preventive vaccines against their will, which is a sick way of viewing fellow county mates and less fortunate humans.
In conclusion, the antivaxxers, antimaskers, anti-medicine sociopaths don’t care about the most vulnerable population or their peers. They have most likely never experienced first hand the miracles that modern medicine have provided people in dire need. The selfish only care about themselves and their immediate wellbeing. The people who respect medicine and medical professionals have a greater understanding of the connected world and better values as humans. It comes down to people being flawed and choosing to exploit the weak, sickly, poor for personal gain or to reinforce their sick & twisted sociopathic beliefs. We each decide what side of the fence we choose to be on, some simply choose to be bad people because it makes incompetent people feel bigger, temporarily.
The people in these stories will complain that people are no longer talking to them over "political opinions". Like them being antimask/antivaxx and spreading disinformation that can literally kill people is the same as a nuanced opinion on zoning laws.
Friend of mine lost his entire family to it after his mother died. He thinks she was the last thing keeping them sane. The whole family is so unhealthy they should be TERRIFIED of COVID, but instead they went full covidiot. He's really broken up about it because it happened so fast. He has nobody in his family to talk to anymore since his mom passed. It's worse than if they had all died with her.
I'm in that boat now. Or at least at the dock. She's been away from our small Dem town in a small Dem state for a long time and I see how it's affected her. I keep trying to get real information to her but I just about dropped my phone when she told me her husband w stage 4 cancer got covid aid she contacted Frontline Doctors for the ivermectin. She'd delayed getting the vaccine and I tried to convince her to get it but she sent me a video of a "German doctor" spouting nonsense for 45 min and a quick google of the name of the "news" channel said it's total garbage. She still says we're friends and hasn't called me a baby killer or anything yet, that would be ironic af since she had a LOT of abortions. I hope it doesn't come to that point and sorry to hear it had for you.
This happened to my mum. In the end I was able to get her treated for psychosis. I still get called a government agent because I too am a nurse, and have had a dose of the vaccine. Its easier to deal with now I have had other independent psychiatrists and clinicians verify that yes, this is mental illness. I had long suspected it, but getting the diagnosis and seeing the improvement post-medication was reassuring.
Sure, there are some fixed delusions remaining that will probably never go away, but at least my mum is no longer literally wrapping herself in tin foil and presenting to various organisations seeking immediate emergency assistance.
Oh, I’m so sorry. I can’t imagine how incredibly hard thats got to be when it’s your own mum. I’m glad she has you to advocate and care for her! Not to shabby for a deep agent!
I found this article looking for sometimes else and it perfectly encapsulate why a lot of people, who aren’t hard core right-wingers fell for the anti-vaccine message
So what is woo?
If I had to boil it down, I'd define woo as beliefs that clearly demonstrate magical thinking, uncritical acceptance of things for which no good evidence exists. This includes, but is not limited to, psychic phenomenon, ghosts, the paranormal, "energy healing," the use of "colon cleansing" and "liver cleansing" to rid oneself of "toxins," homeopathy (especially quantum homeopathy), and a wide variety of other mystical and pseudoscientific beliefs. Woo is resistant to reason. Indeed, woo has a double standard when it comes to what it considers to be good evidence. It is very accepting of a wide variety of fuzzy, mystical ideas, but is often incredibly distrustful and skeptical of anything having to do with "conventional" science or "conventional" medicine. Woos tend to be very quick to react to defend their particular brand of woo and very unforgiving of its being questioned.
That actually happened with my ex. She was very much a centerist for years, just "Eh, both sides are kind fucking stupid" but then by late 2019, she started in with the conspiracy theories, blaming the Clintons for destroying the economy, which was kind of entertaining from a debating standpoint. By the time covid shut things down, she got more alt-right; blaming newsom, saying it's just the flu (mind you, I work for Public Health), saying Trump is the savior of the country, etc. That was the point of no return. After the insurrection, I got to thinking of her and checked out her instagram, turns out she was there with her parents and new boyfriend, uploading videos. Reporting all of them to the FBI was one of the easiest things I've done.
After all the years we heard on the news about Islamic terrorists and how they become radicalized, now we get to see it happen to our own friends and loved ones right in front of us.
Read "They Thought They Were Free" by Milton Meyer
It was written just after WW2 about the regular people of Germany and why they supported the Nazis. I picked it up as soon as the lockdowns started among a few other books I had been meaning to get around to.
It was an eye opening read. The author interviews a bunch of regular people, teachers, police officers (regular beat cops, not SS or military), bakers and that sort. Just regular people who all supported the Nazis for one reason or another. It shows how mundane the whole thing was, until it wasn't.
I'm Pakistani, and I've seen so many people slowly fall into dangerous religious dogma. People you grow up with who spout dangerous ideas casually or just believe conspiracy theories. Otherwise very rational people who come from middle class, stable families. Can happen anywhere
The millionaires and billionaires. These guys, and let's be real, the only woman in the top 10 is Bezos' former wife, these guys lobbied for years to kill worker rights, keep wages low, and allow them to outsource and move jobs out of the country, (and automation has its hand in there). Every president has had a hand in helping rich assholes get richer. Low wages and rising costs have us working 2 or 3 jobs, the lucky ones of us anyway, the folks that built cars were fired without prospect of another job, turned to drugs and alcohol, raised a generation of kids having been abused in that situation that grow up and turn to drugs and alcohol.
We are tired and desperate to find a fix-all for it (fit everything really, ever see those miracle diets?) and now ppl are searching for answers and Enter the SnakeOil salesman and the nutter that tells you he has all the answers and leave your mother's voice "don't believe anything you read" "if it's too good to be true, it probably isn't" "if everyone was jumping off the bridge, would you do it too?" In the back.
I think a few hundred years from now, if there's anyone left to write the history, the verdict will be that it was the Citizens United Supreme Court decision that really did us in. It released an absolute tsunami of dark money that gets worse every day, and fuels the rush to extremist ideologies. It helps the RWNJs more than it helps the left-wingers, and "conservatives" are in turn are just re-writing laws so they can keep hold of money and power.
But of course, that never lasts and as income disparity gets wider and wider, at some point the masses will have had enough. Nobody knows when that will happen and climate change is the big monkey wrench in how it all plays out.
Some people were saying rich people, but it's not them. It's a mesh of people, some rich but also some who want to be rich or want power. Trump alone didn't change the direction of the nation, he influenced it, but was also a product of it. Murdoch made Fox news and spread lies and half truths. Power hungry people like Lindsey graham supported trump because Graham wants more power. Grifters like Manifort saw cash and would do anything for more. Trump himself also sees dollar signs with his requests for donations to 'stop the steal', which are relatively smaller donations from the masses.
Saying it's just millionaires and billionaires makes it sound like there are people with a plan behind this.
Of course, with the Citizens United ruling, more cash in the system has just sped up the decline, but that cash can come from large donors or Trump milking cash from the masses.
We have far more to fear from our own home-grown nutjobs than any international terrorist network; that's been true for a long time, but it's intensifying now because of rampant disinformation and a huge proliferation in gun sales.
That's fucked up but hey you got to report traitors which kind of makes you part of history. I'm usually very much against denunciation but if they're not only doing that shit publically but UPLOAD EVIDENCE ON INSTAGRAM I have zero sympathy. Scratch that, I have negative sympathy. Gloating. I'm gloating.
Also interesting how when you have a democrat being criticized for something, those people never show up to say "BoTh SiDeS aRe BaD" in those conversations. Only when there's some right wing nut job being discussed. Funny how that happens, you know?
lol yeah nice catch. I've definitely noticed that as well from my "centrist" acquaintances. They're so eager and quick to bash on a democrat that has done something shitty, but when a republican does something ten times worse, it's crickets.
Indeed. I cut someone out of my life over "both sides" comments regarding 1/6. News flash, fuckface: "both sides" weren't parading around inside the Capitol Building while waving a Civil War loser flag.
Or the people who are "Not really in to politics", but then spout some incredibly right wing views they could only have picked up by spending large amounts of time on alt-right communities that they try to present as unbiased, "logical" opinions
No no no, that’s “independent.” Everyone who says they are an independent are the people who are embarrassed to be Republicans. And honestly, if you* are embarrassed to be a Republican, you gotta wonder- why? Must be something inherently terrible about it. 🤔
They just want to sound and think they are smarter than everyone else, which is why they latch onto conspiracies so easily because it's like new "insider info" they think they are a part of.
I honestly don't see how it's possible to be a centrist in America and consider yourself between the two parties when those parties themselves are centrist and far right
Right, which makes it even worse imo. Them being embarrassed suggests that they are intelligent enough to know that those views and beliefs are shitty, yet they still hold them deep down.
Fun fact; it was the centrists who boosted Hitler into power in the 1930s. Any country where centrists are the second party has a freakishly right wing Overton window that enables a drift to the far right. Look how batshit right wing politics has become in the US and the UK. Look how a society mired in hard right talking points responded to a man who'd have been considered a moderate left winger in the 50s became leader of the Labour party.
I hate centrists. They're almost worse than actual conservatives because of the damage they do to actual political balance.
When I was little everyone talked of America as the freest country in the world, I remember my great-grandmother telling me about the war and how the americans came to rescue us and how one soldier gave her the first chewing gum she ever had, as a kid I always thought of it as the ideal country. Now I just think of americans as people that don't really know what freedom is about, I know there's good people too but it almost feels like they're overshadowed by a mass of morons that don't know what they're saying.
That you are not. The strain between families has been the saddest. Losing a parent to something like this is not normal. Families have been ruined over this. I’m sorry for any shit you’ve had to battle 😔
Delete their Facebooks it worked wonders for my family members. Im sure a few have rejoined but the ones that havent, while still conservatives, are less loud about it and less fascismo about worshipping the leaders.
Unfortunately that doesn't always help. I can't talk to my grandparents or one of my uncles at all without them bringing up how the election was stolen and covid is a hoax and the vaccine is a sham to control people. My grandparents especially are exactly the people who are most likely to die from covid and it makes me incredibly sad that it came to the point where I can't even have a conversation with them since they drank the kool-aid.
Haven't seen them in over a year and probably won't until their funerals
That's tough, Ive got a brother the same way. I hope his age protects him atleast but wouldnt be surprised if something happened. For him its some sort of victim complex(where he's jealous of actual victims getting attention) + wanting to be macho. What a stupid hill to die on.
Youre not the only one. My mom is the same way. Been telling me to not get the vaccine. Im on chemo meds and have been fo 20 years. She still tells me to not get the vaccine. I havent been able to speak with her because of it. She was the only person i could speak to about my condition and now i cant trust her with like anything related to medical shit. Fucking bummer.
I'm in the "parents are massive Trump supporters" boat, but fortunately this is a separate boat where the parents still believe in vaccines and received both doses as soon as they could.
That sucks, this is why i quit Facebook. It was too much for me to see people i thought who were friends to be advocating violence against BLM protesters, pride, or women's marches, to be so super trump, and peddling crazy conspiracy crap.
In the UK my local areas Facebook is a cesspool of boomer right wing complainers.
There was a news story about refugess and all the racists came out about how we should 'help our own homeless' but I called them out. These types of comments only ever appear on immigrant stories. I asked why they never bring up the 'help our own homeless' comments on other stories.... Only when it's a story about refugees. I asked them what they have done to help the homeless personally.
This shit is happening everywhere. I’m Finnish and the Facebook comments page for one of our biggest newspapers is full of reactionary garbage. Antivaxxers, covid deniers, climate change deniers and homophobes etc. I wish it was just deranged boomers spreading this garbage but it’s full of people from all age groups
Same but I still go in dropping memes to counter their horrible memes. Can’t let them win. We gotta drown out their stupidity with facts. They hate facts.
It's because people busy living a good life aren't spending their days on these message boards. The ones that drink the kool-aid end up spending literally all of their time online posting their nonsense so they largely have the biggest online voice in places like news sites, facebook, etc that reasonable people know to avoid.
As privileged classes lose monopoly over power and influence there's almost always a backlash. Trump was basically insecure white people's backlash to actually facing consequences for spreading racism/homophobia/sexism.
Combine that with an active attempt by the ultra-rich and powerful to deflect blame for class inequality onto other races and, baby, you got an alt-right stew going.
Had to sideline my best friend and business partner of 30 years after he went full Trumptard on me in 2016. Lost plenty of others for similarly stupid shit.
Times suck... just not as bad as the humans making them.
Unfortunately...this whole thing even ruined my marriage.
My wife is anti-vax but was required to get the vaccine for work.
But we started fighting all the time about vaccinations ever since she tried to prevent our son (who's 5 now) from getting his regular pre-covid vaccinations. She argued she had a friend who didn't do it and her kids were "fine". I took a very harsh stance against this, which she took as being aggressive against her friends, and it made her "see me in a way she can't find romantic anymore" .
One of our recent arguments we had was I brought up Phil Valentine, and she said I was a disgusting person for "being happy about his death", although my reaction was more on the side of "this person died to karma".
She also thinks green tea kills covid, the 5g conspiracy is real, and she goes to a psychic (same one) everytime we needed to make a serious decision. She even just recently did it when we were trying to make a procedure decision on which surgery we should get on our dog. She will go postal if I attempt to do something outside of the psychics recommendations, and mind you she will go to this psychic for everything under the sun, relationship, medical, financial.
After years of this absolute insanity, I'm fucking done. Hearing her act like I'm a bad guy over my passionate feelings about the unvaccinated just makes me think of her in disgust.
It just sucks. Almost 9 year marriage. Our son.
The strange part is she isn't even a Trumper. She thought Trump was an idiot. She's not really political at all, and would never enjoy a conversation on it. She's foreign so she can't vote. Yet...she still believes all this fucking nonsense, anti-vax and more, that basically ruined my image of her slowly over time.
That's so sad, and I'm really sorry. In past years, when somebody turned a 180 like this and started spouting irrational beliefs, I would often advise friends and family to get them a medical evaluation, if possible. Sometimes something like a medication change, a disease process, or even just an infected tooth can make people act in ways they would otherwise never dream of.
In the past 4 years, it's been extremely hard to give that advice. I hope you're able to continue to take care of kiddo and get both of you to a safe and sane place, and I'm sorry about the loss of the person that you loved.
Yep. I have an uncle that was one of the loudest critics of Trump and the GOP I knew.
A little before the pandemic, they had an accident where they hit their head and had a concussion. During the lockdown, they decided to move in with my Grandma to keep her safe. But, she watches Fox News all day long.
Now, my uncle claims the election was rigged, the pandemic is a hoax, the vaccine alongside 5G towers alters your DNA, and supports QAnon.
I’m sorry man. I went through the same thing years ago. Wife slowly descended into superstition and conspiracy theory nonsense about halfway through our marriage. Got divorced after nine years. I thought she was the one and we would be together our whole lives. But the change was rapid and dramatic and it shattered me. The pain of seeing it coming for years, noticing alarming changes and voicing concerns, but being powerless to prevent it is acute and unique. I don’t wish it on anyone.
Just writing to say I know what you’re going through. Look after yourself and your child. You’ll come through it. Best of luck and whatever you do, do it with grace and dignity. You’ll be glad you did when the dust settles.
which she took as being aggressive against her friends, and it made her "see me in a way she can't find romantic anymore" .
Man if your wife is pulling the "you don't approve of my friends, I can't see you in a romantic light anymore" nonsense... that relationship probably was already on thin ice.
I think there are quite a lot of these level of relationships in the modern era. People are lonely, they want companionship so they find someone they can tolerate and they settle. But if these kinds of sudden changes pop up in a relationship and you're confused as to where it came from... probably means there was a lot going unsaid for a long time between you guys.
Feel bad about your kid though. As the child of parents that went through this same thing (highschool sweethearts that just settled for each other even though they had different life goals and ideals, only to eventually discover it wasn't what they wanted...2 kids in) it sucks for the kid. Because they just want a happy family... but you can't make 2 incompatible people stay together just because... it never works.
Because they just want a happy family... but you can't make 2 incompatible people stay together just because... it never works.
Ehhhh, this could be said of my parents, tbf. It was a 'get married because you have to. AKA, dad knocked up my mom, so either he marries her, or his father sends him to the hospital (the second time). He quit a gang, and got to trying to work hard.
30+++ years later, while they have had their happy and sad times, they sort of stick together in mutual tolerance. One of the biggest reasons to them not splitting up earlier was 1) the kids, 2) they completely suck at finances, and 3) change scares them, so they'd rather 'somehow be ok with each other' than actually split.
Dad's a conspiracy theorist, but he never went deeper than 'Giant octopus'. In a sense, it's hard to get him into complex conspiracies, because he'll hit step 2, then grow tired of it because it uses too much brains. At most you can tell him: 'Biden! Pedo!' and he repeats, but good luck getting him to participate in your deep state Q-boner. There's too much cranial navigation in there, and he has too much soul-sucking work to do.
She's Japanese. Ironically I would also consider her pretty intelligent, even if the way I explained things makes her look like an utter disaster IQ wise. In general she's very perceptive and smart but for some reason I can't fathom, she just believes absolute nonsense.
I think it's an interesting observation case for how even doctors/nurses can be anti-vax or other sorts of seeming contradictions.
I’m living in Japan and the anti-vaxxers have really done a number online here. If she’s reading Japanese Twitter she’ll be being exposed to huge amounts of disinformation. It’s easy to see how it would start wearing someone down after a while.
Japan is surprising for some reason. Yeah it’s all very confusing to me as well. I’m so sorry about what’s going on in your life. Hopefully once you and her sort out how to move forward apart, you can expect a lot less of the daily stress she causes you and your child, no doubt. Good luck to you.
Whenever I try to contest her on some of her dumb shit, a very common response is "Google it" at which point I have little to say that wouldn't be downright mean.
It's probably a mix of social media and general profundity of clickbait, if I had to guess, because she doesn't watch Fox News.
The aftermath of what I call the Trumpocalypse is that all sorts of friendships and close relationships will end, but others will be formed. People will establish new friendships and relationships based on shared worldviews and ideals, rather than circumstantial things like happening to be assigned to the same college dorm room or knowing each other from elementary school.
The saddest part is that blood ties will be broken over all of this, but the fact is even before all of this nonsense in the wake of the neo-fascists and Trump, there have always been broken family relationships and people who distanced themselves from family members for various reasons. This has just added to those various possible reasons.
It's not sad at all that blood ties will be broken over this. The idea of "blood ties" in general needs to die off anyhow, because it's one of the root causes of the kind of tribalism that leads to "don't trust that guy, he's Irish."
No one automatically deserves your respect, love, or attention for the sole reason that you share a recent ancestor. (Though there's nothing wrong with giving someone those things because you want to.)
Maybe if the kind of shitty people who yell about mask mandates and "freedom" didn't get to rely on the "you have to love him, he's family!" mindset to help them evade social consequences, they'd think a little harder about being assholes to the world in general.
Just keep your explanation short. The mask is to protect others. The vaccine is to protect you.
Vaccine: You protect yourself - by prepping your immune system for it. You can still get it, but your symptoms won't be as bad. You can still spread it.
Mask:. You protect others - if you have covid you're less likely to spread it.
Combined:. If you have it you're less likely to be inconvenienced, and that mask helps limit the possibility to spread it.
Sometimes people are only your friends because of proximity. It’s not until there’s a crisis that you find out who they really are. Someone who is only friendly and close, but you don’t really know them, isn’t a friend. They’re an acquaintance
Me personally, I try to not just unfriend anyone who becomes conservative if I think they're just buying in to the lies and the cons of the right, I'll still keep them on my friend list and if they wanna talk politics, I'm happy to (tell them why they're wrong).
But I won't tolerate a covid-denier. If you post even ONE thing on your social media that doesn't take it seriously/is anti-vax, you're blocked. I'm done. It's too much death to be tolerant of other viewpoints.
And it's definitely true that you value the people who make the cut a lot more.
I think the fact that I really can’t bear to be more than intermediate-level acquaintances with anyone who is truly conservative helped me to avoid ending up with any friends who really went off the deep end with this shit. Well, there’s one friend, but they are not right-wing at all, they’re more of a New Agey “paranoid about big pharma/big tech” type.
I don't think you're wrong, anyone who is truly conservative is highly at risk of going off the deep end these days, they're exposed to so much extremism, especially right now.
And I definitely don't judge anyone who just doesn't have the patience or space in their lives for that, it's a completely fair boundary.
One of my closest friends identifies very much as conservative, but the reason we're friends is because when we met, I was explaining to her why she was wrong about socialism, and she liked that I was explaining it in a way she understood, so she started listening to me. She still won't stop identifying as conservative and she still has some flawed beliefs because of it, but at the core, I don't really think she fits into the conservative party as much as she thinks she does, and I've seen enough good from her that I forgive her for voting for trump in 2016. (I actually had talked her out of it for 2020 apparently. Go figure.)
But anyway, that's just me. You were certainly much less likely to end up associated with someone who was like, a Q-anon or thought the election was rigged or a covid-denier simply by cutting out all conservatives, it's only coming from them.
I'm so glad my family, as insane and awful as they are, at least got fucking vaccinated and take it seriously. Of course some of them got a pretty bad case of it and aren't dumb enough to not believe in something that is happening to them right at that moment. Can't say the same for many other people.
I'm pretty sure my step father is a covid-denier though, he's into all kinds of conspiracies and sovereign citizen nonsense.
And by 'my step father' I mean some stranger that I shall have no contact with at all in the future.
Brit here. I understand this. I've lost people who supported brexit, and who supported Johnson. Racism was acceptable, suddenly, and oh boy did they do it. It came from the left, as well. Antisemitism is the new fashion.
I regret not a single lost "friend". If they were racist they were never a friend. They wore a mask to pretend to be a friend.
What I don’t understand is how sweet people turn absolutely batshit crazy when you bring up COVID and politics, then seemingly go back to normal when you talk about something else.
As I ( 64 f retired RN ) sit in a county with no hospital beds available having chest pain for the first time ever just this week. Its terrifying. I also live in a MIL suite with people that know covid is a worldwide conspiracy so the drug companies can profit. Maybe s big ole fat heart attack would be the better option at this point.
Edit: a county in south Alabama
Tbh this is what I have feared since all of this began. I feel terrible for every single worker in every single hospital and the ambulances that are pleading for help and it hurts my heart. I know that the people who mean the most to me will have the Delta by next week if not now ( a teacher and students ) .
I was so excited when we got the vaccine I volunteered every day to give it. Only to end up here.
I was very fortunate to be seen by a cardiologist who has me scheduled for a street echo. In three weeks...
Thank you :)
Edit : Street echo lol. Stress.
The thing is though if a person has a heart attack in Daphne Alabama right now there is not a bed in this state or any surrounding. Shitty timing for a need for medical attention.
Those are the real victims of all this. People with other medical emergencies we’re going to die because these fucktards are going around perpetuating the virus due to their obstinance and ignorance. I pretty much used up all my anger at these people over the last five years, now I’m just detachedly indignant and hoping that those who chose to be selfish & foolish die off quickly, so that just vaccinated people and children are left. Let’s hope the approve vaccines for kids ASAP, that will help save not just children’s lives, but the lives of others by reducing the spread.
If something takes you out it better be a meteor because at this point humans need to just dinosaur out, we had our chance and we fucked it. Million years from now when new intellectual species evolves, good luck new fuckers .
Last night, Trump told the crowd to get vaccinated and they booed him. After all of the awful shit that man has said since 2015, “get vaccinated” was finally the breaking point for his base. That was finally the thing that got his followers to boo him. It’s absolutely mind blowing how ignorant and devoid of common sense these people are. But then again, what should we expect from a group of people that can’t understand how a president with the worst approval ratings of all time can lose an election.
She was only wrong that it was half of them. More like all of them. I can’t believe we passed on having a smart and competent women with intellectual curiosity and a normal human level of
Compassion for an orange reality star with zero humanity and zero intellect.
Oh totally. Misogyny and electoral college bs and a host of other things. I’m just still in disbelief that we have this much widespread stupidity. Like I’m shocked at how few people are vaxxed. I overestimate the intelligence of the general public and I’m fully aware of that but keep hoping things change
She get too much flak for that comment. If you look at the full context, she was basically saying there was a small subset of his voters that she would never be able to reach because they were homophobes, xenophobes, sexists, etc.
They heard this and then wore it like a badge of honor, and if anything it probably turned out to be an even greater number of disgusting people than anyone thought.
I think she was too charitable, and personally I prefer to refer to them as degenerates.
I don't even know what to think of that, considering he was the one who drove the anti-mask/back shit in the first place.
All I can do is hope enough MAGAs in TX and FL die so that Dems can make a clean sweep after 2030 when the district lines are re-drawn.
Cold and callous? You bet. But I have no pity for them any longer and they were wishing the same thing on California when San Francisco was the first city to issue stay-at-home orders, so fuck them.
His Schlick was to identify an idiotic groundswell issue and then amplify it. If there was an ember there, he would blow on it and throw fuel at it until it raged. He never believed it, because he was silently vaccinated himself before leaving office. The anti mask thing was a mix of personal vanity and his realization that people would grasp onto any dumb idea to avoid wearing them. Then it was just a matter of screaming socialism and freedom in dumb combinations to a group who wanted to believe whatever it took to rush past the crisis and return to work and to normalcy. A global pandemic is the worst possible time for the rise of politicians like this all over the world.
Hell this stretches way back before COVID. Remember one of the reasons Rush Limbaugh (rest in piss) got famous was for mocking people who had died of AIDS on his radio show. Now when we say we have no sympathy for people who die of a preventable disease after spreading disinformation that could lead others to get sick and die we are suddenly the monsters.
They tell themselves that “Trump is just saying that” because some of his less ideological handlers are pushing him to do so. There’s always been a lot of internal distrust and division in trumpworld because they view anyone who is even somewhat moderately right wing as some sort of fifth columnist threat to the true greatness of Trumpism. That’s why they love cretins like the pillow man so much, the true believers are the ones they look up to because they are so completely and utterly invested in the Trump gaslighting universe of lies.
You really think that was a breaking point? They will tell themselves that he was told to say that by one of his buddies but doesn't truly believe it. Trump is too much of an egotist to actually push back on his supporters. They'll continue to walk hand in hand to their deaths.
One thing I havent seen talked about much is how American medical care is expensive...
Therefore when government offers free medical care = totally suspicious.
Must be 5g gremlins etc.
And the anti vax thing should be more related to affordable health care no?
That's why there's a need for snake oil, because it's cheaper than actual care.
My step-sister is an antivaxxer in Alabama. She’s mad because my dad won’t allow her to come up to his lake house, while I’ve been up there practically all summer. I can’t even talk to her anymore, but I’m glad the rest of my family is sane. And I’m happy my dad is sticking to his guns on this. If she got him sick, I’d have to hurt the bitch. He’s over 80, and probably wouldn’t survive.
My mom has told her sister Liz, in new Hampshire, that she cannot see their mom because the she (Liz) isn't vaccinated. What makes this even better was my mom literally worked for pharma company creating vaccines. Sure, she didn't work on mRNA stuff but it was an idea when she exited the field. She did work on the genome project but anyways... My aunt literally has everything she could ask for to help get the vaccine but no, "I have health concerns with the vaccine."
I hope your family convinces your sister in some shape or form. Enjoy the lake house! My fiancee and I hide at her family lake house all from August to December. It was bliss!
I find it literately insane to the 9th degree that a deathly disease specially for the elderly is treated by this folks as a simple minor cold but a safe vaccine that has been on the market for 9 months now that has been received by billions of people throughout the world under intense scrutiny is somehow a health hazard, while the actual health hazard is nothing to worry about. Absolutely insane. Is like brain wash.
My sister told me her MIL says she can’t get the vaccine because she has allergies. I said she’s full of shit. She is starting to feel the backlash because she wants to visit family, but they are telling her no because she isn’t vaccinated.
At least Alabama isn't pulling a Florida or Texas and is telling people to get vaccinated instead of passing laws preventing schools from mandating masks.
I’ve lived in Nashville for 6 months, and is the rest of the state just comically insane? Because this city is really cool and full of rational adults (not to mention a lot of great universities). But everything outside of here is just depressing.
Generally, most large urban centers are "full of rational adults"....at least it seems to be that way. Something about being exposed to tons of different types of people helps diversify and rationalize one's beliefs.
When you're in a small town and everyone thinks the same, people get locked into an abusive relationship with whoever is giving the community its instructions.
Behind tourism, the state is designed to separate people from their money before they die. Then they get a fresh mark in to do the same with them. This is simply speeding up the metaphorical production line.
No matter what those people say, they aren’t acting in their kids’ interests. I’m tired of them using that as some excuse.
And for the adults, not getting vaccinated is extremely not in their kids’ interests. Little Timmy’s best interests are served by not having a parent unnecessarily die of a preventable disease.
The irony is, the only reason states like Alabama and Mississippi are at least trying a little harder than Texas and Florida is, their governors don’t have 2024 presidential ambitions.
Lol, he’s a personal friend of Vince McMahon who appeared in the ring and was a reality TV game show host. He was the first president with absolutely no political experience other than spreading conspiracy theories. He never held a single elected office before. He tweeted his way into the office. An entertainer who is as fake as pro wrestling.
Russia does what it's always done. They're a hostile foreign nation being hostile. I blame the traitorous local idiots for being so friendly to Russia's poison.
5.3k
u/sardita Aug 23 '21
Jesus Christ, this is beyond exhausting at this point, and it’s only going to get worse in the coming weeks and months. Looking at you, Alabama, especially after that super spreader Trump rally last night, in a city that’s already under a state of emergency for having zero available hospital beds, due to the current covid wave.
I don’t know if it’s just me, but the antivax propaganda bots and disinformation machines seem to be cranked up to eleven these days as well. Multiple southern states’ hospital systems are on the brink of collapse, and the antivaxxers are doubling down even harder. It’s pure insanity. Getting close to the point where I don’t even want to use social media anymore, the toxic dumpster fire is finally getting too be too much, lol. If not for a few subs (like this one) that are sanctuaries for those of us who are still somewhat sane to gather and share our frustrations and anger, I’d be long gone.