This is for encouragement, ideas, and support for people going through a faith transition no matter where you hope to end up. This is also the place to laugh, cry, and love together.
Thoughtful wrote: ↑Thu Jul 16, 2020 10:51 pm
I donated blood and get a free antibody test. So in 2 weeks I will find out if today I have antibodies.
My husband did this a couple of weeks ago. He was negative.
I've only been directly tested and monitored for symptoms. Never had it as far as I know. Also been swimming in GermX and Lysol at increased levels from my usual clean freak baseline since March.
Reuben wrote: ↑Thu Jul 16, 2020 2:53 pmThey really need to reframe wearing a mask in terms of preserving freedom. It's not that hard: if we wear them, we don't have to limit freedom in more intrusive ways.
Excellent point. I hope my fluffy brain can retain it.
Try this for short:
Mask up to open up (businesses, schools, etc.)
On another note: I've also heard that if ~80% of the general public would use a mask (in public) that would basically be equal to heard immunity. Since most all indications show we're nowhere near heard immunity, and the death toll would be gigantic by the time we reached heard immunity, if it's even possible. (Not to mention the bad health effects happening even to those who "survive" infection.)
Not that an "anti-masker" would believe the heard immunity via masks anecdote, but who knows?
Faith does not give you the answers, it just stops you asking the questions. -Frater Ravus
I'll attempt a charitable, holistic, and hopefully accurate explanation of the conservative pushback on wearing masks.
When they say it's about freedom, it's almost a full explanation.
It's helpful to understand that the right tends to understand liberty differently from the left. In the right's discourse, it usually means freedom: having fewer constraints on action. In the left's discourse, it usually means empowerment: having more ability to act. (This is well in line with Kant's notions of negative and positive liberty, and the theory of negative and positive rights.)
Neither side talks much about how their notion of liberty is useless without the other notion, preferring antithesis to synthesis. Each side is well-versed in the dystopias that have followed from the "opposing" notion becoming too dominant. (Taking freedom in the name of equal power in the USSR, using freedom to amass power and oppress in mining towns.) It's a culture war, and currently the right is afraid of losing it, having their notion of liberty replaced, and losing their freedoms.
For some conservatives, not wearing a mask is both an easy symbolic gesture and a line in the sand.
So why are conservatives insecure about this? An almost perfect storm of reasons.
1. Coronavirus safety has already required curtailing freedoms.
2. Government guidance on coronavirus safety has been inconsistent. Don't wear masks. Wear masks. Don't congregate and don't sing. Unless you're BLM protesters. It leads to distrust and the general feeling of being played.
3. Left-leaning BLM narratives and ideology are in the spotlight, and it feels to the right like their narratives and ideology are being forcibly replaced. Right-leaning narratives and ideology are often dismissed as privilege, whiteness or racism. It's not just the right that has noticed this. One article I read explains what's wrong with "check your privilege" in the language of Western Marxism.
In general, the right is tired of cancel culture and being shamed into compliance - IMO it's why they hired Trump - and many now automatically resist anything presented this way, even if it's for coronavirus safety. The fact that conservatives employ the same tactics doesn't negate the effects of those tactics being used on them.
4. There's an election coming up and a Supreme Court vacancy to fill - a well-established cultural battleground - and the incumbent Republican isn't polling well.
This all contributes to the feeling that they're on the verge of having the right to be themselves taken away.
Disclosure: I'm a rabid centrist who leans right economically and leans left socially, and dislikes unbalanced concentrations of political or corporate power.
Learn to doubt the stories you tell about yourselves and your adversaries.
More than 6 months after the discovery of a new virus which has caused untold damage to the human race, the First Presidency is finally inspired to endorse face coverings:
masksFP.jpg (115.21 KiB) Viewed 12922 times
Faith does not give you the answers, it just stops you asking the questions. -Frater Ravus
wtfluff wrote: ↑Wed Jul 29, 2020 5:03 pm
More than 6 months after the discovery of a new virus which has caused untold damage to the human race, the First Presidency is finally inspired to endorse face coverings:
masksFP.jpg
Well, when they opened it up and found that the documents had gotten wet, They feared black mold. Silly people this has nothing to do with corona virus, just avoiding black mold.
wtfluff wrote: ↑Wed Jul 29, 2020 5:03 pm
More than 6 months after the discovery of a new virus which has caused untold damage to the human race, the First Presidency is finally inspired to endorse face coverings:
masksFP.jpg
Well, when they opened it up and found that the documents had gotten wet, They feared black mold. Silly people this has nothing to do with corona virus, just avoiding black mold.
I didn't even think about that! I was kind of hoping the mask would make Rusty have some kind of senile flashback to being a heart surgeon and he would cut open Oaks. And then he would be really confused that Oaks doesn't even have a heart. But then at that moment, miraculously, the historians pull a heart out of the time capsule. Rusty successfully puts it into Oaks. And that heart once belonged to BY's cross-dressing son. Fast forward to GC. Oaks's dress is waaaaay better than the lone females speaker's dress.
...walked eye-deep in hell
believing in old men’s lies...--Ezra Pound
wtfluff wrote: ↑Wed Jul 29, 2020 5:03 pm
More than 6 months after the discovery of a new virus which has caused untold damage to the human race, the First Presidency is finally inspired to endorse face coverings:
masksFP.jpg
Well, when they opened it up and found that the documents had gotten wet, They feared black mold. Silly people this has nothing to do with corona virus, just avoiding black mold.
I guess none of the COTPOTCOJCOLDS cronies dared to tell the old folks that they would need N95 (or better) masks/respirators for any sort of protection from black mold?
Faith does not give you the answers, it just stops you asking the questions. -Frater Ravus
wtfluff wrote: ↑Wed Jul 29, 2020 5:03 pm
More than 6 months after the discovery of a new virus which has caused untold damage to the human race, the First Presidency is finally inspired to endorse face coverings:
masksFP.jpg
Well, when they opened it up and found that the documents had gotten wet, They feared black mold. Silly people this has nothing to do with corona virus, just avoiding black mold.
I didn't even think about that! I was kind of hoping the mask would make Rusty have some kind of senile flashback to being a heart surgeon and he would cut open Oaks. And then he would be really confused that Oaks doesn't even have a heart. But then at that moment, miraculously, the historians pull a heart out of the time capsule. Rusty successfully puts it into Oaks. And that heart once belonged to BY's cross-dressing son. Fast forward to GC. Oaks's dress is waaaaay better than the lone females speaker's dress.
I would watch the hell out of this movie.
Learn to doubt the stories you tell about yourselves and your adversaries.
Yep. And will most members see it for the cautionary tale that it is? Nope.
"The truth is elegantly simple. The lie needs complex apologia. 4 simple words: Joe made it up. It answers everything with the perfect simplicity of Occam's Razor. Every convoluted excuse withers." - Some guy on Reddit called disposazelph
Yep. And will most members see it for the cautionary tale that it is? Nope.
These types of stories strike a bit of fear in the heart of some Fluffy person who has an older, ailing parent who doesn't know how to stay away from "church services." Luckily they live in small-town, rural Jello-Belt, so not a lot of COVID-19 in the area, but again, all it takes is one person...
If there happens to be an outbreak at a COJCOLdS MORmON church service, will we hear about it? Will COJCOLd$-Inc. do anything if such an outbreak occurs? Will COJCOLd$-Inc. just blame it on "local leadership?" If people die from such an outbreak, are they just collateral damage, because COJCOLdS MORmON meetings and "religious free-dumb" are more important than human life?
Faith does not give you the answers, it just stops you asking the questions. -Frater Ravus
The US CDC chart shows that as covid deaths go up, “tada!” other flu and respiratory illnesses go down. And look at how much higher 2018 flu/pneumonia deaths were than 2020 and yet there was no massive shut down & wearing masks etc., in 2018.
It seems to me that chart mainly shows that COVID is much worse than the normal flu in terms of non-pneumonia related deaths.
Here's another chart that does a good job of showing the difference between COVID and the normal flu (+ pneumonia) during the period before much action was taken (but the most important thing this chart tells me is that we need to start eating better and getting more exercise!!!):
I do think in some ways we have overreacted, sometimes out of fear and sometimes out of ignorance, and it is really unfortunate that something like a pandemic has been politicized. There seems to be a bit of a "you kids get off the lawn" attitude by frightened older folks, but what we have seen globally is that the countries who really cracked down early appear to have had better outcomes. The US is certainly no poster child either for making good rules or for following them.
I suggest we all remain cautiously optimistic at least until the flu season has come and gone.
“The easy confidence with which I know another man's religion is folly teaches me to suspect that my own is also.” -Mark Twain
Jesus: "The Kingdom of God is within you." The Buddha: "Be your own light."
I wonder what effect social distancing and mask wearing measures have on the spread of the flu and other illnesses, especially when said measures are already in place before the typical flu season even gets off the ground.
We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.
– Anais Nin
nibbler wrote: ↑Sun Aug 30, 2020 6:55 pm
I wonder what effect social distancing and mask wearing measures have on the spread of the flu and other illnesses, especially when said measures are already in place before the typical flu season even gets off the ground.
Social distancing and masks will make the flu go way down and the people who are trying to say they shouldn’t have to wear a mask will find some way to twist the data to say that, “See, Covid isn’t any worse than the flu, so why do we have to take these precautions.”
Mark my words. Someone is going to post a chart that shows how this flu season is much milder than last and try to use that as an argument against masks or in favor of tRump.
I got back another (required, I didn't have symptoms) covid test today which is good. Even better, I'm about to start getting tested every 3-7 days for the forseeable future because of the level of community spread and my job. Some people are upset about it, but I am ecstatic since I have so much anxiety about bringing it home to my family or taking it to work with me.
And yes, it's going to be a "light" flu season as some people are smart enough to follow respiratory virus precautions.
Here's a fun little chart. According to this if the US had done an average job, compared to other countries, we would have 35,000 COVID deaths at this point rather than 180,000. Of course, honest testing and reporting makes a huge difference. I think countries like Germany are are much more likely to give accurate reporting than China or Russia, so let's not compare ourselves to China, let's compare ourselves to Germany and Canada.
“The easy confidence with which I know another man's religion is folly teaches me to suspect that my own is also.” -Mark Twain
Jesus: "The Kingdom of God is within you." The Buddha: "Be your own light."
If you want to understand why the regular flu was dropping off as COVID was increasing, all you have to do is move your eyes slightly to the left to see that it was decreasing at EXACTLY at the same time and rate it normally does after a typical flu season, which is when COVID was really taking off. There is NO correlation.
The big question is what will happen to both the regular flu and COVID when flu season starts ramping up again. I guess we'll have to wait and look at the updated chart AFTER flu season 2020-21.
Newme wrote: ↑Sat Aug 29, 2020 8:14 am
Let’s make America smart again(?).
Note on the graph above, how much higher related deaths were in 2018 - yet no massive stimulus packages and shut downs etc. back then.
The USCDC is finally admitting that only 6% of the deaths they blamed on Covid were actually due to covid. They exaggerated by 94%! And what is most sad is the insane herd mentality that believed it, even when this came out several months ago...
“More than 99% of coronavirus patients who died in Italy suffered from other, pre-existing health issues, according to a study by the country's health officials...”
Newme wrote: ↑Thu Sep 03, 2020 7:48 am
The USCDC is finally admitting that only 6% of the deaths they blamed on Covid were actually due to covid. They exaggerated by 94%! And what is most sad is the insane herd mentality that believed it, even when this came out several months ago...
The CDC is admitting no such thing. As a matter of fact they have come out and explicitly denied this because of all of the misinformation being spread on social media by the likes of you.
Stands next to Kolob, called by the Egyptians Oliblish, which is the next grand governing creation near to the celestial or the place where God resides; holding the key of power also, pertaining to other planets; as revealed from God to Abraham
