Anti-Dementors : The AD’s

Yes!

My daughter has a disability that stopped her from wearing a mask.

The attitude on here (and in real life) to those who were exempt was appalling - they shouldn’t be allowed to leave the house, shouldn’t be allowed to go to school/access medical treatment/go in a shop/go to work/etc, called selfish, blamed for people dying, it was their fault the pandemic lasted as long as it did.

It was appalling - and MNHQ allowed these types of posts to stand again and again.

The ADs seemed to be the normal threads, I wasn't on them but they always seemed perfectly reasonable when I read them. Some of the Covid threads were nuts with posters screaming Granny Killer at posters

Disease vector as children were called by some.
Absolutely horrific how some groups were discarded and treated appallingly under the guise of being called selfish killers if they didn't comply.

@PretzelKnot that is absolutely fucking horrendous. Horrificly there were those that would have felt that this was an OK 'risk' as long as they all 'stayed the fuck at home' and 'masked up' as a 4 yo would be a

@PretzelKnot that is beyond horrific. That poor girl.

What I find is that many people now who are intent on defending lockdowns look at anecdotes like that, and somehow and unbelievably dismiss them. They have dug themselves so far into to the "it was worth it" position, they just cannot get out of it.

My friend’s foster daughter is having her second gynaecological surgery next week. The girl was raped by her father during a lockdown when she was 4. He was meant to be in prison but got released two years early because… Covid. The prison did inform social services to make sure he didn’t go home to where his daughter was. They sent a registered letter to the local social services post office box. No-one saw it because…Covid. The prison service didn’t follow up because….Covid. It took months for the already overstretched social workers to work out the man was back where his 4 year old daughter lived. Family was meant to be having monthly checks by social workers but hey ho….Covid.

This case will never make the lockdown fallout statistics.

Lockdown was a disaster that will reverberate through generations. Those who supported it were so wrong and that is becoming more and more clear. The frothing little authoritarians have had their day in the sun and are currently going through an extinction burst.

The ADs are normal people supported each other through lockdowns and saw through a lot of the toxicity.

The power of the state was pushed behind silencing dissent during the lock down. The idea that there is an echo chamber, that two years down the line needs silencing is offensive. It seems only one type of suffering is acceptable and requires empathy. The other type of suffering needs silencing.

I think that's a very charitable way of thinking about the 4am posting. My mind was going in another direction.

This is why the AD threads need to stay. They capture the nitty gritty as it's unfolding and the reality for the people posting. There will be other threads from people who were hugely supportive and scared that are also valuable for understanding the experiences of the huge cross section of women's lives during the past three years.

particularly if you feel posters are ganging up on other threads rather than just having opinions in the same place, as it were

This was all over the staffroom at one point.

I hope the OP is ok. I see they made this thread around 4am so may have been struggling to sleep. I also saw them make a post a few days back about their own circumstances that suggests they need huge dollops of compassion.
There can't be many people who have got to this point unscathed. It's been horrendous all round and for many still ongoing.

You are complaining to MNHQ about threads two years old and older, and want them to be pulled? Really?

I wonder - if that's the case - why this is an issue now. I've noticed a couple of articles in papers recently where there's an attempt to re-write history (DM saying it was critical of the govt line when in fact it attacked anyone who wasn't 100% for lockdown). Perhaps this is part of that process.

You're joking right? People disagreed with you on another thread, and so you spring to the conclusion that they must be a conspiracy? You are complaining to MNHQ about threads two years old and older, and want them to be pulled? Really?

How paranoid.

I took part in your other thread, before I got bored with your relentlessness, and actually didn't recognise a single name from the others who were regularly engaging with you (granted they could have name changed). Some of the most determined anti lockdown posters back in 2020/21 (and I have to say their posts I saw on the subject were scientific, rational and very thoughtful) never even appeared in the AD threads.

I wrongly thought on the other thread before I stopped posting on it that I understood your position after you made a few personal details clear. I was wrong clearly

Yes, I agree.

I posted on them back in the first lock down, but I haven’t seen any of the threads in active for a long, long time.

This site was awful back then and those threads saved my sanity

But anyone saying this isn’t a good idea was absolutely hounded

Yep. 'Granny killers.' 'Covidiots.' Being told 'just stay at home and watch Netflix.' 'Just wear a damned mask, it isn't hard.' 'Get used to having your life on screens from now on.' The abuse and rage was frightening sometimes.

The site was horrendous. Probably not much better in other ways now.

But anyone saying this isn’t a good idea was absolutely hounded.

OP "While I think the discourse is important - it makes me very uneasy when people form ‘echo chambers’ and ridicule/attack/make snide comments in a group towards those with opposing views."

Were you on MN during the pandemic, OP? because as some people have said upthread, echo chambers attacking those who even vaguely questioned the official narrative was exactly what happened. I can recall one poster who said how viciously she was attacked when she posted that what the govt was doing was exactly like being in an abusive relationship.

AD threads were the only ones I dared visit during the pandemic. I'm not sure why you're so concerned about them and their 'opposing views' now, but it sounds to me like an attempt to manipulate the discourse and suppress anything that doesn't and didn't support the official line.

I knew those posts meant a lot to some people, both regular posters and lurkers and it's lovely to see them saying so on here.

For me, they were a breath of fresh air as I sat on my favourite bench trying to find some peace and discovering I'd swapped our cramped home for tuneless carehome carpark karaoke on a neighboring estate. The irony! It was right in the beginning where loud solidarity was lauded along with the weekly pan bashing, but sitting alone on a bench was heavily castigated..

I hope the AD threads stay as a piece of of history. They mainly document people's own struggles and personal experiences of the restrictions.
Some comments were irreverent, some tore at my heart strings.
Women managing to discuss things with nuance and respect and a huge dose of compassion for each other, frequently wandering off into off topic conversation and a smattering of rude vegetables when the mood needed to be lightened.

And mine.

OP "While I think the discourse is important - it makes me very uneasy when people form ‘echo chambers’ and ridicule/attack/make snide comments in a group towards those with opposing views."

That is exactly what you do. You are annoyed with people linking to the Telegraph and offer a Guardian link instead.

David Davis MP was recently interviewed at the Unherd offices. Do you want him removed from his role?

The Government of the time thought their rules were pointless against the spread of a virus.

Attacking a group of posters who tried to support each other - two offered in person help when I was suicidal - isn't going to achieve anything positive.

if the threads are removed, it would not surprise me that it was you who wanted it.

i hope you are open about your views IRL.

The what's app furore kind of confirmed it.

We're still in a backwash of problems caused by mistakes made at the time

Wow? Has OP read the WhatsApp files?

I take no pride or joy in being an AD. Rather a great sorrow that so many people were left terrified, that so many businesses were damaged, that so much money was wasted, that the economy was harmed massively, that people died alone and without receiving proper care. The global mass hysteria was sickening. The worst thing is that there was a rational response available and the government chose political games over humanity.

The only thing I am happy about is I treated the rules the same way the government did as their behaviour was obvious to anyone paying attention. This meant my family suffered as little harm as possible though could not avoid it completely , and as ‘key workers’ we were able to minimise negative educational impact.

Interestingly none of us have ever had covid either, which is obviously a statistical miracle.

Yes none of it was conspiracy theories at all, just a discussion about the lockdowns, rules etc and that a lot of us thought it wasn't going to work, that masks etc were useless, that kids would suffer and actually as time has ticked on... A lot of it was actually bang on.

The fact that the poster has an issue with mainstream U.K. publications, such as State of Fear being referenced is worrying. It’s not exactly the Alex Jones show, it’s quite a sober dissection if the way fear and budge units were used. Something our current prime minister has spoken out against. Rishi the conspiracy theorist?!?

I haven’t seen any of their threads for months and months but I used to post on them during lockdown under a different name.
If you have a problem with individual posts then report and MN can take a look. But as practically everything we talked about has turned out to have been true, I’m not sure what problems they’re causing to anyone 🤷🏻‍♀️