ADs picnic in the park with Twinkle the Tortoise

[ISaySteadyOn]

Thought it was my turn to start a thread.

The ‘powers that be’ must be wanking themselves stupid over how easy mass population control has proven to be.

I am left wondering where we would be if we were hit with a really deadly virus, rather than one which is only slightly more deadly than other seasonal viruses?

@TooManyPlatesInMotion thank you for posting that - he makes a very valid point! I have been so surprised over the past year why so many of my family and friends have blindly accepted all the propaganda without once asking "why?". They don't question anything 'because the Government told us and they wouldn't say anything that wasn't true'. Unfortunately I've always been someone who asks "why" - I remember one or two teachers at school getting exasperated and responding "Just because" or words to that extent! My mother did the "because I said so" more than once as well

That Lord Sumption quote is so true and very evident on the mask threads. The masks represent ‘doing something’ rather than the equally effective ‘doing nothing’. A bit like ‘saving lives at sea’ episode where the lifeboat man gave an hysterical woman a radio to hold so she had something to do.

@Worldgonecrazy

That Lord Sumption quote is so true and very evident on the mask threads. The masks represent ‘doing something’ rather than the equally effective ‘doing nothing’. A bit like ‘saving lives at sea’ episode where the lifeboat man gave an hysterical woman a radio to hold so she had something to do.

Absolutely

Real, actual politics is so close to what was depicted in Yes Minister it might as well be a documentary. (I have been rewatching it recently, part amused and part appalled.)

The masks stuff in particular is classic politician's syllogism:

We must do something
This is something
Therefore we must do this

The Lord Sumption quote is spot on. I have been horrified by the ease that some people have just given up on their civil liberties without question.

Another one who is a solidly non agreement with Lord Sumption on this.

In!! In agreement!! Ffs auto correct.

I can't stand the way Lord S is portrayed in much of the media, as a crazy libertarian loon, whose views can easily be dismissed. Wrong. He is former Supreme Court judge with a forensic knowledge of human rights law. And he is not the only one - Lady Hale has spoken up about concerns re the lack of Parliamentary scrutiny of many of the measures.

“We must do something
This is something
Therefore we must do this”

I think it’s worse than that because the something actually does nothing to help. Well done to the propaganda for convincing people otherwise.

I don’t understand why there hasn’t been more of the stuff that does help, which seems to have been pushed down the agenda. Instead we have wasted millions on propaganda for the least effective methods of creating natural immunity within the wider population.

I do worry what is going to happen etc flu / respiratory virus: cold season with most of the population having had their immune systems weakened over the past year. Of course, that entirely preventable situation will be used to clamour for more restrictions.

Lord Sumption has been great throughout. A voice of intellectual rigour which is a rare thing these days.

With masks I wonder if partly it was brought in as a visual reminder or nudge to everyone to not let their guard down generally in relation to covid, ie the govt know that not everyone will wear them properly, wash them etc, but it is a visual prompt of the pandemic
Does that make sense?

I have a prime example of we must do something. Here they sprayed every single road in the country with disinfectant. Did it help? Were people prior to this catching covid from licking the motorway? Who knows, but we had to do something.

When I was doing A-level geography, and considering different schemes "do nothing" is always an important option for consideration. Are the costs and benefits of doing nothing favourable to the proposed alternatives? Is spending £,£££,£££ worth the difference in benefit? Is it going to create further expensive issues?

Masks will probably limp on for a while because they cost the government virtually nothing beyond its own institutions and the public lap them up as a sign of doing something or at least quietly aquiesce.
Hopefully if the word mandatory comes out of the issue, most people will draw the line at tolerating the things for anything that's supposed to be pleasurable. Will people really wear the dratted things at something like a wedding when they resume in the summer. By the time you get to a wedding breakfast and disco, it's near impossible to have a conversation without relying extensively on lip reading anyway!

@starfish88

I have a prime example of we must do something. Here they sprayed every single road in the country with disinfectant. Did it help? Were people prior to this catching covid from licking the motorway? Who knows, but we had to do something.

The scenes of disinfecting Chinese streets on the news were utterly bizzarre. No one was allowed out anyway. All that contamination of the environment for what?

2 thoughts.

1. I keep coming back to the computer game I was playing where you are a baron/baroness and your barony is struck by a disease. Your choices about what to do are literally (as in they're listed on the screen) labelled good, neutral, and evil. The good response is to investigate quietly without panicking the populace and keeping life as normal as possible. The one labelled Evil? Panic everyone and make a giant fuss.

2. The masks are an impediment to human communication and a symbol to keep panicking as much as possible. They are to remind people not to think of themselves or others as human beings but as disease spreaders. That's why I think we will never get out of this until the masks are ditched.

I found this article on the ideology of masks interesting

thecritic.co.uk/issues/march-2021/faith-masks/

I’m certain the masks are symbolic more than anything else; fingers crossed the government make them optional when they want to ease the panic of the plandemic. Hancock or whoever it was probably “let slip” that they were ineffective: then the government realised they were the perfect badge of forced allegiance to the Johnson School of Obedience, Panic and Brainwashing.

I found the mask issue in the US very interesting with a much more obvious divide between republicans and democrats. Within the U.K. it is not such a political statement to not wear a mask.

I notice that when people wear masks in shops they tend to brush up pretty close to others so wonder if they sometimes give a kind of sense of security?

It was better before when in the first lockdown people didn't wear one and gave more space, I think. In terms of being pleasant anyway

@starfish88

I have a prime example of we must do something. Here they sprayed every single road in the country with disinfectant. Did it help? Were people prior to this catching covid from licking the motorway? Who knows, but we had to do something.

That's barking

@Orangeblossom1977 I notice that when people wear masks in shops they tend to brush up pretty close to others so wonder if they sometimes give a kind of sense of security? I think that was also one of the government's arguments for not mandating masks, I often heard it mentioned.

By the way, is anybody listening to Radio 4 nowadays? How is it, in terms of dementing, and mentioning you-know-what every couple of minutes? I completely abandoned it in August, when Saint Boris's "squeeeeeeeeeeeeeze the brakes" kept being parroted on the hour, every hour. I dare not turn it on, in case I hear "corrrrrrrrronavirus" within five seconds.

@ISaySteadyOn o/t slightly but I like the sound of that baron/ess game, sounds right up my strasse. I enjoy things like Civilization, The Settlers, Theme Hospital.

@Orangeblossom1977

I notice that when people wear masks in shops they tend to brush up pretty close to others so wonder if they sometimes give a kind of sense of security?

It was better before when in the first lockdown people didn't wear one and gave more space, I think. In terms of being pleasant anyway

I can't vouch for supermarkets as I go late at night when SD is a non-issue, but when they came in to the school playground for parents, they all started standing with normal spacing because it was a lot harder to hear the others' garbled speech! Moot point as it's exposed and always windswept, even when you thought it was calm, it's very open to the south west (and north and easterly winds tend to be harsher anyway) so there's minimal chance of spread in a playground chat anyway.

Not sure about Radio 4 but Radio ^ have started being a bit more positive, more about what people are looking forward to etc. Still got the news on too often though, not sure why it is required every half an hour.

Radio 4 can be quite gloomy anyway at times I find. Even without corrrronavirus.

6 not ^