ADs and The Brave New World

[BogRollBOGOF]

When you kind of hope that a new thread meanders on quietly because it means that life is being fairly stable...

What are ADs?

Here's the copy and paste job...

Definition of AD
^AD stands for anti dementor.
There are creatures in Harry Potter called dementors, who suck all hope and happiness from you and eventually take your soul. Way back at the start of the pandemic thread after thread was posted on by posters like this and anyone who'd dare question anything or disagree with anything (like putting cheese in your coffee) was bullied off these threads. And so any actual discussion disappeared and it became an echo chamber of misery.^

We are the antidote to that. We follow the rules, but not the "roolz" and we question and discuss with respect to each other. It's all very civil.

Just here to add..

A few weeks ago we had huge case numbers and numbers of people in hospital was about the same as it was at the same point last year both about 8k.

Now we have 9.5k in hospital but on the same date last year it was over 12.5k.

So does that evidence that we aren't seeing the same sharp increase in people in hospital as we did last year? A small glimmer of hope that this year may be slightly easier?

Meanwhile back in Wales we enjoyed the rugby last Saturday unmasked inside the stadium. This Saturday it's back to masks 🙄. Dripford is an idiot

@BogRollBOGOF I remember you talking about your trips to the park last autumn. I thought at the time what a great mum you sound. It is really hard to find a positive reaction to a situation but I think you really did with that strategy.

I give thanks frequently that we didn't move to Wales a few years ago @justasking111 .

Wales has many upsides @Taswama . The senedd balance isn't one of them.

Howev, I pretty much despair of many politicians these days

Lovely fireworks night tonight, felt very normal.

@Taswama

Lovely fireworks night tonight, felt very normal.

We went to a big display. First proper bonfire night since 2018 as around here there was major flooding in the low-lying parks, and the higher ground was too swamp-like for any displays.

It was crazy! The town gridlocked and everything got delayed so they could get the crowds in. Realistically the fair part needed spacing out more so that all the queues for different things weren't converging on the main path through. DS1 was tired and hasn't done anything remotely that busy since his ASD diagnosis 2 years ago, and we went and found a quieter corner of the park. We actually got a better view of the fireworks and fire there than we would have from the crowd. It was lovely! DS2 wanted to be in the thick of the action and ended up on the bumper cars.

I reckon the turm out was higher than expected. I bought advance tickets, but it's Friday, the weather was mild and clear, the first bonfire night in two years and lots of smaller displays such as Scout groups haven't happened.

Last year we did a barbeque in the garden which was rather enjoyable and somewhat filled the hole of not doing things like going to the scout site.

[quote Taswama]@BogRollBOGOF I remember you talking about your trips to the park last autumn. I thought at the time what a great mum you sound. It is really hard to find a positive reaction to a situation but I think you really did with that strategy.

I give thanks frequently that we didn't move to Wales a few years ago @justasking111 .[/quote]
Thank you
I really was just trying to keep life going as long as I feasibly could.

I totally ran out of steam in the January. That last minute announcement about schools closing really broke me and I couldn't even face getting myself out for a run/ walk most days by then. I actually found it easier going out at night when there was no one around as I couldn't deal with unusually busy parks and masks in random places. My big outing of the supermarket became far too much of a big deal. After deciding on enough after shredding my own face from the tickling breath within the visor and deciding not to attempt to cover my face again (the sensory overwhelm/ panic attacks were reaching weekly by then) that got better, and I decided to take one DC at a time for company and to stop my brain chuntering to itself and that turned that situation around and began improving it.

It's really wierd thinking back on a year ago now, and I keep feeling surprised that we're now in November after the first half of the year was so painfully and frustratingly slow.

@justasking111

Wales has many upsides *@Taswama* . The senedd balance isn't one of them.

Howev, I pretty much despair of many politicians these days

The cynical might say that the complicated electoral system for the Senedd seems all but designed to make sure Labour are in power world without end, amen. I personally don't like either Labour or the Tories, or indeed Plaid, very much, but am opposition who might be able to win an election is a good thing in general!

I'd like a party that doesn't seem hellbent on punishing humans because they act like humans myself.

Hello everyone! This thread was on about page 7 of chat I believe, it took ages to find! I have been spending too much time on Twitter where people are mad so I made the decision to log out because it was only depressing me (not just covid, the whole sex/gender/trans thing and just climate- everyone is so angry about everything!!). Facebook has more or less gone back to people posting pictures of their kids but an American friend has just posted pictures of her children after having had their first vaccinations- they are 7 and 5 I believe. I'm not anti children having vaccinations at all, my girls have all had the routine prescribed ones but I haven't decided if my 12 year old should have it or not. It wasn't so much her post as the reactions- yay, they're all set and a British friend of theirs saying how we don't have them yet. I can't really explain it but it made me uneasy- I don't think we expect loads of fawning when we get our kids to have the MMR jab! Again, it's not a criticism of hers but the reactions she received.

It's a tribal shibboleth. It means that she is on the side of right think. It means that she is good and that anyone who doesn't do the same is bad. I am American by birth and grew up there so I know how it works.

I had no idea you were American ISaySteadyOn! Not sure how I would have known your heritage really but I just tend to presume that people on this site are British...obviously I am aware you live here. That's a bit sad about the idea of tribes, although I had seen some signs of that from Twitter with regards to blue and red state division in terms of opening up etc...not that I know much about it at all! We did politics together at uni and she married an English man she met there. He's now a joint UK/US citizen and they seem really happy.

I'm a dual US/UK citizen but I live here in the UK. Tbh, I do, at this point, consider myself more British than American anyway. I just have family and friends in the States. It's hard because I actually struggle to talk with an old uni friend as a result of this. Same with my parents unfortunately.

@ISaySteadyOn

It's a tribal shibboleth. It means that she is on the side of right think. It means that she is good and that anyone who doesn't do the same is bad. I am American by birth and grew up there so I know how it works.

It seems to be the same with masks in the US from what I observe.

Who ever thought that this would be going on for such a long time? It's so difficult how tribal everything has become and it makes me wonder how society is going to come back from it. But of course we will. I am sorry it has affected your relationship with your uni friend and your parents ISaySteadyOn.

I have Welsh friends went to USA twenty years ago. I realized they were totally brainwashed when they started frothing about Trump in 2016. What happened to critical thinking. Our lifelong friendships dust now .

My sons school had a debating society competition every year, it was lots of fun and interesting. It's been consigned to the bin now which I thought very sad

@110APiccadilly, it was masks we fell out about. I pointed out that they can exclude people from society. She didn't like it.

@justasking111, that's sad. Debate is very important to clarify thinking.

Fun in Wales we now need a covid pass for the cinema and theatre. But hospital and care staff do not have to be vaccinated at all. Comments across our media are fiery. Oh and track and trace is in high gear again sigh

Masks became political in the States. “I wear a mask so people don’t think I’m a republican ….”

There was a failed effort, I suspect driven by social engineers rather than the general public, in U.K. to make masks a class issue. “ I wear a mask so people won’t think I’m working class ….” So happy that one never took hold. It was fairly obvious that some mumsnet posts were engineered, all those posts about Aldi being maskless, and Waitrose/ Marks & Spencers being masked. Social engineers obviously don’t get out much, the middle classes love Aldi as much as anyone else

Everything's been in two polarised tribes for much of the past decade and certainly since 2016 and Brexit/ Trump.
I suspect that the brevity of Twitter and the ability to create echo chambers has a lot to do with it.

I like the fact that MN while it does have it's own odd conventions (no surprises, I do own bog brushes ) it does cover a range of viewpoints, and the same issue can get different responses. I don't think it is what it was, but you do get proper debates. Admittedly there are some usernames I see and roll my eyes, and they probably do the same back at me, but there are very few that I'd want to shut down and that would be for their constant playing on peoples' fears to feed their agenda, not for purely having a different point of view.

There is a strong case to bring back the art of debate into schools.

I've been tempted to do it as a family thing where people have to argue the opposite side of what they think. But I am not sure DD2 would/could make a case against unicorns 😛

I love a good debate 😊

They have a debate club at DS' school. It is at lunchtime and there is cake provided!

In the USA it became politicised - “I wear a mask so people don’t think I’m a Republican”.

Thankfully the efforts to divide on class lines in the U.K. failed. There were a number of posts, I suspect by social engineers, trying to make it that mask wearing was an aspirational middle class habit. All those masks in Waitrose and none in Aldi type posts.

Thankfully it failed as the social engineers have such little real life experience they didn’t realise everyone, including the middle class, shop at Aldi.

Mask wearing in the UK shows you’re a virtuous lefty who cares about others. I think it’s a carry over from the US divide.

Usually in tow with people who are extremely concerned about their own safety