Bloody lockdown hypocrites and mass gatherings

[alwaysanewlife]

For months now I have had 'friends' on social media daily posting about how important maintaining lockdown is, saying those who break it are killing people, calling them stupid, hating Dominic Cummings with a vengeance, accusing the government of wanting people to die and that is why they are opening schools. These same people are now encouraging people to go to mass gatherings for Black Lives Matter. I've seen the footage. Those people are not social distancing. Of course they are not. People don't at mass gatherings. That is why they are banned instead of the government saying, 'yeah, you can all meet with several thousand other people as long as you keep 2m apart. That's totally fine.'
This isn't a post about Black Lives Matter - which is a fantastic movement - or even about lockdown. It is a post about me being fed up with sodding hypocrites who have spent months lecturing and hating other people for doing something which they are now encouraging on a mass scale.

[Alsohuman]

Dominic Cummings must be thinking ' WTF! The entire country hated me for driving in my car, and now those same people are gathering in their thousands, but that's ok

What Dominic Cummings should be thinking is “Wtf did I start? All these people heard about me and I gave them the idea that the rules don’t apply to everyone”.

[MadameMarie]

No-one gains further understanding by seeing people in a park.

It loses support among people who would be otherwise sympathetic. There's millions of people shielding desperate for the worst to be over and then they see scenes like this and despair.

[alwaysanewlife]

@ky07, exaggeration does not make your point - everyone has not been sent back to work, a minority of people who cannot work at home and whose businesses have re-opened are allowed back at work. Most businesses are still shut/ home working. How do we get out of the 'mess' of the response if mass gatherings are allowed?

And in terms of the momentum, you are talking like these mass gatherings are the only way to do that. They are a pretty limited response. No-one gains further understanding by seeing people in a park.

If you feel that the risk of death and spreading infection is acceptable collateral damage, then have the honesty to say so outright.

[ky07]

It would be sad for such an important movement to lose momementum when more people than ever are finally listening. They cannot delay these protests for 3 months, because white people in particular will be back to apathy. The timing is terrible, but they must capitalise on this attention as much as possible. If its ok to fill beaches with holiday makers and send everyone back to work, I 100% support protests about such an important issue. Frankly, as a country no one knows what we're doing or how we're doing it or how effective any if it even is. Our coronavirus response is a total mess. Ask the government some useful questions instead of focusing on protestors.

[user1477391263]

Wishandwonder

Oh do bore off, dear.
Or, treat us all to an explanation of how the virus mysteriously and magically ceases to be infectious during a political demonstration that you happen to agree with.

[ssd]

@MadameMarie

If they're young and healthy - the majority are young - then they're not putting themselves under that much risk. What they are doing is risking the lives of vulnerable people and health care workers.

They are also putting their own families at risk, if they live at home.

[confusedandtired99]

Fortunately I am already educated. I don’t think anyone would describe me as ignorant either. I can see why the protests are needed, and personally believe that what’s happened is despicable - but I can also see why it isn’t a good idea to have thousands of people gathering in the present climate. It isn’t possible to be socially distanced with so many people around you at those protests. I’ve seen the pictures and videos of my local protest. No one was socially distanced, and then this is in an area that is still not quite at its peak in infection rate. If you can’t see that it’s not the best idea in this current climate, then I think personally that you need re-education.

[MadameMarie]

Continuing these protests with thousands swarming on to the streets and ignoring the social distancing is not going to win favour with the general public who haven't been within 2 meters of their family for 3 months. Not to mention the backlash against it when the second wave hits.

[rosie1959]

@Wishandwonder

I think it is amazing that so many ignorant people have managed to find each other in one post. Please educate yourselves on why these protests are needed. Educate yourselves to understand why even in the midst of a global pandemic people need to stand up.

Why are people who have health concerns on the protest ignorant

[Hadenoughfornow]

Natural if you mean Naga, she cut it herself and did a great job!

[alwaysanewlife]

@Wishandwonder

So do you think the BLM spokesperson in Leeds doesn't understand why these protests are needed?

[Wishandwonder]

I think it is amazing that so many ignorant people have managed to find each other in one post. Please educate yourselves on why these protests are needed. Educate yourselves to understand why even in the midst of a global pandemic people need to stand up.

[MadameMarie]

If they're young and healthy - the majority are young - then they're not putting themselves under that much risk. What they are doing is risking the lives of vulnerable people and health care workers.

[ssd]

God I feel the same. Swimming against the tide sums it up perfectly.

I think the protesters are nuts. They are putting themselves and others at so much risk. I can understand their anger and distress, and support that 100%.
But don't put yourself at risk during a pandemic to do so.

[confusedandtired99]

I saw pictures all over Facebook this morning of the protests in my area. I understand why people are protesting I just don’t think it’s the time. From the pictures it looks like there was no social distancing at all.

We already still have a high amount of confirmed cases and deaths in our hospitals in the area (according to the local paper) in an article which I also saw this morning.

It’s made me feel very low. It’s like it’s never going to end. As a family we haven’t broken any rules with socially distancing. We’ve stayed home predominantly except for a few walks and food shopping. I’ve kept the kids at home even though they could both go to school because the paper keeps saying we haven’t reached our peak in infections in this area.

I’m at a loss. What do you do when everyone around you seems to be doing the exact opposite of what they should be doing? It feels like swimming against the tide.

[user1477391263]

Agreed. The Leeds protest sounds like it has responsible people organizing it.

I don't think these protests in the US (the BLM ones and the lockdown protesters a week ago) will cause a spike but they might cause a slight uptick, depending on how many people are involved.

[alwaysanewlife]

Bored students with nothing to do

I don't think this is necessarily fair. I think for BAME this is an expression of genuine pain and anger and frustration. I think the experiences and emotions behind it are genuine. But the virus doesn't give one sod why people are together - its just grabbing the opportunity to thrive and spread. The Leeds BLM spokesperson was bang on the money.

[MadameMarie]

Further protests are arranged in London for Saturday and Sunday this week.

Why? They've made their point?

Bored students with nothing to do.

[grannyhorse]

It's very worrying. We were warned to stay within the rules of social distancing and only meet up to six people. We saw what happened at Cheltenham. Now we have mass gatherings with no social distancing. Further protests are arranged in London for Saturday and Sunday this week. Would expect the second wave to be here very soon

[Thirtyrock39]

It seems so risky to have these gatherings at the moment that it actually makes me really paranoid and I start thinking they've been secretly arranged to take the pressure off DC and the attention away from the depressing figures due to coronavirus yesterday (I know this isn't true but I bet Boris is relieved)
I also worry the govt can blame this on a second wave rather than things like letting everyone head for the beach etc

[alwaysanewlife]

But we need to be careful that we don’t ourselves killed, arrested or destroy our careers in the process of fighting for equality.

Good for Leeds BLM!

Much better than the spokeswoman for the London BLM who said on a radio 4 interview 'We can't let a virus stop us.' As if it was just a cold people might catch

[alwaysanewlife]

It reads to me like you are trying to use it to defend DC

Well, M15 certainly won't be recruiting you with logic like that. I think its pretty clear I am calling out hypocrisy. With 82% of the population in a recent poll condemning DC its remarkable likely an awful lot of the people at the BLM protests were also critical of DC. And, as a personal anecdote, ALL the people on my facebook feed were who were furious and vociferous in their critique of DC are promoting and going to these BLM mass gatherings.

[user1477391263]

I am seeing a lot of "the virus is only spread by people I disagree with."

I've seen a lot of Trump types on Twitter who are now moaning about "looters spreading the virus" yet were very quiet about the spreading that went on a week or two back, when largely conservative protesters were doing their idiotic and selfish anti-lockdown protests (and not even wearing masks!)

I've also got quite a lot of very nice left-wing people on my FB who have spent a lot of time in the past few months shouting self-righteously at people for doing things like spending socially-distanced time outside, letting their children ride bikes or play bubbles in the park.... yet are now rushing to explain to us all that "when we have a second spike of the virus in a few weeks, don't blame it on the protesters!!" Or just saying nothing whatsoever. They also apparently believe that masks are magic and completely substitute for any kind of social distancing.

Because apparently viruses are these little teeny-weeny people with thoughts and feelings, who carefully refrain from spreading themselves when a crowd of people are gathered for a political purposes that the poster approves of.

It's all so blatantly hypocritical and ridiculous. On both sides.

The long-term consequence is that it will be really hard to ask people to engage in any sort of social distancing ever again. Because it's been politicized.

People who were skeptical of lockdown etc. anyway, are already starting to make comments along the lines of "So, you people who have spent the past couple of months scolding people for going out, you never REALLY believed in this, did you? It's so obvious now that it was just an excuse for virtue signaling and was all about having a socially-sanctioned excuse for shouting at people and acting superior to them."

And it's unfair, because social distancing really IS important. But it won't be taken seriously again after this.

In addition, the message has been sent out that "as long as you have a political excuse for not-social-distancing that sounds convincing enough and ticks a few 'identity-politics boxes,' then it will be excused and the police won't stop you and social media won't shame you." And a lot of people are going to start really pushing the enveloped and more and more people will quickly start to find reasons why they, too, need to break the guidelines.

"If people are allowed to break the guidelines to protest, well, why can't I break the guidelines to engage in work? I need the money because I'm not well off, that's social justice too!" "Going to church is important to me too, I think I should be able to bend the rules as well."

Let's hope the scientists are right and that the virus is getting less lethal, because we now have a lot fewer tools available for dealing with any kind of second wave.