Sick Times: Coronavirus

[saturdayindex]

Anyone remember an album by an artist called "Sasha"(A.Cohen) called "air drawn dagger"?
Check the artwork of this album and you might see this has all been planned for years.
Everything happens for a reason, even accidents, cause and effect.

Ahh... the very album that got me into electronica back in 2002 Although the connection you make between Airdrawndagger and Covid appears at initial glance to be somewhat tenuous, it does also seem plausible. The cover art does indeed appear to resemble a coronavirus, and COVID could be said to functionally be an air-drawn-dagger. The fact that viruses can be and have been used for dark purposes is not new.

That said, Sasha heavily utilized the Virus TI synthesizer so that could have played into the album branding.

Fascinating insight!

[machinea]

11 people I know are dead from this. I'm sure it's my age demographic which have unwittingly convinced themselves they are 'young' because they are 45-55 but have not faired well. Our age group make up 20% of all the deaths, those in their 30s and under are about 4-5% of the deaths.. for now. I think it's hard to imagine the scale especially when it's no one you know personally.

I have two friends who will never ever be the same who were healthy before and now live with neuropathy, constant pain, diminished lung capacity and probably have had their lives shortened. They're in the US so their healthcare costs will continue to be a huge burden. One is a musician and he can barely play guitar anymore. All of the above happened before a vaccine was available. Most of the deaths I know personally happened in Dec last year. Since then two friends have had breakthrough cases that were pretty miserable and one of them still can't taste anything. One thing is clear to me if you are male, overweight, and middle aged this thing will chew you up and spit you out. Even being really fit isn't any kind of guarantee of not having long lasting symptoms. But each one of the things I mentioned is a strike against you and your chances of survival go down precipitously with each of those factors. Women are fairing better, even women who are overweight, because their immune systems are stronger.

I have very few friends against the vaccine at this point. Those that are I send weekly posts from the Herman Cain Awards from Reddit. Watching the real time horror of a 4-6 week decent into death of the middle aged primarily, I'm hoping will change their minds. But at this rate in the US the death count is almost 80% antivaxx conservatives. Vaccinations have drawn a very clear demarcation between the political parties.

Trump supporter✔️
If male has Goatee ✔️
Prayer warriors called ✔️
swimming in horse paste ✔️
begging for a vaccine ✔️ (I thought they did their research and knew how medicine and science worked so they should know you can't get vaccinated after the fact. So I dunno where their research went wrong/s)

My sympathy on the other hand, dead ✔️

The issues surrounding the powers that be and control so exceed the medical scope that I think it's focusing on absolutely the wrong thing. It's interesting that the tribes have a 98% vaccination rate. Having been wiped out by disease is very much a cultural memory. Before the pandemic plutocracy was already the prevailing system in the US. And now everyone in charge, from the billionaires to the senate are vaccinated while they rant and rave about govt control and being anti vaccine. Even that stupid Orange stump of turd is vaccinated. This whole thing is just unreal to me.

[SamuraiDrifter]

If you suddenly realized your finger was in a vat of boiling water, would you then shrug and immerse your whole arm as well? Your view seems unnecessarily nihilistic.

Where is the benefit in castigating others for realizing their finger is immersed in boiling water and wishing to resist further immersion?

It's more like if someone was holding another person's arm into a cat of boiling water, and then they started freaking out about the drops falling from the cauldron onto their own toes.

Vaccine mandates are indeed an authoritarian misuse of power - they're not wrong to be concerned about the dripping of boiling water on their toes. But it's an outgrowth of a tyrannical system many of these same people now sounding the alarm have actively been supporting. Many of the same people complaining about vaccine mandates are the same people who make excuses when the police gun down people in the street, or who speak out in favor of federal troops violently suppressing protests with tear gas and batons, or defend billionaires crushing unions and holding the world's resources hostage to enrich themselves on the backs of poor workers. They actively support state violence and repression when it serves them, but the second that power is used against them, suddenly it becomes a problem - only that specific issue affecting them of course, though. If I had a dime for every conservative complaining about a vaccine mandate now who was,a year ago, cheering on federal troops tear gassing BLM protesters and dragging them into unmarked vans, I'd probably be rich.

So yeah, if vaccine mandates cause these people to actually take note of all the extremely pervasive forms of authoritarianism and state violence that have dominated the globe for decades, that many of these people have actively supported, then I'm all for it. But if they're only pointing out abuse of power when it directly affects them, and ignoring or even defending it when it serves their interests as a privileged class, then I'm going to have an issue with them.

[Gazebo4]

If you suddenly realized your finger was in a vat of boiling water, would you then shrug and immerse your whole arm as well? Your view seems unnecessarily nihilistic.

Where is the benefit in castigating others for realizing their finger is immersed in boiling water and wishing to resist further immersion?

It's more like if someone was holding another person's arm into a cat of boiling water, and then they started freaking out about the drops falling from the cauldron onto their own toes.

Vaccine mandates are indeed an authoritarian misuse of power - they're not wrong to be concerned about the dripping of boiling water on their toes. But it's an outgrowth of a tyrannical system many of these same people now sounding the alarm have actively been supporting. Many of the same people complaining about vaccine mandates are the same people who make excuses when the police gun down people in the street, or who speak out in favor of federal troops violently suppressing protests with tear gas and batons, or defend billionaires crushing unions and holding the world's resources hostage to enrich themselves on the backs of poor workers. They actively support state violence and repression when it serves them, but the second that power is used against them, suddenly it becomes a problem - only that specific issue affecting them of course, though. If I had a dime for every conservative complaining about a vaccine mandate now who was,a year ago, cheering on federal troops tear gassing BLM protesters and dragging them into unmarked vans, I'd probably be rich.

So yeah, if vaccine mandates cause these people to actually take note of all the extremely pervasive forms of authoritarianism and state violence that have dominated the globe for decades, that many of these people have actively supported, then I'm all for it. But if they're only pointing out abuse of power when it directly affects them, and ignoring or even defending it when it serves their interests as a privileged class, then I'm going to have an issue with them.

Nice post Samurai, this perfectly explains your previous posts in this thread in hindsight. This should've been the disclaimer for those in a way, but it's good I get the context now anyway I couldn't agree more.

[2020k]

A huge hug to machinea. I'm sorry you've lost so many people to this.

U.S. cases are so high, and I know that it's because the statistics are playing catch up over the holiday/weekend, but 1.1 million cases are still 1.1 million cases. I just keep thinking about my Dad. I've gotten into arguments with him over the last two years and he's still unvaccinated, extremely high risk, and living in a suburban area that doesn't take this seriously at all.

I think I stated elsewhere in this thread, but I have a vaccinated and boosted immunocompromised partner, so we like to be extra cautious, especially during surges, and it worries me when I try to explain this to my friends and their responses are typically apathetic. We're not complete shut-ins, and actually spent the majority of 2021 out and about in moderation, but the surge here is so awful.

I've listened to Tomorrow's Harvest a lot over the last two years. The album feels empathetic to the pandemic, so It's done a good job at centering me, but last night I was listening again and it started to make me anxious, so I turned it off.

This winter feels really bleak.

[Waterbagel]

100% agreed machinea. I'm so sorry for your losses. it seems like every state legislature and federal agency has either drunk the koolaid or is so scared to push the button over the sake of their election chances next time around, that we see this individualized "choose-your-own adventure" with respect to what to do about covid. sigh

[Orbited insanitarium]

Well this is something for the books eh? I've only caught Covid Again!

Early yesterday I started having chills and a bad cough. As well as feeling achy, limp and lightheaded at points. If I move too quickly I get a hot rush to the head and start to feel dehydrated.

It might be something to do with a friend of mine being taken to hospital yesterday with a positive test. According to her, she had a dizzy spell and collapsed on the floor last night.
I'm very worried for her, considering she is about to spend several days in hospital and I had direct contact throughout the week.

Genuinely nasty.

[oakmoss&amber]

Get better soon, Orbited. Hate you have to deal with it again.

[Orbited insanitarium]

Get better soon, Orbited. Hate you have to deal with it again.

Much appreciated, thank you.
Yes, it’s not my first encounter with Covid, just about everyone I know has had it at some point.

[Negamuse]

Invited in for jab #4 so I'm checking my diary to see when I most want to leave the house again and working backwards from that to work out when to get it. Such is life in the covid age with a compromised immune system when the government decides to ease all restrictions regardless of what the infection rate is doing.

[kakanara]

my sister and my mum both had really bad flu like symptoms but both of them got tested negative for covid. weird

[SamuraiDrifter]

Good article about the anti-vax Canadian trucker protests here.

Ill Winds from Ottawa: Thinking Through the Threats and Opportunities as a Far-Right Initiative Gains Momentum

When anti-mandate protesters maintain that borders should be tightly controlled by passport checks, yet decry vaccine passports as “fascism”—when they complain about police checking for vaccine cards, but support police in arresting and imprisoning people by the million—when they object to the government placing limits on economic activity, but not to the vast economic disparities that force workers to face potentially lethal risks simply in order to pay rent—they are not taking a stand in favor of freedom so much as they are willfully changing the subject from the encroachments of state power as a whole to a few details of state policy. This is part of the process through which a spurious right-wing opposition functions to redirect rebellious impulses into ersatz movements that ultimately strengthen state institutions.

Really digs into some of the issues I mentioned earlier in this thread where folks who have spent literal decades supporting the violence of the police state start protesting against only the parts of the massive state apparatus they helped build that affect them.

[Gazebo4]

Really digs into some of the issues I mentioned earlier in this thread where folks who have spent literal decades supporting the violence of the police state start protesting against only the parts of the massive state apparatus they helped build that affect them.

Yeah you have a point, but I'm pretty sure far from all of those protestors are supporting police state violence the way you describe it. It's easy to generalize a whole movement consisting of thousands, if not more, unique individuals, that's all I'm saying.

[SamuraiDrifter]

Yeah you have a point, but I'm pretty sure far from all of those protestors are supporting police state violence the way you describe it. It's easy to generalize a whole movement consisting of thousands, if not more, unique individuals, that's all I'm saying.

I'm not saying every one of those protesters supports those things by any means. If someone opposes vaccine mandates as well as capitalist greed, police and military violence, the oil and gas industries and their building of destructive pipelines across indigenous land, anti-immigration measures, and union-busting efforts, then yeah, we're cool, though I'll definitely question their wisdom in showing up next to open white nationalists of the sort who have been repeatedly photographed in the Canadian truckers' convoy, especially when the thing they're choosing to focus on is probably one of the least bad things the state is currently doing.

That said, I think it's worth putting my views in context by saying that Trudeau and Biden are both absolutely awful and I have no sympathy for them whatsoever, and no agreement with vaccine mandates whatsoever. I think that COVID is a very serious problem, but if the state actually cared about stopping its spread, they'd provide basic things like healthcare, guaranteed wages so people didn't have to come to work sick, and housing that would keep people in more healthy and sanitary conditions. It's really convenient of the government to refuse to provide any of these basic services, for both liberal and conservative politicians to block them at every opportunity, then for them to turn around and say "give us more power to force you to get vaccinated, it's the only way." I also think that while vaccines are extremely important, peoples' misplaced skepticism towards them is rooted in an overall understandable distrust of authority that I wish they'd exercise more often.

[kakanara]

i was finally allowed to go to my university campus today : - ) im happy

[Gazebo4]

i was finally allowed to go to my university campus today : - ) im happy

That's about fucking time. Good for you!

[NorthSaturnian]

is it over yet?

[Remulo]

Although I didn't catch covid, I think a bit of my mental went away as a result of all this

[Orbited insanitarium]

Although I didn't catch covid, I think a bit of my mental went away as a result of all this

God, You cannot believe how much I agree with that, my psychological health has been basically ruined by these past 2+ years.

Being on your lonesome for such a long and sustained period gives you so much time to think about things. I can't be left to my imagination these days.

[SamuraiDrifter]

Well, over 2 years after I started this thread, I finally caught it.

It's going through my whole family; my kids are too young to be vaccinated yet and one of them ended up in the ER with a 105° fever, pale and shivering uncontrollably with low oxygen saturation. Back at home now but we're still all feeling bad.