PHILLY (Loosely Related to The Philadelphia Phillies)

Theater is acting like Covid's not an issue, as if it's over. Theater is mandating masks without a more comprehensive plan in place. Masks should most definitely be a requirement in densely packed indoor areas in lieu of, and during, a surge.

My biggest takeaway of all of this is really the 1) the general sociology of people is amazing & 2) the toxic individualism of it all is incredibly disappointing. It's amazing how people have broken down data and their own ideas of how to justify said data to dictate their narrative awes me.

Perfect example is the mask effiicacy stuff. Some doctor goes on TV and says these (masks) don't work anymore. And then people run with that. What the person was trying to say - because theyre a public health official, and not a politician or public speaker - is that cloth masks ON THEIR OWN don't work. The conversation shouldn't become "don't wear masks ", the conversation should be "wear these type of masks". The fact of the matter is, yes, masking works and reduces the spread and transmission of the virus. There is no argument to be had there.

Theater is implementing masking policy without fleshing it out. So now masking is required. Has the city given proper protocols to businesses? Have they let restaurants keep their outdoor infrastructure and continue business as usual without the worry of fines or legal hoops? Nope.

The point of vaccines first and foremost was/is to prevent serious disease (overloading health workers) and death. I am proof of vaccines on their own not preventing the spread. Though I somewhat sympathize with the idea that it only affects the unvaccinated is partial. I think people assume most people who are unvaccinated are tinfoil hate lunatics. And to imply those who are obese, too, implies some type of necessary eugenics. When the reality is there are also people like my kids who can't be vaccinated. Or when we should be doing more to give and support poor people, because their a large part of those unvaxed and it's not because they're straight up tinfoil Qanon kooks. Or, because people can't take it upon themselves to wear a mask indoors, let another strain mutate until maybe just maybe it does harm kids who can't be vaccinated.

This world is missing empathy by the boatloads and makes me realize this world is garbage.

The toxic individualism of it all is the reason people move forward like "ok I got mine let's move forward" bullshit like we're out of a pandemic, even though every legitimate health official will tell you otherwise.

It's astounding in WW2 people found a reason to go jump out of a plane to murder some fascists, but in 2022 god forbid a minor inconvenience to put a mask on is all one has to do as their part in fighting the spread of the biggest global event in 100 years, and somehow that's tyranny. We are all an incredible disappointment. 

pjhawks said:

as for children i honesty have no idea what the best course is because any solution has negative results for kids in some way. i'm not sure anyone has a good solution there.

What are the negative results? I think a relatively decent solution is for people to 1) wear masks, 2)stay home when they're sick/test positive, 3) get vaccinated. When Thybulle says "holistic" he's a big dumb dumb. Because a holistic approach would be implementing steps 1-3. That would reduce transmission, reduce variant mutation, reduce risk to the most vulnerable & children. It's not that hard.

As for your bar example - this shit is too much of a whataboutism point I can't get behind. Again, masks reduce transmission. If the policy isn't in place it'd be even worse. Any attempt is better than no attempt. Additionally, also depends on the venue/business. If I can absolutely guarantee everyone in the venue is vaccinated then I agree with not upholding a masking policy. But that is up to the owners' discretion and how much they want to enforce. We're talking public spaces. Ones where you cannot choose or select who enters your establishment and/or the sheer size of the amount of people makes it too hard to check very closely. The point is the upside of wearing a mask outweighs whatever downside there is. Sure, I understand people are human are going to live their lives and talk at each other very close, eat, drink, yada yada yada. Will people not be perfect at it? Of course! But it's better to do it than not do it. Not doing it gives too much of an opening and opportunity to all the fuckbags that see this thing as tyranny.

What I do know is - beyond your bar example - is every time I visited, or went out to the suburbs pre-vaccine all the soccer moms and everyone else there we're living their lives as much as possible like Covid was never a thing. This isn't new. Toxic individualism = not wanting to be inconvenienced = not wanting your world and all your hopes & dreams to be altered by something you can't control because it doesn't fit neatly into your day-to-day life. 

Theater to me is going through a huge surge with Omicron then waking up one day and like poof no more masks, CHOP's policy center changing their guidelines, the CDC changing like we had a miracle, politicians who were pro-masks/pro-mitigation policies all of a sudden changing course because it's politically inconvenient. That's theater to me.

Speaking of which - the midterms are going to be an absolute blood bath for Dems very specifically because of toxic individualism.

Good god it's only April 15th, but fuck me stuff like this is never fun. 

Yeah huge bummer to see Abner's go, but I think that's been in the works for a while.

Also RIP the Chili's (aka downstairs was Wizards). Quite the, uh, "gentleman's" club.