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Thread: COVID19 Factors We Should Consider/Current Events

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    Quote Originally Posted by Yngvi View Post
    The white population of South Africa was ~20% in 1970. It is now ~7%.
    The white population in LA and NY in 1970 was ~75% and ~65%. The white population of many metros, like LA and NY today is ~25%.
    South Africa’s white population is still shrinking
    70,000 Whites Murdered in ‘Modern’ South Africa; Obama’s African Legacy – American Free Press
    Minorities are typically not treated well.
    I was going to add “And all this silliness is confined to the cities and really has no effect on my life beyond it's entertainment value” but I figured I was beating a dead horse. And I still don't, as you just did it for me. Last time I was in Detroit and it's suburbs, it was day and night between them. The Black leaders of Detroit drove Whites out of downtown and that's just fine. Downtown was a wasteland and life looked pretty good in the surrounding communities.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Matt Jackson View Post
    If it's all about culture and environment, then there must be a certain income bracket in which African Americans start beating/shooting/stabbing/stealing/raping/drug dealing at disproportionately higher rates? If you don't agree with the left, and their systemic argument that most cops/judges (even black ones) are racist, then what exactly is the problem with black culture, or American culture and what exactly causes this?
    Yes, I think there is probably a super strong correlation out there between poverty and crime, and it so happens that, specific to the United States, urban black communities have dealt with some significant issues that have set them back. There was likely some statistically significant impact on the communities from bias and discrimination, but was it enough by itself? No. But I believe the government subsidization through social welfare started degrading the family unit of the black community, and the crack epidemic was a significant (and likely, causally, downstream) follow on that served to increase crime and poverty while simultaneously removing even more young black men and black fathers. Here's my full position, though: look at David Goggins. He overcame a tremendous amount of adversity, some of it unjust and racist, to get to where he was. Likewise, opportunity to many black communities is being removed by the nature of what they have become. So when I say it's because of government programs BY their race and not necessarily FROM their race... that's what I mean. Does society, including the members of the black community, need to hold each individual accountable? Absolutely. It HAS to happen. It's the egg before the chicken, and it needs to happen before the opportunity window closes further (although, admittedly, with the way things are going... that may be unavoidable for now).

    But because of the segregation, self-imposed, that cultural and family force has to come from inside of the black community. And no genetic or cultural force can truly overwhelm the POTENTIAL of the individuals. It is reliant on them to actually realize it, though.

    Quote Originally Posted by Matt Jackson View Post
    My first change would be a moratorium on all immigration (Net Zero). Agreed?
    Sure, and your problem is far more intense than ours. You imported Islam, not just a different culture. At least the majority of Central and South American countries have strong Catholic backgrounds with machismo and providing for your family being strong factors. Far, far easier to integrate that within a generation or two with American Liberty.

    Quote Originally Posted by Matt Jackson View Post
    Re: demographic change... If you truly don't find anything ethically troubling with the planned, systematic demographic replacement of the native populations of European lands, then there's not much else left to discuss. It fits the dictionary definition of genocide, though. Likewise, if demographic replacement doesn't trouble you in the melting-pot of self-interested individuals that is the USA, then that's fine too (I can understand that, at least, given your history). Describing what I want as a "whites-only tree house" is loaded though, and misses the point that until quite recently we were all allowed to have an ancestral homeland. It wasn't taboo, or a silly idea. It was normal and natural. In 2020, the only people who are not allowed to talk about wanting this are white people. No other race is treated this way.

    I think balkanization is inevitable and the option of peaceful separation would be preferable to anarchic violence. I don't want ethno-nationalism because I think my race is culturally and genetically superior to others, I want it because I can see that multiculturalism + leftist identity politics simply isn't working and unfortunately there will be no way around an escalation of violence if we remain on this path.

    Orania, while not a perfect Utopia...
    ‘Everyone in Orania is woke’: A journey to SA’s m...

    'An indictment of South Africa': whites-only town Orania is booming | Cities | The Guardian

    .... is preferable to the alternative:
    South Africa (Warning: graphic, bloody): https://twitter.com/Sillas69/status/1277014890901835777

    Here's a nice photo as a reward for being bored:
    https://twitter.com/wayotworld/statu...275264/photo/1
    So, here's my opinion. I am not arguing the demographic change. I'm not saying your theory (and it's conspiracy, but wait... don't get pissed off yet...) isn't shared by several others. My experience is that there aren't really conspiracies on this scale -- just confluences of interest from the powerful that so happen to play out like conspiracies because of human nature. That is to say... it's way scarier in some ways than a conspiracy. A conspiracy can fall apart easily, and can only be truly kept by one. That's why I don't buy the whole globalist cabal schtick. I think they're, basically, achieving the same ends through hubris and greed, though. That's far more terrifying to ME, anyway.

    And I said before -- I don't think you're racist. Really. I'm also not denying that culturally homogeneous societies can be more efficient and well-bonded, or even that said societies tend towards more homogeneous genetic distribution, either. See my replies to Yngvi below for more on my viewpoint.

    Quote Originally Posted by Yngvi View Post
    The white population of South Africa was ~20% in 1970. It is now ~7%.
    The white population in LA and NY in 1970 was ~75% and ~65%. The white population of many metros, like LA and NY today is ~25%. ... The pandemic lockdown type situations are always so unthinkable or ridiculous they could never happen here.... until they do.

    Genetics influence absolutely everything. They determine personality traits, food preferences, hormonal levels and fear responses among other things. Culture/environment also can influence everything. (ironically, how you respond to your environment and culture often is determined by epigenetics). The two factors play on each other in successive feedback loops. To discount one or the other is short-sighted.

    Removing them is what President Eisenhower did not too long ago and everyone applauded him for it.

    Personally, I don't want to see the British nation, culture and people forcibly overrun; Just the same as Yuri Bezmenov didn't want to see the nation, culture and people of India overrun.
    I am not arguing that genetics don't have impact, or that a particular ethnicity and region aren't prone to sharing more of the same genetic heritage. I'm also not arguing against that slight deviations of the mean produce large disparities in the exceptionally small populations of the tails of an ethnic group. I'm simply stating that the genetics of skin color, the same as hair color, cannot be sufficient markers to assume things about people, and that ESPECIALLY in America there is huge diversity genetically across the entire population. Also, that the free society of the West, and ESPECIALLY America, can have extreme impacts on genetic diversity due to the bias of self selection (read simply: whatever impacts slavery and forced breeding had have probably been largely erased or were mitigated).

    I'm also saying that you have to have a pragmatic position to what YOU will do with another individual. After all, all of us NOT In the tails of a demographic still need to live together and function as a larger society.

    We're also a long, long way off from anything resembling what is happening in South Africa happening here in the United States. What happens here might end up being worse, though, but it won't be the same.


    Quote Originally Posted by Frank_B View Post
    Maybe this line of reasoning has been brought up earlier and I missed it but... Now that hospitals aren't shuttered, and now that more testing is available, it stands to reason that ANY hospitalized person would likely be tested for COVID-19 whether they're there for that or not. Is there any delineation between a car accident victim who shows up and subsequently tests positive versus an 85 year old man who shows up unable to breathe and tests positive? Or are they all just "COVID-19 Hospitalizations?" This is strikingly similar to what happened all over the country when people were dying from heroin overdoses, but tested positive for COVID-19 and were coded as such.

    A person afflicted with a viral fear of the virus asked me the other day to explain why the NY Times is now saying "the average age of hospitalizations is now people in their late 30's." When I pointed out that the average of the US Population is ~38 years old, she completely didn't get it. Just went right over her head.
    It's like people don't appreciate it when I point out that the distribution of COVID-19 related SARS-COV-2 almost exactly mirrors population density, and likely DOES exactly match when you also factor in total surface area for metropolitan areas within a state. The reality of it spreading is that it happened rapidly enough, long enough, and with a low enough mortality that it CANNOT POSSIBLY constitute a large threat to society.

    WHOOOOSH.

    Quote Originally Posted by Mark E. Hurling View Post
    We are reduced to essentially the practice of using a pomander to warding off the plague as was done during outbreaks in the Middle Ages. Because: Science!
    I've been going with a garlic clove to ward off vampires. Not that yours isn't an excellent analogue, but I think the plague actually posed a significant risk to humanity.

  3. #4503
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    Quote Originally Posted by mpalios View Post
    Sully, you may be right, but I can't help but think that if Fauci was in the private sector and as wrong as he's been... Maybe not as frequently but certainly his misses have been BBBIIIGGG misses, he'd have been fired for some level of incompetence. This last coronavirus miss has been literally, world changing. Is it his fault that people listen to him? Not really, and I get that.

    Maybe I am wrong though. Wouldn't be the first time.
    I’m wrong a lot myself, I think of it as the price of being right enough of the time to make a difference.

    My point was that the supposedly big misses in that article really weren’t, except maybe for the Zika. I don’t know enough about that. Fauci’s job, I think, is actually to over prepare us, so pointing out times when he overwarned or overprepared doesn’t strike me as a solid criticism.

    As he himself has recently said, he can’t and shouldn’t make economic policy. He is supposed to be part of the advisory orchestra conducted by a leader, with his evolving info about an epidemic integrated into harmony with solid economic analysis according to the values of the country (as best interpreted by the conductor/executive).

    My impression of Trump is that he only listens to one person at a time, and maybe overly relies on people with limited purviews to integrate information for him, and then shops among them for more palatable points of view, which makes his policy moves look spastic. I guess he delegated COVID to Pence, so maybe Pence should get more of the blame. Fauci’s been doing this for 30 years, and if he were able to and bent on ruining the economy, has had ample opportunity before this. He’s not the new variable here.

    They are supposed to use Fauci, not take dictation from him.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Ayrsson View Post
    Regarding accountability for this Coronavirus mass mind-rape, this rare example of a high energy journalist gave California officials hell on the floor:

    YouTube
    Already posted, certainly worth watching again.

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    Quote Originally Posted by jfsully View Post
    I’m wrong a lot myself, I think of it as the price of being right enough of the time to make a difference.

    My point was that the supposedly big misses in that article really weren’t, except maybe for the Zika. I don’t know enough about that. Fauci’s job, I think, is actually to over prepare us, so pointing out times when he overwarned or overprepared doesn’t strike me as a solid criticism.

    As he himself has recently said, he can’t and shouldn’t make economic policy. He is supposed to be part of the advisory orchestra conducted by a leader, with his evolving info about an epidemic integrated into harmony with solid economic analysis according to the values of the country (as best interpreted by the conductor/executive).

    My impression of Trump is that he only listens to one person at a time, and maybe overly relies on people with limited purviews to integrate information for him, and then shops among them for more palatable points of view, which makes his policy moves look spastic. I guess he delegated COVID to Pence, so maybe Pence should get more of the blame. Fauci’s been doing this for 30 years, and if he were able to and bent on ruining the economy, has had ample opportunity before this. He’s not the new variable here.

    They are supposed to use Fauci, not take dictation from him.
    As I have stated earlier, I became aware of Fauci back when I was a researcher in a molecular biology biotech company (and subsequently a large pharmaceutical company) at the forefront of HIV research and that has tainted my view. He did some very shady stuff around HIV. Its pretty well-known. But I do think he is a very smart guy.

    However, I concede that you are correct in that his worst case scenarios are part of his job. Personally I understood that from the start, which is why I have always contended that the models did exactly what they were supposed to do and were never wrong in what models were designed for: predictions. It was the rampant mis-use of epidemiological modeling that is to blame for a lot of the misunderstandings about viruses and pan-/epidemics.

    I have no problem at all with someone sounding the alarm and pushing for vaccines before things get out of hand. I think that is good and prudent.

    What I have issues with are where Fauci ventures into very murky waters with the mask utility issue (he is not over preparing, he knows masks are nearly pointless) and his various comments about when/how various sports can start as well as his statements on re-opening the economy. To me, this is beyond his responsibilities as a scientist. Even scientists can be susceptible to fame.

    On a side note, another thing that has been interesting is the use of the term pandemic. What constitutes a pandemic is a bit sketchy and controversial but we can say CV 19 is indeed a pandemic if we go by the mostly accepted definition. But the word now has a tremendous panic effect, even though the flu is classified as a pandemic. It's interesting that now the word has taken on a whole new level of awareness. People will look back years from now and remember "the time of the pandemic" and epidemiologists will ask "which one? which year? last year's?"

  7. #4507
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    Quote Originally Posted by johnst_nhb View Post
    What I have issues with are where Fauci ventures into very murky waters with the mask utility issue (he is not over preparing, he knows masks are nearly pointless) and his various comments about when/how various sports can start as well as his statements on re-opening the economy. To me, this is beyond his responsibilities as a scientist. Even scientists can be susceptible to fame.
    I think we’re largely in agreement here. I do think, though, if you trace back his comments about starting sports or reopening the economy, you’ll find that a lot of it is secondhand. MLB says “we can’t open because we’re following [Fauci/CDC/“government”] guidelines” as a way to shift accountability. What Fauci does say is “if you put 50,000 people in an arena, expect a spike in cases” which is pretty reasonable, but it’s up to MLB and local officials to put their balls on the line and make the decision about whether that’s acceptable or not. At least this is how Fauci recently characterized his statements (see his response to Rand Paul in hearing from I think this week). Maybe I’m wrong and he’s overstepped, and got a bit seduced by the limelight though. It’s possible: I don’t have the time or energy to track down all the old quotes.

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    Quote Originally Posted by johnst_nhb View Post
    As I have stated earlier, I became aware of Fauci back when I was a researcher in a molecular biology biotech company (and subsequently a large pharmaceutical company) at the forefront of HIV research and that has tainted my view. He did some very shady stuff around HIV. Its pretty well-known. But I do think he is a very smart guy.

    However, I concede that you are correct in that his worst case scenarios are part of his job. Personally I understood that from the start, which is why I have always contended that the models did exactly what they were supposed to do and were never wrong in what models were designed for: predictions. It was the rampant mis-use of epidemiological modeling that is to blame for a lot of the misunderstandings about viruses and pan-/epidemics.

    I have no problem at all with someone sounding the alarm and pushing for vaccines before things get out of hand. I think that is good and prudent.

    What I have issues with are where Fauci ventures into very murky waters with the mask utility issue (he is not over preparing, he knows masks are nearly pointless) and his various comments about when/how various sports can start as well as his statements on re-opening the economy. To me, this is beyond his responsibilities as a scientist. Even scientists can be susceptible to fame.

    On a side note, another thing that has been interesting is the use of the term pandemic. What constitutes a pandemic is a bit sketchy and controversial but we can say CV 19 is indeed a pandemic if we go by the mostly accepted definition. But the word now has a tremendous panic effect, even though the flu is classified as a pandemic. It's interesting that now the word has taken on a whole new level of awareness. People will look back years from now and remember "the time of the pandemic" and epidemiologists will ask "which one? which year? last year's?"
    Do you remember the precision versus accuracy lesson from high school chemistry? One picture had all the darts randomly strewn about the dart board, while the other had them in a cluster off the board? That’s what you’re describing here.

    Listen, predictions are supposed to be tools that allow you to make choices. Further, the ability to predict is predicated on you adjusting your methods based on the outcomes of your past predictions. If your darts keep missing the dart board and only move further and further away from the bullseye, what good are you?

    But, this is how it goes in all public affairs, particularly when funding is involved. Err big, spend lots, and when you fuck up say, “but if we hadn’t then what?”

    50 years as a bureaucrat. Remember that.

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    Quote Originally Posted by jfsully View Post
    MLB says “we can’t open because we’re following [Fauci/CDC/“government”] guidelines” as a way to shift accountability. What Fauci does say is “if you put 50,000 people in an arena, expect a spike in cases” which is pretty reasonable, but it’s up to MLB and local officials to put their balls on the line and make the decision about whether that’s acceptable or not.
    When did Fauci and MLB become responsible for the health of people who -- knowing the risk, since it has been amplified non-stop for months -- decided to go to the game anyway? This is the goddamndest part of this entire charade: everybody but YOU is responsible for your health.

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    starting strength coach development program
    Quote Originally Posted by Mark Rippetoe View Post
    ...everybody but YOU is responsible for your health.
    I think the argument has become you are your other brother’s grandma’s keeper. It’s no longer about you, but a distant other. Elusive.

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