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Thread: COVID19 Factors We Should Consider/Current Events

  1. #6571
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    • starting strength seminar april 2024
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    Australia is an interesting example of an unexpected development: The apparent abundance of people willing to help advance tyranny. Our cops, as a general rule, do not behave this way. I had no idea that our cultures were this different. Cops in the UK seem quite willing to participate in the following of any orders they are given, and I guess Australia retains that police culture. Very historically European -- do what you're told, enjoy the power while you have it, take your pension. You Ver Only Followink Ordahs. What could go wrong? You guys have some work to do -- we all do.

    over 10 cops in Australia Arrest a Man on The Beach for Not Wearing a Mask - YouTube

  2. #6572
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    Even the BBC are starting to realise the lockdown is cobblers: Covid: Is it time we learned to live with the virus?


    Prof Carl Heneghan, the head of the Centre for Evidence Based Medicine at Oxford University, says the current situation is "utter chaos" with a constant stream of new restrictions and schools sending whole year groups home when just one person tests positive. All this at a time when the level of infection is still very low.

    This, Prof Heneghan says, is the consequence of trying to suppress the virus. Instead, he argues we should accept it is here to stay and try to minimise the risks, while balancing that against the consequences of the actions we take.

    In particular, he's concerned the Covid test is actually so sensitive it's picking up what is effectively dead virus as it spots traces of it months after the person has stopped being infectious.

    "We need to slow down our thinking. But every time the government sees a rise in cases it seems to panic," he said.

  3. #6573
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    Not sure how much this is of north american's interest, but I live in southern Brazil, and things are quite interesting over here.

    First, the south's population is (still) majority white and right-leaning/conservative/whatever,thistermschangemeaningallthetime, but there's a stark contrast between places with big universities and lots of state workers vs. more blue collar cities.

    Second, all the essential vs. nonessential BS happened here as well, masks are mandatory in most places, etc.

    My parents live in a coastal city, very "diverse", with a lot of "culture", a couple of big unis and plenty of state workers that don't have to worry about their paycheck. Most people there endorse #stayathome crap, #believeinscience, and the police is very aggressive. I live in a blue-collar, ethnically Italian town, and even though mask are mandatory according to state laws, I never wore one. The gym I work at refused to shut down, we were notified four times, ignored all the orders and managed to pull some strings and dismiss the fines (that were already paid for by people from other gyms that came to train here). I know many police officers and all of them pretend not to see "transgressions".

    It seems as though places with stronger community ties have better defenses against fearmongering and power drunkenness. Even in Brazil, that has been overrun by leftism, positivist ideology and a positive constitution that almost specifies how you should take a dump, and which taxes should be employed to pay the Crap Department.

  5. #6575
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    Globally, this is looking more and more like the communist revolutions from 1917-1922.

    Which countries will become Bolsheviks and which will become fascists?

    The United States looks most similar to Russia during its Bolshevik revolution. There were four main armies:
    The Reds: Bolsheviks. Extreme leftists and the criminals they freed from prison to fight for them. Controlled dense, urban centres. Extorted money from all groups to fund themselves. Forced ideological compliance. -Equivalent to BLM/Antifa and the freed criminal population they manipulate into rioting
    The Blacks: Menshevik. Socialist allies of the Reds. Highly Regional and mostly comprised of over half minorities. (eventually attacked and destroyed by the Reds, because the left eats itself) -Equivalent to the Democratic Socialists and centrist Democrats
    The Greens: Formed their own loosely coordinated militias in mostly rural areas. Just wanted to live in freedom. Fought against the Reds, Whites and Blacks. - Equivalent to the Libertarians.
    The Whites: Big-tent group of ideologically divided, and mostly passive nationalists, conservatives, Christians, monarchists and fascists. Silent majority. Most wished to make concessions, apologize and play by the rules in hopes their enemies would see reason. -Equivalent to the Republicans.
    The Media was leftist.

    The West and Eastern Europe have switched places. Japan and China have switched places. South America is still South America. Africa is still Africa. The middle east is still the middle east. Germany is still Germany.

    Let's see how this game plays out under the new environmental conditions of the 2000's.

  6. #6576
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    Quote Originally Posted by ReconquistaBarbell View Post
    Not sure how much this is of north american's interest, but I live in southern Brazil, and things are quite interesting over here.
    ...
    It seems as though places with stronger community ties have better defenses against fearmongering and power drunkenness. Even in Brazil, that has been overrun by leftism, positivist ideology and a positive constitution that almost specifies how you should take a dump, and which taxes should be employed to pay the Crap Department.
    I can second this, reconquista.

    I took a trip to Moscow (Russia!) in late August, just before the school year began, and even though masks AND GLOVES are required on public transport, we wore none and weren't harassed at all. Also, less than a tenth of the passengers on the Metro were wearing masks, and even this is higher than the noncompliance in stores that we see out here in the regions. One lady (she was elderly, at least) was descending the escalator with a FACE SHIELD(!) on, and if I figure out how to post pics here I will share .

    But we were travelling on a weekend, not at rush hour, which may have skewed compliance downward, and lessened the risk of punishment. Apparently they do fine people 5k rubles (about $75) here for being unmuzzled on public transport, a high penalty for many people, and yet you see low compliance in most of Moscow. I also question how much of a threat a fine is, since many people successfully contested their fines (using existing laws as reasoning) for driving without PERMISSION while the whole city was on a passcode (propusk) regime, where you needed a PERMISSION SLIP to leave your house for anything other than dog-walking, shopping, or the doctor's, within 500 meylters of your home, and they used CAMERAS to cross-check that passcode database against license plates! The passcode app for your phone was really convenient to use, and you were ALLOWED two trips per week! . Surely this was a test phase as well, just like that CoVid compliance app for Ireland that was shared here earlier. And everything happening to our poor brothers and sisters in Spain, the UK, and Australia. :/

    In the stores, masks are required and I felt some sympathy for the store owners since it is THEY and not us "offenders" who get fined. It's the PEOPLE who are being harassed for non-compliance back home in the States too, right?
    But in the grocery store Vkusville, after the cashier was getting all bent out of shape about only serving us if we put on our muzzles, she eventually pointed to the self-checkouts and told us we could use them unmuzzled.
    In a BIG mall near the train station, there were guards to check that everyone entering was wearing a mask, but I just said "asthma" with an accent and fake coughed, and we were let through after a moment of confusion.
    (Rip, if you go to Walmart for your GOMAD and they refuse you entry unmuzzled, instead of your fake drink-through mask from episode XX of Starting Strength radio, you should just mumble "el asthma [cough cough]," or "Donde Estas el masko notice-o en espanol," or some other Spanglish gibberish, until you are ALLOWED entry!)

    So, one thing is, yeah, every country you visit, the big cities are worse than the suburban or rural areas. And in Moscow there were noticeably more young, healthier-looking people muzzled than in the region I'm at, so yeah, it would seem our cities tend to have more fearful, neutral-on-liberty people than the rest of the country, as reconquista noticed, too, in Brazil.

    So, yes, I think the lack of enforcement by the police in the suburbs, and even relatively less enforcement in the cities, and UTTER LACK of citizens rattling on each other over these "laws," is a reflection of the social cohesion (community ties) of the citizenry.
    Or can any of you out there provide a different causal or correlative explanation for these observed different compliance rates?

    But there's ONE MORE THING I want to stress, which is how a lot of this is probably more about our governments testing reactions before implementing permanent changes, to change our very perceptions of what is "normal" and acceptable. (and BTW, how the heck do we stop these permanent changes??).
    Case in point, back in mid-March when Mayor Sobyanin purposely leaked to the Russian MSM plans about the Metro being closed in the future if deaths get too high (to guage our reaction, I presume), most thought that CLOSING the entire METRO would be crazy, an impossible and insane endeavor!! Well, beginning March 27th, the Metro wasn't closed, but this "pass system" where you needed permission to leave your house to travel by car or transport (and there are videos of people getting arrested for WALKING TOO FAR from home without a pass, too), for only twice per week at most, effectively shut down the Metro. Normalcy perception and tolerance for liberty reduction achieved; check!

    Similarly, how many of us, even as late as June, actually thought our schools would be closed still in the Fall? We probably thought, THAT'S CRAZY! Well, the schools weren't technically shut down, just moved to online-only, and how many of us are now surprised or upset by that (our perceptions have been successfully massaged down, away from liberty).

    Don't think this is all that novel, either, this changing of perceptions to gradually erode liberty.
    I'll bring up my favorite examples again:
    -Ubiquitous speed cameras were in the early nineties considered from the twilight zone
    -Before 9/11, unticketed people could walk right up to the gate to escort and meet people at their flights (dad escorted me in July '01 right up to the gate on my first trip to Russia and upon my return home; I remember it quite well)
    -Taking off shoes in order to fly, because of some damn shoe-bomber! How crazy did we think the people were who pushed back against this back then, and yet now it too is a universal practice, even with questionable necessity or effectiveness, at least compared to proper profiling....but it's all for our own safety!
    --Exposing ourselves to the naked body scanners in order to fly. Again, our fellow citizens who resisted this and chose pat-downs instead were probably considered kooky and insouciant then, and maybe even labeled unpatriotic
    - the Germans now have to deal with large, ugly vehicle barriers at their Christmas festivals, probably because profiling is banned there, too, and it's un-PC to pursue leads on potential terrorists
    - Russian parents are harassed and in practice unable to escort their children into school beyond the guard station; even little seven-year-old first-graders must abandon their parents at the dressing room just inside the guard point. And most schools and kindergartens are surrounded by locked gates now, all because of terrorists in Beslan who shot up schools in the mid-to-late 2000s. Again, was this even the most effective way to protect the Russian plebes? Was the questionably-increased "safety" worth the trade-off in liberty to help one's children adapt to the scary prospect of attending school for the first time? And yet this, too, is now "accepted" as well.

    Isn't this all called the Overton Window, pushing changes gradually to affect what will begin to be considered acceptable social norms or laws?

    So, regardless of where you come down on the efficacy, necessity, or legality (for those of us with a Bill of Rights still) of these "temporary" muzzle rules, please consider historical examples, and analyze how easily parts of these measures could become permanent, regardless of their efficacy for their stated goals!
    And then begin (or continue!) PUSHING THE HELL BACK!!

  7. #6577
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    Quote Originally Posted by Nicholas Laureys View Post
    Isn't this all called the Overton Window, pushing changes gradually to affect what will begin to be considered acceptable social norms or laws?
    Overton window - Wikipedia

    The Overton Window is an approach to identifying the ideas that define the spectrum of acceptability of governmental policies. Politicians can only act within the acceptable range. Shifting the Overton Window involves proponents of policies outside the window persuading the public to expand the window. Proponents of current policies, or similar ones within the window, seek to convince people that policies outside it should be deemed unacceptable. According to Lehman, who coined the term, "The most common misconception is that lawmakers themselves are in the business of shifting the Overton window. That is absolutely false. Lawmakers are actually in the business of detecting where the window is, and then moving to be in accordance with it."
    The Media shifts the Overton Window. They have done a magnificent job.

  8. #6578
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mark Rippetoe View Post
    Overton window - Wikipedia



    The Media shifts the Overton Window. They have done a magnificent job.
    Is it just that controversial and frightening topics generate viewership? Thus, reporting and bias towards such topics become a self-catalyzing revenue source. I can think of no other logical motive for the media to consistently generate fear porn and other types of dramatic nonsense such as this.

  9. #6579
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    Quote Originally Posted by Frank_B View Post
    Is it just that controversial and frightening topics generate viewership? Thus, reporting and bias towards such topics become a self-catalyzing revenue source. I can think of no other logical motive for the media to consistently generate fear porn and other types of dramatic nonsense such as this.
    Maybe the media ownership has consolidated into the hands of a relatively small group of people?

    The Illusion of choice
    Today, most of our media is controlled by one of six companies. Check out this infographic on the state of media consolidation in the U.S.
    Perhaps those people have an agenda?
    Perhaps direct profit isn't the driving motive?

    Would more people subscribe to a media outlet that told the truth? Yes. However, there are none that even try...only independent journalists.

    Why is "George Soros" protected by Fox News (recently acquired by Disney?)
    Who acquired Drudge? A foreign entity? The NDA expires after the election?

    Why are current movies all ruined by social engineering messages / lessons?
    Do those embedded messages optimize profit?
    Are they required by the story?

    The control grid is no longer hidden.

  10. #6580
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    starting strength coach development program
    https://twitter.com/RJinAntarctica/s...43242001764353

    The debate with Trump should be interesting, at least!

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