Contributors

Monday, March 30, 2020

Grab Bag of Irritation

Folks, I’m long overdue for a good old fashion rant. The past few weeks of the global pandemic has brought out some things that have really irritated me to no end. Here they are.
The Action-Adventure Story Teller 
Suddenly every media writer and every social media post is filled up with breathless stories of how they or someone they knew suffered through Covid-19. “My chest was caught in a vice grip” is a line I’ve seen over and over again. Or subheadings like “Day 5, The Worst.” It honestly reminds me of a paperback I’d read in the checkout line at the grocery. I guess trying to be an “influencer” extends to global pandemics too. Not only are these not helpful to people who experience anxiety, but they also incite panic AKA what we don’t need now. Social media is an awful place for something so private. Why do they feel the need to tell their illness stories? How does that help? It really, really doesn’t, assholes.
”We will never be the same again.”
This line has to go away forever. It’s so fucking played and not really special just for this occasion. Isn’t this true of ANY life experience? Or, perhaps, something positive that happens on a worldwide level? Where is the wall to wall coverage of rising life expectancy in the world that has made us “never the same again?”
Insanely Negative People
I had someone tell me the other day that my son won’t get to play baseball for the rest of the year. And that all sports everywhere is done for the year because of how awful this is going to be. First of all, thanks for the positivity, fucknut. Second, how the fuck do you know? No one really knows what’s going to happen so being dire, again, doesn’t help people (like me) who dread excessively. Far too many normally negative people are feeding on this. They love how miserable everyone is. Let’s not let them do that.
Insanely Positive People
Donald Trump is an example of this. This is not going to be done by Easter. It may be that parts of the country are going to shift back to normal but some may need longer amounts of time and testing.
The fucking toilet paper thing
Seriously, why? And I’m also tired of the psychological explanation that “people need to control something and feel comfort.” Barf. This is a great example of how dumb people can be. TP is what you need for this pandemic? Really?
Imperial Declarations of Certainty in Uncertain Times
I’ve seen this a lot from the overly positive and overly negative sides of the issue. Everyone is basically guessing right now how this will play out. You can’t look to Italy and say that it’s going to happen here. Our country is so different and more spread out. Some areas might be the same. I heard one of my favorite pundits say, “By the time this is over, every American will know someone who died from Covid 19.” Really? I don’t know anyone who has died from the flu. I know one person who died in a car accident. Many more fatalities from that over the years, even with the direst predictions.
Gleeful people who “saw this coming.”
I like the U’s, Mike Osterholm. He’s a much-needed epidemiologist that is largely helpful right now. But he seems a little too happy about this. So do some other health care professionals and analysts. So do doomsday preppers. This isn’t “cool,” guys, and you being right makes this a tragedy, not an accomplishment. Osterholm is fond of saying “Hope is not a strategy.” Ok, but can we work on strategies that give us hope?
The doom and gloom from the media
Why aren’t we seeing recoveries listed along with deaths? They are showing this in Minnesota, thankfully, but I don’t see it anywhere else. Many people are recovering. Let’s fucking celebrate that as well as mourn the deaths of those who we have lost.
As we move along through this, more rants could be in the future😎

1 comment:

Nikto said...

"Why aren’t we seeing recoveries listed along with deaths?"

You must not be paying attention. The two people who recovered that immediately come to mind are Amy Klobuchar's husband and Tom Hanks.

As for sports, they've already moved the Olympics back a year, and it sounds likely they'll cancel the NFL season, and a lot of colleges will probably cancel their fall sports. I imagine this will happen at all levels, though it's still too soon to make a determination at this point.

It's probably best for the safety of the players: if athletes try to compete at top levels without the proper conditioning and training because they've been off for a few months, they're not going to play very well and will just wind up getting injured because they lack muscle mass.

Sports is life for a lot of people, but in the grand scheme of things, these cancellations should be viewed as a minor disappointment. In terms of "essential services" sporting events should rank near the bottom -- they're a nexus for the spread of disease. Italy's huge infection rate is believed to have been caused by a Champions League match between Atalanta and Valencia, the so-called "Game Zero."