4 ms·

Why can't the old be "locked up"? They already are, along with the rest of the population! > they're digging their own graves Digging our graves for when we'

by sdwa 6y ago

Why can't the old be "locked up"? They already are, along with the rest of the population! > they're digging their own graves Digging our graves for when we're old? Yes, we are all going to die, and probably when we are old. I find your framing interesting though, as if it would be the young treating old people like crap by ultimately choosing to get on with their lives as the mental health costs creep up and up. No, it's the virus, a force of nature, that is doing that. Denying our humanity by enforcing social distancing, well I fail to see how this is a objectively moral position, either. Lockdown and social distancing is fine and good, but it cannot extend towards a year or more, people will not stand for it.

TeaDrunk 6y ago
Risk of coronavirus is a gradient due to age. But more importantly IMO is the number of other people who are also at risk- the obese, the diabetic, the immunocompromised... and of course all the family and friends and roommates who also may go into isolation so that they don’t accidentally expose their loved ones. That looks very close to a lockdown to me... (especially in my country with a very high proportion of obese people. There’s probably an order of magnitude more of people living with an obese person.)
YeGoblynQueenne 6y ago
>> Digging our graves for when we're old? Yes. If we don't treat the old now as we want to be treated when we are old ourselves, why would anyone do us the favour? We work towards the world we'll live in the future, right now, in the present. What we do now, how we behave towards those whose place we will be in one day will determine how we are treated when we are in their place. >> Denying our humanity by enforcing social distancing, well I fail to see how this is a objectively moral position, either. This is a bit of an exaggeration, don't you think? "Denying our humanity..."? By not going to the pub? I note also that the narrative seems to have shifted a bit lately. A few weeks ago it was along the lines of "we can't keep the lockdown for ever, or the economy will go bust". Now, judging from this thread, it's changed to "we can't keep social distancing for ever because our lives will be destroyed". Or just because the weather is good and people must go to the pub.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- sdwa 6y ago
  >Yes. If we don't treat the old now as we want to be treated when we are old ourselves, why would anyone do us the favour? We work towards the world we'll live in the future, right now, in the present. What we do now, how we behave towards those whose place we will be in one day will determine how we are treated when we are in their place. We wouldn't be treating old people badly by not completely shutting down the entire country. >This is a bit of an exaggeration, don't you think? "Denying our humanity..."? By not going to the pub? Humans are social animals. Being unable to socialise is dehumanising, yes. It's not just an inconvenience, it's very real and very harmful. >I note also that the narrative seems to have shifted a bit lately. A few weeks ago it was along the lines of "we can't keep the lockdown for ever, or the economy will go bust". Now, judging from this thread, it's changed to "we can't keep social distancing for ever because our lives will be destroyed". It's not a coincidence, it's because the human cost is creeping up. You're literally just observing the negative impact of lockdown on people's health, but instead you seem to be choosing to interpret it as a negative and selfish character trait. Lockdown is obviously and trivially unsustainable, but so too is social distancing in the not too long run.
  - YeGoblynQueenne 6y ago
    >> We wouldn't be treating old people badly by not completely shutting down the entire country. Can you show me in one of my comments where I advocated for "shutting down the entire country"? Or stopping people from socialising? I'm sorry but I don't have much patience for that kind of conversation. It tends to waste too much time with clarifications and refutations of wrong assumptions. Here are the HN guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html Please read them again, or for the first time if you haven't done so already. Especially the one about responding to the strongest interpretation of what someone says.
    - esotericn 6y ago

by sdwa 6y ago

TeaDrunk 6y ago

Risk of coronavirus is a gradient due to age. But more importantly IMO is the number of other people who are also at risk- the obese, the diabetic, the immunocompromised... and of course all the family and friends and roommates who also may go into isolation so that they don’t accidentally expose their loved ones. That looks very close to a lockdown to me... (especially in my country with a very high proportion of obese people. There’s probably an order of magnitude more of people living with an obese person.)

YeGoblynQueenne 6y ago

>> Digging our graves for when we're old? Yes. If we don't treat the old now as we want to be treated when we are old ourselves, why would anyone do us the favour? We work towards the world we'll live in the future, right now, in the present. What we do now, how we behave towards those whose place we will be in one day will determine how we are treated when we are in their place. >> Denying our humanity by enforcing social distancing, well I fail to see how this is a objectively moral position, either. This is a bit of an exaggeration, don't you think? "Denying our humanity..."? By not going to the pub? I note also that the narrative seems to have shifted a bit lately. A few weeks ago it was along the lines of "we can't keep the lockdown for ever, or the economy will go bust". Now, judging from this thread, it's changed to "we can't keep social distancing for ever because our lives will be destroyed". Or just because the weather is good and people must go to the pub.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
sdwa 6y ago
>Yes. If we don't treat the old now as we want to be treated when we are old ourselves, why would anyone do us the favour? We work towards the world we'll live in the future, right now, in the present. What we do now, how we behave towards those whose place we will be in one day will determine how we are treated when we are in their place. We wouldn't be treating old people badly by not completely shutting down the entire country. >This is a bit of an exaggeration, don't you think? "Denying our humanity..."? By not going to the pub? Humans are social animals. Being unable to socialise is dehumanising, yes. It's not just an inconvenience, it's very real and very harmful. >I note also that the narrative seems to have shifted a bit lately. A few weeks ago it was along the lines of "we can't keep the lockdown for ever, or the economy will go bust". Now, judging from this thread, it's changed to "we can't keep social distancing for ever because our lives will be destroyed". It's not a coincidence, it's because the human cost is creeping up. You're literally just observing the negative impact of lockdown on people's health, but instead you seem to be choosing to interpret it as a negative and selfish character trait. Lockdown is obviously and trivially unsustainable, but so too is social distancing in the not too long run.
- YeGoblynQueenne 6y ago
  >> We wouldn't be treating old people badly by not completely shutting down the entire country. Can you show me in one of my comments where I advocated for "shutting down the entire country"? Or stopping people from socialising? I'm sorry but I don't have much patience for that kind of conversation. It tends to waste too much time with clarifications and refutations of wrong assumptions. Here are the HN guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html Please read them again, or for the first time if you haven't done so already. Especially the one about responding to the strongest interpretation of what someone says.
  - esotericn 6y ago