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I don't think it matters if omicron is ultimately worse or not, nobody cares anymore. I was out visiting a gym yesterday, in an area with sky rocketing cases, a

I don't think it matters if omicron is ultimately worse or not, nobody cares anymore. I was out visiting a gym yesterday, in an area with sky rocketing cases, and no one was wearing masks. They talked multiple times about how much they cared about health, without even a hint of irony. I was initially put off, but realized that this is just the world we're in. In two weeks we'll find out if the calculus of lower death rate x higher case count means anything, but even if it turns out to be a complete disaster with record deaths, I just don't see anyone caring. Pandemic is done after omicron no matter what. We already largely ignore deaths from climate change (which depending on your calculations can easily be as high globally as covid), we don't even speculate on deaths from environmental pollution. Covid is just another environmental hazard that we will accept like any other.

systemvoltage 5y ago
I have a feeling we are gonna want more things to worry about. Done with the pandemic? Let’s latch on to something to make sure 1) You have no kids 2) We keep increasing the power of the government measures 3) Equality meaning we stoop to the lowest level, not bring up the baseline 4) Keep eroding the standard of living. Even if we are a space faring civilization, these people will make it uncool to “pollute” space or would be against fusion power if we are able. I can already see progressives against SpaceX. No optimism for you!
- time_to_smile 5y ago
  > No optimism for you! This is a weird observation to make. Optimism is by far the dominant ideology in our society and has been for well over 300 or so years. Even currently when you browse mainstream media news postings the vast majority of the articles focus on how mild omicron is and how people should get to back to work. I'll agree that the media makes plenty of money pedaling anxiety but real pessimism is nearly forbidden in everything from mainstream media to academic philosophy (seriously, Schopenhauer is basically it and he's much more of a buddhist than a true pessimist, the majority of German pessimist thinker remain untranslated in English). Reacting to any observation of concerning data as "against optimism!" speaks more to a prevalence of hard denial than the rise of true pessimism.
  - systemvoltage 5y ago
    I live in Berkeley and this is basically 90% of the people I meet, see and interact with. Btw they’re also almost all vegetarian and Soylent drinkers. I felt awkward having a sausage pizza yesterday with a friend. So my observations are at the very lease factual in my area, pretty sure factual across the Democratic Party. Progressivism isn’t what it used to be (Obama era).
    - time_to_smile 5y ago
      > vegetarian and Soylent drinkers. How does this contradict optimism? They're doing these things because they believe this will lead to a brighter, better future. Just because they disagree with your path to get there doesn't mean they are pessimists.
      - systemvoltage 5y ago
        I wasn't speaking about optimism, but just the general culture here. I am fine with vegetarianism or whatever, but making me feel awkward and imposing that on others is bothersome. "I feel like eating meat is immoral"... while I am eating a sausage pizza. I should clarify, he wasn't a proper friend, just a co-worker. They don't want a brighter future. That's the message I am getting. In some ways that's pessimism, no? One more anecdote - I had a someone from work come over to help me for moving furniture. He goes "Why do you want to have kids? Do you really want to bring them into this world?". It's this pervasive sense of pessimissm that emanates from this culture. I am pretty convinced.
mikotodomo 5y ago
Nobody cared ever. At my school every year everyone takes off their masks and wears them improperly all the time. At the beach and mall every year it's still constantly full of hundreds of people with less than 1 meter space in between. At restaurants they don't do anything different than normal except put a mask on while ordering. They could just make something at home instead of being lazy and spreading COVID.

systemvoltage 5y ago

I have a feeling we are gonna want more things to worry about. Done with the pandemic? Let’s latch on to something to make sure 1) You have no kids 2) We keep increasing the power of the government measures 3) Equality meaning we stoop to the lowest level, not bring up the baseline 4) Keep eroding the standard of living. Even if we are a space faring civilization, these people will make it uncool to “pollute” space or would be against fusion power if we are able. I can already see progressives against SpaceX. No optimism for you!

time_to_smile 5y ago
> No optimism for you! This is a weird observation to make. Optimism is by far the dominant ideology in our society and has been for well over 300 or so years. Even currently when you browse mainstream media news postings the vast majority of the articles focus on how mild omicron is and how people should get to back to work. I'll agree that the media makes plenty of money pedaling anxiety but real pessimism is nearly forbidden in everything from mainstream media to academic philosophy (seriously, Schopenhauer is basically it and he's much more of a buddhist than a true pessimist, the majority of German pessimist thinker remain untranslated in English). Reacting to any observation of concerning data as "against optimism!" speaks more to a prevalence of hard denial than the rise of true pessimism.
- systemvoltage 5y ago
  I live in Berkeley and this is basically 90% of the people I meet, see and interact with. Btw they’re also almost all vegetarian and Soylent drinkers. I felt awkward having a sausage pizza yesterday with a friend. So my observations are at the very lease factual in my area, pretty sure factual across the Democratic Party. Progressivism isn’t what it used to be (Obama era).
  - time_to_smile 5y ago
    > vegetarian and Soylent drinkers. How does this contradict optimism? They're doing these things because they believe this will lead to a brighter, better future. Just because they disagree with your path to get there doesn't mean they are pessimists.
    - systemvoltage 5y ago
      I wasn't speaking about optimism, but just the general culture here. I am fine with vegetarianism or whatever, but making me feel awkward and imposing that on others is bothersome. "I feel like eating meat is immoral"... while I am eating a sausage pizza. I should clarify, he wasn't a proper friend, just a co-worker. They don't want a brighter future. That's the message I am getting. In some ways that's pessimism, no? One more anecdote - I had a someone from work come over to help me for moving furniture. He goes "Why do you want to have kids? Do you really want to bring them into this world?". It's this pervasive sense of pessimissm that emanates from this culture. I am pretty convinced.

mikotodomo 5y ago

Nobody cared ever. At my school every year everyone takes off their masks and wears them improperly all the time. At the beach and mall every year it's still constantly full of hundreds of people with less than 1 meter space in between. At restaurants they don't do anything different than normal except put a mask on while ordering. They could just make something at home instead of being lazy and spreading COVID.