4 ms·

It is amazing reading about past pandemics. I thought all of the crazy conspiracy theories, and protest were a 'modern' phenomenon because of the internet. Bu

It is amazing reading about past pandemics. I thought all of the crazy conspiracy theories, and protest were a 'modern' phenomenon because of the internet. But, All of the past pandemics had: Conspiracy Theories. People Not trusting doctors. People saying we must trust doctors Protest The Government Protesting the Protestors Quarantines where people loose touch, get depressed, drink, -- everything we saw. THEN, it is also common to all past pandemics that people 'Forget' them. They fade away. It seems to be another natural reaction, to forget the impact, it fades away.

LapsangGuzzler 3y ago
> It seems to be another natural reaction, to forget the impact, it fades away. I think this is pretty universal for a society, our collective memories are pretty short and highly influenced by the newest threat. A perfect example of this is US law enforcement tracking of anti-government white supremacists in the 90s. After the OKC bombing, FBI dedicated significant resources to infiltrating and tracking white supremacist and extremist anti-government groups. Then 9/11 happened and the entire LEO and intelligence community put all of their weight into Islamist counterterrorism and they stopped tracking white supremacists altogether. 22 years have gone by and we’re just now starting to rededicate those resources back to white supremacy now that the movement is much more active.
hef19898 3y ago
I have a history book at home about the Plague. Re-reading that during Covid really drove the point home tgat as a society we are much less advanced than we love to believe. At least the people back in the 13-15th centuries, and before, had tue excuse of simply knowing jack shit about diseases, viruses, bacteria and the like. We on the other had none of those excuses.
- jacquesm 3y ago
  Worse still: if there is another pandemic next year I would expect that to fare even worse than COVID because now all of the jackasses that were downplaying the last one will have the prevention paradox to give them even more ammo. And just to think that we were very lucky that COVID did not have a slightly longer incubation time or a higher mortality, and that vaccine production went from a stand-still to overdrive as fast as it did. Lucky doesn't even begin to describe it.
  - hef19898 3y ago
    Yeah, we were lucky. Because despite the first realistic shot at fighting a pandemic in history, we still kind of botched it. Bad enough even, that we still suffer the political fall-out all over the place.
    - jandrese 3y ago
      There is still a sizable chunk of the population, polling in the double digits last I checked, that thinks COVID was a government hoax to take away their freedom. These people vote.
      - hef19898 3y ago
        Oh yes, they do. And that is on top of the 15-20% in every western democracy that has no issue voting for wannabe fascist and totalitarians. The upcoming election cycles will be interesting to watch. And obviously vote in, hoping it kind of makes a difference.
        jacquesm 3y ago
        It is seriously worrisome. Perfect storms like this don't come around many times in a century and when they do you can have massive fall out. It's pretty weird how we are both on the cusp of massive progress and potentially a massive setback at the same time. I don't recall that being so prominently the case as long as I've been alive.
        hef19898 3y ago
        I don't remember anything like that neither, not that it means a lot but my chiodhood and youth was the end of the Cold War and the fall of the Soviet Union. It feels that democracies are more fragile now for a lot of reasons. The only historical, recent that is, that is comparable seem to be the 30s of the last century. Well, at least I don't wonder anymore how people like Hitler and Mussulini came to power.
jacquesm 3y ago
Good thing there wasn't such a thing as a BSL-4 lab then in Kansas... For sure there would have been a 'lab-leak' theory to go with it.

LapsangGuzzler 3y ago

> It seems to be another natural reaction, to forget the impact, it fades away. I think this is pretty universal for a society, our collective memories are pretty short and highly influenced by the newest threat. A perfect example of this is US law enforcement tracking of anti-government white supremacists in the 90s. After the OKC bombing, FBI dedicated significant resources to infiltrating and tracking white supremacist and extremist anti-government groups. Then 9/11 happened and the entire LEO and intelligence community put all of their weight into Islamist counterterrorism and they stopped tracking white supremacists altogether. 22 years have gone by and we’re just now starting to rededicate those resources back to white supremacy now that the movement is much more active.

hef19898 3y ago

I have a history book at home about the Plague. Re-reading that during Covid really drove the point home tgat as a society we are much less advanced than we love to believe. At least the people back in the 13-15th centuries, and before, had tue excuse of simply knowing jack shit about diseases, viruses, bacteria and the like. We on the other had none of those excuses.

jacquesm 3y ago
Worse still: if there is another pandemic next year I would expect that to fare even worse than COVID because now all of the jackasses that were downplaying the last one will have the prevention paradox to give them even more ammo. And just to think that we were very lucky that COVID did not have a slightly longer incubation time or a higher mortality, and that vaccine production went from a stand-still to overdrive as fast as it did. Lucky doesn't even begin to describe it.
- hef19898 3y ago
  Yeah, we were lucky. Because despite the first realistic shot at fighting a pandemic in history, we still kind of botched it. Bad enough even, that we still suffer the political fall-out all over the place.
  - jandrese 3y ago
    There is still a sizable chunk of the population, polling in the double digits last I checked, that thinks COVID was a government hoax to take away their freedom. These people vote.
    - hef19898 3y ago
      Oh yes, they do. And that is on top of the 15-20% in every western democracy that has no issue voting for wannabe fascist and totalitarians. The upcoming election cycles will be interesting to watch. And obviously vote in, hoping it kind of makes a difference.
      - jacquesm 3y ago
        It is seriously worrisome. Perfect storms like this don't come around many times in a century and when they do you can have massive fall out. It's pretty weird how we are both on the cusp of massive progress and potentially a massive setback at the same time. I don't recall that being so prominently the case as long as I've been alive.
        hef19898 3y ago
        I don't remember anything like that neither, not that it means a lot but my chiodhood and youth was the end of the Cold War and the fall of the Soviet Union. It feels that democracies are more fragile now for a lot of reasons. The only historical, recent that is, that is comparable seem to be the 30s of the last century. Well, at least I don't wonder anymore how people like Hitler and Mussulini came to power.

jacquesm 3y ago

Good thing there wasn't such a thing as a BSL-4 lab then in Kansas... For sure there would have been a 'lab-leak' theory to go with it.