Going back to the main go-to phrase I tell people: Keep Calm, AND GET A GRIP!
Since fascism started in March 2020, people have really just, in plains terms, appear, to have lost their minds. There’s a bad flu season. Shit happens. But it’s not a reason to allow every single part of society to descend into chaos.
I tell people 2 things. The main thing is “Keep calm, AND GET A GRIP!” with people panicking over a virus that over 97% of people recover from within a couple of weeks at worst. Cases have now fallen below the highest point in April 2020, and our death rate in the United States, and most of the world as well, is below 3%. And it’s skewed that high from a slightly higher rate during the beginning. It’s really like 2%. Just as South Park said on the more deadly original SARS of 2003, there’s only a 98% chance I’ll survive. When this is done, there will only be 98% of us left. And there’ll actually be way the hell more. The second one is with everyone panicking uncontrollably, after they say, “This is serious!” I say “So is Justin Bieber!” (backups are “so are my pants” and “cheese!” [due to something funny from a short ad on Cartoon Network for Ed, Edd N’ Eddy back in the day], but those are somewhat simpler. I pick Justin Bieber because that was the fad word of 10 years ago. This year it’s “unprecedented” or “covid” or “quarantine” or “social[ist] distancing”. Ten years ago, every single comment from every person and a gigantic amount of Twitter traffic was “Justin Bieber”. In 2011, it was “Rebecca Black.” Can we please be done with losing it over a roided up flu season? And actually, the 1957 Asian Flu, 1968 Hong Kong flu, AIDS 1981-present (we’re still living with it) and possibly even the 2009 Swine Flu are more “serious”
I sadly found today that someone punctured 2 of my tires, one I just replaced last week for $130. Since it was 2, I had to get it towed. Stupid aaa says they can tow it 10 miles, outside the no extra charge range. This is when I’m already in the heart of car repair places. Then just like people really panicked last spring, even more than now, they want to get to the point we can’t even function. We can’t get documents we need to prove identity or income. We can’t get food and other resources people have needed. We can’t even file a police report for a dangerous crime because we can’t talk to someone! We can’t look for apartments with fewer being available and a huge market for apartment scams that state you can’t see it until you’ve given someone you can’t talk to on the phone or by email application money and your own FICO and information. We don’t have anything to do. I can’t say for sure I endorse all the riots, but for a number of events, I don’t have sympathy to the leaders in charge during it because THEY HAD IT COMING. Why don’t you give people their jobs back? Give them their internet access back? Give them their internet cafes, outings, restaurants and ability to get their chores and errands done back? Instead of thinking that fires, heat stroke, mass shootings, earthquakes and bombings are no longer a threat and it’s ok to close off secondary exits to a population that has high-risk people and making people do everything in smog-filled, 110 degree sun and mosquito season?
They said I had to find a way to get to the repair place 10 miles away when there’s dozens within blocks. They say I can’t be in my car on the vehicle or ride with them due to a bad flu. It was impossible not to start cussing and stating how stupid that is. I have a face covering, which only works if you’re within 3 feet of people since it isn’t airborne and is generally just spread through respiratory droplets that go 3 feet from the person and fall at the same speed as everything else without air resistance, 9.8 meters per second per second, or about 32 feet per second per second.
Then I am able to get a ride with the person anyways and it was only a block away. Reminds me of the Spongebob episode Pizza Delivery.
I’m healthy. I didn’t have to walk a mile in blazing summer heat risking heat stroke, or if it had been when fires were raging most, asphyxiation. I and mostly everyone else will survive a bad flu season. Yet no one, not me, not other people, will survive heat stroke or asphyxiation.
To those panicking over a bad flu season or problems that don’t have huge impact, KEEP CALM AND GET A GRIP.