Bálint 🎭 @szbalint@x0r.be

This account is one of the best in the entire fediverse: @lyingkhajiit

The reason why this is so infuriating is that this is just about having the wrong mindset, of not seeing a problem for what it is.

History had far, FAR darker chapters and way harder situations turn out okay in the end because people tried, they didn’t give up, they didn’t believe that all has been lost already.

As Britain’s/Sweden’s/The Netherland’s example has shown with the coronavirus, you can’t win anything if you don’t even try. So just fucking try.

Even now, as the mountain of bodies is being built people still can’t break the spell, and I’m not talking about republicans doing their cult thing.

Writing witty op-eds or focusing on whatever biden-bernie beef or even treating voting as the ultimate solution to this crisis, is still being under the spell of unwarranted normalcy.

Governors are now having to decide whether it’s worth kissing the insane wretch’s ring or let tens of thousands die from lack of supplies.

Or when Trump let 5000+ people die in Puerto Rico and most americans just sidestepped this. What the fuck were you thinking would happen when an emergency hit the continental US?

Or the dozens of credible sexual assault allegations against him? And most of the press treating him like the president with the usual weight and honorifics of the office behind him?

This is all deeply WRONG and it is still wrong even if most people went along with it (to differing extent).

...of course they knew, and of course they didn’t do shit about it, they couldn’t fix the structural flaws and couldn’t change their mindset-induced problems.

Same thing is happening in the US right now, it’s fucking declining and people see the decline and they still don’t change their mindset around this.

Trump got impeached last year but didn’t get removed and people got over that without throwing a single Molotov cocktail. Why was there no resistance? That’s fucking crazy

I was having ptsd-like symptoms because I felt violated, that in 2016 the world was like that, in one of the major democracies in the world someone totally unfit getting elected and not many people treating it as deeply abnormal.

Even almost 4 years later it’s still not seen how insane it all is. Trump is an aberration but the reaction to him is completely broken and that’s what made me freak out.

People wonder if romans knew if the roman empire was in decline and...

I haven’t told a soul here but after Trump won in 2016 I was having PTSD-like symptoms for half a year.

I didn’t know the specifics but I was dead sure about the authoritarian descent and that the shit will hit the fan with the first bigger crisis.

I was worried about Trump getting cancer or more advanced dementia and deciding to start a nuclear war, instead of actively making a pandemic worse, but that’s about the difference.

Or when privacy activists say we should use the corporate surveillance machine for pandemic control.

Banks and ISP customer support stores are mostly open depending on jurisdiction but you really don’t want to make a trip to them unless absolutely necessary.

Getting cut off from means of communication while under sustained lockdown is REALLY problematic, being careful with not using 2FA unless you absolutely need it is part of it.

Being extra careful with your phone, laptop etc is another.

https://secarch.dev/posts/2fa-is-still-too-complicated-for-most-people/

My article about how you should be recommending password managers first and 2FA only to people who can manage a lot more complexity is a year old.

I hear stories ( https://twitter.com/__apf__/status/1243728077022085120?s=21 ) of people getting locked out of their accounts lately as everything is harder during a pandemic, so now it applies more than before: do not use 2FA unless you are aware and consent to managing backup codes/devices for your 2FA so you avoid locking yourself out.

I was playing with that game last year and there were posters in-game about stopping "the mold", practicing hygiene and washing your hands, etc. that looked quite campy and thought this looks over-the-top even for a videogame.

Ha-ha, universe, well played.

I think people talking about #COVIDsurveillance miss the point, I'm with Maciej on this one: https://idlewords.com/2020/03/we_need_a_massive_surveillance_program.htm

We should use the existing surveillance system in place by Facebook, Google (and to an extent Apple) but instead of selling shitty ads and we should use it to save lives, stop the pandemic.

Then burn it to the ground afterwards.

(But what if it stays? You ask: that's the current status quo, WITHOUT using it to fight the pandemic, we're already doing the worst case.)

Everyone is dating like Tali'Zorah from Mass Effect now.

Sharing unobstructed personal space closer than 1 meter is the new serious commitment to someone.

You can see the former with South Korea: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/covid-19-total-confirmed-cases-vs-total-confirmed-deaths?time=-1..64&country=KOR

On this graph CFR was initially less, then the eventual deaths caught up with the cases.

Contrast with the US, https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/covid-19-total-confirmed-cases-vs-total-confirmed-deaths?time=-1..64&country=USA , where cases were initially undertested, then slightly caught up and CFR is now heading above 2% again as hotspots like NY, etc have collapsing healthcare systems.

11. Since deaths follow case counts with a delay, countries that do a lot of early testing have lower case fatality ratios INITIALLY than others - eg Germany with 0.5%. Once deaths catch up, Germany's numbers will suddenly look worse - approaching the 1.4% that is estimated based on studies for CFR with functioning healthcare systems.

Countries where testing initially sucks move in the other direction, they have high death rates and then casecounts go up.