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“Even in a society with fairly robust protections, as ours once was, the most dangerous misinformation is always, without exception, official.” 🙌🏻🙌🏻👊🏻

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I clicked like but that isn't true. We now live in an inverted totalitarianism system with the oligarchy and the largest corporations in charge and our government's carrying water for them. Big tech actually knows what's in your mind better than you do and they exploit it for more than selling you stuff you don't need that you buy with money you don't have. They are connected at the hip with the security state; you might call them Big Brother. The largest construction projects in the US are Data center's; 10s of billions worth; what do you think that's all about? You don't have to be a nut to question W T F is going on and what's the end game.

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"Big Tech actually knows what's in your mind better than you do..."

"You don't have to be a nut to question W T F is going on and what's the end game..."

1. Stuff that you don't need...

2. Stuff that you buy with...

3. Money you don't have...

If this isn't the end game, then what is? Or is it too frightening to lend words to?

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That's pretty much it. Although I don't know about Them being joined at the hip; it seems to me that they're more like a headless octopus with triple-jointed tentacles. But they're definitely joined. No one should confuse the result with omniscience; the data point connections are probably generating more noise, more misinformation, and more opportunities for overly ambitious and extravagant misinterpretation than if the overseers were simply operating in an admitted vacuum of ignorance. A condition which is at least humbling.

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Medicare is getting a substantial premium increase. Literally ~half the increase is for an Alzheimer's drug that A doesn't work and B where there was actually direct collusion between the FDA and the Big pharma corporation. Of course there's been regulatory capture since forever but this was a New low in criminality. I don't exaggerate, actual criminal behavior. Check it out.

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I checked it out. Interesting. Seems the FDA has been under fire from

Alzheimer patients and their families and Alzheimer advocates to approve SOME therapeutical drug that treats the disease and get it on the market. Seems dubious, insofar the drug (Adhulem, produced by Biogen Pharma) has been widely panned by neurologists, and only slows the onset of Alzheimer symptoms. Biogen has reduced the cost of the drug by half. No evidence of criminality.

A few snippets pulled from the links (worth a read) below that give a rather concise overview:

"...U.S. health secretary Xavier Becerra on Monday ordered Medicare to reassess a big premium increase facing millions of enrollees this year, attributed in large part to a pricey new Alzheimer's drug with questionable benefits....Becerra's directive came days after drugmaker Biogen slashed the price of its $56,000-a-year medication, Aduhelm, to $28,200 a year — a cut of about half."

"...There were previously no drugs cleared by the FDA that can slow the mental decline from Alzheimer’s, which is the sixth-leading cause of death in the United States. The agency has approved Alzheimer’s drugs aimed at helping symptoms, not actually slowing the disease itself...Federal regulators have faced intense pressure from friends and family members of Alzheimer’s patients asking to fast-track aducanumab, but the road to regulatory approval has been a controversial one since it showed promise in 2016."

"...Becerra's move came after prominent Democratic senators urged the Biden administration to take immediate steps to cut rising drug costs for seniors. Much bigger curbs on drug prices promised by Democrats are hung up in Congress along with the rest of President Joe Biden's massive social agenda legislation. That bill would cap at $2,000 a year the amount Medicare recipients have to pay out-of-pocket for medicines, require drugmakers to pay the government rebates if they hike prices faster than inflation, and authorize Medicare to negotiate prices for certain medications."

"...Aduhelm is the first Alzheimer’s medication in nearly 20 years. It doesn’t cure the life-sapping condition, but the Food and Drug Administration determined that its ability to reduce clumps of plaque in the brain is likely to slow dementia in its earlier stages. However, many experts say that benefit has not been clearly demonstrated."

"...Call In The Detectives: With the temperature being turned up on the agency, Acting FDA Commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock, who was not involved in the approval decision, has asked the Office of the Inspector General to conduct an investigation into her agency over the matter. Biogen says it welcomes a probe."

https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/medicare-told-reassess-premium-hike-alzheimers-drug-82178309

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/07/fda-approves-biogens-alzheimers-drug-the-first-new-therapy-for-the-disease-in-nearly-two-decades.html

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/aging/new-details-emerge-drug-may-slow-alzheimer-s-disease-n1096561

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/aging/fda-approves-controversial-alzheimer-s-drug-biogen-n1269645

https://www.fool.com/investing/2021/07/22/biogen-defends-controversial-alzheimers-drug-as-fd/

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Try spending $15 bucks on Public Citizen to find out what really happens in the drug approval process. It's basically a corruption based system in so many ways. Science says no; management overrules, drug makes money for Wall Street which is why they're in business. The difference between this drug/scam is the direct collusion. It's very much like the Boeing 737 max; the FAA got in bed with the corporation to a greater degree than before. The drug has not proven efficacious. This is NOT unusual for New meds that get on the market. What is New is the level of corruption and direct participation of the regulator? in the process. In China, the regulator and the CEO would be in jail where they belong.

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We've become numbly inured to the corruption that surrounds us in the U.S. The Chinese, on the other hand, are regularly reminded by their government that this sort of behavior quickly leads to a bunk bed in a Xinjiang gulag. So it's rare. On the other hand, you and I would be summarily dispatched to the gulag for little more than these two posts.

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Interesting point about data centers. Technology= loss of freedom.

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That would make a great motivational poster. (That's the cynic in me speaking.)

You can't interject principles into an amoral, and fundamentally nihilistic, social organizing system like neoliberalism. They are incongruent.

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Jan 29, 2022Edited
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The new S & M from big tech; Surveillance and Manipulation!

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Jan 27, 2022
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Interesting linking disinformation and pornography. I imagine the cohort which most strenuously objects to misinformation is reliably indifferent to pornography, and almost certainly not responsible for its ubiquitousness. Conversely, it's a safe wager that the most ardent patrons of pornography are indifferent to disinformation and probably too distracted to care.

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true...I'm betting the cohort screaming about their liberty to not take the vaccine are anti-choice when it comes to abortion.

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To take a vaccine and to become pregnant are both choices (don't kid yourself into thinking otherwise) and to (potentially) die from a vaccine and to (affirmatively) kill an unborn baby are also choices. But the outcomes from those choices are quite different.

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Pretty sure censoring porn is just as bad as censoring anything else.

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I know it is - I look at what happened once Canada adopted the anti-porn laws Andrea Dworkin and Katherine MacKinnon got passed in Minnesota, only to have them struck down by US courts as "unconstitutionally overbroad".

Canada's Supreme Court said "True, but We Must PROTECT Women From the Evil Effects of Pornography!" Much of what they ended up censoring was either done by women for women, and a lot of the rest was only "porn" if you think ESQUIRE is beyond the pale, and PLAYBOY was obscene....

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Jan 29, 2022
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And you can't be bothered to parent? You'd censor everybody because you refuse to take responsibility for your own children, but expect society to do your job for you?

I don't have kids - though my former Partner and I volunteered with a number of Profoundly Gifted ones, as former Gifted Children ourselves who dealt with the educational system not knowing what to do with us. So I have little to no sympathy for parents who blindly trust institutions with their children.

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It's people fucking, but in higher definition.

Incidentally, sex still leads to children. I'm sure more than a few of us were conceived in some relatively amorous conditions (November birthdays, anyone? Your conception date could very well be Valentine's Day).

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Jan 29, 2022
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Porn is like anything else: you can indulge, but take care to watch for blow back.

Also, you're probably playing some really shit video games by yourself.

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Pun intended? :)

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Lol no

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“Fueling drug addiction”? So you’re saying that all porn stars are “drug addicts” (because why else would they fuck for money unless they were junkies, right?). Do you have any evidence that the rate of drug addiction is significantly higher in the porn industry than it is in, say, the restaurant business? Or any other business? I worked in restaurants for two decades and I can assure you that the majority of the people in that industry are either high, hungover or both.

I’m curious what you’re doing right now to stem the evil tide of drug addiction, since that’s what you really care about. “It isn’t porn; it’s the drugs that bother me.” That’s what you’re implying, correct?

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Your argument doesn't even make any sense, unless you're so censorious you think the only book anybody should read is the Christianist Bible.

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How about "weather porn"? Could use some now with the big snowstorm due to the NY City tomorrow!

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I agree, weather porn has replaced "if it bleeds, it leads". That is especially true where I live in New England where people clear all the grocery store shelves of bread and milk at the hint of a serious snowstorm.

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Real quick

Did they do a Sharknado where they all have COVID yet?

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At least everyone knows that porn represents fantasy, not necessarily real-world experience. And the few who don't realize that, I pity their partners.

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Probably not too many partners with the "true believers"

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You sound like someone who is hung like a baby carrot - my porn tapes are legit!!!

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Tapes?

A connoisseur is among us!

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Tapes are the real thing, it's all "Fake Porn," now!

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What? There’s nothing “fake” about the chick I just watched on xvideos getting the shit fucked out of her. That was real. Take your puritanical bullshit somewhere else.

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Actually, it might not be very real. Porn is theatrical, and like any theater, it is composed of illusions, or as one pornographer said, 'What happens in the studio has almost nothing to do with what you wind up seeing in the movie.' In other words, it's not different from other artistic media. If you doubt this, check with some of the people who do the work.

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Thank you, someone who understands my innocent comment. I cannot believe the responses I have received. Of course porn is fantasy, the makers of porn want to explore the fantasies of their consumers. I have no ill will towards porn or the consumers, however, I am aware of the effect that online porn has had on the sexual attitudes and expectations of young people and, like Barbie for young girls, it sets the bar pretty high. In any case, I certainly stepped in it.

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Obviously, a lot of the performers are probably exaggerating their enjoyment; they’re actors, after all. But I’ve known a few porn stars who really did like the work. They just like being sleazy (and getting paid for it), which I’m all for. I’m always FOR women feeling more comfortable doing the things they like to do, free of judgement. And, in a case of life possibly imitating art, every chick I’ve fucked in the last twenty-five years or so (probably around 400 women) has definitely been dirtier and more awesome than before, like, 1995. That could maybe have something to do with me and being comfortable with my own personal kinks, it could have to do with a generation-and-a-half growing up with easy access to porn. I don’t know. I try not to think about it or analyze it too much. But it’s definitely fun.

Re: what I said about the the chick I just watched on xvideos getting fucked being “real,” specifically: what I meant was, there was definitely a big dick in her mouth and pussy. That was real. It happened. It’s not “disinformation” or whatever that dipshit said.

I think it’s funny that anybody could watch porn and think,”There’s no way that’s what sex is really like…” Maybe not for y’all, but I fuck like a pornstar haha!

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I wasn't thinking how the actors felt about the work but rather that their behavior and mentality when they were working would be different -- more oriented toward its subsequent representation on the screen than toward getting pleasure out of it (or any other personal benefit).

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So what you’re really saying is,”It’s not possible that the woman getting fucked in this porn clip is enjoying this sex as much as she seems to be; she’s just pretending.” Which, bullshit.

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Great. Cool comment.

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You just go online to yell at people? Really, take your pathetic habits to the street where you can stand on a street corner and hurl epithets.

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Who’s yelling? There wasn’t a single exclamation point in my post. I’m laughing, actually. Laughing at you.

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Do not confuse things. Porn is porn, do not like it do not "use" it whatever it means Censoring people questioning the official narratives is suppressing political dissent and freedom.

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And Jew Hate too

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Love you bio!

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Jan 29, 2022Edited
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Sorry that as a human being I have opinions and the freedom to express them. I could continue by babbling incoherently about nothing, but you already covered that.

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Jan 29, 2022Edited
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You might not ever hear back from the fact checkers with that assignment.

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Hmm…. fact checker? A rich pool for pick up lines.

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Great article. As brutal as your description of the Covid clown show was, you understated it. Masks do not work. At all. Children are being harmed. This is a dire issue. We have to end the forced masking of children 7 hours a day while adults go to the bar down the street and drink for hours without a mask. Children are at virtually no risk. And vaccines and masks do NoT stop Omicron spread. The level of lying on masks is stunning. We need to demand this end right now!

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"Sweden decides against recommending COVID vaccines for kids aged 5-12" https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/sweden-decides-against-recommending-covid-vaccines-kids-aged-5-12-2022-01-27/

"Boris Johnson tells schools in England to end mask-wearing policy" https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/jan/21/boris-johnson-tells-schools-england-end-mask-wearing-policy

Is that misinformation?

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Facts which contradict the narrative are the most dangerous of all.

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Funny how the only study(that I know of) came out of Bangladesh showing marginal effect of masks. Seems like an easy study to do

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This bothers me, too. You would think, since people in some east Asian cities have been masking for decades during flu season, that there would be a wealth of information available as to the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of the practice. You would think that public health officials in the West would be able to draw on this data to support their mask mandates. Or to call the whole thing off as useless, or -- middle ground -- to say masking is perhaps marginally effective so have at it if you wish. But no, we must obey the diktats of the Fauci -- for he IS science -- even after he flip-flopped and lied about it early on.

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They do call on studies that they have done themselves, which are so badly designed they are laughable. They are NEVER controlled, and are always small.

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Indeed the Arizona study on school children done by the CDC...absolutely farcical.

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Controlled studies are easy to do, and there have been dozens during the last hundred years. Every one showed that masks did not stop spread. Even the N95 masks do no good.

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@Linda—Agreed. And isn’t the takeaway that the n95 mask filter up to .3 to .5 microns while the viruses is .1 microns?

Additionally, there is no way that some air is not going to leak through the edges of the mask. (I saw somebody quoted 18% leakage). I imagine you can put some duct tape around the edges but then you would be breathing probably more triple the amount of carbon dioxide than normal, which in turn will eventually make you gumpy. Or maybe this is the ultimate goal:-)

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It is not only bad for your heart to keep breathing in your own CO2, but it makes you stupider. That's not a joke--the more CO2 you breathe in, the more intelligence you lose.

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You are not “breathing in your own CO2” as the mask allows for air to be freely exchanged, as witnessed by the fact that the mask does not cut off your oxygen. The mask, if well sealed, filters out the virus that may be in the air. It does not filter out air, or prevent the expulsion of CO2. The more bad science you are immersed in, the more intelligence you lose.

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I'm not going to get into it with you, John, but multiple scientific studies show you are wrong on both counts.

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Agreed. We seemed to throw out everything we believed and knew about respiratory viruses during this pandemic

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Here is an analysis of the data that shows both why the studies are hard to do and how the study itself showed masks don’t do anything. https://www.argmin.net/2021/12/01/unblinding/

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Indeed, it is relatively straightforward, but not easy, to determine whether masks can directly affect the wearer, very difficult, if it is possible at all, to show second degree or indirect effects. Besides, results of all the studies are so close as to be statistically insignificant. The rate of infection is so low that samples sizes would have to be larger than realistically possible to perform a truly controlled study.

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As far as I know, the Danish study was the closest to a decent study on primary control. Now I hear people betting on N95 as primary control, but I haven’t seen any trial studies. My own opinion is that the rational behind “my mask protects you” was lost when people realized the primary transmission was aerosols. Every time I look for studies on masks now, all I find is modeling or filter efficiency studies.

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There are lots of controlled studies, and even meta-analyses of studies. The CDC's own guidance for masks with the flu virus is that they don't do any good. The flu virus virions are larger than COVID virions. Both are airborne. Ergo, mask wearing is ludicrous. It was always ludicrous. They knew that in 1918, when they did a study comparing two cities, one of which masked and the other didn't. Flu spread at exactly the same rate. There have been dozens of studies since on masking, and they all show the same thing.

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Indeed, all these studies show there is no statistical difference in infection rates between a masked population and an unmasked population. The whole thing is government sponsored silliness.

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Oh well, when I go to work with COVID patients I still opt for an N95 and the rest of the PPE. So far I have been lucky not to get COVID given the apparent uselessness of said masks. I am reluctant to wander the ward without one. Would you go maskless in the COVID ward and am I just superstitious?

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I hope you are just an orderly because this comment shows a lack of critical thinking unbefitting of a health professional. You do know that the vast majority of health professionals have caught Covid, presumably many from their patients despite their use of N95s. Maybe you do have a magic mask.

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Well, I would presume you would want to follow the science, and as a health professional you would know that virions are much smaller than the weave of surgical or N95 masks, and since COVID is airborne, any mask that does not block virions or allows breathing would not contain them. Ergo...the fact that no controlled study has ever shown a benefit. But you'd know that, right, since you've read the studies? You do know that "I've always worn a mask and I haven't gotten COVID, so masks must prevent COVID" is not a legitimate study, right?

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Same holds true for ALL your coworkers, None have gotten COVID?

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I don’t know. Do you think ivermectin has cured somebody when they get Covid, take ivermectin, and feel better the next day?

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Here's something you might want to read. Links to hundreds of studies. https://palexander.substack.com/p/masks-for-children-the-evidence-indicates

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You have to take the mask off at some point, even an N-95. Then "Bang" goes that theory.

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True, although I think you should be able to see a difference in the rate of transmission between groups if the sizes were large enough. Quite a few people in any group would never be around people outside their household without a mask on. It’s obvious at this point that everybody is getting exposed.

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Maybe this is an issue of the definition of "mask." Here is a recent study from the Max Plank Instutute in Germany that shows FFP2 masks are highly effective.

https://www.mpg.de/17916867/coronavirus-masks-risk-protection

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Modeling.

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Jan 27, 2022
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Substack newsletter idea for you: Writes "Chinese Spitting: Ancient Folkway, or Crude Habit Just For the Hell of It"

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This is a dangerous false claim. Masks (good ones) work are very effective at reducing your chance of getting infected. Children don't understand the consequences of their or their parents' actions, unlike well informed adults.

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Well informed adults know that there is NO reason to mask children.

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Those not in the Corporacratic Covid Cult.

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You are completely wrong. N95 masks have been mandated and complied with in Germany and Austria for a year, but their cases are surging. There is ZERO correlation between masking and low case numbers.

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Even N95 masks have to be worn and used correctly to have proper effect. And replaced often. If that's not done - and a lot of people simply will not do it properly - then effectiveness is poor.

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Here, let me translate for you, since I understand a little Arrogant Butthole myself. "If only THOSE people could and would do it right, then this whole virus thing would vanish. The poor, the ignorant, the unwashed, if only the goddamn PROLES would just do as they are told by their betters," you patronizingly explained in Upper Buttholese, "why then this whole pesky virus would vanish. Indeed." Then you sniffed and said, "Oh, pissboy, bring my bucket!"

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Sorry I came across that way to you. However, I was only pointing out a fact. N95 masks have to be used properly to work, and most people won't take the time to learn how.

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Sorry I came across so extra snarky. I think we're all a bit jumpy nowadays. Cheers and good tidings!

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What is the point of discussing if most average people know how to wear N95s correctly in a society where only maybe 10-20% of airplane passengers are even bothering with KN95/N95s?

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Amen bro

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so the old Socialism joke? They're just doing it wrong?

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A nurse told me this on Sunday, February 28, 2020.....seems to still be true on Friday, January 28, 2022. I remember the date because it's the last time we were all together! Masks are a joke and an entire generation of children will have suffered for no valid reason.

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You may be right, but just as a casual observation, I have been wearing a mask in public for the better part of the last two years. In that time I have not contracted a virus of any kind. That could just be coincidence, but I don't remember ever going even six months without getting something before this and I'm 64. My wife and my daughters and their families all have had the same experience. Maybe we've just been really lucky...

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Do you carry a tiger protecting rock? Because I would bet good money that you haven't been attacked by a tiger.

Correlation is not causation.

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More casual observation: I have, like you, mostly worn masks in public since early 2020. I have not had reason to suspect I caught COVID, but I've caught colds and flus and other bugs in that time.

I did go maskless this past summer on a visit to friends in places with higher COVID rates than my home area, among mostly mask-free people, and caught zip.

Earlier, friends of mine caught COVID despite being masked among the masked.

It's pretty clear mileages vary, and masks are no panacea.

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Have you been tested to determine whether you're immune to COVID? Because one of the biggest problems with this whole mess is that the propaganda has deliberately led people to envision the virus as worse than smallpox and the Black Plague combined. In fact, while it's not pleasant, it's usually no worse than any other bad cold or nasty flu. I know, because I've now had both major versions.

The fact that for many a bout of COVID can be totally asymptomatic has been carefully underplayed to reinforce the demand for masking and social distancing and running to get your increasingly useless vaccine boosters while saving up to buy more test kits when the government stops providing freebies. People like you and me (I just turned 74) are warned in tones of doom we're at risk of death if we don't obey.

Nevertheless, if you want to be a target for rabid hysterical condemnation, just tell people you've had it and it's not that bad. With the media pounding on "death tolls" every day for two years, the public conception is that anyone who got COVID was doomed. Now, as it becomes clearly that just ain't so, we're switching to the horror of "long COVID".

And now Pfizer is lobbying to make an annual COVID vaccine mandatory. The Great COVID Con marches on. #FollowTheđź’°

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I have had the same experience. Barely anything that qualifies as a cold in the last 2 years and never sick once. On the other hand, I also haven't been inside an office since March 2020, an airplane since 2019, or hanging out in crowded spaces inside or outside since then too. But I have continuously been with close friends and family - unmaksed.

While masks do help in stopping the spread of regular colds and such like, that we are physically interacting with far fewer people than before likely also plays a role.

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That is very similar to my own experience; in fact, I got one of the last boxes of N95 masks on Amazon (that I could find, late Feb 2020) and used those. It could be the mask, luck, natural immunity, or even having an asymptomatic infection. Who knows?

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COVID May yet turn out to be a nothing burger; less than a million deaths in a country of 330 millions over two years, mostly seniors OR it may mutate into the end of life as we know it scenario. The US killed millions in Vietnam and Korea alone and of course many more died in the few years of WW I & 2 and society survived and moved on. I believe that the likely scenario here will be the same but it's not beyond the range of possiblity that this could end society as we know it.

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