In early summer 2020, my mom passed in hospice from cancer. 4mo before that she had a fighting chance, but faced intensive surgeries (ICU for sure based on experience) and chemo — all in isolation. Literally the hospital made it that choice - family has to leave. They basically gaslighted her out.
I was furious, and because the hospital was not overwhelmed. there were precautions obviously, but no - it was not filled with Covid or people dying from Covid. Utter bs.
The pervasiveness of dying or suffering alone has exploded in the last two years. It is one of the worst fates.
Hopefully, this pandemic will have served to shock us to take better care of our seniors who have been neglected for too long.
What's the point of concluding with such a cynical and subjective-at-best remark?
What is worth living for that isnt also worth dying for?
My wife and I in May of 2020 decided that a hug from our grandchildren and children was worth way more the minimal risk we had of dying from Covid should we have caught it. We ended our exile in May day and decided to let fate be fate and not let fear consume us and prevent us from enjoying our family.
I don’t begrudge others for their own decisions, but for me, the pandemic ended for me mentally on Mothers Day 2020. Time with my family is worth dying for…so if I catch it and it kills me, so be it.
On a more serious note, I may be misunderstanding the nuance of what you are saying/asking, but for me there is relatively little overlap between "things worth living for" and "things worth dying for". A few people in my life, that's it. There are plenty of things to live for. Seeing technology advance, traveling, experiencing things, meeting people, creating something of value and/or meaning, having a positive impact. Ultimately, none of those are things worth dying for. I'd rather not have them, than not have them and be dead.
Thank you, you lived up to your nick :)
I believe that, if not for the things that you would die for the things you enjoy in life would, eventually, become insipid. Then, we (maybe not all of is) are liable to enter into a spiral of existential despair at the realization that our lives are meaningless to the universe.
My daughters’ play, my parent’s affection, my wife of ten year’s love have never gotten old. I don't care what the universe doesn’t think about me as long as I have them (and time away from them to spend all morning on HM pontifying to strangers as if I had a clue ;)
Can you say the same for the sparkle you felt unwrapping iOS7? the sparkle of (secular) Christmas vanished when I was 13 and I realized that nothing I received for Christmas made me happy, and nothing I could ask for would. But knowing that in 10 days Id be back in school and get to see my crush… wow!
Cheers! Hearing that is a first on HN, quite the occasion. :)
> I believe that, if not for the things that you would die for the things you enjoy in life would, eventually, become insipid. Then, we (maybe not all of is) are liable to enter into a spiral of existential despair at the realization that our lives are meaningless to the universe.
I think you are spot on, and it may well be why the remark in the GP stuck out the me. Things like depression can accelerate that process and can force us to have this conversation with ourselves much sooner. To me now having a (self-assigned) purpose is only one thing: Less boring than not having one. It is quite freeing, and was the shift in perspective I needed to find some semblance of joy again in the world around me. Still, for better or worse, it has left me without things to completely give myself up for.
Also, clue or not, your comment is a wholesome read and I appreciate that you took the time to write it.
Provisional death counts may not match counts from other sources, such as media reports or numbers from county health departments. Counts by NCHS often track 1–2 weeks behind other data."
Your source itself says that it does not yet have complete data for January 2022.
It's a bit rich to go on about being misled by mysterious forces and trusting the CDC and so on and then "do your own research" and fail to understand the basic reporting methodology of the source you land on.
Pray, do share. Polls show the (vast) majority of Americans want to know the names of reputable news organizations.
A news org that peddled WMD or Russiagate (lets be bi-partisan) doesnt count
How would you (or really anyone I suppose) evaluate whether to trust the CDC or some other equivalent?
Also, thanks for those numbers. I don't know why that breakdown isn't more widely pushed.
- Do the numbers add up? Fake numbers often don't.
- Does the narrative have a logical flow? Lies often break apart (careful! Consipracy theories are often very consistent)
- Aethetics. Lies are often repulsive to our soul (Nazism, socialism -> see nihlism). Careful again; sometimes its “the ugly truth”
- Dialectic (for lack of a better word. Not Hegel’s type. Whatever that was). Engage and hear out someone who disagrees
- Meditate. Close your eyes and release. And overlooked Truth might pop up.
- Look around you. Does the narrative fit your observed reality? Careful! There’s observational bias.
Keep tabs of who has the courage to defend positions they disagree with.
Keep tabs of those who reveal themselves sycophants
Known personal flaw.
(Im also on the tail end of a week of COVID fever. I’m literally delusional?)
Now, you are an exceptional reader to have spotted that as a general trait as opposed to a once oversight. This is very rare and, despite our disagreement, kudos to you!
Check your math ;)
And, seek help. Life is beautiful, but depression and deep-seeded pain (dont ask me how I know. I wont share) makes us forget this.
The lockdowns have created a mental health crisis and its important we seek each other and help
Let me assure you that they, with their back history of oppression and menial jobs, are happier than the average “privileged” person I’ve met.
How do you know that? My question, really, is how do you know what you know and are not being misled? (A la WMD to use an easy, universally understood, example?)
“2000 people are still dying every day,”
No, they’re not. According to the CDC (why do I trust them?) its currently 500/day [1]. It hasn't been > 2000 since September in the midst of the Delta spike. But even before I looked at the CDC I doubted your claim because:
- The vast majority of adult Americans are vaccinated. (>70%?). Its far greater in the vulnerable population.
- Of the unvaxxed, a great number of them are already recovered (or dead)
- You agree, this leaves a significantly reduced pool of people for the Grim Reaper to harvest.
Therefore, 2000 dead/day in January 2022 would have been far far worse than the all time high of 25 000/ week (>3000/day) we reached in Jan last year because the normalizing population was much higher then.
For your figure to be correct then, omicron would have to be, not just more contagious (it is), but a spectacularly more deadly variant than Delta instead of being relatively benign.
“and it feels like everybody is just okay with that now. What happened?”
We’re not OK with it, we’ve made peace and learned to live with something that has become endemic and will never go away.
2 years of pandemic implies 1/40th of an average lifespan. Thats not insignificant. But it gets worse
2 years is 66% of my toddler’s life. A toddler that doesnt know what a peer’s smile is since she’s masked all day.
2 years is 33% of my first grader’s life. Who luckily avoided any long term school closures, but goes crazy whenever there’s a two week “virtual learning” session.
What happened is, therefore, that peoples lives cannot be put on hold indefinitely. There are worse fates than death [2]. We have the tools and knowledge to deal with COVID and we want to return to normal.
[1] https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/COVID19/index.htm
[2] ironically, a person who doesn't understand that doesn't have much to live for.