Facing down Goliath?
Have you enjoyed all the pats on the back for not (yet) dying of Covid-19? I'm seeing those kinds of ads... along with the renewed calls to panic more again (since you're so inconsiderate to not be panicking enough to suit the karens now).
Are you buying in to your own heroism?
Some people seem to want to see themselves as heroic survivors for living through the pandemic. As people tend to do, they overstate the strength and danger of their opponent to make themselves look braver and stronger. Soldiers prefer to defeat giants and geniuses instead of regular people, so they'll often magnify the competence of their enemy. Nobody feels good about defeating a butterfly, they want to convince you it was a flying fire-breathing dragon.
It's the same with this coronavirus. No one feels like a hero for surviving a cold, so they'll pretend it's the plague and everyone can then feel good about themselves.
I am fairly certain this virus is highly contagious, but since it is obviously not a fraction as deadly as the fear-mongers want you to believe it is, what does it really matter how contagious it is? Catch it, get over it, and get on with life. It's not nearly as big a problem as the political responses to it are.
The only people I see who really seem desperate to make this virus out to be a bigger danger than it obviously is are those who have something to gain by overstating the danger. Either they get more political power or they get to see themselves as heroes.
It's really kind of sad and odd to me.
I feel like a SHTF event is imminent. Notice I don't say I think it is, rather it's just a feeling. Possibly triggered by the upcoming election.
I don't have a crystal ball. I'm almost definitely wrong.
If you can see it coming, it's not going to happen. That's almost a guarantee.
Just like the Coronapocalypse came at us out of nowhere, triggered by unexpected government overreactions to a fairly normal virus, a more serious event will also be a surprise. Consider the Coronapanic a practice run. It should have shown you the holes in your preps if you were paying attention.
I lucked out with the panicdemic because I was ready. Well, maybe it wasn't completely luck; I've prepped for years "just in case", and it finally paid off. I was pretty sure I wouldn't see it coming when it finally happened, and I didn't. But it didn't matter because I stay ready all the time-- and I have done so since well before the Y2K fizzle. I intend to be just as ready, if not more ready, the next time something ...
Sometimes it's good to just listen to people's stories without interrupting, even when you know the stories are nonsense.
My 2nd wife used to tell of a ghost that lived in her house when she was a kid. It was an interesting story even though I didn't believe it. I learned quickly that her family was very prone to believe anything as long as it fit with their magical worldview.
Other people tell me stories about beneficial things political government can do. These stories are no more true-- in the sense of being objective reality-- than ghost stories, but they can still be informative if you want to know which particular superstitions a person is living under.
Interrupt and you'll never hear the whole tale. Listen and you might be entertained by some fantastical tales of magical realms. Just don't bet your life on them being true.
My nature is such that I simply can't see government as a solution to anything. This puts me at odds with most of the rest of my species.
Yes, I think "social media" has become a horror. This doesn't mean I want government to regulate it; it means I think people who don't like it (or are too dumb to know not to take it at face value) should probably stop using it.
The same is true of so many other things I don't like.
Litter/pollution, scammers, sexual predators, abortion, animal cruelty, Hillary Clinton, poverty, drug abuse, pandemics, crime, and all manner of awful things.
I may hate them, but that doesn't mean I want government to step in. Look how often that has the opposite effect anyway; making the original problem worse-- or at least not solving it-- while also creating a host of new problems that never would have existed otherwise (anti-gun legislation being a perfect example).
And even if government intervention doesn't make this specific problem worse this particular ...
