This Internet stranger who is immunocompromised and wears a p100 respirator everywhere loves you and is so, so proud of you. Never stop. You are what gives me the strength and hope to keep going. Please keep going, too, as long as it takes.

Covid is spread via water droplets and touch, so additional measures are pretty worthless beyond keeping your door shut.

As a global population I feel like we now inhabit two different worlds, and I do not see how the gap will be bridged. It is terrifying.

There are countries that exist and also aren’t the US of A.

Correct. I was worried that my wording was poor since most who say this are from the US, where any efforts at mitigation were minimal at best, so I apologize. I am not entirely educated on how the rest of the world outside of China and New Zealand handled things for the early pandemic, so I often just presume it was like us: terribly.

I don’t know how to say with grace that I just do not think remote learning is the boogeyman we should point our fingers at, so I will leave it at that.

I don’t believe this. The remote learning thing was, to my knowledge, mandates for something like three months (a summer vacation) at most pretty much everywhere in the country and you’re telling me this completely stunted any part of the growth of children? Not everything else that we continue to subject children to since then? I’m losing my mind and don’t feel like I know how to socialize anymore as an adult who has not been to school in decades because I’m being gaslit by everyone around me 24/7 going on five years and counting. No. Kids are not stupid. We are doing this to them and if remote learning for brief periods of time sporadically through 20-21 has anything to do with it (and I do not believe it does) then it is extremely minimal in comparison to the sheer terror and ongoing psychic charade we have subjected them to daily since 2020.

It was never off the menu. The vaccines are not enough. Please mask.

I actually really quite like this little smiley face. I didn’t know it was part of a bigger, more cynical marketing scheme…though I guess I should expect that. I’m in my 30s but I saw it a lot growing up.

I like that fella on the right. Whimsical creature. A horse is just a horse, of course.

the fact that they are being lauded as heroes and not facing court for manslaughter at the very least tells us quite a lot about american culture

It sure does and anyone who lives here has been singing this tune forever but people still have hope for this place for some reason

I look like my grandma. I’m 32. It’s all good!

The most salient argument against “AI” is that we just don’t fucking need it. For anything. There is no reason it should exist. The ends 1,000,000% do NOT justify the means, and they never, ever will. That’s all I have to say about this shit, and anyone who disagrees with this very basic premise is naive at best and should get out of the way. There are too many here like that, yes. You see assholes posting AI generated meme art here for the gags all the time and I want to scream. Unprincipled morons.

I liked the ones that were like Nintendo Wii fan. Demonoid user. Night elf player. God yeah bring these back

Psychology has nothing to do with 99% of my problems which are external and material. If therapy helps you, that is wonderful. It’s only ever been an obstacle for me on my way to inject my legs with juice my body should have made when it was born. It has not given me comfort nor hope for living in peace in a fascist country ignorant of suffering and community.

My wife’s coworker complained to her recently that she’s gotten sick like twice since she started working there about a month ago and since we are the only people who ever wear masks 100% of the time we are outside of our home we have gotten sick maybe that many times total since 2020. They don’t care.

where do u think the shit goes after you doo doo in the bathroom, friend. does god take the dookie to heaven?

Your average human is gross. You’re all no different than the animals and need to quit pretending like it.

Surely even Americans would revolt

I like your post but no, they wouldn’t. It is not a matter of simple disillusionment, for USians it’s practically faith. I can’t overstate this. They will kill everyone “lesser” than them before they go after anyone above them, because no one is above them. I don’t believe any revolution will happen here that isn’t purely aimed downward.

Howhave you managed to get by that long? Unemployment caps out at 18 months, at least where I am.

I had a nice savings built up that lasted us about 6 months or so and then unemployment capped for me at 6 months as well, but since then my wife was lucky enough to get a min wage job to cover us; she assured me it’s no trouble and that she’s just repaying me working and supporting us for years on my own but I still feel pretty rotten about it often because I was just sitting at home safely and she’s in crowds of hundreds of people coming and going daily as the only one masking.

We got really, really lucky and found a rent-controlled apartment with a roommate who is just as serious as us about Covid thanks to my connections in our city’s Covid activism Discord, which was a genuine miracle with the timing. I’m not sure what else we would have done otherwise. We have only been surviving, not anywhere near what we had prior to the RTO mandates starting around 22-23, and I am very bitter about it. I’m already at a disadvantage for being a woman in tech, and this shit definitely doesn’t help. I don’t need to be in a building full of sick assholes who will kill me because I’m immunocompromised; guess what else employers discriminate against?

So I agree, I hope they all leave this earth violently. If they keep this up maybe I’ll get my wish.

This is what has kept me unemployed for almost two years. I’ve been a software dev for almost 15 years and I can’t get hired now because I must love the office, worship the office, schmooze at the office. No. Fuck the office. We did it before and we can keep doing it.

Fun story, pre-Covid I tried to be remote only like some of my other coworkers because of my medical needs which are much better managed at home and I was told no. then a year later Covid happened and we all went remote anyway. Almost like we don’t actually need to be in an office to do stupid fucking office jobs!! Wow!!!