Social distancing in USA: It's finally working.

[Skycaptain]

If good can come out of bad, that our Prime Minister is in intensive care might just get the message across, and not just in Britain 

[Anthracite_Impreza]

7 hours ago, Lonemathsytoothbrushthief said:

vigilantism is a good idea right now.

No.

[Acing It]

On 4/4/2020 at 4:30 PM, Serran said:

They wouldn't have to force confinement if people had common sense.

I agree. Then all that authoritarian behaviour and talk by politicians wouldn't be necessary.  I was wondering when the first conspiracy nuts 'theorists' are going to come up with some silly story of there not being a pandemic and it's all the states in the world working together to create a world dictatorship.

On 4/4/2020 at 4:30 PM, Serran said:

However, America is proving quite nicely that people do not. 

Not just the US. It's the same everywhere.

[Skycaptain]

Vigiliantism is not a good idea. In the short term peeps may get their rocks off by posting their neighbours failure to comply with guidelines on Facebook, but they'll get payback. 

Best to keep schtum and accept that what goes around comes around 

[Lonemathsytoothbrushthief]

1 hour ago, Anthracite_Impreza said:

No.

I was literally referring to people shaming those who don't do social distancing right, which means people feel pressure to social distance from people other than the police, who could fine you or arrest you which apart from just their own exposure to a much higher number of people also risks you ending up in cramped quarters within prisons. The prison system is literally a health risk at times like this so yes, some degree of vigilantism and people pressuring each other as a community to do what's best for each other rather than relying on an organisation whose very operations lead to much greater risks for prisoners is a good thing. Some countries have literally freed prisoners because they know that the system is a liability for everyone during a pandemic. The reason why those such as the US and UK don't is because their governments only have politicians' interests in mind. Let alone detention centres, the refugees the EU gets Libya to accept and the many unhoused homeless people being ignored by them.

[Lonemathsytoothbrushthief]

13 minutes ago, Skycaptain said:

Vigiliantism is not a good idea. In the short term peeps may get their rocks off by posting their neighbours failure to comply with guidelines on Facebook, but they'll get payback. 

Best to keep schtum and accept that what goes around comes around 

Governments are relying on pressure from police and other similar organisations to keep people following the rules which is a worse idea, because the prison system used to pressure people is a huge liability during a pandemic. I'd much rather see community enforcement of social distancing than an incredibly unreliable police force let alone border agents threatening people with arrests. Obviously the police are still gonna do their thing but saying we should leave it to them and not notify each other or shame people not distancing when they have the means is bloody ridiculous. Especially when the social circle of someone considering breaking the rules is probably a lot more aware of why they might be doing it, and would rather not see them get fined for doing something they had to do for their livelihood.

[Lonemathsytoothbrushthief]

Vigilantism isn't even well defined.

[Anthracite_Impreza]

Yeah I'm not gonna grass on or "shame" my neighbours. Grassing is a very dangerous fucking thing to do here and more's the point, who am I to go around telling others what to do? I'm not gonna say what I think of grassers for things that are none of their business, but it's not a nice word.

 

inb4 "so you support allowing murderers to get away with it?!". I'm not even gonna grace conflating "standing 1.5m apart" with "actual unlawful or threat of death".

[Dreamer23]

6 hours ago, Acing It said:

I agree. Then all that authoritarian behaviour and talk by politicians wouldn't be necessary.  I was wondering when the first conspiracy nuts 'theorists' are going to come up with some silly story of there not being a pandemic and it's all the states in the world working together to create a world dictatorship.

Not just the US. It's the same everywhere.

Haha, well, there's already tons of conspiracy theories out there about various governments (mostly the US or China, but also France, the UK, or eve individuals like Greta Thunberg) starting it!

But even conspiracy theorists aren't crazy enough to think world governments would actually successfully work together for anything - be it spreading a virus like this or anything else 

[Liana]

I may be selfish when I say this, but I hope that things improve enough with the virus to where social distancing stuff can lower a bit. I miss my girlfriend and friends.

 

Though from what I’ve heard, next week is supposed to be the worst week in the US for the virus (from what predicted), so maybe things will start improving 2 weeks later?

[Guest]

11 hours ago, Lonemathsytoothbrushthief said:

I'd much rather see community enforcement of social distancing

This can have unfortunate results. In my city to name an example, I've seen people literally calling those who do things like take a walk alone (which is allowed), murderers and publicly shaming them on social media. Many are on edge due to high stress and anxiety, so are acting out of panic, making the issue worse as tensions rise.

 

Personally its not my job to police others, and I just think people should take the same approach. You're better off calling the police in situations that warrant it--I.E Someone having a barbecue in their backyard, with 50 people in attendance, ignoring the guidelines. Otherwise, you're in my opinion wasting tax payer dollars by maxing such a call for any lesser, by involving any level of authority.

 

To me, we should be focusing on bringing each other closer--not tearing the already thinned social fabric apart. Many of these neighbors are left scarred by how nasty those who had welcomed them with warmth have now become these nasty people they should fear. You can't undo that damage.

[Sally]

Just now, Perspektiv said:

To me, we should be focusing on bringing each other closer--not tearing the already thinned social fabric apart. Many of these neighbors are left scarred by how nasty those who had welcomed them with warmth have now become these nasty people they should fear. You can't undo that damage.

You can't undo death either.  I haven't heard anything about people in the US being "nasty" to each other, and we're talking about the US.  

[Guest]

3 hours ago, Darth Plagueis the Wise said:

I may be selfish when I say this, but I hope that things improve enough with the virus to where social distancing stuff can lower a bit.

Until the US embraces a mentality where masks for all is recommended and becomes the norm, social distancing will be the only way to give yourselves a remote chance at avoiding a spike in infection rates. I think each respective country needs to be blunt with their people. This isn't something that will "just go away once it gets warm" -- its still going strong in many countries regardless of dry high heat, or humid heat.

 

Compare this to most Asian countries that embrace masks, many are allowing assemblies of up to 10 people as a result (yet for many, are seeing a decrease in infection rates).

[Guest]

19 minutes ago, Sally said:

You can't undo death either.

I've clearly read different news articles than you have. I have seen social shaming in both the US, and Canada. We just happen to call it covidiot shaming here, but am sure that will catch on south of our border.

 

A pandemic, doesn't excuse public shaming. There is no place for it.

 

Death or the risk of it, still doesn't condone people taking laws in their own hands.

 

You see an assembly of 50 or more--call the cops. Social shaming to me, is just the epitome of entitlement.

[Guest]

10 minutes ago, Arodash said:

I will be happy to see once this is over more people embracing face masks when they are ill of in dense public areas like Japan does and China.

I have seen many catch on in my city. I used to get looked at like I was crazy doing my groceries with one, even though I color coordinate my masks to my outfits (I got filtered fabric ones when in Hong Kong for their reusable nature and waterproof features. Many in Hong Kong and in Asia, have started making theirs a fashion accessory.

 

15 minutes ago, Arodash said:

I dont trust a word from their government

I saw an interview with a top doctor in mainland China. They prided themselves of just one "local" infection of covid-19 in Wuhan at time of recent interview. All others, were imported cases, which had them blaming other countries for "bringing this disease in". They also claimed that many in Wuhan had acquired heard immunity, hence the dramatic improvement which allows them to fully reopen their borders April 9th (this date may have changed, but this was the initial announcement). To me, the hypocrisy is what was making me sick, as they had cried foul for Donald Trump giving covid-19 a location (when initially dismissing the dangers looming)--China.

 

I grimaced, told myself: "are you f***ing kidding me?!" and no longer able to turn off my bullshit meter, just switched those news off.

 

So yes. Want reliable Chinese news, you unfortunately have to look for objective news sources in Hong Kong (the only city you will find objective reporting). But yeah. Don't trust anything you hear out of China. You're dealing with media there, that ignored the fact there were protests in Hong Kong, and only reported if a police officer was assaulted, to garner support for the mainland and further vilify that city.

 

Their system is as opaque as it gets. Anyone speaking out about it, find a way to "disappear" and if ever, reappear in videos in tearful apologies. So anyone claiming to have "objective" information is full of it.

 

I know a famous musician in Hong Kong, who draws their roots from mainland China that had recently gone there right before the lock down.

 

They have a few mass incinerators, and many were running around the clock, yet they had the "situation under control" at the time. Their death tolls, and the capacities of these mass incinerators, did not jive. If anyone has tried reporting about this, they're either in jail or dead (hence him never speaking on the record, regarding what he's seen).

[Skycaptain]

The most popular social event when this is over will be a maskerade 😋😋

[Whore*of*Mensa]

Well given I brought up the vigilante thing - I would say there are 2 sides to community-mindedness, and shaming is the traditional way that communities/societies keep people in line.

 

I have left the Facebook page for my area before because of the vigilante tendencies. Last time it was a gang of teenagers who were always outside the local supermarket, which had to start closing early because they kept raiding the shop and scaring customers.

 

I didn’t agree with her posting identifiable photos of them, because they’re just kids. I messaged her and told her so. Anyway she stopped doing it when it became obvious they were enjoying all the attention.

 

So of course she was going to post photos when she saw big groups of people out on the street, sometimes blocking the pavement so that passers by couldn’t keep a distance.

But she’s also very good at organising the community, for example they’ve raised thousands for local charities making rainbow balloon decorations for people to hang outside, and quite often people post on there when they have a problem (suicidal, fleeing domestic violence with nothing, needing an inhaler but can’t get out..) . You can only post anonymously on there but loads of people always offer help and she gets it to the person who posted. 

 

I didn’t grow up here like most of the people who live here, so I stay out of it all, but it’s just a very traditional community with some old-school interfering middle aged women (mostly) whose hearts are in the right place imo.