Spreaders

"Being human is not about individual survival or escape. It’s a team sport. Whatever future humans have, it will be together." - Douglas Rushkoff

I've been kind of avoiding Facebook. Not, like, abstaining or anything like that It's just that I've been finding myself getting more and more exasperated by what I'm seeing, and I know that if I get too involved, I'm not going to be able to sleep. These are not the normal disagreements over politics and policy. This is life and death. Frankly, I'm appalled by the half dozen or so friends I have who, through what I can only see as willful ignorance, are arguing for death on a massive scale.

I was explaining this to Gaby last night. He asked me, "Do you really need those friends?" If they're causing me so much frustration, why do I keep them? I reminded him that for me there are only two reasons for unfriending someone: a) they're boring, meaning they never post anything, and b) they're no longer important to me. Both have to be true. So I'll put up with fascism, conspiracy theories, and hyper-partisanship so long as you post frequently and you're someone I care about. 

But I do have opinions. I probably won't tell you what that opinion is (at least directly) unless you ask, especially if I doubt your motives. But if you ask an answerable question, I might give an answer. Or not. I frequently see people ask what they think is supposed to be a rhetorical "gotcha" question, but wind up instead asking a question that actually has an answer. For instance, one post recently questioned why, if masks are so effective, did they release "millions of prisoners instead of just giving them masks?" Skipping over the hyperbolic use of the word "millions" and its other implications, that question actually has an answer: Masks are most effective when used in combinations with other preventive measures, such as social distancing -- which is impossible or improbable in crowded indoor situations such as bars, schools, churches, political rallies, aircraft carriers, and, yes... prisons. Anybody with access to Google -- or, frankly, anyone who has been paying attention --  could have found this out for themselves. I didn't comment on the post because the person who posted it wasn't interested in knowing the answer. She just wanted to look clever.

So... my reason for writing.

One of those friends posted this: 

So much to unpack in this. I didn't respond, partly because I didn't want to get into it, and partly because he has friends who are pro-public health and safety and pro-civil and human rights who are willing to argue with him. But the thing that caught my eye and stuck with me was the "real science" remark. I don't what he means by that. I'm similarly disturbed when I see admonitions to "do your [own] research," which in context usually means "trudge through the same conspiracy theory websites as me so you can gain my secret knowledge." It reminds me of when Mormon

missionaries would come to my door and tell me to investigate their claims, and I would do that (because I just like looking stuff up) but I'd invariably come to different conclusions than the ones they were hoping I'd find. 

I'm no medical professional, and I don't have the time or money to do what could reasonably be called "research" by any measure. But I do know how to look up information if I have a question about something. Frankly, it's just not that hard. And I shouldn't have to do it for you. But we all have those Facebook friends who believe that some rando who works at some hospital somewhere is a voice of authority because her particular hospital is not experiencing the problems of hospitals around the globe, and that this prooooves (emphasis on the ooooves) that the whole thing is a hoax. And this counts as "research."

Yeah, I see this kind of thing a lot. A lot.

Meanwhile, thousands of scientists and medical professionals around the globe are actually studying the virus, studying prevention measures, and looking for a vaccine. In other words, doing actual research:

A study published in June in the journal BMJ Global Health confirmed that the highest risk of transmission of the virus occurs before the subject develops symptoms, but found that the transmission rate was reduced by 79% if the infected person is wearing a mask.

In The Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice, Professor Trisha Greenhalgh writes that if 60% of the public wore masks that were 60% effective, the transmission rate would drop to less than one per person, and the virus would die out. (This is a very informative article, covering a lot of related topics, with links to 88 scientific studies.)

A German study published in the IZA Institute of Labor Economics found a dramatic drop in Covid-19 cases just 10 days after Germany made masks compulsory. Their conclusion was that face masks reduced the daily growth rate of reported infections by 40%.

A study from Texas A&M, published in the journal PNAS,  found that mask usage reduced the transmission rate by 78,000 in Italy and 66,000 in New York City over a one month period, confirming that the air an infected person exhales is the dominant route for the spread of Covid-19, and that masks and social distancing are currently the most effective (and cheapest) method for combating the virus.

Those are just four of hundreds. 

The nature of science is that knowledge increases. We know more today than we did yesterday, but we'll know more tomorrow than we do today. Still, a lot of what we know about the effectiveness of masks is knowledge we've had for years, and the Japanese people have worn them for decades.

I read my friend's post last night before sitting down to watch an episode of The West Wing ( "The Women of Qumar," season 3, episode 9) on Netflix. It was the one about seat belts and mad cow, and I found that a lot of the discussion was pertinent to what was on my mind. Sam argued with several people about the necessity for a national seat belt law, giving the statistic that currently (November, 2001) 68% of people in the country wore their seat belt, and that if that number increased to 90%, 5000 lives could be saved. Later, President Bartlett pointed out to him that cars today, with their seat belts, air bags, and crumple zones, etc. are safer than they've ever been. If someone dies in an a car accident today, it's just because of personal behavior and bad luck.

In a debate about whether it should be announced that a cow in Nebraska was being tested for Mad Cow Disease, CJ made three strong points. She said that the public will not forgive a president that withheld information that would have helped them or save lives (remember, this was about 19 years ago); that in a crisis, people need to feel like soldiers, not victims; and that information breeds confidence while silence breeds fear.

That second point stood out.

Previously, my friend had posted a meme which consisted of two photos. The top one depicted a herd of sheep wearing masks, while the bottom showed lions, maskless, approaching the viewer menacingly. The implication, of course, was that people wear masks because they are afraid, and they're obediently following... i don't know, the "gub'mint"? the liberal media? while the lions (without their masks) are brave, standing up to the authorities that want to take away their freedoms.

But that's wrong.

In a crisis, people need to feel like soldiers, not victims.

And in this crisis, a mask is the soldier's most effective weapon.

An anguished question from a Trump supporter: ‘Why do liberals think Trump supporters are stupid?’

An anguished question from a Trump supporter: ‘Why do liberals think Trump supporters are stupid?’

Peni Delina Bedard · August 31, 2019  

The serious answer: Here’s what we really think about Trump supporters - the rich, the poor, the malignant and the innocently well-meaning, the ones who think and the ones who don’t…

That when you saw a man who had owned a fraudulent University, intent on scamming poor people, you thought “Fine.”

That when you saw a man who had made it his business practice to stiff his creditors, you said, “Okay.”

That when you heard him proudly brag about his own history of sexual abuse, you said, “No problem.”

That when he made up stories about seeing Muslim-Americans in the thousands cheering the destruction of the World Trade Center, you said, “Not an issue.”

That when you saw him brag that he could shoot a man on Fifth Avenue and you wouldn’t care, you chirped, “He sure knows me.”

That when you heard him illustrate his own character by telling that cute story about the elderly guest bleeding on the floor at his country club, the story about how he turned his back and how it was all an imposition on him, you said, “That’s cool!”

That when you saw him mock the disabled, you thought it was the funniest thing you ever saw.

That when you heard him brag that he doesn’t read books, you said, “Well, who has time?”

That when the Central Park Five were compensated as innocent men convicted of a crime they didn’t commit, and he angrily said that they should still be in prison, you said, “That makes sense.”

That when you heard him tell his supporters to beat up protesters and that he would hire attorneys, you thought, “Yes!”

That when you heard him tell one rally to confiscate a man’s coat before throwing him out into the freezing cold, you said, “What a great guy!”

That you have watched the parade of neo-Nazis and white supremacists with whom he curries favor, while refusing to condemn outright Nazis, and you have said, “Thumbs up!”

That you hear him unable to talk to foreign dignitaries without insulting their countries and demanding that they praise his electoral win, you said, “That’s the way I want my President to be.”

That you have watched him remove expertise from all layers of government in favor of people who make money off of eliminating protections in the industries they’re supposed to be regulating and you have said, “What a genius!”

That you have heard him continue to profit from his businesses, in part by leveraging his position as President, to the point of overcharging the Secret Service for space in the properties he owns, and you have said, “That’s smart!”

That you have heard him say that it was difficult to help Puerto Rico because it was in the middle of water and you have said, “That makes sense.”

That you have seen him start fights with every country from Canada to New Zealand while praising Russia and quote, “falling in love” with the dictator of North Korea, and you have said, “That’s statesmanship!”

That Trump separated children from their families and put them in cages, managed to lose track of 1500 kids, has opened a tent city incarceration camp in the desert in Texas - he explains that they’re just “animals” - and you say, “Well, OK then.”

That you have witnessed all the thousand and one other manifestations of corruption and low moral character and outright animalistic rudeness and contempt for you, the working American voter, and you still show up grinning and wearing your MAGA hats and threatening to beat up anybody who says otherwise.

What you don’t get, Trump supporters in 2019, is that succumbing to frustration and thinking of you as stupid may be wrong and unhelpful, but it’s also…hear me…charitable.

Because if you’re NOT stupid, we must turn to other explanations, and most of them are less flattering.

Christmas Eve

It's a quiet Sunday night at the grand old hotel. Most of the guests have already arrived and gone to bed. One arrival remains. I finished my paperwork in the first hour I was here, so I'm at the front door waiting on the last arrival and reading a book about John Steinbeck. As often happens, reading about writers makes me want to write.
Much of the quiet is due to the absence of some of the usual people. Keven, the overnight houseman, has Sundays off. Karen, from Loss Prevention (our pretentious designation for our security department) has decided that she doesn't want to work on Sundays either. I haven't asked her yet how she's managing to maintain her 30 hour per week work requirement to keep her health insurance. Her husband, and my best friend, Ted, called in sick earlier tonight, and his absence makes things particularly quiet. So it's just me, and Jay, and Mike: valet, front desk, and LP.
The kids from Paycom are here this week. They are a group of uncommonly attractive twenty-somethings here for some kind of training. We get a different set of kids each time they stay with us, which is about every three weeks or so. One of our bar waiters commented recently that Paycom must have some pretty shallow hiring standards to have every person in every group to be so attractive. The valet staff doesn't care for them. They don't tip, and often they exhibit a rather privileged attitude, which probably is encouraged by the fact that I bring all their cars around early in the morning. I'm sure they think that I do that because there are so many of them and they all come down at once. Some of them might think it's because they're special. The actual reason is because we don't have universal health care in this country.
To elucidate, all of our morning guys have their kids on their health insurance, which means that they don't get a substantial paycheck. All of their spendable income is from their tips. If the guest doesn't tip, they're basically working for free. I don't have that problem, so I bring around the Paycom cars before the morning guys get here. All the morning guys have to do is hand them their keys.

Mike just walked by and asked if there were any homeless people. I haven't seen any. In fact, I haven't seen homeless Joel in a week. Normally he's camped in the third floor of the heated entrance to the parking garage next door. He frequently stops by to buy candy bars and get coffee . Nobody has seen him since last Monday morning. I'm kind of worried about him.

I'm missing Ted tonight too. I have a book to give him, and I wanted to tell him about how I totally trolled one of my FOXhead friends on Facebook. I was able to do it solely because this guy never ever looks anything up, never does any kind of research or fact-checking. He's perfectly happy in an ignorance that suits his prejudices. He posted a meme that said "Kill one terrorist and the world is outraged. Iran shoots down a commercial airliner and kills 179 civilians, crickets!!!!!" I replied, "Haven't heard much about flight 655 either. 290 people killed on that one." He liked that. Now, is he going to do any research and find out that flight 655 was the Iranian airliner that the Americans accidentally shot down in 1988? Not a chance.

Okay, I'm done gloating.

My Dad and I went to the airport to pick up my brother. Tomorrow is Christmas, because that's the way the Savage family does things. We haven't seen each other in years, and I expected the ride back to be full of conversation, but that wasn't the case. It might have been the group dynamics. Our Dad would have been a captive audience had Scott and I engaged in the usual stuff we talk about when we're on the phone. I've often had the fantasy of talking politics with Scott at the dining room table in front of my parents,but somehow in the car it just seemed wrong, and we, all of us, have never been good at small talk. But we have Monday night and all day Tuesday before I have to go back to a normal schedule.

Now it's lunchtime: 2:30am. Still two and a half hours before I have to start bringing Paycom around. I might get a lot of of this book read before then, unless i get sucked into Netflix. We'll see how I feel.

The Opossum and the Tumor

It's been interesting watching the Solemaini case playing out on Facebook. My friends on the right are all talking about the tumor. My friends on the left are talking about the opossum -- which my friends on the right interpret as being pro-tumor.

The Heavy Lift

Optimism is not exactly something that’s just lying around on the floor, waiting to be picked up. It’s something we have to work for again. It’s a heavy lift, but a necessary one. All we have as we enter 2020 is, well, us. - Charles P Pierce in Esquire

Tuesday evening, New Year's Eve, as I was standing in the shower, getting ready for work, I had the thought that 2020 was going to be a year of loss. I don't what that means. I'm not generally a pessimistic person. I'm not prone to premonitions, like Gaby, nor am I the unrepentant cynic like my bff Ted, but I just haven't been able to shake this idea from my mind. I wouldn't know how to discuss it with anyone. It's just there. And I don't know what to think or do about it.

Fascist Things My Friends Post on Facebook: Christmas edition

Ironically, he's the same guy that posted this just days earlier: 

The Right to Cruz

"For too long, members of Congress have abused their power and ignored the will of the American people. Term limits on members of Congress offer a solution to the brokenness we see in Washington, D.C. It is long past time for Congress to hold itself accountable. I urge my colleagues to submit this constitutional amendment to the states for speedy ratification."

That was Senator Ted Cruz talking to ABC News last January, talking about the Constitutional amendment that he introduced in the first week of the year. It was the second time that he had introduced an amendment with the goal of establishing term limits for Congress, the first being two years earlier in January of 2017. A FOXwing friend of mine posted the article on his Facebook page yesterday. Knowing him, it's easy to presume that he thought it was something new. I have friends on both sides of the aisle who think that this would be a good thing (in fact, Beto O'Rourke proposed the same idea back when he was running against Cruz in 2018,) and I commented with my usual response:

It's tempting to go off on a tangent here. J____, in recent posts,  has made it obvious that he strongly disapproves of Socialism, so it would be easy to rib him a little for suggesting that anyone should start drawing on Social Security. But he's also made it pretty obvious that he doesn't know what Socialism is, much less Democratic Socialism, so I think the point would be lost on him. But anyway... 

There are lots of articles out there about why term limits would be a bad idea, and why they are not in the Constitution, but they're mostly just variations on the reason that James Madison gave in Federalist Paper #53: 

"[A] few of the members of Congress will possess superior talents; will by frequent re-elections, become members of long standing; will be thoroughly masters of the public business, and perhaps not unwilling to avail themselves of those advantages. The greater the proportion of new members of Congress, and the less the information of the bulk of the members, the more apt they be to fall into the snares that may be laid before them"

In other words, instead of offering "a solution to the brokenness," it's more likely to create brokenness, because a newer, less experienced Congress will susceptable to bribery and other forms of influence,effectively handing the control of government to lobbyists and special interests. There is also the tendency for new Congressmen to try to codify the personal prejudices of both themselves and their constituants without regard to the civil and human rights of the people they are supposed to be representing, or for their health, safety and welfare. Samantha Bee made that abundantly clear on a segment of her show Full Frontal back in 2016. 

But for me, the biggest problem is that it is simply anti-democratic.

Ted Cruz was the one who proposed this amendment. Now, I don't like Ted Cruz. He's an economically ignorant dominionist who tends toward Fascism. He says stupid things. He does stupid things, and even the people on his side don't like him.  But he represents a different part of the country from where I live. I can't vote for him or against him. A term limit would be a sure fire way to get rid of him.

But the majority of voters of his district chose him, whether I like it or not. And that is their right. And in my opinion, the right to vote -- and the right to vote for the candidate of your choice -- should be sacrosanct, and not be taken away or diminished. As Hillary Clinton said recently, "One of our most precious rights as Americans is the right to determine who our leaders are." We already have voter purges, precinct closures, gerrymandering, voter ID laws, and court decisions like Citizens United and Buckley v. Valeo that give wealthy people more undue influence on government-- policies that already take away the right to vote or diminish the effectiveness of the individual's vote. We don't need another policy that takes away the voice of the people.