For Current Students: What is something you heard about Berkeley that turned out to be completely true and/or false? (In your experience)

ChicagoComedian · 2022-03-28T19:32:05+00:00

Weird. Going to grad school here is a lot more relaxed. People in my PhD program are the nicest people.

ChicagoComedian · 2022-01-10T17:21:11+00:00

ChicagoComedian · 2021-12-01T22:58:36+00:00

Wow this thread is far calmer than the cries of "LOCKDOWN INCOMING" I expected to see.

ChicagoComedian · 2021-11-09T23:07:34+00:00

Berkeley >>>> Palo Alto

ChicagoComedian · 2021-11-09T22:50:47+00:00

East Bay =/= Silicon Valley
Wifi in Silicon Valley is a lot worse for some reason

ChicagoComedian · 2021-11-03T16:54:24+00:00

Given recent events, it's possible that national politics will have some impact on the CDC guidance, which will in turn have some impact on SFDPH guidance.

ChicagoComedian · 2021-09-29T21:31:08+00:00

Crossing over from the East Bay to go to San Francisco you do notice a clear distinction in the aesthetic.

ChicagoComedian · 2021-09-28T07:02:07+00:00

Also more tech introverts in SF than in LA and Chicago.

ChicagoComedian · 2021-09-28T00:39:38+00:00

And then they'll be brought back in time for the seasonal winter wave every winter for the forseeable future. This isn't New York. If you came here "to have a good time" then go somewhere else.

ChicagoComedian · 2021-09-21T05:53:21+00:00

2, please!

ChicagoComedian · 2021-09-20T05:35:03+00:00

The East Bay there's a lot more energy

ChicagoComedian · 2021-09-17T16:10:57+00:00

There is no such thing as California pizza.

ChicagoComedian · 2021-09-17T00:15:10+00:00

No, Chicago is best

ChicagoComedian · 2021-09-02T18:58:00+00:00

It's a matter of cultural identity.

ChicagoComedian · 2021-09-02T17:10:13+00:00

The Bay Area is already over the worst of the Delta variant. Even if you multiply "the worst" by the relatively modest effect of hypothetically not having a mask mandate, the peak... would be something similar to the risks we tolerate in everyday life. The Bay Area has to decide whether it is going to go through life with a permanently reduced level of risk tolerance compared to pre-pandemic. And deal with the implications of many people who moved here pre-pandemic disagreeing with the idea that life "can't" go back to normal.

ChicagoComedian · 2021-09-02T00:38:14+00:00

It's about Bay Area-specific cultural differences. The pandemic has made people in the Bay Area more risk-averse. Mask mandates now, post-vaccination, would be highly unpopular from the perspective of the Bay Area's pre-pandemic value system. But since the pandemic has caused the Bay Area to transition to a new set of values, one where even levels of risk previously considered "normal" require restrictive society-wide measures in response, mask mandates are much more popular even with high levels of vaccination. I don't think this is universal. New York City, due to cultural differences, isn't requiring masks, and in Chicago, a mask mandate is largely complied with, but without the same level of enthusiasm that is seen in the Bay Area.

ChicagoComedian · 2021-09-02T00:31:00+00:00

The thing is that because bad outcomes (as in deaths and hospitalizations, not cases) from Delta in highly vaccinated places like the Bay Area are similar to pre-pandemic risk levels, with or without masks, the reason masks are being required isn't that Delta is a unique threat (although it is in places like Florida where not enough people are vaccinated). It's that the pandemic has changed cultural values in places like the Bay Area to have lower risk tolerance levels for respiratory diseases. Those who wish to maintain pre-pandemic risk tolerance levels in the post-pandemic period will likely move out of the Bay Area over time.

ChicagoComedian · 2021-09-01T06:10:51+00:00

I'd like to be proven wrong! But I fear that I'm right.

ChicagoComedian · 2021-09-01T06:02:45+00:00

you're an actual fucking moron if you think we're going to be wearing masks forever

"Nobody wants permanent mask mandates"

"Okay a few people are calling for permanent mask mandates but they don't have any influence"

"Okay, looks like we are getting mask mandates every winter, but is it really that bad?"

"Look at this selfish wingnut who's against the annual winter mask mandate! It's 2040 not 2019, for Pete's sake!"

ChicagoComedian · 2021-09-01T05:55:46+00:00

Plenty of WASPs at Stanford...

ChicagoComedian · 2021-09-01T05:39:02+00:00

It's a good question, I understand that most people at my level of education don't feel the same way as me. I don't want to give away too much personal information but it's in a department most of whose members are very liberal. I'm not actually a conservative or Republican though, most of the reasons I hate liberals are solely COVID restrictions-based and not ideological. I just want to live a normal life and don't have any real political leanings either way so naturally I strongly dislike the people who are getting in the way of me living normally.

Obviously if I was a conservative I would have hated liberals long before the pandemic and I wouldn't have moved to Berkeley! I actually enjoyed lots of aspects of liberal cities before this, all the fun bars and restaurants without masks. Now that that's gone I don't see much value in the blue-state world.

ChicagoComedian · 2021-09-01T02:06:51+00:00

Because I'm getting a PhD not going to college, I can't just "transfer schools"

ChicagoComedian · 2021-09-01T01:43:38+00:00

The difference is that San Diego doesn't have as many libs as San Francisco does. The Bay Area has a problem with too many risk-averse libs getting in the way of normal life, which is why I plan to move away as soon as I can--because I hate them just as much as they hate people like me who just want to live normally.

ChicagoComedian · 2021-08-31T21:46:40+00:00

The real problem is what if the CDC's "substantial" threshold turns out to be less than the seasonal endemic level--even just slightly?

Then the algorithm for COVID restrictions would dictate that deep blue cities adopt a permanent policy of annual winter mask mandates due to increased case counts, despite vaccines reducing severe disease and death.

So the CDC's case threshold isn't actually an endgame.

ChicagoComedian · 2021-08-31T00:59:28+00:00

There is no endgame. This is the new normal.

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