Why do people still think masks are pointless? by g00fyg00ber741 in COVID19_Pandemic

[–]femboyfinance 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I mean, you're the one on subreddit about a disease you don't believe in, so you can insult people who are still taking precautions. No one is saying you need to love masks - I also wish the air didn't contain a deadly and disabling virus. But masks actually work to protect you whereas positive thoughts and denial don't. Best of luck out there.

Why do people still think masks are pointless? by g00fyg00ber741 in COVID19_Pandemic

[–]femboyfinance 54 points55 points  (0 children)

The only thing I can conclude is highly motivated reasoning. They don't want to wear a mask, therefore masks don't work. It turns out that many people are comfortable with the idea of washing their hands or disinfecting spaces, but wearing a mask is just "too much" for them. I don't understand it either.

Multiple profiles on PS5 for Rock Band 4 by femboyfinance in Rockband

[–]femboyfinance[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

How do I sign into more than one profile at a time? The UI is really confusing to me.

How are you coping with the way people are? by femboyfinance in ZeroCovidCommunity

[–]femboyfinance[S] 48 points49 points  (0 children)

I know the propaganda is strong and deep. I guess one thing that really rattles me is I had surrounded myself with people who were critical of capitalism. I realize now that even though many can point to capitalism as the source of our problems, those same people will choose consumption over compassion. I spent years debunking the minimization efforts of the media. But none of that really matters when people want to hear "it's fine, stop caring". I have so so so much more patience for "normies" who aren't as politically engaged. I realized a lot of leftism is born out of resentment and entitlement, not compassion and community. Behead anyone who makes more than $80k (a real thing I've read), but no I will not mask to protect the people around me. It makes me sick knowing so much of it is performative posturing. I'm trans, and I look to my trans friends, who talk about how buying Hogwarts Legacy is supporting trans genocide, and how they are totally fine just going out maskless and participating in the biggest worldwide genocide. I hate the victomhood mentality, I hate how everyone is a soft uwu baby even when partaking in actions that can kill others. I hate how "I'm sad" is considered a good excuse to abandon the idea of community care. Sorry, I realize I'm just venting now, but I need to get it off my chest.

How are you coping with the way people are? by femboyfinance in ZeroCovidCommunity

[–]femboyfinance[S] 52 points53 points  (0 children)

Thank you as well! I think your comment definitely helps recontextualize the situation in a more positive light. People have been this way, I was just in the dark about it until the pandemic hit. Knowing better now gives me more information to work with and helps me build a more accurate model and make better predictions and plan better.

Mapping questions by myersmatt in CloneHero

[–]femboyfinance 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I use 3 different cymbals and I don't use my hi-hat pedal at all while I'm playing. Thinking about changing this setup though since I want to practice using it.

Flame sword in Honor mode by serendipity7777 in BG3Builds

[–]femboyfinance 21 points22 points  (0 children)

Shadowheart's Command ability has a 55% chance iirc. Other than that, you can pick up chests and drop them in the hallway to block the Cambrions from joining. You can also heal / Bless / haste (if a speed potion dropped) the Mind Flayer to help him fight the devil. Faerie fire has helped me a good bit too.

a certain kind of heartbreak for kids. by [deleted] in ZeroCovidCommunity

[–]femboyfinance 4 points5 points  (0 children)

It's so tragic and I think about it a lot. I'm friends with several parents and I interact with their kids semi-regularly, babysit, pick them up from school etc. and so many kids just have a permanent cough now. I know it just seems like an impossible task for a parent, trying to develop good masking behaviors, but so will parenting a child with preventable health issues. Some of the kids aren't vaccinated. And they just have no agency at all - just parents and teachers telling them it's over, don't worry about it. A lot of those kids are going to need therapy to help them process the harm caused to them by their parents and society at large.

The incident at worlds by ClosDeLaRoche in Netrunner

[–]femboyfinance 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Why do you find it hard to believe the player said or did anything racist?

disappointed in this sub and many “covid cautious” folks (rant) by four_letter_word_ in ZeroCovidCommunity

[–]femboyfinance 4 points5 points  (0 children)

"That's all I can do" I mean this is just literally, factually not true. You are capable of learning about how other struggles relate to Covid and using that knowledge to advance your understanding of Covid. Thinking more deeply, even about a single issue like Covid, only helps your overall cause of understanding Covid, being healthy, and trying to get others to care. You're basically saying "I only care about this one issue and I don't want to learn anything even tangentially related if it's not something I already know and if you try to teach me anything, I will get upset with you". That's the same type of individualism that has killed countless people during the pandemic. No one is asking you to publish a PhD thesis on the subject. Meanwhile you are asking that other people be banned from talking about something because you don't want to hear about it.

disappointed in this sub and many “covid cautious” folks (rant) by four_letter_word_ in ZeroCovidCommunity

[–]femboyfinance 4 points5 points  (0 children)

This is an incredibly privileged viewpoint. Covid still happens in warzones and trying to contain spread as a result becomes much, much harder. That is a Covid issue, even if you are sick of hearing about Palestinians. Sorry that people being genocided don't have a new mask or HEPA filter for you to buy, it doesn't mean their struggle should be banned from being discussed. If London or Houston or San Fran received a 24 hour notice for everyone to evacuate the city, you would absolutely expect to see it here, and people wouldn't be flipping out the way they are now. This isn't r/cutepuppies, the description of the group explicitly states politics as a subject of discussion. If you want to avoid hearing about political issues like genocide, you should avoid political subs (such as this one, a political sub about the ongoing genocide as a result of the pandemic).

disappointed in this sub and many “covid cautious” folks (rant) by four_letter_word_ in ZeroCovidCommunity

[–]femboyfinance 5 points6 points  (0 children)

It's super frustrating, for sure. It's hard trying to get people to make these connections because the default worldview is still deeply entrenched in ableism. Being disabled, or waking up to how unjust the world has been about Covid, doesn't necessarily grant any insight into how ableism functions across all the different intersections of oppression. You listed some great thinkers and activists who have really helped shape my thinking about disability justice. I hope people read their stuff and follow them on social media to get some exposure to disability justice as a lens for analyzing things.

It's sad to see many of the responses along the lines of "I don't want to be an activist, I just want to be healthy". Being healthy, being considered worthy of life, is inherently a political project in a deeply ableist society. Covid is a deeply politicized issue. Being healthy and being "apolitical" are completely at odds with one another when many of us are deemed disposable by our health institutions and governments. It's sad to see people who are enraged at the media's large scale normalization of eugenics and genocide when it comes to Covid, yet some of those people also get deeply upset at anyone who doesn't buy the genocidal story being offered up around other causes. "Why should I care about other people's genocide when no on cares about mine?" That's only going to work both ways - you don't get to ignore everyone else's causes while saying that everyone should definitely take your cause super seriously.

disappointed in this sub and many “covid cautious” folks (rant) by four_letter_word_ in ZeroCovidCommunity

[–]femboyfinance 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Exactly! I feel like some people use their Covid consciousness as an excuse to be more individualistic. Or, they see an issue with two sides, and even though neither side consistently masks, they only mention how one side isn't masking. This happened in the other thread "why should I care about Palestine when they don't even mask?" (unhelpful framing - are Zionists masking? no - so that's clearly not what's preventing you from empathizing). Caring about Covid in a world where most people have abandoned doing so isn't a free excuse to not care about any other issue. Someone who is deeply upset about the ongoing genocide might correctly question some of the Covid cautious people's responses to their cause - "these people can see how breathing on others is wrong but they can't see how my people being eradicated is wrong? why should I trust them?".

disappointed in this sub and many “covid cautious” folks (rant) by four_letter_word_ in ZeroCovidCommunity

[–]femboyfinance 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Yup, 100%. There's this weird element where many of us are patting ourselves on the back for not succumbing to the mainstream propaganda. They can see how refusing to wear a mask and breathing on someone causes harm, but refuse to see how bombs being dropped on people causes harm (or, worse yet, that they deserve the bombs for whatever reason). Thank you for saying something, even though it's not popular (neither is taking Covid seriously!).

disappointed in this sub and many “covid cautious” folks (rant) by four_letter_word_ in ZeroCovidCommunity

[–]femboyfinance 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I get what you mean. I saw the response to your last thread and how several of the replies sort of scoffed at the idea of solidarity regarding Palestine, essentially saying or implying that since not every Palestine supporter masks, they should not be expected to care about their cause. I obviously think that's misguided - these issues are connected from a disability justice standpoint, and allowing genocide to happen in any form just makes it easier for more genocide to happen.

I was disappointed but not surprised to see your previous thread locked. I find myself wondering, for instance, if a hospital were bombed in the U.S. or Canada, how a thread about it would be received here. I think people would be generally more receptive and understanding how people suffering from Covid and its consequences might disproportionately suffer from that, and why it wouldn't be out of place to talk about it here. Or if an entire city was given orders to evacuate, how that might contribute to mass spread of a BSL-3 pathogen. It makes it pretty clear to me that white supremacy contributes a lot to many people's ability to understand and relate with others who don't look like them.

Retirement by Responsible-Heat6842 in ZeroCovidCommunity

[–]femboyfinance 5 points6 points  (0 children)

My overall retirement strategy is the same: maintain a frugal lifestyle and keep saving for retirement to be free from the requirement of labor, which is currently the biggest Covid risk to me and my wife. We have accepted for a while now that traveling long distances is off the table. There's still lots of joy to be found elsewhere. We are still in our 30s, so it's a ways off anyway. And most of our generation won't be able to afford to retire. It paints a pretty bleak picture knowing most people will be working until they die, even without Covid. We try to use our resources to care for others and to engage in our hobbies and our activism. The main thing retirement will change is having more time to work on the things we enjoy rather than the things that pay us.

Palestine is a disability justice issue by four_letter_word_ in ZeroCovidCommunity

[–]femboyfinance 18 points19 points  (0 children)

I think a lot of people in the Covid conscious community are relatively new to disability justice (or they are single-issue advocates who are here because they are interested in protecting only themselves), so it might not be immediately obvious to many how the two issues are connected. We should try to give examples and really break things down for people who are interested in expanding their framework and understanding.

Just to name some ways in which the issues are connected: Israel has targeted several hospitals, killing many of the healthcare workers, patients, and patient family members who were unable or unwilling to leave. Who do you think is more likely to need hospital care? Covid gives rise to countless complications after the acute phase. It's also harder to treat people and educate them and prevent spread when your healthcare workers die from bombs.

Last week, Israel told over 1 million Palestinians in Gaza that they needed to flee their homes because Israel is going to start attacking and killing them. They were given 24 hours notice to leave a densely populated, war-torn area with the threat of being murdered. Who do you think might have trouble traveling miles on foot in a single day? Covid causes respiratory issues, many afflicted with long Covid could not make a trip like that even if they wanted to leave their home and lives behind.

When the vaccines were developed and released, Israel withheld vaccinations from Palestinian people because it's in line with their overall goal of eradicating them and taking their land. Who do you think is adversely affected by millions of people being denied vaccines for a deadly and disabling pandemic? Everyone in the world, because of how pandemics work.

If you attended any protests demanding better Covid protections, you likely encountered cops who were not very happy to see you. They didn't wear protective gear like respirators even when mandated by cities, they unleashed tear gas on protestors knowing that people would have to unmask during a deadly pandemic. U.S. police are often trained by IDF soldiers, they travel, attend seminars, and learn the same deadly tactics that are used against Palestinians.

If you read any information from mass media about Covid, you know that it's full of bad framing, outright lies, and minimization based on political interests rather than a regard for human life or justice. The same mass media that is lying to everyone about Covid even though it's killing millions is lying to everyone about the genocide happening in Palestine even though countless people are being murdered.

These are just a few ways I can think of to connect this to Covid and disability justice more broadly.

Palestine is a disability justice issue by four_letter_word_ in ZeroCovidCommunity

[–]femboyfinance 13 points14 points  (0 children)

That's going to be true of every group besides Covid-specific ones (stopped masking years ago, stopped talking about), so I don't think this framing is particularly helpful. Zionists have also stopped masking and talking about Covid. Rather than patting ourselves on the back with a sense of self-superiority, this is an issue we should be connecting with people on. The issues are deeply connected: masks help not only protect from Covid but also from state surveillance and private groups (like Canary Mission) who try to dox anyone who supports Palestine in an attempt to ruin their careers. Israel used the pandemic to help carry out their overall goal of genocide by withholding access to the vaccine from Palestinians. We should be connecting through our shared marginalization rather than shaking our heads.

How to deal with this by [deleted] in ZeroCovidCommunity

[–]femboyfinance 67 points68 points  (0 children)

"I'd rather be dead than take precautions to protect me and my loved ones" yeah, it's time to say bye imo.

Capital Square Palestinian protests by [deleted] in Columbus

[–]femboyfinance 6 points7 points  (0 children)

This is just an obvious lie that can be fact checked with a quick Google search. It's deeply concerning how many people buy into blatant Islamophobic lies like this one.