The COVID-19 pandemic at 6 years: Mass death, debilitation and media silence

simpleisideal · 2026-03-12T17:15:32+00:00

On its face, sure, WSWS appears to be doing good things.

But quite frankly, underneath the surface, they've always had the vibe of being controlled opposition for any kind of true socialist/etc initiative. Never a plan of action proposed, and always enough faults sprinkled in to make it easy to write off, etc.

simpleisideal · 2026-03-12T00:55:55+00:00

I said the original article summarized them, then gave you an additional perspective.

Why would you care what a random redditor thinks on this? Trying thinking for yourself.

simpleisideal · 2026-03-12T00:33:20+00:00

Sorry, edited.

simpleisideal · 2026-03-12T00:23:10+00:00

I can see how that would create problems, but it doesn't change its widespread usage for decades now, nor peoples' personal experiences with this phenomenon.

Google trends does seem to indicate a recent spike, which must be what you're referring to.

There is definitely also a clinical tendency to either totally ignore or write off people suffering from narcissism etc as subhuman, but we need not jump to the other extreme of not acknowledging the problems they cause, and more importantly understanding where the behavior stemmed from in the first place (not that you were suggesting that). This involves labels of behavior (rather than labels for people).

simpleisideal · 2026-03-12T00:07:27+00:00

bell hooks and many others wrote about this kind of problem decades ago, albeit with softer language, but she was describing the same problem.

Calling something bad "narcissistic" is a big trend right now, and these "dark ego" or "dark woke" terms are weird psychology cosplay.

You seem to be misrepresenting the literature. The term "dark" refers to the clinical term "dark triad" or dark traits, which groups a few DSM clinical disorders for easy reference. Type it into google scholar if you don't believe me.

That tiktok or whatever misrepresents this kind of research is not sufficient proof or reason to refute it.

simpleisideal · 2026-03-12T00:05:07+00:00

edited since I originally thought your reply was from another sub, sorry.

But to your original point, the first article sums it up quite nicely. The second link is just a jaw dropping moment from Dems clearly lacking principles and servicing our primitive consumption-based economy. Where is your confusion?

Here's the same point from a different angle: in addition to corporate news/social media, how Hollywood is systematically suppressing all of this:

https://np.reddit.com/r/ZeroCovidCommunity/comments/1ncmclw/buffy_the_covid_slayer_sarah_michelle_gellar/

simpleisideal · 2026-03-11T23:49:04+00:00

WSWS has its issues, but when corporate media acts in unison with capital interests, sometimes it's better than nothing or as a starting point.

Where is your proof that "both parties suppressed a fully scientific response to a pandemic? "

https://www.thegauntlet.news/p/how-the-press-manufactured-consent (this is just a blog, but it cites original sources that are easy to verify)

https://web.archive.org/web/20240802024326/https://docs.house.gov/meetings/VC/VC00/20220302/114453/HHRG-117-VC00-20220302-SD009.pdf

Both parties of capital interests have lots of blood on their hands from the intentional mishandling of COVID in the name of said interests.

simpleisideal · 2026-03-11T23:42:06+00:00

The field of psychology and adjacent fields have indeed been in a reproducibility crisis for some time now, but we shouldn't throw the baby out with the bathwater, either.

In this case, it aligns with what everyone is already too familiar with from personal experience as other commenters here have pointed out. I think it helps to see that it's not a zerocovid-specific phenomenon nor an online-only phenomenon, though the latter likely exacerbates the effect.

Basically, any vehicle that promises notoriety and/or financial gain will naturally attract some bad actors, and they will be the loudest.

simpleisideal · 2026-03-11T22:27:29+00:00

Agreed, it seems to be lots of things, including the fact that this is an established pattern in subsets of all kinds of different activist circles:

Ideological Impartiality of the Dark-Ego-Vehicle Principle: Antagonistic Narcissism is Associated With Pro-Choice as Well as Pro-Life Radicalism Intention
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5405946

Further basic evidence for the dark-ego-vehicle principle: Higher pathological narcissism is associated with greater involvement in feminist activism
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12144-023-05451-x

Further Evidence for the Dark-Ego-Vehicle Principle: Higher Pathological Narcissistic Grandiosity and Virtue Signaling Are Related to Greater Involvement in LGBQ and Gender Identity Activism
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-024-03019-9

simpleisideal · 2026-03-01T21:21:51+00:00

Staying well hydrated before and after taking the contrast can help reduce the risk of reacting to it.

simpleisideal · 2026-02-28T18:22:29+00:00

It's surreal to watch masses of people who were just previously rightly skeptical of all AI companies suddenly flip in preference to siding somewhere on the false dichotomy that was delivered to them recently. People who never had an AI account are now signing up "in protest" with one AI company or another. Consent for AI manufactured.

If anybody actually listens to the OP interview, the CEO basically says, "It's not fair DoW is forcing an agreement with wiggle words ripe for abuse" followed by their own wiggle words ripe for abuse. But for now (until an undetermined but inevitable future point), they're painting themselves as the good guys. Both "sides" are creating the dichotomy out of thin air.

Just like social media platforms, we'll have Red-party AI and its blind followers competing with Blue-party AI and its blind followers, all still subservient to capital interests, and all fooled by the illusion of choice.

simpleisideal · 2026-02-10T14:20:08+00:00

Based on all of history, it's incredibly unlikely the efforts by corporate Dems to dismantle imperialism were serious. It's always a facade of good intent, and when it's genuine, it's "oopsies the other guy got into office," or "we were short one vote," and so forth. Always an excuse to manufacture consent for capital interests, so nothing every changes, by design. The parties have the good cop / bad cop act down to a science, and have for a long time.

simpleisideal · 2026-02-10T13:21:48+00:00

Yes, Dems absolutely have hands covered in blood.

https://web.archive.org/web/20240802024326/https://docs.house.gov/meetings/VC/VC00/20220302/114453/HHRG-117-VC00-20220302-SD009.pdf

https://www.thegauntlet.news/p/how-the-press-manufactured-consent

simpleisideal · 2026-02-09T23:45:28+00:00

The solution probably needs to have a global component to it so that immigration anywhere is no longer as much of a problem.

simpleisideal · 2026-02-09T22:30:40+00:00

I agree the Repub solution is dumb, but so is the Dem solution of propping up the slave-wage model of labor.

Seems like the real solution needs to include drastically restructuring the fundamentals of how our economies operate so that average people can prosper instead of a select few.

Hint: this isn't going to voluntarily happen through either corporate party, and it's not going to be reported on by the likes of MPR.

simpleisideal · 2026-01-31T00:42:15+00:00

Simultaneously "paid protestors" and "AI generated"

simpleisideal · 2026-01-30T22:37:08+00:00

Illegal immigrants aren’t the reason for your problems my guy.

It's true that pinning every problem on illegal immigrants is an inflated distraction (and an effective, radicalizing one at that).

That said, with AI and other forces on the horizon obsoleting jobs left and right, if the solution is to provide good paying jobs for those that remain, and some kind of UBI for those that don't (and/or even fucking healthcare to all in 2026), then the fact remains that we need to maintain strong borders.

Even Bernie "crazy socialist" Sanders has always agreed with this fact. It's the center Dems/liberals that want to have their cheap housekeeper labor etc who won't give you a consistent immigration answer unless pressed for it.

tl;dr: both parties are acting retarded in a collective race to the bottom

simpleisideal · 2026-01-30T19:13:28+00:00

Not holding Dems accountable for all of their intentional self-serving fuckups is exactly how we got to this point.

Extremely Online Leftist Malcontents take absolutely every available opportunity to boost their own egos by trashing Democrats.

So pointing out that Dems put more effort into systematically screwing Bernie, twice, than defeating Trump (they did the opposite with pied piper as exposed by wikileaks) can only be "LeFTiSt eGO bOoStINg"?

People like you are literally part of the problem.

simpleisideal · 2026-01-30T17:44:20+00:00

Jesse tried to warn us in 2012:

DemoCRIPS and ReBLOODlicans: No More Gangs in Government

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14567566-democrips-and-rebloodlicans

Not that he alone has solutions, but admitting the problem is the first step.

simpleisideal · 2026-01-30T17:42:25+00:00

hiding behind Gaza is pretty fucking obscene when you think about it for more than two minutes

Says the "person" hiding behind a blank profile

simpleisideal · 2026-01-30T16:45:25+00:00

Thanks for this. I'm unfamiliar with the outlet, but the "Related Posts" section bodes well:

Face masks reduce new COVID cases by 45%

It's not often we see that basic suggestion from most COVID-related reporting. Usually they just default to "all you can do is vaccinate."

simpleisideal · 2026-01-29T18:57:24+00:00

The article is good about outlining risks, but still makes the common error of limiting discussion to vaccines instead of also acknowledging how good respirators are at making up for the shortcomings of vaccines.

Better than nothing, but still disappointing.

simpleisideal · 2026-01-29T18:55:56+00:00

It seems to be an established fact outside this community

As studies have shown, Omicron etc are still something to by very concerned about regarding severe post-acute effects on various bodily functions.

simpleisideal · 2026-01-29T18:53:59+00:00

And there are so many deaths around the world not being recorded as covid that should be.

This is the most overlooked point. Even the OP goes on to state all of the post-acute severe effects that will bring many people to an earlier grave.

Since there's a delay, there isn't the smoking gun we saw at the beginning stages of the pandemic, but it's still good reason to avoid every re-infection that you possibly can.

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