Someone asked a question about how frequently young people have time to socialize and it made me think about what people do with their evenings. I recently asked my son to go to a concert (free ticket to see a band i know he likes) and he declined because it was an hour away on a weeknight. If we invite our kids or niece/nephew to dinner they always want to go at 6/630 which feels so early. Edit: Kids are 30ish.
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Covid definitely changed the way people think, behave, and live. I think my husband and i feel like we dodged a bullet, came through it ok, and enjoy being out (cautiously with the recent uptick). During lockdown we did dog walks to wave at neighbors, and moved our dart board outside to have people over for game nights.
Both kids are musicians (hobby and small gigs, not for survival) - one returned to bars to watch and play when they re-opened (he went to the concert with me) while the other now mostly watches videos, plays, and records at home.
We do have a couple of friends with long symptoms, especially fatigue, who crash after work on Wednesdays so we tend to see them on weekends.
Being in Texas we are super familiar with oppressive government. When i read the news or watch tv i get pretty sad, frustrated, angry about it. When i talk to friends, neighbors, coworkers I’m relieved and hopeful for change. About 75 percent of the people i see in a day share my values. The few who don’t are at least reasonable enough that we can find some issues to agree on. I’m sure those numbers would be very different if i moved to a smaller city so i feel pretty thankful to be where i am.
I’ve been to war. Most people in war torn countries are stuck there. Someone with a bunch of kids who is poor isn’t going to easily be able to move out of the way of any disaster whether it be man made or natural.
Also I think you need to do less doomscrolling. The world is shit but it’s the best it’s ever been. Crime is the lowest it’s ever been, same with poverty and disease. Yes the corona virus affected the whole world but that’s one disease, humans are recovering from it just fine. The powers that be want you to remain depressed and placid so that you are easier to rule over. Don’t make it easy for them by believing all the propoganda. Find something small in your life that you can fix and have control over and fix it. At least then your brain won’t think everything is doom and gloom, just some things.
Yeah you can control small things and fix them. I can patch a wall or fix up some stairs if they get creaky.
However, healthcare, education, and housing are rapidly becoming out of reach for the majority of people. That isn’t a small thing any one person can fix on their own. True of both USA and Canada. And even those who do have them, have ever growing anxiety that they will lose them. I live in a wealthy city full of wealthy people who endlessly agonize about how poor they are and how will they send their kids to college or how their house that they paid a million bucks for is a dump. etc.
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That was a big worry for me during COVID’s height- uninsured people wouldn’t go to the hospital if they had severe symptoms and die.
Opinion: unless you or a loved on has some kind of immune system issue, COVID is pretty much over.
I work in schools. It’s like a wildfire right now.
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That seems like a separate issue. I acknowledge your dread. It is important and should be addressed appropriately. I just don’t think the actual threat that COVID currently poses warrants such dread. You should be more afraid of heart disease, or car accidents, or something like that. Those things kill more people than COVID. Especially in 2023. It’s barely worse than the flu now. I was afraid of 2020 COVID. It’s not the same disease as it was then though.
4 people I know right now are home sick with the new strain of Covid.
How are their symptoms though? Not bad right? By saying COVID is over I mean the more dangerous forms of it from 2020 and 2021 are gone. It’s barely worse than the flu at this point. I’m not saying people aren’t still getting it. It’s just mostly inconsequential.
Do you know how many people the flu killed in 1918?
As we both know, the 1918 Spanish flu was unusually virulent, and back then we had no vaccines. Comparing to that flu would not give us useful data. It would be misleading. As you know, I meant today’s flu.
Today’s flu can mutate and become as deadly as the 1918 flu without a vaccine prepared to deal with it.
So could COVID.
Both must be taken seriously.