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tuesday wrote (edited )

I'm happy to have discussions in good faith about mitigating risks and how we, as anarchists, should deal with pandemics where social interaction conveys a risk of transmission of a deadly virus.

But if I wanted to engage with someone who calls the well documented spread of COVID after gatherings "media propaganda" and libshit I'd talk to my OANN watching piece of shit father. I don't come to anarchist spaces to engage with people who refuse to interact with the realities of the society that we live in.

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fortmis wrote

like I get how metocin's comments are frustrating, but there was potential for a discussion there and instead you responded with a hyperbole based off of a stereotype of people who are critical of mainstream covid discourse. it's not that what you're saying isn't important, it just seems like a bit of a leap from what metocin was actually saying.
maybe metocin does have some crooked views, but rereading their post, I recognize a pretty common thread: the media tends to funnel its covid coverage through issues of morality, shame, and status quo. this isn't new -- we all know the media has a million strings attached to it... being pulled by an array of different authoritative voices.

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tuesday wrote (edited )

I admit that I jumped off and got hyperbolic but this isn't the first time that metocin has been completely dismissive of the lived experiences of marginalized people. He doesn't know anyone who has been hospitalized or died because of covid? So fucking what? That's hardly an excuse to act like covid isn't a big deal.

Her comment literally said "Why are you so worried about it?"

I have a particular stake in this game as a person who is very much at risk of death by covid. And even if I do catch covid and don't die from it the risk of contracting long covid or any of the host of other disabling aftereffects of covid infection would absolutely further diminish my ability to function in society, which is ALREADY diminished by my existing as a disabled person.

That's what I'm worried about. And the idea that I'm parroting liberal media bullshit because I'd like to avoid making my life harder than it already is to exist in this fucking hellscape? No.

I've been living like a hermit for 2 years. I live in a town full of people who don't wear masks and aren't getting vaccinated, specifically because they believe that covid is really just bullshit liberal hype that's about controlling their freedom. I would love to go out to a bar and have a drink. I would love to just socialize and see my friends from somewhere other than behind my car door, masked and with the windows rolled up. I would love to go to a fucking movie theater, but I can't because people are taking risks with my health and I can't do shit about it BUT shame them. And now that's somehow oppressive?

Fuck that.

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fortmis wrote

ya i hear you, you have every right to be riled up by it. it sounds like your experience of the pandemic has been worse than most. I'm sorry -- that's really too bad.

if you don't mind me asking, how would you like things to go from here on out? what would you like to see happen -- for example what do you need to have happen in your town in order to feel more freedom to do what you'd like?

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tuesday wrote (edited )

My experience hasn't been worse than most though because I haven't gotten sick. I know people who've died. I know people who are having debilitating side effects a year after the fact. Me? I'm lucky. I can't go out and that's frustrating and I'm really fucking lonely and depressed but I'm fine. I'm not homeless. I'm not forced to work with abusive customers who spit in my face and cough on me. Compared to people who actually have it bad, I'm lucky.

And this isn't about what I want to happen. This isn't about what I need to feel freedom because my freedom is meaningless while there are other people in worse predicaments than I'm in.

If I had a wish I would wish for their freedom and their liberty. Not mine. My liberation is tied to theirs in a way that theirs isn't tied to mine.

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fortmis wrote (edited )

alright, fair enough. my intention with those questions was to steer our focus to the future -- which i think is one of the toughest topics when it comes to covid. but we gotta start thinking and talking about it.

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tuesday wrote

I mean the answer to that is the same as the answer to all of the other social ills - anarchism.

This isn't just a problem because of the interpersonal tensions between me and the guy across the street who isn't getting vaccinated. There's nothing that's going to solve that because the people that he believes are either intentionally lying to him for money or they're too caught up in their own bullshit to know that they're lying. I can't do anything about that.

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