US is going to be fine going forward on COVID. This has been obvious for a while.

I don't fully understand the incentive structure of the people who are still, against all evidence, saying otherwise.

— Alan Cole (@AlanMCole) May 3, 2021

But the VARIANTS, Alan, the scary scary variants!

Just today a variant chased me down the block and even a few flamethrower blasts did nothing — nothing I tell you! — to stanch its unrelenting advance. And for every mask you take off of the 50 you’re wearing, you kill 20 grammas and 25 Indian people.

All of you looking for “complete safety” and “no risk” and no possibility of harm for you or for anyone, ya’ll might as well just stay inside hiding under your beds as your hearts tell you to do, because you’ll never find any of those things in this world.

Just don’t fuck with the rest of us as we resume our lives.

Liberals cannot and will not look squarely at who has been harmed by some of the policies they have supported during the pandemic. (Like endless school closures)

— Angie Schmitt🚶‍♀️ (@schmangee) May 5, 2021

As long as they can look virtuous and morally preen in front of their peers, they don’t give a fuck if those kids are eaten by sharks. Doesn’t matter to them at all.

Seeing how angry the The Liberals Who Can’t Quit Lockdown story made the liberals who can’t quit lockdown was fun, at least.

There’s now a battle on the left over if we should continue to follow onerous lockdown and social distancing restrictions even after vaccination, and if society should return to some semblance of normal.

A lot of people on the left are disingenuously framing it is a matter of individual choice, that if they, or someone, wants to wear 10 masks and hide inside crying, it should be allowed. And I agree with that! It should be. Everyone should be allowed to be an assclown in their own individual way. That’s as American as invading countries and bombing brown people.

The problem, though, is that they still want to enforce this on the rest of us while claiming it’s an individual choice. They want us cooped up, shamed into wearing masks even outdoors, all ready for the bug-eating’ pod life, because it’s more convenient to them and their delusions.

But I don’t care about their delusions, and I’m not (as many have argued) going to continue to wear a mask all the time because it shows sympathy for India. The problem is, that doesn’t actually help India. That country needs oxygen, vaccines, vax IP, and drugs, not symbolism.

I won’t have any part in the left’s pusillanimous delusions no more than I will participate in those of the right.

People who worry about unknown and unknowable long-term vaccine risks for kids, but who don't worry about long-term COVID risks for kids, DO NOT UNDERSTAND HOW RISK WORKS.

— Noah Smith 🐇 (@Noahpinion) May 4, 2021

99.9%+ of people do not understand how risk works. Mooks who will drive a car like a fucking maniac and not get vaccinated, etc.

I think this is probably a basic malfunction of the human OS.

i think society would improve measurably if we didn't look at people working out and think "what business do they have, wanting to be hotter" and instead thought "aww they are gonna be fuckin lights out at 9pm tonight. absolutely dead to the world"https://t.co/g1PWAcboce

— Casey Johnston (@caseyjohnston) May 2, 2021

People get so angry when you try to improve yourself! They really do. It’s always been mystifying to me.

For instance, at least 90% of the feminist rejection of pick-up artist culture is of “undeserving” men attempting to learn to be more social, not the actual misogyny involved (of which there is also quite a lot at the fringes). They see it is as the unworthy learning to manipulate them, rather than what it mostly is — poorly-socialized men learning how to talk to women.

The offense, in other words, is just the same as when people like Ian Welsh get angry at weightlifters: fury at those who haven’t “earned” it somehow upgrading themselves.

But I have and will continue to upgrade myself in all sorts of ways. Let the haters cry. It’s about all they are capable of, so at least give that to them.

begging people stop writing articles about how some people are "holding on" to lockdown procedures because they want a good boy high score from the teacher. that is obviously not what is happening

— yuuko from nichijou (@headfallsoff) May 4, 2021

Oh, that is quite obviously what is happening. These days I hardly know which contingent to hate more — the left or the right team. And I say “team” deliberately. Ok. Yes, it’s the right. They are the anti-maskers and the anti-vaxxers so deserve special contempt.

Still, my side is absolutely chock full of ridiculous assclowns and it makes me sad.

tell me your favorite [D Dsus4 D] that's not the Beatles, Queen, or the Indigo Girls

— ✨Yael Grauer ✨ (@yaelwrites) May 2, 2021

“Free Fallin'” by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.