It’s a very fine line that you cross the moment you purchase or are unironically gifted an apron https://t.co/31swmnxR8n

— Mason ‍♂️✂️ (@webdevMason) May 17, 2021

I was unironically gifted an apron. Dang, I am a tradwife now.

Masks are good and we should keep wearing them.

Fuck you, and fuck this. I like breathing and masks make that harder. (No, liberals, don’t argue with me about my own personal experience on this or bring out your stupid-ass fucking oximeters.)

And while the vaccines provide a staggering reduction in the chance of infection, it’s not 100%.

So fucking what? Nothing is 100%. Your daily chance of living is less than 100%. What does this prove exactly in the lib mind?

I wish the conservatives weren’t such assclowns because the liberals are scarcely any better. I’m no anti-masker in the conservative sense. I believe they work. But I am beyond tired of the face diaper and once I can stop wearing it, I will.

It’s just bananas that the “highly educated” and “media literate” demographic is the one that is relatively more misinformed regarding covid risks, especially its relative risk to young children. How did we get to this point?

— Genève Campbell (@bergerbell) May 14, 2021

These so-called highly educated are the same “believe science” types who were claiming in February and March of 2020 that masks don’t work, that not wanting to shake hands was racist, and that Covid was “just the flu.”

They don’t actually know anything or have any insights at all. They merely parrot what they see higher-status people claim (who also often know little) and what allows them to appear morally righteous in front of their peers. However, they have no capability for systems thinking and don’t understand most of what they read so they’re usually only right by accident, and even then not that often.

I think it might just be the bad scan but this seems slightly creepy pic.twitter.com/KcHe0DaWo4

— foone (@Foone) May 16, 2021

And, you know, the thing about a shark… he’s got lifeless eyes. Black eyes. Like a doll’s eyes. When he comes at ya, doesn’t seem to be living… until he bites ya, and those black eyes roll over white and then…ah then you hear that terrible high-pitched screamin’.

i can't believe that people made fun of the rumsfeld 'unknown unknowns' line. it is a really good way of subdividing the world of possible facts!

— rev. howard arson (famous archaeologist) (@Theophite) May 16, 2021

Agreed. Whatever Rumsfeld’s other flaws, that analysis was epistemologically sound.

But I also like to add the “unknown knowns.” That is, things you think you know but are completely wrong about. We’ve seen a lot of instances of that during the pandemic.

got to 7, figure this means i’m invincible now https://t.co/FhLnJtBOO2

— Bo Bolander (@BBolander) May 17, 2021

11 rotations, so that’s about 1 minute 17 seconds.

I could’ve gone longer, but that’s as many times as the ball rotates. When I was a kid, I could easily hold my breath for more than two minutes while actively swimming.

Used to freak people right the fuck out. Still have decent lung capacity it appears.

The first ten on today’s playlist:

Biden destroyed one of the nation’s most toxic racist myths, and no one noticed.

I remember my grandfather complaining that black people (except he didn’t call them “black people”) would pool their money and buy a Cadillac so they could share it as needed or desired.

From his tone I’m guessing I was supposed to react as if this were a terrible thing but I said, “That sounds like a pretty good idea, most people don’t drive their cars that often.”

Why this was supposed to be appalling I only understood as an adult: most people live in utter fear that someone will have something they don’t somehow deserve, and this belief is so enshrined that many people are even willing to harm themselves to avoid that calamitous outcome.

The scene: A Publix somewhere in Florida earlier today.

A fit woman in a seriously cute summer dress was ahead of me at the self-checkouts, struggling with the machine. It wasn’t her fault; it wasn’t working correctly. She’d already turned a few times to glance at me. I was next in line behind her. But then she got frustrated and turned to me fully and said as she was about to walk to another station, “Don’t use this one. It’s broken.”

My response was spontaneous, though I used to do these sorts of things when I was younger as a social experiment to learn to better interact with people and to see what worked and what didn’t. Anyway, I said, “Your dress is so cute I’m surprised that alone didn’t fix it” and smiled, not expectantly, as I didn’t want anything but to make her feel good, but rather appreciatively.

She turned a bunch of shades of pink, said “Thank you,” and turned around to walk to a functional machine as the attendant came over to diagnose the broken kiosk.

As she was at the other machine, she kept glancing at me (and not in the way of “wonder what the creepy guy is going to do next,” but rather how you look at someone who makes you feel seen). As she was about to walk out of the store, I smiled again and nodded at her and she did the same to me.

See how easy and pleasant those sorts of interactions can be when everyone is not an utter shithead?

Still, I don’t think that would’ve happened prior to the pandemic. She was obviously glad to be out, glad to be seen, happy to be appreciated for her fitness and her humanity, wearing her nicest dress and looking like a queen doing it.

People, I heard a roar! I made a roar! Let the roaring begin.