We do have those instruments. We got the vaccines, and then everyone pretended like they don’t work because they did not immediately solve Covid and all our other problems.
The people who want to take everything away have been around a long time, but with Covid they finally got their golden opportunity. They aren’t going to let go of that so easily.
Years ago, I had a girlfriend who was like Twitter: the most uncharitable possible interpretation of others’ actions and speech, and the most charitable possible interpretation of her own words and actions.
This was not good.
Thread, on pulling out of WorldCon.
(I'm going to be a virtual-only attendee this year, even though I'd hoped otherwise. Haven't had COVID, fully vaxxed, but getting to DC means 3 airports, 2 or more flights, 16+ hours door-to-door. It's just too risky. Maybe next year …!) https://t.co/keldEdc7WM
— Charlie Stross (@cstross) December 1, 2021
It is really sad to see so many living in fear. The vaccines should’ve stopped that, but the terror dwells in them, has been inculcated in their souls; it’s their world now. I think for many there is nothing now that could eradicate it.
The problem — at least a major one — with Zero Covid is that it likely sacrifices many more life-years of kids and younger people for much fewer of the same for older people. I know standard-issue liberals are just not equipped to think about things that way, but it is unfortunately true.
Is that sacrifice worth it? Is that a good trade-off? That’s not a question that can be answered with science, but rather with ethics and morality. I think the answer is “no” and have trouble understanding why others think the answer is “yes” even when they accept the premises — which many do, and still want to enact this vast harm.
Zero Covid will almost never be “done right,” which means the harms are just built in, ineluctably.