tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post4383083369753182376..comments2024-03-28T21:56:51.675-04:00Comments on Face to Face: Australia vs. US: cohesion produces authoritarianism above and mass action belowagnostichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-80313344038199673302021-09-29T00:19:50.174-04:002021-09-29T00:19:50.174-04:00Why do girls bother trying to send flirty signals ...Why do girls bother trying to send flirty signals while masked? If I can't see the rest of your face, my mind fills the picture in with a neutral expression.<br /><br />So, make all the expressive eye gestures you want -- it just clashes with what, in my mind, is a totally neutral lower face. Incongruous -- mouth and eye gestures are supposed to harmonize into a gestalt. Not be separated.<br /><br />It's freakish -- like you Botoxed your entire face below the eyes.<br /><br />And sorry, but unless you're Penelope Cruz, you don't have eyes expressive enough to carry the entire facial emotion.<br /><br />Take that damn thing off your face if you're going to make eyes at someone.<br /><br />Ignore all the coping BS about "well it hides my [imaginary flaw no one notices or cares about], so I'm glad to wear it". No, you're just afraid of opening up and being real in front of other members of your community.<br /><br />Mask off, dork.agnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-33752261044154785232021-09-29T00:10:56.011-04:002021-09-29T00:10:56.011-04:00Racial disparity in masking is even more apparent ...Racial disparity in masking is even more apparent IRL now, too. Since nothing is being enforced, there's little cost to expressing your true preference.<br /><br />And sadly, black people are more based than whites on this issue. They mostly don't wear a mask, or at most have it on but not covering their nose and/or mouth.<br /><br />How fucked up is it that pretty soon the typical white working-class wagie is going to flock to black employers, so they won't get harassed and coerced into being a guinea pig for big pharma over a bad cold?<br /><br />Soon, "black owned and operated business" will be a dogwhistle for "free from COVID craziness", smdh.<br /><br />Democrat-on-Democrat violence is going to get interesting...agnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-41320970776726272592021-09-28T23:54:45.386-04:002021-09-28T23:54:45.386-04:00Mask-harassed for the 1st time in a long while, by...Mask-harassed for the 1st time in a long while, by fat female worker. When she saw I wasn't wearing one, she shouted out in a concerned tone, "Sir! Sir! Sir! Sir!"<br /><br />Totally ignored her, kept walking, and going about my browsing. No follow-up by her, any other employee / manager, or fellow shopper.<br /><br />She was not a designated mask checker at the front of the store -- those have all disappeared, since the whole COVID theater keeps steadily eroding (unless you live in an insane shithole, which you probably do if you're on social media, sorry about that).<br /><br />When the state mandates were still in effect, I did occasionally get harassed by other shoppers. Now, not at all.<br /><br />It makes me wonder how much more compliant people would've been about mass vaxx if it had rolled out in May 2020 instead of 2021. There was more uncertainty then about how bad the disease could get, experts had not totally torched their own credibility on the matter, some modicum of faith was still left in the institutions because the presidential election had not yet been stolen on primetime TV.<br /><br />Of course we didn't have a vaxx ready to go back then, but we did have masks. Those mask mandates were fairly widespread and rigidly adhered to. I don't remember anyone not wearing them anywhere IRL.<br /><br />Presumably vaxx mandates would've been more widespread, and more rigidly adhered to, as well.<br /><br />Although a thought experiment, this is another point of evidence in favor of the "COVID theater not lasting / is falling apart, however gradually" view.<br /><br />It is resistance, not compliance, to COVID theater that has been increasing over the past year. That will only continue as the system tries even crazier shit -- "tries" being the key word, before falling flat on their clueless dumbass face.agnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-9539111609313636092021-09-24T23:45:59.098-04:002021-09-24T23:45:59.098-04:00Iowa colleges cannot mandate vaxx or masks, per st...Iowa colleges cannot mandate vaxx or masks, per state law. That's despite the state having very big state schools with their own local fiefdoms (U of Iowa and Iowa State).<br /><br />There must be zillions of hick-libs on those campuses, as students and employees.<br /><br />Only problem is they're in a fairly red state, one that flipped from fairly blue to Trump in 2016, and which they could not steal back in 2020 (along with Ohio and Florida).<br /><br />AFAICT, Michael Tracey's portrait of insane authoritarian campuses is limited mainly to the bicoastal super-Democrat places. Maybe Chicagoland and by extension IL is going insane too, the one major exception within flyover country.<br /><br />Seems more like an old red state vs. blue state thing, where the edu-sector has free rein in its craziness in deep blue states, but where their dreams of total control of students is frustrated elsewhere.<br /><br />Blue-balled by red states.<br /><br />If you doubt any of this, find the doomsayers on social media and ask what state they live in, or what sector of the economy they work for.<br /><br />Something related to tech or media (including surviving from online content via Patreon subs / donos)? Living on either coast, and not Florida? Shocked!agnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-10427946889632709952021-09-24T17:28:33.975-04:002021-09-24T17:28:33.975-04:00It's Pendleton season, baby. Oh hell yea.It's Pendleton season, baby. Oh hell yea.agnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-90120287698020227322021-09-24T15:41:31.749-04:002021-09-24T15:41:31.749-04:00This explains why the edu-sector insanity will not...This explains why the edu-sector insanity will not spread beyond the schools. The crazy shit Michael Tracey has been covering (but who is wrong about the forecast that it will spread from there).<br /><br />There is never a unitary ruling class or elite in any country, at any time. If they do happen to be unified, it's because they are in a coalition of distinct groups. US during the New Deal, Australia somewhat today.<br /><br />But education is not the same as small biz owners, so their interests are not the same, and they won't necessarily be on the same side of the COVID topic (or any other topic).<br /><br />Democrats have the greatest lock on schools, academia, etc., and their subjects are the most dependent -- literal dependents, rather than autonomous adults. Even college kids do not have their own jobs, housing, healthcare, etc., and depend on their parents.<br /><br />So Dems can go the craziest on campuses. And are in fact doing that.<br /><br />But outside of that fiefdom, the rules are different. A supermarket chain, or a farm or meat processor, is not a school. They're labor-intensive and need bodies there both for labor and for shopping. Anything that gets in the way is a hassle, and they'll be against it.<br /><br />So you can walk into supermarkets without a mask, without a vaxx passport, and they won't turn you away.<br /><br />"B-b-buh, I live in New York City, and --" There's your problem right there, you live in a 100% Democrat-run shithole city. Most cities have a Dem mayor, but they operate in a broader red state or purple state ecology, and cannot get away with the same insanity that the mayor of NYC or SF can do, knowing they're backed up all the way up to the governor's office.<br /><br />We have a very polarized and fragmented elite stratum, so they cannot unite to spread the campus craziness to arbitrary other sectors of society. If they're a coalescence of interests, then sure, they can form a coalition over masks, passports, etc.<br /><br />But that is not a given, and several big sectors and fiefdoms will be opposed to such policies.<br /><br />Remember, social media is part of "the media". Most people you hear on social media, whether against or in favor of COVID hysteria, are members of Democrat fiefdoms (they live on social media, and their IRL residence is in a bicoastal mega-city). Their experience does not generalize outside of such partisan fiefdoms.agnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-34741258409589784462021-09-23T13:31:19.951-04:002021-09-23T13:31:19.951-04:00Sweden has taken in so many refugees in recent yea...Sweden has taken in so many refugees in recent years that the country is now 10% Muslim. Other Scandinavian countries are saner, but even Norway and Finland have quickly growing Muslim populations.<br /><br />Only Denmark (and tiny Iceland) are truly sane.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com