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    Re: You're off on a tangent Archived Message

    Posted by dereklane on December 13, 2020, 11:58 pm, in reply to "Re: You're off on a tangent"

    Not sure that's true. Looks like around 250000 for covid, and all cancers from the cancer.org site seem to point to around 600000 deaths (estimated) this year. But whatever; being a leading cause of death doesn't mean that it kills more people than everything else combined, but simply that along with all the other unnecessary things which kill people, it's singularly at the top. Such is the nature of statistical analysis when we try to sum it up instead of merely observing the figures.

    I would say that while we can say we don't need a new source of illness to kill us, the question is why the focus is extreme on covid and hardly at all on cancers (most of which are a product of our poisonous environment via capitalism). I'd say, because its new and it happened quick, and to us, instead of only to some poor third world countries.

    I don't remember last year reading anything in terms of daily updates on flu, cancer, car accidents, etc. It does seem we have become obsessed with our mortality but it also seems quite logical that in order to push lockdowns and new order, you must keep the fear up.

    You can argue that its warranted to do so, but lets not forget the same rules we applied to things like imperial wars, and so forth. You can't control the population unless the population is in fear.

    I can probably do both; accept its real and reject the style of the measures in place, because they are more about control than a solution. As such, I'm not so keen to defend the measures in place uncritically.

    Its like saying, lets stop people dying in so many car accidents. What we will do is allow people to use motorways on foot and bicycle, and tax those still driving more.

    Sounds good in principle (with group organisation we could take those roads back in a more sustainable way). In reality, with the rich and big businesses still using the roads at high speed, our sacrifices end up putting ourselves at risk, and in reality nothing changes except the rich get richer.

    I honestly don't see why there is an argument against these ideas.

    We know that what we see as half arsed containment measures are nothing of the sort; they are calculated measures to put more money in fewer pockets and damn the consequences. And most of us are defending that idea as though it counts for anything. It really doesn't. While they insist on some method to keep the spread moving (like open schools, airports, travel etc), its nothing but a farce, but a farce that for the poorest of us is having a very real and negative effect. Would be nice to own a home, or have work that was unaffected, or even have access to decent furlough pay. For most that reduced furlough pay is the difference between affording rent/heat/food and not. For all these people, no it is not worth it.

    I don't mind wearing a mask, washing my hands and staying in if I'm ill. But closing down small businesses and stopping most of us being able to work ( as the cost of living stays the same as it was), focusing the nhs on its covid response and away from all the other very real ailments that cause mortality and poor health?

    That's not a response to covid, its a response to the economic considerations of the rich.

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