NWR new zero tolerance covid thread

Alex Lake said:
So a sense of duty, I suppose...
I do wonder if there are more efficient ways to get tipped off? And even then, what should one actually do? At what point do we take to the streets (either in reality or some virtual equivalent)?
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Yes, how and when an ordinary citizen should act is the key issue when the institutions that are supposed to protect democracy begin to fail.

Part of the trade-off is that acting early has more effect for less risk, because a would-be autocracy has not yet established its power and institutions may still protect one to some degree. Acting later, when the need is obvious to all, is much riskier to the individual because the institutions which might have protected them have crumbled and their fellow citizens have become too frightened.

That's why continuing to follow the facts matters. Which is also why would-be autocrats try to control the news and convince people not to watch. They know that if we are not watching we will not act, and that if we do not act early we may not act at all.

Autocracies tend to emerge from and exploit disorder, hardship and uncertainty. Pandemics can serve them well.
 
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Excellent discussion over the last dozen or so posts. Such an important topic. I don't watch a lot of news, but watch as many documentaries as possible from trusted sources like DW, Aljazeera, the BBC, etc, Even YouTube has some excellent channels, but,of course, you do need to retain an EVEN MORE healthy level of scepticism when dealing with less known/respected sources.
 
George Marshall said:
https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1417804400819675137

A single unsourced tweet from a Texan securities trader in a thread stating why he thinks delta variant will not impact US. Too many replies pointing out his assumptions are suspect to bother to go through.
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Thanks - so just made up? I just saw that before having to go elsewhere (so sorry not to have taken the time to examine there further), but thought it contradicted more establised sources. Clearly the kind of story that would go down VERY well among those opposed to restrictions.

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Yes, I can see how he might come to that conclusion based on the data he was using. Very dangerous logic, where the error is obvious - recent "natural immunity" cases in Israel will be the young thanks to effective vaccination of the old, so hardly surprising that those tend not to die as much....
 
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Alex Lake said:
Thanks - so just made up? I just saw that before having to go elsewhere (so sorry not to have taken the time to examine there further), but thought it contradicted more establised sources. Clearly the kind of story that would go down VERY well among those opposed to restrictions.

Edit:

Yes, I can see how he might come to that conclusion based on the data he was using. Very dangerous logic, where the error is obvious - recent "natural immunity" cases in Israel will be the young thanks to effective vaccination of the old, so hardly surprising that those tend not to die as much....
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The liberty-requires-eternal-vigilance argument can also be used by would-be autocrats. The US 6th January invasion of the Capitol was carried out by people who had been persuaded by dodgy news that an autocracy of the left was imminent. Dodgy news is worse than no news but ignoring news allows risk to grow (or, if one were optimistic, allows it to subside).
 
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Jeremy Caan said:
Yes, how and when an ordinary citizen should act is the key issue when the institutions that are supposed to protect democracy begin to fail.

Part of the trade-off is that acting early has more effect for less risk, because a would-be autocracy has not yet established its power and institutions may still protect one to some degree. Acting later, when the need is obvious to all, is much riskier to the individual because the institutions which might have protected them have crumbled and their fellow citizens have become too frightened.

That's why continuing to follow the facts matters. Which is also why would-be autocrats try to control the news and convince people not to watch. They know that if we are not watching we will not act, and that if we do not act early we may not act at all.

Autocracies tend to emerge from and exploit disorder, hardship and uncertainty. Pandemics can serve them well.
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I shall follow you to the barricades, Citizen Caan. :)
 
johnny Shek said:
Excellent discussion over the last dozen or so posts. Such an important topic. I don't watch a lot of news, but watch as many documentaries as possible from trusted sources like DW, Aljazeera, the BBC, etc, Even YouTube has some excellent channels, but,of course, you do need to retain an EVEN MORE healthy level of scepticism when dealing with less known/respected sources.
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As someone with some knowledge of the internal workings of Aljazeera and the influence of Qatar on editorial policy. I would hesitate to use the words ‘trusted sources’ in regard to this company.
 
Thom Blach said:
... a friend who maintained that I ought to have a basic understanding of Einstein's theory of relativity. ...
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Not even many of scientists.
I am one of the first group of students to do Biological science in a medical Uni back home, the course organiser (actually the Dean of the School) decided that the courses should be from small scale (physical chemistry) to large scale (ecology). Hence we, Uni newbies who were ready to learn biology, were suddenly put in front of quantum theories. In the end they had to increase the marks for everyone to avoid demotivating the whole class.
I still wouldn't say I understand quantum physics now.
 
Jonathan Kalman said:
As someone with some knowledge of the internal workings of Aljazeera and the influence of Qatar on editorial policy. I would hesitate to use the words ‘trusted sources’ in regard to this company.
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I think the context was (at least originially) about pandemic related news.

Saying that, I found BBC played a rather active role during this pandemic.
Watching BBC in the past year I found them
1. Emphasize the risk and dreadful scenarios in hospitals, by making multiple in-ICU reports, interviewing patients, even filming nurse informing families that the patient won't live overnight, put the cruel reality to every British family's dinner table.
2. Very positive on vaccine, also very careful on reporting side effects.

For me, they did what they are expected to do as a public media during crisis rather than being fake-neutral; and I do think that contribute to the high compliance of stay-at-home order and high acceptance of vaccine in this country.
 
Thom Blach said:
I had a conversation the other week with a friend who maintained that I ought to have a basic understanding of Einstein's theory of relativ
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The reassuring quote to remember is that of Sir Arthur Eddington, who, on being asked if it was true that there were only three people in the world who understood general relativity, replied, after some thoughtful silence, that he had been trying to think who the third could be.
 
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