"my theory is that in places where there is a lower socio-economic class gap between staff and customer, owners and staff feel no need to cater to this burgeoning sense of privilege. "
I am a member of the lower socio-economic class - i.e., working class. I dine only at working class breakfast joints, diners and pizza shops. And where I dine, you see almost no masks on anyone including the staff.
Charlie, you mean the people that built this country, fought the wars and kept us free? Your people are my people, and I eat in the same places and see the same thing. God Bless America.
I'm a member of the upper socioeconomic class due to my luck and skill as a software entrepreneur. I will never, ever again frequent any establishment that caters to "my kind". I'll instead enjoy truck stop burgers and mall pizza amidst the decent folks.
My personal attitude to upscale restaurants: Yes, I can afford to eat there, but why would I want to? Texas Roadhouse makes a damn fine steak and it doesn't cost half my mortgage payment to eat one. :)
Many more nations and national factions than the Taliban make their women cover themselves under penalty of law in Islamic states. It is a feature of theocratic rule.
For decades feminists have spoken out about how cultural/religious face coverings dehumanize, objectify, and obliterate the identity of women. I can't understand why this hasn't also been the number one objection to face coverings during covid. It's why I wore a stupid face shield (instead of a mask) when I couldn't get into a grocery store bare faced. I refuse to be erased.
The first and only time I posted to social media was when I was briefly loaned a client's PR account because he loved my idea.
I was responding to Saudia Arabia's "Future of Tech" conference where they showed off "Sophia," the AI-powered robot that was symbolically granted Saudi citizenship. On behalf of my client, I posted,
"Will 'she' be allowed to drive? Asking for 16 million flesh and blood women who cannot."
Ha ha! I was a professor at a Saudi University (teaching women only!!) for 8 years. Women couldn't officially drive, but I had students who dressed up as men and they DID drive here and there. Some of them were quite rebellious!
One of my relatives was a very bright, independent educator and her husband was a renowned expert on youth and collegiate sports programs and was contracted by the UAE to come develop a sports program for their schools. He and she moved there and lived for three years while he satisfied the contract, and when they finally left she said it was the greatest relief of her life. She hated it over there, with a mad passion.
But they (the moslems) aren't. Their women, just like our children now being suppressed, have been threatened with death if they don't comply. But, they'll never say that part out loud.
This is why I remind everyone of the detailed nature of this oppressive practice. It is not a "fringe fundamentalist minority." It is widespread, mainstream subjugation of women. Not all cultural values are equal.
“The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it’s profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way, and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theater.”
Until lockdown I understood this as moving the mental furniture around. During lockdown this phrase switched and suddenly I had something I really felt I needed to be free of, and the 2nd noun became a tangible one.
Albeit my prior understanding had been led by the other lines "Free your mind and your ass will follow. The kingdom of heaven is within. Freedom is free of the need to be free."
It’s truly mind-blowing. Although released in 2014, it pretty much predicts all that is taking place now. The ending was stunning. It also makes me question what happened to Rik Mayall.
The film deserves critical viewing and a write-up considering that past reviews and comments have been deliberately scrubbed from the internet. As brilliant and talented as he was, I never dreamed that Rik Mayall would prove to be heroic in quite this way.
I wonder what critical thinkers like Zappa, Hunter S. Thompson, Carlin, and others would say about our current reality. My hope is that that they would fall in line with people like Naomi Wolf, Tucker Carlson, Drs. Yeadon and Malone, and others who can see beyond the trees.
No question about Zappa, Carlin, and Hicks. Not so sure about Hunter. He is reported to have been into snuff films and may have even committed some murders and other unsavory acts himself …
"Coming of age in a fascist police state will not be a barrel of fun for anybody, much less for people like me, who are not inclined to suffer Nazis gladly and feel only contempt for the cowardly flag-suckers who would gladly give up their outdated freedom to live for the mess of pottage they have been conned into believing will be freedom from fear."
Hopkins is great but I wish he would stop calling the global fascist order that afflicts us "global capitalism".
State control over markets, trade, currencies, monetary flows and the personal consumption options of billions of individuals is the *opposite* of capitalism, which is simply free people engaging in voluntary transactions.
"State control over markets, trade, currencies, monetary flows and the personal consumption options of billions of individuals is the *opposite* of capitalism, which is simply free people engaging in voluntary transactions." - Thank you. Good God, I have nearly worn out my drum trying to beat that into people's heads. The education system and pop culture have completely turned the definition of these things upside-down, on purpose of course.
You are spot on for all the reasons you state. As an Emergency Doc I looked into masks well before COVID for influenza protection. Some patients, especially Asians, would wear masks (as they do in Asian countries). Frankly I was surprised that all the studies showed zero, zip, nada effect. So of course I argued this with my colleagues (and friends and family) when COVID came BUT no one would accept the findings of well done studies. You see Gato, it "obvious that they protect" so no silly studies needed. Of course we have precedent for this: our cooling climate that is clearly due to solar cycles is in fact due to "Global Warming" or man made "Climate Change" or whatever nonsense that everyone is supposed to accept because it's "obvious". As you surmise, it's really all about subservience and humiliation. Shameful, disgusting. We shall be free and have no more of these moron tyrants!!
I think some Asians started wearing masks due to high *particulate* pollution, which made sense. Then becomes habit, which our western "leaders" glommed on to
I used to think people in Asian countries prior to 2019 wore masks to prevent infection. I do believe it is to prevent inhaling small particulate matter from the air, like soot, smog, etc.
Well said, as always! We recently visited a resort in the DR. Every employee dutifully wore their mask at all times while the guests did not. (Well, except for the odd requirement that we wear one from the hostess stand to our table. Duh!) Even the lifeguard in the tower on the beach was forced to wear one, I'm sure at the threat of losing his job if he didn't. It made me sick. I never once saw the smiling face of an employee at the hotel. Getting to know the staff is one of the joys of travel. My husband is hard of hearing. He simply didn't interact. Reviews of the hotel said, "The staff seemed unhappy." Seriously? 'Ya think??? Ellos estaban enojados!
We were among the first English back in Egypt last autumn. The staff and taxi drivers were so pleased for our custom... it had been really tough for them without income or Government assistance.
There are so many places in the world where very poor people are near totally dependent financially on the tourist trade - Egypt, Thailand, pacific islands, the list goes on... so very strange the total msm blackout on their fate these last two years... surely rates of malnutrition in some of these places must be way up!?
But the Rulers always hated global tourism (you can read Ruskin on the just starting mass Alpine tourist trade in the 1870s) - and they have brought it to a near cessation. It's never coming back.
Yes, tbh, nowhere apart from intentional war-torn areas are in outright famine. But I know there are hungry bellies about. I setup a solar charity and worked in Kenya in 2019, and had reports from people I know about their flower trade around mother's day which is a massive earner for them, getting bulldozed because cargo planes were grounded in spring 2020. It's been tough since, but they're getting by.
That elite insight is interesting, and I believe it's likely one of the drivers. I went to the Colosseum in 1989 and then again in 2015 and it was pretty ruined as an experience due to the crowds. Project it forward and what have you got? Everyone able to go everywhere all the time? People 3D printing yachts for a few grand? Everyone affording life-extension treatments? Sheesh, too much equity.
Ruskin was a powerful writer and he does make a convincing argument that building the first railroads through Alpine passes was an unfortunate outcome. Wouldn't it be nice if there was an equitable and rational way of "pricing externalities"? (I think that's the term; tho spell checker disagrees!) - instead what we get is a current EU carbon tax proposal (don't have a link) in which the yachts of the mega-wealthy are exempt. That's not even close.
Tragic. My family and I went to Punta Cana before Covid and loved it.
I speak Spanish so I made a point to interact with people as much as possible. We made a point to travel outside the resort as much as possible and we even booked a trip to Santo Domingo were we spent the day.
I've resigned myself to the fact that it may be years - if ever - before we can return to a place like that. The whole mask theater is the U.S. is too surreal and disturbing. Confronting it while "on vacation" would be too much.
It’s also hard when it’s your second language so the mask makes it all the harder to understand the staff, waiters, etc. I’m supposed to go on a family trip to Mexico this year and I’m not looking forward to all of this. How am I going to communicate with la gente? No point in going if we’re going to hang around the pool and speak English the whole time.
The double-edged sword to not going is that the staff is not supported by our patronage. No tips, no work, no job. I was torn about this, too. La comunicacion es muy dificil. How are you at charades? LOL.
Exactly! In contrast, a friend visited Guatemala recently and the tour required masking at all times, both indoors, outdoors, and on the bus. No gracias!
I can't stand walking into a restaurant and seeing all the servers forced to wear masks. I've gotten to the point where I refuse to eat at any establishment that subjugates their employees to this humiliation. Vote with your feet.
Unfortunately, where I live the staff in restaurants must wear masks, or else the restaurant will be shut down by the (Un)Health Department, by order of the mayor.
I have always felt badly for waiters and waitresses that have had to cover their faces during this. Many still are in our area altho we can walk into a restaurant w/out a face cover. I always tell them I would like to see their smiles and hope that their boss ends this requirement. The last restaurant review I did included "I won't be back until your wait staff is unmasked". Hope the head honcho reads it. The woman I was with was of a different mindset and wanted them masked because "they spit on you when they are standing over you"- won't be eating out with her anytime soon. She also thinks because of climate change the world is going to "end" in 2-3 years...what has happened to my acquaintances????
Ask her why she's even eating out. Is she mercifully unaware of the supply chains needed for most modern restaurants? Even the most 'farm to plate' restaurants get some supplies trucked in, from US foods, Costco, whatever. The fish is from dwindling fisheries, the veggies may not be non GMOs. She sounds like a brass-plated idiot, frankly. I say this as someone who worked as a chef for 30 years. Restaurants are not for the PC or faint of heart.
oh- she argued my point that bison was lean meat. I like it because I hate gristle in my burgers. Doesn't happen with bison. She wouldn't hear of such a thing and called it "fatty"- oh well. More for me!
"brass-plated idiot"- thank you for adding to my repertoire of adjectives to describe some people I can no longer be close friends with! :-) Yes- she is unaware of many things. And I was unaware of THAT for many years. Recent discussions have brought out the stupid (chosen ignorance) in some people. Many people. Thank you for preparing other people's food! That has to be one of those jobs where you rarely hear a "thank you"- hope you did!
I did, often, thanks. :) It is not most peoples' fault they don't know the undersides of restaurants, trade secrets and all, but it becomes inexcusable when people get on their high horse about this stuff.
I find it ironic that I was forced to work while ill for years and now there's this sudden awareness of it and its OK to be out sick for a few days, LOL.
Same with teaching. (I retired about 6 years ago but was subbing at my old site)- teacahers used to "push through" to "be there for the kids"- now they get a runny nose and test over and over until they get a false positive so they can take the week off...I won't sub currently.
The actual science of mass mask wearing effectiveness vs. airborne respiratory viruses has never changed. They are as certainly ineffective at preventing the spread as wishing is at preventing gravity. Given that, it was clear initially that the mass masking was not about health, rather it was about keeping the threat and fear of the virus front and center within populations. In other words, it was about keeping the masses afraid and away from each other.
As the "pandemic" has evolved, the masking is still about keeping people afraid but it's also become about a caste system. It's all really horribly frightening to live through a history that will certainly be looked back on in history in similar fashion that we look back on things like the Salem Witch Trails today, but hopefully this one will serve as an even more indelible reminder of the danger and reality of the madness of crowds.
I've read that scrap metal drives during World War 2 didn't really contribute anything meaningful to the war effort, rather, their importance was in giving the civilian population the feeling like they were doing their part. I think masking at first had a similar inspiration.
Yeah, I think there is absolutely truth to that with respect to many politicians. But for our public health bureaucrats I think it's about power through fear.
You might be right, but from the beginning I had zero interest in doing my part because I knew this was all about control. I live in a very conservative red part of a very blue state & in my town most people & businesses ignored complying w/ or enforcing the mask s#¡+. But the 1st time I went up to the northern part of the state where compliance was 95%, I literally wept w/ disbelief @ The lemmings EVERYWHERE there, out in the open air, in their cars, standing outdoors in the long lines. I was absolutely horrified that it happened @ all (that people went along so willingly) much less how QUICKLY
One of mankind’s greatest failings is the ability to learn from not only the past (Salem, Holocaust, USSR, China, Cambodia, ad nauseum) but the present (socialism fails everywhere, including Venezuela).
Sadly true, and it's because the authoritarians of the present always think it's different this time, that they're different. And it all stems from the fatal flaw of mankind. The insatiable thirst for the unearned.
It's the same in the UK. Masks are no longer mandatory and they have very quickly become a class maker. The higher end supermarkets are filled with masks whilst the cheap, budget supermarkets, nothing.
Am I evil for hoping that the toffs and other chinless wonders keep boosting themselves out of exitence, while the plebs and oiks trudges along building resistance?
It's not about the virus, it's about them demonstrating their membership in the mask tribe, which they associate with being super smart and educated and better than the hoipolloi.
I absolutely love this. Months ago after tyrant Phil Murphy removed indoor mask mandates in NJ and we started going out to restaurants, I made it a point every single time to tell the waiter/waitress that they did not need to wear the mask. I always got the standard response that it was "policy" but I wanted them to know that this was not OK with me. And many times when I left, I told the manager we would not be back until the masks came off the staff (and I have maintained this personal rule and have not gone back).
When I see kids masked, I get physical ill. The people that did this need to pay dearly.
All true. And yet another one out of the park by our favorite bad cat.
There is another aspect that you touched upon with the allusion to that economist from your alma mater. That is, the damage that has been wrought to the medical profession by their own hand. I knew we were in trouble in early 2020 when the “leaders” in my own organization waxed poetic about how “masks work!” This came primarily from non surgical types, ie those who don’t habitually wear those paper masks that are a part of every surgeon’s daily routine. They abandoned all scientific reason, all the skepticism that they gleefully hurl at surgeons on a regular basis over the slim to no benefit of common operations.
My own PCP tried to persuade me to get jabbed by making the argument that since he and many others were jabbed, they now presented a GREATER danger to me than the unjabbed. IOW his logic was: Since I acquiesced to this untried, potentially dangerous and likely ineffective treatment (“breakthrough infections/cases were already occurring in early 2020) which actually worsens the situation, YOU should too! I politely declined.
Next doctor in 2021 asked if I’d been jabbed. No, I replied. He asked, Why not? I replied, A “vaccine” whose efficacy wanes rapidly after 3 months, and YOU’RE on your THIRD shot now? No thanks. He just looked at me with a deer-in-the-headlights stare and said, “Oh, that’s interesting.”
As you so elegantly pointed out, the elites won’t pick a fight with an intellectual, social equal. The haughtiness, superiority, appeal to authority, bullying won’t fly with their equals. They are left only with the defenseless, the weak and the weak minded to abuse-with the invaluable aid of the toadying, the scolding, the neurotics and the collaborators.
“Masks work!” I’ve never been so ashamed to be a member of a once proud, sensible cadre of caring individuals.
I enjoy those looks now. If you still think the mask works, you deserve to be scared of maskless people. They also really really hate it when you smile and say 'have a good day!'
I enjoy them too. Especially like yesterday when a 300+ young woman skittered around me in a grocery aisle giving me the stink eye as I smiled at her and attempted to move out of her ponderous way. I can't save you if you can't save yourself, honey!
Very well said. This smacks of classic “-ism” theory that is beloved by demagogues to, as you said, elevate themselves not through merit or value, but by devaluing their peers through a characteristic that the peer has little to no control over (e.g. historically race). It is hard for me to enjoy a night out at a restaurant because the server must be adorned while I am not. And no matter what I do, the server is harmed. If I refrain from dining, they lose money. If I patronize, I am reaffirming this classist divide.
Thank you Gato for covering masks quite extensively - they are one of the most reprehensible parts of this charade. Did anyone stop and consider the possibly lifetime damage we are doing to kids? No. Masks were always a tool of submission, control and to prolong the public hysteria. This is why I never put on on my face, not once. Lots of stares and not so fun when 99% of everyone was doing it, but it was the only thing I felt I could do at the height of insanity. Show my face and smile.
"my theory is that in places where there is a lower socio-economic class gap between staff and customer, owners and staff feel no need to cater to this burgeoning sense of privilege. "
I am a member of the lower socio-economic class - i.e., working class. I dine only at working class breakfast joints, diners and pizza shops. And where I dine, you see almost no masks on anyone including the staff.
My reality confirms your theory.
Charlie, you mean the people that built this country, fought the wars and kept us free? Your people are my people, and I eat in the same places and see the same thing. God Bless America.
I'm a member of the upper socioeconomic class due to my luck and skill as a software entrepreneur. I will never, ever again frequent any establishment that caters to "my kind". I'll instead enjoy truck stop burgers and mall pizza amidst the decent folks.
The food's better too😉.
My personal attitude to upscale restaurants: Yes, I can afford to eat there, but why would I want to? Texas Roadhouse makes a damn fine steak and it doesn't cost half my mortgage payment to eat one. :)
The Taliban make their subservient women wear masks too. In the West we have the Karen-ban.
Many more nations and national factions than the Taliban make their women cover themselves under penalty of law in Islamic states. It is a feature of theocratic rule.
For decades feminists have spoken out about how cultural/religious face coverings dehumanize, objectify, and obliterate the identity of women. I can't understand why this hasn't also been the number one objection to face coverings during covid. It's why I wore a stupid face shield (instead of a mask) when I couldn't get into a grocery store bare faced. I refuse to be erased.
It was the reason my IMMEDIATE visceral response to mask mandates, even before my brain began processing the anti-science, was "fuck no."
guttermouth.substack.com
The difference is that men also have to wear them
Yes our friend and champion of human rights Saudi Arabia springs to mind.
The first and only time I posted to social media was when I was briefly loaned a client's PR account because he loved my idea.
I was responding to Saudia Arabia's "Future of Tech" conference where they showed off "Sophia," the AI-powered robot that was symbolically granted Saudi citizenship. On behalf of my client, I posted,
"Will 'she' be allowed to drive? Asking for 16 million flesh and blood women who cannot."
Ha ha! I was a professor at a Saudi University (teaching women only!!) for 8 years. Women couldn't officially drive, but I had students who dressed up as men and they DID drive here and there. Some of them were quite rebellious!
There is no amount of money you could pay me.
I knew of a woman who, in drag, supported her family as a cabbie for 20 years.
One of my relatives was a very bright, independent educator and her husband was a renowned expert on youth and collegiate sports programs and was contracted by the UAE to come develop a sports program for their schools. He and she moved there and lived for three years while he satisfied the contract, and when they finally left she said it was the greatest relief of her life. She hated it over there, with a mad passion.
I remember seeing that!
Gold.
And the moslems are completely honest about why.
Unlike democratic, liberal, feminist, LGBTQP, capitalist leaders.
But they (the moslems) aren't. Their women, just like our children now being suppressed, have been threatened with death if they don't comply. But, they'll never say that part out loud.
This is why I remind everyone of the detailed nature of this oppressive practice. It is not a "fringe fundamentalist minority." It is widespread, mainstream subjugation of women. Not all cultural values are equal.
“The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it’s profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way, and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theater.”
—Frank Zappa
"Freedom is free of the need to be free"
- Funkadelic
Until lockdown I understood this as moving the mental furniture around. During lockdown this phrase switched and suddenly I had something I really felt I needed to be free of, and the 2nd noun became a tangible one.
Albeit my prior understanding had been led by the other lines "Free your mind and your ass will follow. The kingdom of heaven is within. Freedom is free of the need to be free."
Excellent points, and yes, that line carries all the more meaning today!
+1000 for the Funkadelic reference.
I like your avatar ;-)
Enjoy some totalitarian vegetables:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwXMt60tfXM
LOL. You made my morning. I'm a big Young Ones/Bottom/New Statesman fan dating back decades. It drives my family nuts.
I'm still mourning Rik Mayall. Here's one of my favorite Rik Mayall skits from Blackadder: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKfbSHW9uGA
Have you seen these mind-blowing scenes from his final film, “One by One”?
https://rumble.com/vjxzb4-reduce-the-population-scene-from-one-by-one.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MW-oXuJTdjI
Really, it's the first one that's mind-blowing because it basically predicts the depopulation program.
Wow. I thought I had seen everything with Rik. Mindblowing is an understatement. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you again. We watched One By One on Vimeo.
It’s truly mind-blowing. Although released in 2014, it pretty much predicts all that is taking place now. The ending was stunning. It also makes me question what happened to Rik Mayall.
The film deserves critical viewing and a write-up considering that past reviews and comments have been deliberately scrubbed from the internet. As brilliant and talented as he was, I never dreamed that Rik Mayall would prove to be heroic in quite this way.
I wonder what critical thinkers like Zappa, Hunter S. Thompson, Carlin, and others would say about our current reality. My hope is that that they would fall in line with people like Naomi Wolf, Tucker Carlson, Drs. Yeadon and Malone, and others who can see beyond the trees.
No question about Zappa, Carlin, and Hicks. Not so sure about Hunter. He is reported to have been into snuff films and may have even committed some murders and other unsavory acts himself …
Now now.
"Coming of age in a fascist police state will not be a barrel of fun for anybody, much less for people like me, who are not inclined to suffer Nazis gladly and feel only contempt for the cowardly flag-suckers who would gladly give up their outdated freedom to live for the mess of pottage they have been conned into believing will be freedom from fear."
~ Hunter S. Thompson
Okay, I'll give him that. Still liked hunting people:
https://thearcanelaboratory.com/fear-and-loathing-hunter-s-thompson-snuff-films-and-occult-secret-societies/
At least we still have C.J. Hopkins.
Hopkins is great but I wish he would stop calling the global fascist order that afflicts us "global capitalism".
State control over markets, trade, currencies, monetary flows and the personal consumption options of billions of individuals is the *opposite* of capitalism, which is simply free people engaging in voluntary transactions.
In the US, this has not existed since 1913.
"State control over markets, trade, currencies, monetary flows and the personal consumption options of billions of individuals is the *opposite* of capitalism, which is simply free people engaging in voluntary transactions." - Thank you. Good God, I have nearly worn out my drum trying to beat that into people's heads. The education system and pop culture have completely turned the definition of these things upside-down, on purpose of course.
Love CJ... but my sweet wife has renamed his "GloboCaps" into something a bit more appropriate: GloboFucks. 😂
🤣🤣🤣 You should share that with CJ. I think he'd approve 😆
I may do that 😁
And a sincere Thank You to you for all that you do. 👍😊
True. GloboCorp would probably be a more accurate term for what he’s capturing.
Peace be upon him!
Indeed, we could desperately use their acerbic voices of sanity today. Bill Hicks, too.
Too bad we can’t trade 😆
💯 Except I’d make it at least 1,000—given inflation and the priceless value of the latter.
They would for sure be cancelled.
😆
You are spot on for all the reasons you state. As an Emergency Doc I looked into masks well before COVID for influenza protection. Some patients, especially Asians, would wear masks (as they do in Asian countries). Frankly I was surprised that all the studies showed zero, zip, nada effect. So of course I argued this with my colleagues (and friends and family) when COVID came BUT no one would accept the findings of well done studies. You see Gato, it "obvious that they protect" so no silly studies needed. Of course we have precedent for this: our cooling climate that is clearly due to solar cycles is in fact due to "Global Warming" or man made "Climate Change" or whatever nonsense that everyone is supposed to accept because it's "obvious". As you surmise, it's really all about subservience and humiliation. Shameful, disgusting. We shall be free and have no more of these moron tyrants!!
First, do no harm, right? Thanks for being one of the good ones, Doctor. Hopefully, your bravery will be rewarded.
I think some Asians started wearing masks due to high *particulate* pollution, which made sense. Then becomes habit, which our western "leaders" glommed on to
They also value hiding emotion, which masks make easy.
Good point.
I always thought the 'collapsing chinese' filmed at the beginning of this were just dropping because of the pea soup pollution of their mega cities.
🙌🏻♥️ The medical world needs more ppl like you. A LOT more. Thank you and blessings for your courage and clear thinking!
I used to think people in Asian countries prior to 2019 wore masks to prevent infection. I do believe it is to prevent inhaling small particulate matter from the air, like soot, smog, etc.
Well said, as always! We recently visited a resort in the DR. Every employee dutifully wore their mask at all times while the guests did not. (Well, except for the odd requirement that we wear one from the hostess stand to our table. Duh!) Even the lifeguard in the tower on the beach was forced to wear one, I'm sure at the threat of losing his job if he didn't. It made me sick. I never once saw the smiling face of an employee at the hotel. Getting to know the staff is one of the joys of travel. My husband is hard of hearing. He simply didn't interact. Reviews of the hotel said, "The staff seemed unhappy." Seriously? 'Ya think??? Ellos estaban enojados!
Yes we won't travel yet for this reason. I won't participate in this.
We were among the first English back in Egypt last autumn. The staff and taxi drivers were so pleased for our custom... it had been really tough for them without income or Government assistance.
There are so many places in the world where very poor people are near totally dependent financially on the tourist trade - Egypt, Thailand, pacific islands, the list goes on... so very strange the total msm blackout on their fate these last two years... surely rates of malnutrition in some of these places must be way up!?
But the Rulers always hated global tourism (you can read Ruskin on the just starting mass Alpine tourist trade in the 1870s) - and they have brought it to a near cessation. It's never coming back.
Electric cars are another way to keep the proles in their small radius.
Yes, tbh, nowhere apart from intentional war-torn areas are in outright famine. But I know there are hungry bellies about. I setup a solar charity and worked in Kenya in 2019, and had reports from people I know about their flower trade around mother's day which is a massive earner for them, getting bulldozed because cargo planes were grounded in spring 2020. It's been tough since, but they're getting by.
That elite insight is interesting, and I believe it's likely one of the drivers. I went to the Colosseum in 1989 and then again in 2015 and it was pretty ruined as an experience due to the crowds. Project it forward and what have you got? Everyone able to go everywhere all the time? People 3D printing yachts for a few grand? Everyone affording life-extension treatments? Sheesh, too much equity.
Ruskin was a powerful writer and he does make a convincing argument that building the first railroads through Alpine passes was an unfortunate outcome. Wouldn't it be nice if there was an equitable and rational way of "pricing externalities"? (I think that's the term; tho spell checker disagrees!) - instead what we get is a current EU carbon tax proposal (don't have a link) in which the yachts of the mega-wealthy are exempt. That's not even close.
Same. And I own a travel company. I actually try to dissuade clients from going to places with mask mandates.
Ditto.
Ditto. And thank you.
Tragic. My family and I went to Punta Cana before Covid and loved it.
I speak Spanish so I made a point to interact with people as much as possible. We made a point to travel outside the resort as much as possible and we even booked a trip to Santo Domingo were we spent the day.
I've resigned myself to the fact that it may be years - if ever - before we can return to a place like that. The whole mask theater is the U.S. is too surreal and disturbing. Confronting it while "on vacation" would be too much.
It’s also hard when it’s your second language so the mask makes it all the harder to understand the staff, waiters, etc. I’m supposed to go on a family trip to Mexico this year and I’m not looking forward to all of this. How am I going to communicate with la gente? No point in going if we’re going to hang around the pool and speak English the whole time.
The double-edged sword to not going is that the staff is not supported by our patronage. No tips, no work, no job. I was torn about this, too. La comunicacion es muy dificil. How are you at charades? LOL.
Mexico is pretty lax... I have an expat friend up here visiting... get out of the damned hotel and it will all be all right...
Exactly! In contrast, a friend visited Guatemala recently and the tour required masking at all times, both indoors, outdoors, and on the bus. No gracias!
Yes saw this last year at a 5* Turkish resort.
I can't stand walking into a restaurant and seeing all the servers forced to wear masks. I've gotten to the point where I refuse to eat at any establishment that subjugates their employees to this humiliation. Vote with your feet.
Same. I also write reviews or answer questionnaires and make sure to address the masks every time.
Unfortunately, where I live the staff in restaurants must wear masks, or else the restaurant will be shut down by the (Un)Health Department, by order of the mayor.
I do. Fortunately in Florida, it’s only the chain restaurants still all face diapered up.
!!!!!
But it DOES deeply hurt the employees….
Your best essay yet. And I posted it, so now everyone I know will hate me lol. Meh, whatever. Worth it!
The faceless masses…
Extermination programs are easier for the elites to perpetrate if the victims have been dehumanized. No face, no humanity. An object.
Yep. Proven by China and Arab nations.
This was and is the goal.
Just like the yellow star of David on your coat. Like the ghost of Hitler coming back in a million tyrants.
I have always felt badly for waiters and waitresses that have had to cover their faces during this. Many still are in our area altho we can walk into a restaurant w/out a face cover. I always tell them I would like to see their smiles and hope that their boss ends this requirement. The last restaurant review I did included "I won't be back until your wait staff is unmasked". Hope the head honcho reads it. The woman I was with was of a different mindset and wanted them masked because "they spit on you when they are standing over you"- won't be eating out with her anytime soon. She also thinks because of climate change the world is going to "end" in 2-3 years...what has happened to my acquaintances????
I think "climate crisis" and "COVID crisis" syndrome r basically the same psychotic condition - and the same scam!
yuppers!
Goodness, if the world is going to end in 2 to 3 years anyway, what's she worried about a little spit anyway?
hahahaha! She wants to go "clean"! :-) ???
So why does she go out to eat at all if she's concerned with waitstaff "spitting" on her during a conversation like they're Daffy Duck?
Ab-tho-lutely! :-)
Find New ‘ like minded ‘ acquaintances, I did. People like your lunch friend are such a buzz kill.
True!
Ask her why she's even eating out. Is she mercifully unaware of the supply chains needed for most modern restaurants? Even the most 'farm to plate' restaurants get some supplies trucked in, from US foods, Costco, whatever. The fish is from dwindling fisheries, the veggies may not be non GMOs. She sounds like a brass-plated idiot, frankly. I say this as someone who worked as a chef for 30 years. Restaurants are not for the PC or faint of heart.
oh- she argued my point that bison was lean meat. I like it because I hate gristle in my burgers. Doesn't happen with bison. She wouldn't hear of such a thing and called it "fatty"- oh well. More for me!
"brass-plated idiot"- thank you for adding to my repertoire of adjectives to describe some people I can no longer be close friends with! :-) Yes- she is unaware of many things. And I was unaware of THAT for many years. Recent discussions have brought out the stupid (chosen ignorance) in some people. Many people. Thank you for preparing other people's food! That has to be one of those jobs where you rarely hear a "thank you"- hope you did!
I did, often, thanks. :) It is not most peoples' fault they don't know the undersides of restaurants, trade secrets and all, but it becomes inexcusable when people get on their high horse about this stuff.
I find it ironic that I was forced to work while ill for years and now there's this sudden awareness of it and its OK to be out sick for a few days, LOL.
Same with teaching. (I retired about 6 years ago but was subbing at my old site)- teacahers used to "push through" to "be there for the kids"- now they get a runny nose and test over and over until they get a false positive so they can take the week off...I won't sub currently.
The actual science of mass mask wearing effectiveness vs. airborne respiratory viruses has never changed. They are as certainly ineffective at preventing the spread as wishing is at preventing gravity. Given that, it was clear initially that the mass masking was not about health, rather it was about keeping the threat and fear of the virus front and center within populations. In other words, it was about keeping the masses afraid and away from each other.
As the "pandemic" has evolved, the masking is still about keeping people afraid but it's also become about a caste system. It's all really horribly frightening to live through a history that will certainly be looked back on in history in similar fashion that we look back on things like the Salem Witch Trails today, but hopefully this one will serve as an even more indelible reminder of the danger and reality of the madness of crowds.
I've read that scrap metal drives during World War 2 didn't really contribute anything meaningful to the war effort, rather, their importance was in giving the civilian population the feeling like they were doing their part. I think masking at first had a similar inspiration.
But also there's the politicians' syllogism:
1. We have to do something about this crisis!
2. X is something!
3. Therefore we must do X!
Yeah, I think there is absolutely truth to that with respect to many politicians. But for our public health bureaucrats I think it's about power through fear.
You might be right, but from the beginning I had zero interest in doing my part because I knew this was all about control. I live in a very conservative red part of a very blue state & in my town most people & businesses ignored complying w/ or enforcing the mask s#¡+. But the 1st time I went up to the northern part of the state where compliance was 95%, I literally wept w/ disbelief @ The lemmings EVERYWHERE there, out in the open air, in their cars, standing outdoors in the long lines. I was absolutely horrified that it happened @ all (that people went along so willingly) much less how QUICKLY
One of mankind’s greatest failings is the ability to learn from not only the past (Salem, Holocaust, USSR, China, Cambodia, ad nauseum) but the present (socialism fails everywhere, including Venezuela).
Sadly true, and it's because the authoritarians of the present always think it's different this time, that they're different. And it all stems from the fatal flaw of mankind. The insatiable thirst for the unearned.
Hubris of the authoritarians that THEYRE “the ones we’ve been waiting for” that will finally get it right. Nemesis, please hurry!
Indeed. And "getting it right" = "we get to pick the winners and losers." Same story throughout history, different costumes.
It's the same in the UK. Masks are no longer mandatory and they have very quickly become a class maker. The higher end supermarkets are filled with masks whilst the cheap, budget supermarkets, nothing.
https://nakedemperor.substack.com/?r=raurr
Am I evil for hoping that the toffs and other chinless wonders keep boosting themselves out of exitence, while the plebs and oiks trudges along building resistance?
That would be irony worthy of the greek epics.
We can only hope…What’s coming out now about vax damage to natural immunity seems to support that trajectory.
It's not about the virus, it's about them demonstrating their membership in the mask tribe, which they associate with being super smart and educated and better than the hoipolloi.
Yeah, Waitrose was an absolute hold-out even in late-summer last year. HaHa. BTW, The Waitrose Rap by GLC is worth a listen.
I absolutely love this. Months ago after tyrant Phil Murphy removed indoor mask mandates in NJ and we started going out to restaurants, I made it a point every single time to tell the waiter/waitress that they did not need to wear the mask. I always got the standard response that it was "policy" but I wanted them to know that this was not OK with me. And many times when I left, I told the manager we would not be back until the masks came off the staff (and I have maintained this personal rule and have not gone back).
When I see kids masked, I get physical ill. The people that did this need to pay dearly.
All true. And yet another one out of the park by our favorite bad cat.
There is another aspect that you touched upon with the allusion to that economist from your alma mater. That is, the damage that has been wrought to the medical profession by their own hand. I knew we were in trouble in early 2020 when the “leaders” in my own organization waxed poetic about how “masks work!” This came primarily from non surgical types, ie those who don’t habitually wear those paper masks that are a part of every surgeon’s daily routine. They abandoned all scientific reason, all the skepticism that they gleefully hurl at surgeons on a regular basis over the slim to no benefit of common operations.
My own PCP tried to persuade me to get jabbed by making the argument that since he and many others were jabbed, they now presented a GREATER danger to me than the unjabbed. IOW his logic was: Since I acquiesced to this untried, potentially dangerous and likely ineffective treatment (“breakthrough infections/cases were already occurring in early 2020) which actually worsens the situation, YOU should too! I politely declined.
Next doctor in 2021 asked if I’d been jabbed. No, I replied. He asked, Why not? I replied, A “vaccine” whose efficacy wanes rapidly after 3 months, and YOU’RE on your THIRD shot now? No thanks. He just looked at me with a deer-in-the-headlights stare and said, “Oh, that’s interesting.”
As you so elegantly pointed out, the elites won’t pick a fight with an intellectual, social equal. The haughtiness, superiority, appeal to authority, bullying won’t fly with their equals. They are left only with the defenseless, the weak and the weak minded to abuse-with the invaluable aid of the toadying, the scolding, the neurotics and the collaborators.
“Masks work!” I’ve never been so ashamed to be a member of a once proud, sensible cadre of caring individuals.
Apologies for the length of this rant.
ive never worn a mask and the looks i get from the masked are of fear and hate.
they are self imposing the masks here in quite large numbers in the UK even though the government says it has given up
I enjoy those looks now. If you still think the mask works, you deserve to be scared of maskless people. They also really really hate it when you smile and say 'have a good day!'
i enjoy those looks too, makes me smile more. but it is an indication of how many are still brainwashed to a disturbing degree
I enjoy them too. Especially like yesterday when a 300+ young woman skittered around me in a grocery aisle giving me the stink eye as I smiled at her and attempted to move out of her ponderous way. I can't save you if you can't save yourself, honey!
Yes, I've seen those same looks. Disdain for us.
OK, that truly made me LOL.
Speaks volumes!
Very well said. This smacks of classic “-ism” theory that is beloved by demagogues to, as you said, elevate themselves not through merit or value, but by devaluing their peers through a characteristic that the peer has little to no control over (e.g. historically race). It is hard for me to enjoy a night out at a restaurant because the server must be adorned while I am not. And no matter what I do, the server is harmed. If I refrain from dining, they lose money. If I patronize, I am reaffirming this classist divide.
Thank you Gato for covering masks quite extensively - they are one of the most reprehensible parts of this charade. Did anyone stop and consider the possibly lifetime damage we are doing to kids? No. Masks were always a tool of submission, control and to prolong the public hysteria. This is why I never put on on my face, not once. Lots of stares and not so fun when 99% of everyone was doing it, but it was the only thing I felt I could do at the height of insanity. Show my face and smile.
It’s been almost 2 years. If you ask me to describe my brother-in-law all’s I can say is his mask is like a quilt.