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March 28, 2024, 08:00:53 PM

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NHS Clapping

Started by bgmnts, March 26, 2020, 08:01:09 PM

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Deyv

Quote from: honeychile on March 26, 2020, 10:33:22 PM
I find it sentimental codswallop, For some reason a lot of people seem to revel in sentimental codswallop - i don't understand this and it makes me often feel like a fundamentally different species.[nb]For context, i also find weddings and funerals to be sentimental codswallop, and as a consequence have never been to eiither, including those of immediate family. How's about that for a full-on fucking cunt.[/nb]

Espousing appreciation or admiration for something publicly isn't a bad thing in itself, in fact it can be fucking amazing, but the point should always be - what next?

Singing songs, waving placards, public displays of whatever you call what happened tonight, can all have their place as part of a shared culture of campaigning for something better, working towards something bigger, raising consciousness about a movement or whatever. But as an end in themselves they are black holes, being seen to be doing something in lieu of actually doing it. The respect and appreciation NHS workers need is not applause, it's sufficient PPE, equipment, staffing levels, working hours, remuneration, and having food to buy on the shelves.

The people who fought for something bigger during WWII don't need wheeling out for the cenotaph for one day a year to be told they're respected. Respect is demonstrated in their living conditions for the other 364 days, their care and their dignity. Those who died in WWII aren't respected by people bowing their heads and standing in silence for a couple of minutes, they're respected by fighting to ensure it doesn't repeat itself, by educating present and future generations of the horrors of genocide and war. If people are so attached to the sentimental part that they insist on indulging it, i can't tell them they're wrong for liking it any more than i'm wrong for not liking it, but when you indulge in it without then demanding - and what next? it is pure performative wank.

Not taking part in this is not introducing politics into something that shouldn't be political, because everything is political by default. It's reclaiming the politics from those who want to suggest that mass participation and public engagement should be mollified and neutered into a saccharine hollywood version of changing the world, where fuck all actually changes.

But a lot of people like it. What are you gonna do eh.

This, what can I do to help? I'm being entirely sincere. Even if it's beyond my capabilities right now, I want to know what I can do and strive to be in a position to help make a change. You mentioned thinking about doing the next thing, which I agree with, the problem is I don't know what the first thing to do is.

idunnosomename

Quote from: gib on March 26, 2020, 10:45:46 PM
close the fucking curtains then
that time in the bay window when I was house sitting in kensington was very different

gib

Quote from: idunnosomename on March 26, 2020, 10:37:10 PM
actually i kinda like jezza's video because there's a little dog in it that made me smile

https://twitter.com/jeremycorbyn/status/1243284784903831554

woman in red coat goes to retrieve little dog, no one gives a shit about 2 metres, bloody londoners

Mr_Simnock

Quote from: Deyv on March 26, 2020, 10:46:48 PM
This, what can I do to help? I'm being entirely sincere. Even if it's beyond my capabilities right now, I want to know what I can do and strive to be in a position to help make a change. You mentioned thinking about doing the next thing, which I agree with, the problem is I don't know what the first thing to do is.

stop inside as much as you can is a help

Cuntbeaks

Is this the most meaningless thing ever conceived?

I thought its genus was folk on the continent doing it as the health workers all finished at specific times, so people arriving at home at X time were obviously health workers.

Clapping at your front door for no other audience than yourself or your immediate neighbours sounds like a fucking fever dream.

gib

Quote from: idunnosomename on March 26, 2020, 10:46:54 PM
that time in the bay window when I was house sitting in kensington was very different

like i told the police at the time, i was simply testing out my new ladder

Deyv

Quote from: Mr_Simnock on March 26, 2020, 10:50:44 PM
stop inside as much as you can is a help

I don't understand.

Zetetic

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on March 26, 2020, 10:34:51 PM
Is that what you tell staff in shops and cafe's when they say the NHS discount is really only meant for clinical staff? It should be.
I'm not sure if I've been misunderstood. It is often sacrificial as it stands, but it shouldn't be and it's not essential to it. Being a good nurse doesn't mean working yourself to death.

(I don't think I've ever claimed an NHS discount. I've claimed a student discount while being funded by the NHS though...)

pigamus

It feels like there's a bullshit narrative being written about this crisis while it's even happening, making it all sentimental and draining all the politics out of it. But then what did I expect

bgmnts

Quote from: Cuntbeaks on March 26, 2020, 10:50:59 PM
Is this the most meaningless thing ever conceived?

Probably my thread whinging about it, to be fair.

Captain Z

If you want to help the NHS in a practical way, and are not isolating for any reason, you can volunteer for this scheme (currently England only):

https://www.england.nhs.uk/2020/03/your-nhs-needs-you-nhs-call-for-volunteer-army/

QuoteThe NHS is "rallying the troops" for the war on coronavirus, with volunteers being called up to help vulnerable people stay safe and well at home.

The nation is looking for up to 250,000 volunteers to help up to 1.5 million people who have been asked to shield themselves from coronavirus because of underlying health conditions.

Members of the public can sign up quickly and easily at www.goodsamapp.org/NHS to become NHS Volunteer Responders, and can be called on to do simple but vital tasks such as:

delivering medicines from pharmacies;
driving patients to appointments;
bringing them home from hospital;
or making regular phone calls to check on people isolating at home.

Or to feel like you're helping society in general, keep remembering food bank donations. Drop-off points at the front of supermarkets now seem to be the most preferable place.

idunnosomename

WARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

Non Stop Dancer

I'm as cynical as they come but I really loved this tonight.

Deyv

#133
Quote from: Captain Z on March 26, 2020, 11:05:40 PM
If you want to help the NHS in a practical way, and are not isolating for any reason, you can volunteer for this scheme (currently England only):

https://www.england.nhs.uk/2020/03/your-nhs-needs-you-nhs-call-for-volunteer-army/

Or to feel like you're helping society in general, keep remembering food bank donations. Drop-off points at the front of supermarkets now seem to be the most preferable place.

Thank you for getting back to me. I do donate to food banks regularly, but that volunteering I will sign up for. I have no driver's licence but I can make phone calls and will see if there's anything else I can do. Been having a bit of an anxiety attack but your practical advice has helped a lot, so thank you.

kittens

my mother works for the super NHS (like the nhs but secret and a lot more important) and this clapping woke her up and she was so bleary eyed she accidentally gave Barack Obama coronavirus. proud of yourselves?

Captain Z

Quote from: Deyv on March 26, 2020, 11:15:39 PM
Thank you for getting back to me. I do donate to food banks regularly, but that volunteering I will sign up for. I have no driver's licence but I can make phone calls and will see if there's anything else I can do. Been having a bit of an anxiety attack but you're practical advice has helped a lot, so thank you.

*elbow bump*

idunnosomename

Quote from: kittens on March 26, 2020, 11:23:18 PM
my mother works for the super NHS (like the nhs but secret and a lot more important) and this clapping woke her up and she was so bleary eyed she accidentally gave Barack Obama coronavirus. proud of yourselves?
disgraceful. i hope the hard left are happy with this crazy stunt.

honeychile

Quote from: Deyv on March 26, 2020, 10:54:40 PM
I don't understand.

I think Mr_Sminock was referring to following NHS advice - stay indoors.

Reflecting and expanding a bit on my previous post:

I went to an anti-Trump/NATO demo before the election in December. There were about 20, 25 of us. It was very cold, dark and grim weekday night. The whole time i was looking forward to getting finished and getting the fuck out of there. Then a young woman, late teens at oldest, did a speech. She'd been involved in XR, and wanted to speak against Trump.

It was tempting to feel so insignificant that night, no cunt was listening to us chanting, the rest of Bristol wanted to walk right on by and get home and get warm. But it occurred to me it was important that someone heard her. She wanted to speak, and in an indifferent world, i and a couple of dozen other people wanted to listen. We showed her her voice mattered. Me being there to show her i cared was important.

So i get that side of it, why people feel more like joining in with this now, when there is the correct perception that NHS staff are under the kosh. But i think the other aspect of this which i and a lot of people recoil at is the feeling of being co-opted. Like a lot of people here i walked miles in December campaigning for an NHS fit for its workers and its users. To get up in public now and take part in some defenestrated and ethereal point about how much i love NHS staff while putting all the anger and bitterness i feel about its current situation to one side while the cunts in charge responsible for it try to spin some churchillian narrative about all of us coming together is something i don't have in me, it makes me feel demeaned.

Quote from: DeyvThis, what can I do to help? I'm being entirely sincere. Even if it's beyond my capabilities right now, I want to know what I can do and strive to be in a position to help make a change. You mentioned thinking about doing the next thing, which I agree with, the problem is I don't know what the first thing to do is.

I'm not sure, it's just the relentless hard work innit? My point is, what will there be to show for tonight in four weeks, in four months, in four years? Because the tories will crow about this sort of thing publicly while doing their best to make sure the answer is "fuck all". Join campaign groups (Keep the NHS Public); talk about the problems in the NHS with family, friends, workmates; campaign during (and between) elections; write about it, whether it's songs or Facebook posts or whatever - they all have permanence. Or don't do any of those things, do something else which feels right for you if you find it. Just don't let it be de-politicised. The politicisation doesn't have to be Party Political (though there's nothing wrong with that), but it always has to be seen through human political values. Because otherwise people act like these things are all just forces of nature. A virus is a force of nature (albeit one we can help limit), funding the NHS and its overwhelmingly lovely employees to best cope with it isn't.

I believe regarding the GoodSAM thing, if you don't drive you may still be able to use your bike if you have one.

Deyv

I agree with everything you've said.

I don't have a bike (I'm on medication which slows my reaction time down) but I've signed up to the GoodSAM and Royal Voluntary Service thing and verified my account, I should be getting an email shortly, I'm imagining it'll be tomorrow.

Twit 2

Great posts honeychile, agree heartily with all that.

I find nearly all human endeavour similarly pointless and a bit sickening, but yeah, this clapping's up there.

idunnosomename

prince george can die in a fucking ditch the little cunt

Shoulders?-Stomach!

Quote from: idunnosomename on March 27, 2020, 12:00:27 AM
prince george can die in a fucking ditch the little cunt

He is just a projection. He was never real. No-one has ever touched him. He does not have corporeal form. He can't be harmed nor can he be comforted. A ghast.

That said - it would be the bonanza of the enlightenment to be able to punt him off a quay.

Beagle 2

Even Tory cunts who believed Boris is looking out for the NHS because he said so, in that weird moment of doing something communal and outside and different might have had a little word with themselves to the effect of "this is what's actually important" and "this is what the other side said was most important". Looking your neighbour in the eye, applauding hidden people who enable you to live, it can only be good for socialism.

I'm so emotionally stunted that a child and a mother waved from across the street, but I was only about 76% sure it was at me, so I sort of looked the other way and waved at a cloud. I've got to get better at this sort of shit, it's no good me angrily typing on the internet about how I believe we should come together and share everything.

Twit 2

Prince George minced into crab paste for Shippam's.


gabrielconroy

Why is everyone so pleased about giving nurses the clap at this, of all times?

earl_sleek

Quote from: honeychile on March 26, 2020, 11:36:47 PM

So i get that side of it, why people feel more like joining in with this now, when there is the correct perception that NHS staff are under the kosh.

Touched by Vorlons?

phantom_power

Some people seem to be under the misapprehension that voting Tory means you hate the NHS or don't care about it at best. This is bollocks. Most people I know who voted Tory simply didn't believe what was being said about them selling it off and degrading it. Lots of people don't see the cause and effect of what they see on the news about the NHS struggling and the government in power.

Also, the place, rightly, goes on about the MSM being a propaganda tool for the right and against Corbyn. Following this logic the people taken in by it should be treating as victims, not some evil bunch of selfish bastards. Again, the people I know who vote Tory aren't less "good" than the ones who vote Labour. I know it is easy to label them negatively and the public face of them makes that even easier but life isn't that simple.

I pretty much knew when I clicked this thread what the response would be. It's cliched to be cynical in a pandemic

Dewt

No, your friends are cunts.

EasyToType

Brilliant way to win them over there