More worst responses to the coronavirus

[buttgammon]

Isn't a lot of it now (or at least the part that's funded) the far right scrabbling for anything they can latch onto to try and bring in people.

I'm sure it is, but I can't imagine they're going to convert many people now, especially in countries with very high vaccination rates. They're going to have to devote all of their attention to the usual racism sooner or later.

[Kankurette]

We don't even have mandatory vaccines.

[steveh]

Wonder if the current activity is more to do with there being a lot of money sloshing around from rich far-right funders which groups / grifters are happy to take but then have to provide some evidence that they are doing things to justify the handouts. Very little of what's going on now seems grassroots based, as the speed in which that Convoy lot appeared in the UK and other countries would show.

[DoesNotFollow]

Went into Bournemouth town to meet my gf for lunch just as a march was going on. They were blaring a hip-hop song the chorus of which I thought was 'Go get the vaccine', so I guessed it was some sort of promotional thing to appeal to the yoof to get vaccinated. Embarrassing but okay.

My gf later told me it was 'No to the vaccine'. I read when I got home that Piers Corbyn was leading the rally.
There were lots of yellow smiley faces which I also just read relates to a movement called A Stand In The Park.

[Crenners]

Funny thing is I actually agree they shouldn't get it 😂😂😂

[QDRPHNC]

The Freedom Convoy arrived in Toronto yesterday, but it didn't last long. Police boxed them in with dump trucks and had a word ("leave or you will be arrested") and they all drove off without incident. Apparently on the Zello channels you could hear the truckers complaining the Toronto police weren't willing to "work with them" like in Ottawa.

[flotemysost]

My gf later told me it was 'No to the vaccine'. I read when I got home that Piers Corbyn was leading the rally.
There were lots of yellow smiley faces which I also just read relates to a movement called A Stand In The Park.

Urgh. Pretty sure I saw that twat on the Bakerloo line a few weeks ago, although he wasn't conducting a tuneless chorus line caterwauling about farts, so I can't be sure. No mask obvs. He was eyeing up the seat next to me but I glowered at him and he moved on.

Sadly I wouldn't be too surprised if that kind of stuff flourished in Bournemouth.

[Ferris]

The Freedom Convoy arrived in Toronto yesterday, but it didn't last long. Police boxed them in with dump trucks and had a word ("leave or you will be arrested") and they all drove off without incident. Apparently on the Zello channels you could hear the truckers complaining the Toronto police weren't willing to "work with them" like in Ottawa.

Freedom convoy arrived in Halifax, load of dopey pricks driving pickup trucks about and gumming up the infrastructure. Cheers for that.

[Menu]

Urgh. Pretty sure I saw that twat on the Bakerloo line a few weeks ago, although he wasn't conducting a tuneless chorus line caterwauling about farts, so I can't be sure. No mask obvs. He was eyeing up the seat next to me but I glowered at him and he moved on.

Sadly I wouldn't be too surprised if that kind of stuff flourished in Bournemouth.

Wasn't he arrested? How is he still doing this?

[JamesTC]

Saw an anti-vax protest yesterday. Among the moronic signs they had was this pearler:

6uild 6ack
6etter
= 666

[Mr Banlon]

Freedom convoy arrived in Halifax, load of dopey pricks driving pickup trucks about and gumming up the infrastructure. Cheers for that.

The Evil Men podcast ripping the piss out of the Freedom Convoy (from the 18min mark) : https://thesonarnetwork.com/evil-men/episode/e31-prince-andrew/

[Natnar]

https://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/news/stoke-on-trent-news/anti-vax-mum-why-son-6640321

I'm not quite sure if i'd like her to be dealing with my kids mental issues if i had one.

[Fambo Number Mive]

Durham University's biggest donor pulls support over universitit's covid restrictions.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-60341137.amp

He talks about "healthy 20 year  olds" but what about CV and CEV students and staff, or staff and students who have CV and CEV relatives? Or older staff and students?

[Dex Sawash]

Knocked this shit flag up in 2 mInutes on phone for the Canadian truckers but don't remember which thread that was.

Spoiler alert

Bandag is big name in tire retreading

[close]

[BlodwynPig]

Wasn't he arrested? How is he still doing this?

His crimes are more tolerable than his brothers'

[Fambo Number Mive]

What is wrong with this person? Apparently they have a TV show in America

@KimIversenShow
Next time you're asked to show your vaccine card I dare you to hand it to them and say "Thank God you're asking for my card. Another place wanted to see a negative test but I just tested positive yesterday".

Imagine working in a customer facing role, already exhausted from having to be the vaccine police, and someone comes up with bullshit like that. Imagine having to worry about getting covid from that person, especially if they live with CV or CEV people.

Just disgusting.

[SpiderChrist]

Bumped into next door neighbour this afternoon, had a nice chat, then remembered I'd left my mask indoors (was heading to the shops). Neighbour says "You don't need a mask". fuck my old boots

[olliebean]

Utterly weary of reading Twitter threads about the concerns of clinically extremely vulnerable people, and seeing responses saying things along the lines of "Grow a pair."

[Fambo Number Mive]

...A visibly annoyed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis admonished a group of high school students for wearing face masks at an indoor news conference this week, saying it was time to stop what he called "this COVID theater."
The Republican governor approached the students and asked them to remove their masks as they waited for him at the press event Wednesday at the University of South Florida in Tampa.

The college is located in an area where the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention still recommends indoor masking due to high COVID-19 risk.

"You do not have to wear those masks. I mean, please take them off. Honestly, it's not doing anything. We've got to stop with this COVID theater. So if you want to wear it, fine, but this is ridiculous," he said, letting out an audible sigh and shaking his head...DeSantis' office did not immediately return an email seeking comment. His spokesperson, Christina Pushaw, has tweeted defenses of the governor's comments, writing "I mean, someone had to say it, after 2 years of propaganda that terrified and manipulated young people. Breathe free, feel safe and be happy."...

People like DeSantis claim they believe in freedom, but that freedom doesn't seem to include wearing masks to keep others safe. It's scary how an elected offical is pressuring people to remove masks. What if one of the children was CV or CEV?

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2022-03-03/florida-gov-desantis-berates-kids-for-wearing-masks

As for Pushaw's stupid comment, masks don't stop you breathing and the only thing stopping people feeling safe or happy was DeSantis.

[Kankurette]

My brother emailed me this morning with a photo of the Light, a conspiracy theorist free newspaper he'd had shoved through his door (I've had it as well, the guy who edits it lives in Manchester). Remember the Radical Cartoons women who got booted from the Morning Star for comparing trans people to crocodiles? Turns out she's not only a TERF and a hardcore Brexiter, but she's a COVID denier as well. He scanned in one of her shitty cartoons.



Horseshoe theory in action, mine frandels.

[Fambo Number Mive]

So a race of alien cats find that the human race died out because of social distancing, even though social distancing isn't currently being practiced by most people. And social distancing didn't stop people reproducing, even during lockdown people were getting pregnant.

And how rubbish a cartoonist do you have to be that you have to put a Garrison like label on the alien spacecraft to make clear what it is doing? I like how the spade has four handles though.

Who is funding this Light newspaper? And it's another example of people on the right never being content, you don't need to social distance, you don't need to wear masks, you don't even legally need to isolate now if you have covid (though of course I still will isolate if I get covid and hope everyone who can does so too). Yet still this paper gets shoved through people's doors. Are they the types who go on about freedoms but don't want others to wear masks?

As a newspaper, does it have to obey any rules at all? Or can I publish The Daily Clive, all about a Lego man called Clive and his adventures, and put it through people's doors? It's so frustrating how easy it was for people to peddle lies about covid.

[oggyraiding]

I assume those cats must have opposable thumbs in order to properly utilise the spade, magnifying glass, trowel, etc. But their furniture next to the space ship shows they still sleep in baskets and eat out of bowls on the floor. Why did the cats not develop proper beds and table manners, when they were obviously advanced enough to manufacture and pilot a space ship?

[Fambo Number Mive]

The whole choice of alien cats is just weird. Is it because the author doesn't want to draw the usual types of aliens with grey skin and big black eyes? Maybe the Light gets read by a lot of people who believe aliens from other plans regularly visit and they don't want letters like "Actually, when I was kidnapped and taken to Rigul 7 for a botty probe, the aliens had purple heads and twelve legs".

[Kankurette]

So a race of alien cats find that the human race died out because of social distancing, even though social distancing isn't currently being practiced by most people. And social distancing didn't stop people reproducing, even during lockdown people were getting pregnant.

And how rubbish a cartoonist do you have to be that you have to put a Garrison like label on the alien spacecraft to make clear what it is doing? I like how the spade has four handles though.

Who is funding this Light newspaper? And it's another example of people on the right never being content, you don't need to social distance, you don't need to wear masks, you don't even legally need to isolate now if you have covid (though of course I still will isolate if I get covid and hope everyone who can does so too). Yet still this paper gets shoved through people's doors. Are they the types who go on about freedoms but don't want others to wear masks?

As a newspaper, does it have to obey any rules at all? Or can I publish The Daily Clive, all about a Lego man called Clive and his adventures, and put it through people's doors? It's so frustrating how easy it was for people to peddle lies about covid.

She's like a female Garrison. Her website is here. Lots of whining about being cancelled, natch. She's also a big fan of Matt in the Torygraph (and as someone who loves Posy Simmonds, I feel insulted on Simmonds' behalf that this tool cites her as another influence).

Here's the Light's website. The Guardian also has an article about it. I don't know if the guy behind it is right-wing or left-wing tbh.

I assume those cats must have opposable thumbs in order to properly utilise the spade, magnifying glass, trowel, etc. But their furniture next to the space ship shows they still sleep in baskets and eat out of bowls on the floor. Why did the cats not develop proper beds and table manners, when they were obviously advanced enough to manufacture and pilot a space ship?

Cats? Manners? Surely you jest, these creatures happily lick their own privates in front of humans and their idea of being friendly is shoving their bumholes in your face. The bastards have no sense of decorum.

[Harvey Milk]

Who is funding this Light newspaper? And it's another example of people on the right never being content, you don't need to social distance, you don't need to wear masks, you don't even legally need to isolate now if you have covid (though of course I still will isolate if I get covid and hope everyone who can does so too). Yet still this paper gets shoved through people's doors. Are they the types who go on about freedoms but don't want others to wear masks?

People like that have the right instinct (not trusting governments and mainstream media) but take it to a ridiculous extent, where they think every news item is a deliberate misrepresentation or false flag, carefully co-ordinated with the powers that be; every major political party is working from the same script, even where it's clear that there are genuinely-felt differences of opinion; and every deliberation and debate is "theatre" for some nebulous Orwellian-totalitarian agenda.

It's like my father (who voted Leave) insisting that the Tory government would keep us in the EU when it was clear, to anyone paying attention to them, that they had no intention of doing so. He still can't believe that he's got what he wanted, even though it's happened and we're obviously not backing out of it. He's perpetually in waiting of the carpet being pulled from under his feet. Which is, again, the right instinct, but sometimes what's being presented to you by the government and major media channels does actually reflect what's going on and what's about to happen, and sometimes they do say what they believe (which ought to go without saying).

But there's no point in trying to disabuse someone of the idea that "everyone's the same" and the system is "too far gone" when you can't convince yourself that there aren't good reasons to feel that way.

[Kankurette]

I don't trust the government either, I hate them, but I'm sure as hell not going to trust some weirdo who makes a freebie newspaper either.

[Harvey Milk]

Nor me. It's amazing how sceptical and cynical people can be while, at the same time, being so credulous about every 'anti-establishment' crank with a platform, even a meagre one.

People seem to put their faith in them simply for the fact that they are disdained by the media and/or the medical-industrial establishment. They call it 'free thought', but really it's just a knee-jerk reaction that every official statement is a lie, no matter how justified they may be in feeling sceptical. The more something is declared as a consensus, the less they trust it.

"THEY, THE EXPERTS, recommend A, so I'm gonna go with B instead."

[Fambo Number Mive]

Wilko have now U-turned from what would put them in this thread:

Retail chain Wilko has apologised for "some miscommunication" in which it told staff they could continue to work if they tested positive for Covid.

In a memo, reported by The Mirror, the company said staff with the virus could continue to work in stores if they felt well enough to.

Wilko confirmed the memo was sent out and the firm has since made a U-turn.

"When we get something wrong, we hold our hands up, admit it, and work to correct the situation," the firm said.

Jerome Saint-Marc, Wilko chief executive, said he wanted to "reassure all our customers and team members" that the company's advice to staff with Covid symptoms or those who test positive was to stay at home and avoid contact with others...

In Wilko's initial memo to staff, the company, which has 414 stores in the UK, said: "If you test positive for Covid-19 and feel well you can continue to come to work, if you feel too unwell you can follow the absence policy."

The removal of all legal Covid rules has made the decision over whether to self-isolate or not an individual one.

It has led to concern that lower-paid staff face the toughest choice when deciding to isolate or not, with up to two million workers not qualifying for sick pay due to the amount they earn.

The Trades Union Congress has said people should not be forced into making a "terrible choice" over going into work with Covid or risking losing income by self-isolating at home...

I'm glad Wilko have changed their guidance so they now advise staff not to come in if they have covid, but it's very concerning that memo went out in the first place. If the Mirror hadn't got involved would this u-turn have happened?

Of course if the government improved sick pay conditions so that no-one lost money by isolating it would mean people didn't have to make the choice mentioned by the TUC.

You can see the memo here: https://www.mirror.co.uk/money/wilko-u-turns-after-mirror-26468781

[Ferris]

"When we get something wrong, we hold our hands up, admit it, and work to correct the situation," the firm said.

Nothing to add beyond this, this, is my most loathed method of corporate communication. It's matey "bloke in a pub" type shit that you're not supposed to question because it makes you look unreasonable (like Mark Corrigan getting ripped off by the blokey carpenter in Peep Show). We're supposed to respond with "fair play fair play, it's one of them, we've all had a few mate, no worries" and overlook whatever the problem was.

Fuck off, you didn't "get something wrong" and "hold your hands up", you cunts, because you're a corporation that doesn't have hands. We're not talking "forgetting to buy parsnips" type stuff here.

What Wilko did do, was force low-paid staff to make an impossible decision because they're powerless in their own workplace, and a load of corporate ghouls made the calculated and cynical decision to exploit that. They only backed down because it got press attention. Fuck them.

Ugh.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Dyson's new air purifier thing seems kind of bad.
https://twitter.com/RealSexyCyborg/status/1509125141439033348`