Pandemic Amnesty?

[Chaotic Void]

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/ar...veness/671879/

To Start... Let's Get This Out Of The Way: I don't endorse every single thing said/done by folks I agree with, and I also acknowledge that folks I overall disagree with are not some Monolithic Hivemind. If you can't offer the same courtesy and resort to Pedantic Whataboutisms, don't even bother posting here.

This article and the concept has been living Rent-Free in a lot of people's heads as of late, myself included. Since nobody's started a thread reacting to it here... I'll do it.

(Fair warning, I'm rambling a lot because this whole scenario has my blood boiling and I'm trying to assemble my thoughts without making Sam Kinison seem mellow by comparison.)

My initial reaction is simply this: Reconciliation is not impossible, but do these people genuinely think that simply saying, "Oops. My Bad. Sorry," is going to be enough for the people that lost their jobs and loved ones, while also enduring slander, poverty, death threats, emotional manipulation, coercion, and even physical attacks and suspension of civil liberties (like the little stunt our Prime Minister pulled in Canada) because of the actions taken during COVID?

In light of all the things said and done*, this call for Amnesty feels less motivated by a genuine desire for reconciliation and more because they know the consequences of their actions are looming overhead. It's like that jackass who wants to play, "Shot For Shot," and hits you as hard as possible... but chumps out the moment it comes for him to get his haymaker in the predetermined location. Like, even if this apology was accepted at face value and the hatchet was buried, I really hope folks don't think they're going to avoid any pushback. For instance, I imagine the next Major Election for most democratic countries will cause drastic changes in office, especially here in Canada... Poilievre, as far as I'm concerned, is All Sizzle No Steak, but I'll be shocked if he doesn't become the next Prime Minister. The US and places like Australia, I have a feeling, will have similar outcomes.

*There's plenty of online sources cataloguing all the things said and done, so I don't feel the need to risk Moderation by providing them. That's the beauty of The Internet: it never forgets and you can find things at your leisure.

That's my Rant for the day. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to endure three blocks of snow so I can hit the gym.

[seanD]

My takeaway from it is an admission that what they did was wrong and even immoral, and that's what a minority group of people (mostly conservatives) -- who were demonized the whole time it went on -- were saying from the start. It's also interesting that this came out at a time studies started coming out showing lockdowns were an abject failure.

[Chaotic Void]

My takeaway from it is an admission that what they did was wrong and even immoral, and that's what a minority group of people (mostly conservatives) -- who were demonized the whole time it went on -- were saying from the start. It's also interesting that this came out at a time studies started coming out showing lockdowns were an abject failure.

Up here in Canada there's an ongoing lawsuit between The Feds and a pair of folks who were barred from travel due to their Vaccination Status. As part of that, it came to light that the Committee that was formed to come up with some of the Mandates had zero Doctors and Scientists on it. The closest thing they had to relevant professionals was someone who worked at a clinic for three months. I'm not Politically Conservative by any stretch of the imagination, but I almost want to Spite-Vote just to get Trudeau out of office (not that my vote matters in Western Canada, but at least the dopamine hit from doing so might help me sleep a little better at night).

I honestly believe there was No Good Outcome in all of this, but that's really no excuse for all the stuff that's been done in Bad Faith over the years.

[NorrinRadd]

That flipping "Atlantic" article isn't even an apology in the sense of "I'm sorry, I was wrong. Please forgive me."

My stance is NO AMNESTY, and ESPECIALLY not for moralistic Christo-Cretins like David French and Frankie Collins. *IF* they ever do apologize -- in literal sackcloth and ashes, with LITERAL self-flagellating, THEN forgive them. Maybe.

[Chaotic Void]

That flipping "Atlantic" article isn't even an apology in the sense of "I'm sorry, I was wrong. Please forgive me."

My stance is NO AMNESTY, and ESPECIALLY not for moralistic Christo-Cretins like David French and Frankie Collins. *IF* they ever do apologize -- in literal sackcloth and ashes, with LITERAL self-flagellating, THEN forgive them. Maybe.

Yeah... This is definitely an In-House Discussion that needs to be had with fellow Believers given how divisive we'd let it become. We're going to have to spend Eternity together, might as well patch things up and keep ourselves accountable in the Here and Now.

[seanD]

That flipping "Atlantic" article isn't even an apology in the sense of "I'm sorry, I was wrong. Please forgive me."

My stance is NO AMNESTY, and ESPECIALLY not for moralistic Christo-Cretins like David French and Frankie Collins. *IF* they ever do apologize -- in literal sackcloth and ashes, with LITERAL self-flagellating, THEN forgive them. Maybe.

They also said nothing negative about the attempted jab mandates that got shot down by the courts (with some cases still currently in litigation), in spite of the fact that the mandates did a lot of political and economic damage to a lot of people that opposed them. They really only focused on lockdowns. This seems to suggest (to me at least) that lockdowns will be a thing of the past, but pro-jab mandates will be the future when the covid hype explodes again some time after the midterms.

[Mountain Man]

Up here in Canada there's an ongoing lawsuit between The Feds and a pair of folks who were barred from travel due to their Vaccination Status. As part of that, it came to light that the Committee that was formed to come up with some of the Mandates had zero Doctors and Scientists on it. The closest thing they had to relevant professionals was someone who worked at a clinic for three months. I'm not Politically Conservative by any stretch of the imagination, but I almost want to Spite-Vote just to get Trudeau out of office (not that my vote matters in Western Canada, but at least the dopamine hit from doing so might help me sleep a little better at night).

I honestly believe there was No Good Outcome in all of this, but that's really no excuse for all the stuff that's been done in Bad Faith over the years.

Our pandemic team in the US was made up of supposedly the top medical professionals in the country, yet they came up with the same screwy recommendations as your panel of non-experts, which leads to the obvious conclusion that the whole thing was driven by politics and not science. For that matter, even when the science showed that the pandemic policies were a failure, those with the power refused to relent and even doubled down ("Wear two masks instead of one! Get another jab! And another!"). They didn't care what it was doing to people's lives, but now they're crying, "Don't blame us! We didn't know any better!"

Yeah, I don't think so.

[Chaotic Void]

Our pandemic team in the US was made up of supposedly the top medical professionals in the country, yet they came up with the same screwy recommendations as your panel of non-experts, which leads to the obvious conclusion that the whole thing was driven by politics and not science. For that matter, even when the science showed that the pandemic policies were a failure, those with the power refused to relent and even doubled down ("Wear two masks instead of one! Get another jab! And another!"). They didn't care what it was doing to people's lives, but now they're crying, "Don't blame us! We didn't know any better!"

Yeah, I don't think so.

Yeah... really makes the assertion that, "The Mandates Were All About Rewarding Friends and Punishing Enemies," age a little too well.

Frankly, I'll be the first to say that I got off easy these past two years... Some of my friends and neighbors have had their lives completely blowtorched and turned inside out. If someone like me, who lost little, isn't going to acknowledge any apology short of evidently changed behavior, I imagine they're going to want Sackcloth, Ashes, and Reparations on top of that.

[rogue06]

That's my Rant for the day. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to endure three blocks of snow so I can hit the gym.

82 degrees today.


As i said a day or so ago, they are not asking for amnesty but rather announcing that they're granting themselves amnesty.

[Chaotic Void]

82 degrees today.

17C, -7C with the Windchill where I live. And Blowing snow.

Still managed to crank out a Full Body Workout, though I was completely gassed by the end.

As i said a day or so ago, they are not asking for amnesty but rather announcing that they're granting themselves amnesty.

Yeah... Barring legit acts of reconciliation, it's just another Act of Bad Faith to add to the pile.

[mossrose]

17C, -7C with the Windchill where I live. And Blowing snow.

Still managed to crank out a Full Body Workout, though I was completely gassed by the end.



Yeah... Barring legit acts of reconciliation, it's just another Act of Bad Faith to add to the pile.

Sissy. -15C here with windchill in the -20's. And snow and snow and snow. Supposed to be -25C tomorrow night, not counting the windchill.

When our new Premier made the comment the day she was sworn in that the treatment of the unvaccinated was "in my opinion, one of the worst discriminations in my lifetime", she was immediately jumped on by the media and the NDP. Jewish people and homosexuals and aboriginals all started whining, even though Smith is pretty young and wouldn't have had anything to do with any of those discriminations.

There will be no apology that means anything from the federal government or the NDP's or the Bloc or anybody that is not in the least conservative-minded

And even if there is an apology, it won't help a thing. No reparations will be paid, nothing will be done to bring people fired for not getting jabbed back to their jobs. The health care system is especially drowning in lack of staff and wait times are worse than ever, at least in this province. So many doctors, nurses, firefighters, police, EMS, etc. forced to leave by taking a stand. And thousands of small businesses that had to close, never to reopen.

There is nothing that will make any of that okay.

[rogue06]

Sissy. -15C here with windchill in the -20's. And snow and snow and snow. Supposed to be -25C tomorrow night, not counting the windchill.

Did I say it was 82 today? A bit rainy so it was humid as well. I'm going around barefoot. And currently without a shirt.

[Gondwanaland]

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/ar...veness/671879/

To Start... Let's Get This Out Of The Way: I don't endorse every single thing said/done by folks I agree with, and I also acknowledge that folks I overall disagree with are not some Monolithic Hivemind. If you can't offer the same courtesy and resort to Pedantic Whataboutisms, don't even bother posting here.

This article and the concept has been living Rent-Free in a lot of people's heads as of late, myself included. Since nobody's started a thread reacting to it here... I'll do it.

(Fair warning, I'm rambling a lot because this whole scenario has my blood boiling and I'm trying to assemble my thoughts without making Sam Kinison seem mellow by comparison.)

My initial reaction is simply this: Reconciliation is not impossible, but do these people genuinely think that simply saying, "Oops. My Bad. Sorry," is going to be enough for the people that lost their jobs and loved ones, while also enduring slander, poverty, death threats, emotional manipulation, coercion, and even physical attacks and suspension of civil liberties (like the little stunt our Prime Minister pulled in Canada) because of the actions taken during COVID?

In light of all the things said and done*, this call for Amnesty feels less motivated by a genuine desire for reconciliation and more because they know the consequences of their actions are looming overhead. It's like that jackass who wants to play, "Shot For Shot," and hits you as hard as possible... but chumps out the moment it comes for him to get his haymaker in the predetermined location. Like, even if this apology was accepted at face value and the hatchet was buried, I really hope folks don't think they're going to avoid any pushback. For instance, I imagine the next Major Election for most democratic countries will cause drastic changes in office, especially here in Canada... Poilievre, as far as I'm concerned, is All Sizzle No Steak, but I'll be shocked if he doesn't become the next Prime Minister. The US and places like Australia, I have a feeling, will have similar outcomes.

*There's plenty of online sources cataloguing all the things said and done, so I don't feel the need to risk Moderation by providing them. That's the beauty of The Internet: it never forgets and you can find things at your leisure.

That's my Rant for the day. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to endure three blocks of snow so I can hit the gym.

I saw that Atlantic piece the other day.

My reaction, immediately was: hell no. You don't get amnesty when you made people say goodbye to their dying loved ones by skype, when you pushed sick people into nursing homes, when you prevented anyone from going to funerals, when you tried to prevent people from buying anything you didn't deem 'necessary' in department stores, when you forced children to lose years of education (and then when they did bring them back to school, muzzled them with masks that have furhter hindered social and other development), when you told us we should be denied medical care and should die if we didn't take your vaccine, when you hid the facts about covid lab origins.

There will not be any amnesty, ever. And I agree, I think this is why they're now suddenly begging for it: they're afraid that there will soon be consequences for what they did as governments go through change.

[mossrose]

Did I say it was 82 today? A bit rainy so it was humid as well. I'm going around barefoot. And currently without a shirt.

Big meanie.

[rogue06]

Big meanie.

Just finished a bowl of chocolate, actually Death by Chocolate, Ice Cream too.