JWeinCom said:

So... we're basically going to do ad hominem attacks? I did not say anything about you as a person. Just that what you were saying and the positions you were advocating are illogical and irrational. This is pure and simple flaming, so cut it the fuck out. 

Interesting to see that your go to argument against me, that anything I say is some form of censorship because I'm a mod, hasn't changed despite the fact that I'm not a mod anymore XD.  Which was my choice. I have no interest in the power to ban anyone, and what I did as a mod has no relevance here. That being said when I was a mod you thought my saying "I thought my point was clear" or something like that was an abuse of power, so gonna say your criteria for authoritarianism is fucked. Which, hey, just might explain your view on masks. I apparently was also responsible for other mods closing your topics, and instigating an overall conspiracy against you in the backroom. *shrug* Again though irrelevant and flaming.

As for violence, don't think anything in my post was angry or aggressive. I was going for sarcastic and dismissive. If you think that was too harsh, go find a safe space.

....

And some nice victimization to go along with the ad hominem. Counterspeech is not oppression or censorship. You get to say whatever illogical thing you want, and I get to call it as such. Doing so is not denying you the right to disagree with me. Cut the victimization shit all the way out.

You could call my post idiotic though. I'm fine with that. Others seem to disagree with you. Doesn't mean they're right, but tbh I think they are for the most part better at understand logical arguments, so I believe I made my points clearly. You didn't really explain why it was idiotic, just called me a violent bully and whined about how I'm not nice enough to you.  As for treating you as intelligent, no. I won't treat you any kind of way, because I don't know you. If you say something intelligent I'll treat that as intelligent. So far, in this topic, you are batting zero. 

As for the actual "substance" of your post.  

You clearly made the point that the restrictions being dropped was based on arbitrary politics and not any actual reason. That's why you mentioned approval and polling and yada yada. You outright suggested in a jaqing off fashion (just asking questions) that it was a purely political ploy. We were all there, we all saw it, it's the first paragraph of the OP, and the whole post was ranting against the democrats, so no need to gaslight us. If that isn't what you meant, then get better at explaining I guess.  

I don't care what children think of mask policies.

I'm sorry, but I don't make any of my decisions based on what 7 year olds think about it, and don't think we should build policy around that. We don't let seven year olds vote for a reason. How about a panel of epidemiologists instead? If you were trying to counter my point that this was emotional reasoning and not logical/scientific reasoning, that's a bad example to use. I also don't care what your store does. I'm not your fucking manager and have no idea what that has to do with anything. 

The rest of this is a pure bait and switch. Your OP was about the restrictions that are in place now. Here you're talking about restrictions that are no longer in place. There is no lock down in New York City. I can go wherever I want and do pretty much whatever I want. I imagine that there is even less restriction in Texas. The only thing left are masks and vaccines. So yeah, at this point it's just a mask. Unless your point was that we need to get back to normal by lifting the restrictions that have already been lifted. What changes exactly are you advocating if not for lifting masking requirements?  

So, you have still provided no logical or rational justification for your position. Just added some personal attacks and waaah he said I can't have an opinion to the mix. 

P.S. Fabric, whatever N95s are made of. 

P.S.S. You're looking at it from the side I imagine you think will affect you more, a rise in crime. On the other side there are people who are routinely victimized by the current system. How much do you weigh such harm when you don't think it's likely to impact you? That's kind of the crux of all this.

Agree with your post and will only add that for most part left wing is more authoritarian than right wing while putting that is for good reason (like forbidding hate speech).
In Brazil despise how moronic our president is all accusations of he being a dictator is silly, all medias are free and criticize him all day long without punishment (while when he badmouth them he gets accused of censoring and persecuting midia), while the leftwing party that was in control for like 14 years tried to approve laws like "social control of midia" and is very much in favor of shutting down disenting opinions.

If those aren't (acceptable) protests, were these?

[Redacted 9/11 image]

Perhaps I'm confused. What do vaccines do?

Oh please, you're such a hypocrite. Look I'll concede to have maybe set the wrong tone for this discussion with my profanity-laced OP, but it was most certainly you who made the matter personal. Your entire prior post was just one long, gaslighting attack on my intelligence much like this one I'm quoting now is as well. I retaliated proportionally. Either treat people how you'd like to be treated or get over it. You're hardly a victim here.

First off, there's no basis for putting the word 'substance' in quotation marks when I provided a lot of worthy analysis and ample sourcing for my take on the impact of Covid restrictions both past and present. Secondly, since your reply, by stark contrast, was largely substance-free (unless one counts another of your trademark juvenile Facebook-style memes as an information source) and largely composed of you projecting your victimhood complex onto me, I'll make this brief.

There's no "bait and switch" here, just your inability to comprehend the fact that Covid-era restrictions have had a cumulative impact on our society over time that is serious. What there is instead is you disingenuously revising my positions to make yourself look smarter than, and morally superior to, me, as that seems to be your real goal here.

I'm done talking to you now. I'm out of motivation to do so. It's clearly not going to get anywhere because you're determined not to hear anything I say.

ah so that's why Brazil is only on #111 out of 180 countries in the World Press Freedom Index which is published by Reporters Without Borders.

"With threats and physical attacks, Brazil continues to be an especially violent country for the media, and many journalists have been killed in connection with their work. In most cases, these reporters, radio hosts, bloggers or other kinds of information providers were covering stories linked to corruption, public policy or organised crime in small or mid-sized cities, where they are more vulnerable. Journalism has become especially problematic since Jair Bolsonaro’s election as president in October 2018. Insulting, denigrating, stigmatising and humiliating journalists has become President Bolsonaro’s trademark. Any media revelation threatening his or his administration’s interests triggers a new round of violent verbal attacks that foster a climate of hatred and mistrust towards journalists. The coronavirus crisis exposed major problems in accessing information and gave rise to new attacks on the media by Bolsonaro, who blamed and scapegoated them for the crisis. Media ownership continues to be very concentrated, especially in the hands of big business families that are often closely linked to the political class. The confidentiality of journalists’ sources is under constant attack and many investigative reporters have been subjected to abusive judicial proceedings."

https://rsf.org/en/brazil

ah so that's why Brazil is only on #111 out of 180 countries in the World Press Freedom Index which is published by Reporters Without Borders.

"With threats and physical attacks, Brazil continues to be an especially violent country for the media, and many journalists have been killed in connection with their work. In most cases, these reporters, radio hosts, bloggers or other kinds of information providers were covering stories linked to corruption, public policy or organised crime in small or mid-sized cities, where they are more vulnerable. Journalism has become especially problematic since Jair Bolsonaro’s election as president in October 2018. Insulting, denigrating, stigmatising and humiliating journalists has become President Bolsonaro’s trademark. Any media revelation threatening his or his administration’s interests triggers a new round of violent verbal attacks that foster a climate of hatred and mistrust towards journalists. The coronavirus crisis exposed major problems in accessing information and gave rise to new attacks on the media by Bolsonaro, who blamed and scapegoated them for the crisis. Media ownership continues to be very concentrated, especially in the hands of big business families that are often closely linked to the political class. The confidentiality of journalists’ sources is under constant attack and many investigative reporters have been subjected to abusive judicial proceedings."

https://rsf.org/en/brazil

"Relatively mild Omicron surge"

Also, this isn't a popular rebellion in Canada. The convoy is extremely unpopular and the covid restrictions continue to be popular. This is the far right freaking out because they've lost. 

Omicron in USA is being fairly letal, about as strong as Delta bases on the sheer number of the infection, as the virus itself is much less letal 

Here in Brazil we are having about 3 times more daily cases than Delta, but death rate is about less than 30% of what used to be with Delta

I honestly don't understand why are people freaking out with restrictions. Wearing masks is ok, many people I know are considering using it for good, I personally really like wearing it, specially when I'm having allergic crisis 

Showing documentation to prove we got shots is also OK, what's the matter? Right now most of people here are vaccinated, about 80% I think, the ones who aren't are mainly kids, so almost everything is working as usual. Business are open, restaurants, gymns, cinemas, etc. Even closed events are allowed 

It's also very nice every place is offering alcohol gel so we can clean our hands and arms, and I also feel stores, cinemas and restaurants are far more cleaner now than they used to be 

I don't know if Brazilians are adaptable, but I don't know, I feel like things are different now, we no longer love in terror, people are slowly accepting how to live with the virus and I think that's a very good thing. The next variant will probably be even less letal, so I hope by then Covid will be treated like just another kind of flu