i fail to see what compromise you propose. drop all pandemic restrictions and stop having a negative opinion of me is not meeting me half way either. you are belittling people you disagree with yourself with this post. why is this alright for you but wrong for me?
I don't have a negative opinion of you--or really any opinion for that matter. My diatribes here are against the likes of Faucci, Cuomo, Newsom, CDC, Gates, WHO, etc, so unless you're one of these "leaders", I'm not belittling you. In fact I'd be pretty curious to hear your thoughts on this so long as it is something beyond how we should trust these people because they're so smart.
What our leaders should have done was something like this
- Experts give honest health advice about the science and don't overstep their lane out into economics, politics, etc. I want to hear facts and data from our scientists answering questions like "what is the percentage change of transmission if I'm in a room with an infected person that is 27m3 for 5 minutes". Or "What is the chance of transmission for a symptomatic vs unsymptomatic carrier". And related questions like, "what happens to those chances if the room is ventilated?" Answers to that will inform me of my best choices of behavior, not stupid and counterproductive bans on going to the beach or closing the park. Ditto with masks, 6ft distancing, etc. I want hard science about what we know and don't know, not dumbed-down political action and coercion.
- Leaders practice good leadership--there are tons of things to cover here
- humble and admit when we don't know something
- don't tell "white lies" for "the greater good"
- give advice and suggestions but not force and coercion
- encourage us to be understanding of other and respectful of others in these trying times rather than breeding an us vs them mentality, even if the media, corporations, and politicians seems to be on your side at the moment so it is politically convenient to take their blood diamond of assistance
- Encourage advice for healthy lifestyles, not just jump on whatever miracle drug or pill the pharma industry can make money on. CDC and Faucci should encourage these to save lives instead of harping on and on about antivaxers
- healthy diet
- reduce obesity
- sunlight and fresh air
- exercise
- strong social bonds and support networks
That's what solid leadership in a crisis is, not forceful mandates and powergrabs. It's all so incredibly basic and obvious that I really don't see how these leaders and experts can be so detached.
there is a calculator out there somewhere that calculates everything in that first point. it was released about a year ago by some university iirc and its not perfect but it gives you a general idea based off of their models. i don't remember where it was or what it was called but if you remind me tomorrow i'll go find it.
the second point is fine but noteworthy that trump, the leader at the time, also admittedly engaged in all of those. nice of you to leave him out of your diatribes.
to my knowledge, they have consistently recommended healthy lifestyle choices, its not their fault you don't read that part.
i have a hard time getting past your ego. if its basic and obvious, chances are they are aware of it too and for reasons outside your scope they choose the direction they choose, right or wrong.
There is a significant fraction of the population that disagrees with you on this. So at some point we have to ask ourselves, do we want to be right, or do we want positive results? Pick one. It's a hugely humbling question to ask and requires us to be self critical and have empathy for how others see the world. It means we have to be respectful of others, even if they decide differently than us. It means we have to be 100% honest--especially when it is inconvenient--and not use coercive moves or psychological hacks to try to "correct" people. People like Faucci and the leaders are drunk on power and are more interested in being right rather than getting positive results. They just don't see the world like this. It is failed leadership, and the path that this leads to is very dark and has ample examples in history. So none of the excuses about how this is a pandemic and we need to cut them some slack or give them extra authority hold any water. This is especially when we need to be critical of them because we are at our most vulnerable and most likely to be abused.
This is the exact same kind of problem you see on Reddit, /r/politics in particular; the people would much rather mock and belittle those they disagree with rather than actually reach any compromise that makes everyone better off. It's so much easier to get a rise out of people who think like you do rather than have to put in hard work to actually solve a real difficult problem. I guess it goes to the human nature of us vs them that is so easy for leaders to abuse for power.