As Covid19 continues to be a thorn on the side of society, the bigger thorn is the ignorance stemming from it.

For me personally, it is becoming increasingly difficult for me to not just be an outright asshole to people. In fact, I got called one on a group I am part of within my community. I’ll get to that exchange a little later.

I keep finding myself sucked into the black hole of social media trying to combat people spreading misinformation. Unfortunately, I can’t stop myself. The spreading of misinformation is an absolute joke on Facebook.

To quote a friend, “I remember in 2011 when all the older uncles got Facebook and they started accidentally sharing porn bots. Now everyone including people our age sharing crazy shit.”

We are seeing people my age (millennial) sharing the misinformation along with the older crowds. Quite honestly, it’s embarrassing. People see something that adheres to the narrative they want to convey and bam, they share it with no researching or fact checking. Then, four or five more share it within their network or circle. It’s a cesspool of stupidity.

That brings me to today’s Covid topic…masking up.

First off, let me just say for those of you who say “iT’s A WaY FoR tHe GoVeRnMeNt To cOnTrOL uS.”

You basically have a serial number tied to your name, that being your social security number. I don’t think them saying mask up is a means of control. They also have nuclear codes and a military that could wipe out our entire society in a heartbeat. If you think a mask is a means of control to our government, bless your heart.

Second, you have the “I won’t live in fear” crowd. I literally had someone tell me the other day that they won’t live in fear and it’s in “God’s hands.”

I asked the person if they would tell that to someone who has lost a family member to a violent crime. As expected, they deflected the question altogether.

I won’t live in fear, but I will do my part in protecting those I love should push come to shove. Even those I don’t, I would hate for someone to get sick if for whatever reason if I was asymptomatic.

Third, there is the crowd who think medical experts have said masks are the cure or are 100% prevent the spread. At least that is the way they convey their anti mask messaging. It’s a measure to stop further spreading. It’s not THE solution. No one ever said it is.

“tHeN wHy Do iT?”

The same reason you wear a seat belt and don’t go 120 on the interstate while drunk.

It’s a gamble, just like not wearing a mask.

Fourth is the inflated numbers crowd. As of now, the US has over 143,000 deaths and cases are rising, nearly 4 million. The death rate has fallen to around 3.5% based on the confirmed cases and deaths according to the CDC. Now of course, the CDC has stated based on projection data, the likely death rate will be between 0.2 – 1.0% when this is all said and done, still higher than the average flu season.

That brings me to the fifth crowd, Covid is basically the flu. No, it is fucking not.

Without going into a heavily detailed approach because I have done it before. I will ask the question I have asked about two dozen people who have failed to provide an answer because their heads whistle in a crosswind. Is it comparable to all of the following factors?

Death Rate
Infection Rate
How it Spreads
Symptomatically
Potential Long Term Effects
Vaccination Availability
Hospitalization Rate

Just to name a few of the goddamn factors if you want to compare.

Then you have the sixth crowd, “other deaths are conveniently not happening now.”

What? You’re saying in 2020 that people are only dying of Covid. Let’s see the fucking numbers on that one.

The last crowd now. For the record, most of these “crowds” are mutually exclusive falling under the same umbrella. But lastly, “I don’t trust the CDC.”

Where are you getting your flu information from? You dunce.

Columns like this are usually not my niche. I pride myself on research and data. If you want more profound columns and less crass takes on the situation of Covid and Social Media, here are some previous posts of mine that are more in depth…

March 11th – Covid Post

March 27th – Louisiana Ignorance and Arrogance

May 4th – Confirmation Bias

May 26th – Flu and Covid

July 13th – Social Media Bad or Good

Now that I am done ranting, here is some of the idiotic things I saw over the weekend in comment section from the cesspool of my hometown.

A couple of high points was our friend Joe who contributed very meaningful points to the conversation in the form of memes. Absolutely brilliant. The second was the fact the first line of the post reads “Three important sources here, the CDC…” The person who posts it quickly says how he doesn’t trust the CDC and also gave me enough credit to alter the CDC website. Fuck, I wish I was that good. I’d be working for the NSA.

Also keep in mind the amount of shares thus how quickly some shit gets spread a guy who can’t even defend his own points.