PS: Good evening Mr.Anon...

"Dogs are good creatures."

I agree whole heartedly...

Dogs rock...

☮

PS: Mr. Anon, I've gotten the same feeling a lot lately. One difference is that I am very thankful that my wife lightened way the hell up from ~ this time last year. It was really affecting the marriage for 3 months or so.

Nobody in my slightly-extended family is too Panicked, either. Then, I have a few friends who are as sick of this as I am. One of them raises almost as much hell about this as I do, in real life, while another guy tells me about heated FB conversations (the latter I think is wasting his time, but if it helps him out ...) So I'm in a better situation than you, Mr. Anon. You are indeed better off sticking to yourself when you can.

My workplace is the problem. I'm threading the needle here as far as how much I get away with without trouble. I am also thankful that if it came down to it, I can leave this deal. (It's just the best job I've had, work-wise.)

I read the latest Garaldi article (never read him much before - can't read the whole damn Unz Review each day). This one was about the US Gov't clampdown on "domestic terrorism". This is just as bad as this PanicFest, if you ask me.

The country is in a bad place. The world is in a bad place. We do the little bit we can to fight it all, but I think more and more of just getting that land a bit farther out from, well, anyone, and trying to live closer to God.

I'm the last to say "it'll all turn out fine, if we all just pray", but the other options aren't so easy for us to actually get down to ...

PS: Adam and Hail (per your own site too), thank you both for the info on this Dingleberry. The multiple-masking thing will be a quick post later on (today?), so thanks for that link, Adam.

Adam, about the Jehovah's Witnesses, we had 2 black ladies (they'd switch out sometimes, so not always the same 2) come by the house for years. I really mean years, I think this dragged on for 3 or 4. They would give us the literature, I'd occasionally read some, but about 1/2 the time when we'd see that car out front, we'd just not answer the door.

I really don't have a problem telling people to f__k off, normally., but these ladies were too nice to put it like this. In the long run, they did waste a lot of their time. I could feel that was our fault, I guess ... The only thing I had a problem with was when we had to tell them when we'd be home next, to be nice. These church ladies weren't going to rip us off, but did they have some slightly-thuggish witnesses that might? Haven't seen them for a couple of years now.

Neither my wife and I are the type to get sucked into a cult of any sort - even Amway people don't get too far (same thing, unless the hosts are friends, and I'm trying to remain nice - usually I don't end up seeing them again, as much as that sort of thing pisses me off.)

However, I'm glad we never attended the JW. at their Kingdom Hall. Thanks for the info regarding your friend.

I have nothing to add to this PanicFest as a religious cult thing. I don't discount it, and I am enjoying the discussion.

PS

This whole Corona cluster-f**k has left me a complete misanthrope. We're supposed to walk across the street now rather than walk past another person? And this has been going on a full year now. Well f**k those people. I hate them.

I hate everyone I see wearing a mask. I despise myself when I have to wear one.

I don't even want to talk to my own family - corona-koolaid-drinkers all.

I hate everyone now. People are s**t.

You won, Klaus Schwab - you evil piece of crap. F**k you. I hate you most of all, Klaus "Anal" Schwab.

At least we still have dogs. Dogs are good creatures.

PS: Good morning again...

"Hi, folks. I've got a great new religion for you to try out! Would you like to come to bible study at the Kingdom Hall?"

Have you ever had a Jehovah's Witness knock on your door?

Interestingly, like any cult, they warp the language within their "society". The word "Truth" is synonymous with the Jehovah's Witness Organization itself. For example, when a witness says "Elder Soandso is strong in the truth." what they mean is "Elder Sosandso hasn't missed a meeting and he's recruited new people. He has been seen in field service and went to three conventions this past year." Being "strong in the truth" essentially means that someone has done a lot of work and or raised money for the organization.

Some people prefer to call the witness organization a "high control group" instead of a cult. I'm not sure that there is a meaningful difference. (I think it's a dangerous cult. I have a friend who was born into the organization who is completely tormented by it. Imagine growing up "knowing" that God is going to destroy the earth any day now. This guy has hardcore panic attacks all the time. He's called me crying because he thinks God is going to destroy him.)

As Peter pointed out, some people are really enjoying all the cases counts, the arbitrary rules and especially the death counts. There is a sort of sadism in many of the true believers. Like other "authoritarian followers" they would love to punish anyone who is not in their "ingroup", in this case the so called "corona deniers".

The Cult of the Glorious CoronaPanic is a Death Cult.

☮

PS: Good morning everyone...

"Doctor" Fingle-Dingle is a charlatan who wants grandmas to die.
The Science™ says anything less than 3 masks + sealed goggles + tyvek suit + neoprene gloves + shoe covers is insane!

"Doctor" Fingle-Dingle clearly lacks virtue.

https://www.uline.com/BL_976/Shoe-Covers

https://abc7news.com/ppe-covid-19-shortages-scuba-gear/6139177/

☮

PS: " So, I go into the bank, carrying a gun and wearing a mask; and they still only gave me my own money." Good one, Robert!

PS: 2 x O/T to The Alarmist. I copied your reply that you were a Zoomie. Also, I watched that movie "A Quite Place". As bogus and full of holes as the concept was, man, that movie was non-stop suspense from about the first couple of minutes right to the end. Whewww.

Something about these aliens and the setting reminded me of another aliens movie, "Signs". It took place on Mel Gibson's farm (in the movie), and the farmer he played didn't even own a shotgun.

https://www.peakstupidity.com/index.php?post=588

Anyway, thanks for the recommendation.

PS

RE: PeterIke,

"Religious impulse is innate"

It's exactly right.

The Corona phenomenon has led me to a better appreciation of what Religion is, and specifically to insight into how Religions are born.

Given that the R-word is weighty and carries much baggage, it's best to use some alternative phrasing like "religious currents" or "religious waves" (piggybacking in this case on the established term "flu wave"). They happen all the time. They happen because people have an innate religious impulse, which they don't understand. They can and often do happen independent of the so-called established religion one thinks one has. The same religion therefore is subject to change over time, always and everywhere. The Hindus will often concede this, proposing religion is complex and evolving. But it's true of all religions.

Some religious-waves of certain periods/places end up, years or generations later, reframed or reunderstood or reinterpreted as "new religions" entirely, or maybe as new movements within a religion if for whatever reason the name of the established religion is desired (similar to how European political leaders liked to use 'Caesar' centuries later; see 'Czar,' 'Kaiser' in use in some form for over a thousand years up to the 20th century).

But for people living through these "religious waves" or "religious movements," there is often no awareness of it, the problem of the "fish in water who doesn't understand he's in water" (he's in reality, not this 'water' you speak of).

All religions probably start out with people unaware they are dealing with a "religion." They are dealing with Truth, or, as the saying now goes, The Science.

All religions start out with people grappling with Truth, with the best understanding of the science available to people at the time, maybe with a crisis, or a perceived crisis, and a proper alignment of social forces to allow particular religious wave to crest and crash on shore rather than fading back into the sea.

In contrast, no religions start with some stranger cruising into town saying "Hi, folks. New here. I've got a great new religion for you to try out! Whattaya say?" That never happens. New religions that elicit mass-conversion events do not announce themselves at all, but announce themselves as some Truth, some science, some set of facts, some reality we are just beginning to understand and can do well through sacrifice and loyalty to the religion.

See also: "When Covid Became a Religion" (900 words), recent essay by John Hayward, reposted here:

https://hailtoyou.wordpress.com/2020/05/18/against-the-corona-panic-part-xii-an-anthropological-study-into-the-corona-cult-pro-panic-hardliners-and-the-media-succeeded-in-erecting-a-virus-centered-apocalypse-cult-as-state-religion-and-in/#comment-47599

PS

There is a Corona-Fanatic and leading Corona-Propagandist out there named Doctor Fingle-Dingle (a.k.a. Eric Feigl-Dingle).

He is now promoting double-mask plus sealed Corona-googles as the only way the true Virus-Fighters will operate.

Unless you're one of those evil COVID-DENIERS, get on those thick Corona-goggles! Tight seal. No questions!

PS Face panty über alles but facecrime is way down in the spirit of unity.
The local CCP owned enemedia fake newz factory had a freudian slip when it said...as we come to the end of the plandemic.
It got rid of the bad orange tweeter and now we can enjoy the fundamental transformation into Zimbabwe under preezy of the steezy Susan Rice and VP the historic glass ceiling wrecker fierce warrior wymyns the Kamal!
Forward. Yes we can!

PS

Thanks, Mr. Robert.

“Good actors, good models, and good charlatans — and con people — know how to do that.”

lulz ... As the Ancient Greeks said, Know thyself.

PS: Mr. Alarmist, I had not heard of the Duchenne smile, although I was aware of the thing itself. Googling sent me to:
https://elemental.medium.com/masks-are-causing-our-smiles-to-evolve-c0981ec19e90
which seems very on topic for this comment thread.

PS:

Per. Mr. H: We are all bank robbers now.

As a friend said: So, I go into the bank, carrying a gun and wearing a mask; and they still only gave me my own money.

PS

RE: Robert

"How do beards/moustaches factor in? Does a full beard and moustache hide facial expressions as well as a mask?"

Masks obliterate everything behind the mask, but surely even the thickest beard only brings a partial reduction in face-communication. A lot of it is not about seeing the skin so much as what the muscles are doing. After all, everyone picks up on Santa Claus' emotions, right?

The question makes me think of another one: Why do men have facial hair but women don't? There are several possible reasons. But the world of emotions being always and everywhere more important to the female sex, maybe there is an evolutionary pressure there, too.

PS It's basic in retail that staff greet an incoming customer with a smile. It is, in fact, one of the most important facets of retail service. It sets the pace of the entire shopping experience. Gone.

I used to reject the automated checkout at the grocery store because I enjoyed the checkout people, who were nice folks. One lady in particular. I would choose her line even if it was longer. After masking I chose her line a couple times, but now have quit doing so. I can no longer tell her from anyone else. No personality. She tries, I think, but it's just not there with that mask.

When you are interacting with someone wearing a mask, you are not interacting with a person. There is just no personal contact. Bank robbers wore a bandana over their nose and mouth for a reason. We are all bank robbers now.

PS

I’ve attempted to flirt with my eyes using the so-called Duchenne smile, and the chicks I’ve tried it on have responded in kind, so there are ways to break the ice even with a mask.

🎶 We shall overcome.

Oh shit, they’re breaking out the hoses and dogs!

PS
@Hail
"I don't think Virtue Signaling is the best term for why Western-Christian men traditionally took off their hats inside a church, or any number of other religious-garb examples from near and far. I don't really know a proper term for it, for this process of submission to a dominant religion's norms."

That's a good point. Though I think in today's America, virtue signaling is inextricably tied up with any kind of public posture.

That said, what would you call the religious impulse? Deference? But there's a social element: you took your hat off in Church because everyone else did. How many people even understood why? To the extent they did, I guess it was to show proper respect to God and/or the Priests, who had a great deal of social power back in the day. Or maybe it was because when you were young, the nuns would slap you if you didn't take off your hat.

I'm not framing it well, but I agree with you in general about the faux-religious aspect of Corona. People really can be separated into believers, skeptics and atheists, as it were. And it's a fiery kind of religion too, in which the believers have no problem lashing out at the non-believers. Of course, most of them won't utter a squeak when their traditional Christian religion is attacked. They sit back and take it. But if you deny the Rona God, it's hellfire for you.

Maybe that's why some people are extravagantly enjoying it all (I'm thinking, say, of HA who posts on Sailer: you can hear the glee oozing through his (?) posts as he scolds the nonbelievers and squeals happily at the death counts). Religious impulse is innate. Corona is a great way to lick those long ignored wounds.

PS

RE: PeterIke,

"Virtue signaling (even if they understand masks don't work, they wouldn't dare be seen without one)" and "At the bottom of the Corona Panic is plain, old cowardice. What a society of weaklings we've become."

In cultures or subcultures that demand religious garb at particular places at particular times for particular people, what makes people comply?

People of all kinds of times and places have obeyed the mandates for religious-garb with, afaik/afaict, very little need for "policing" of the matter.

I don't think Virtue Signaling is the best term for why Western-Christian men traditionally took off their hats inside a church, or any number of other religious-garb examples from near and far. I don't really know a proper term for it, for this process of submission to a dominant religion's norms.

PS
Random thoughts on the subject.

* Yes, masks don't less us see emotions. Now imagine the impact on children who are being made to wear masks in school. It's absolutely dreadful, and straight-up child abuse.

* I can't tell you how often I see women in NYC out with their children, and the kids are wearing masks. Outdoors. Even kids so young they're in strollers! It's criminal. I wonder: do these mothers even let them take the masks off at home? I expect many children will come out of this with cognitive deficiencies and/or emotional trauma of some kind.

* Was in Midtown Manhattan yesterday. Definitely more people on the streets than two months ago, but still nowhere near what it used to be. I did see SOME people without masks. Maybe 1 in 20. But it was an improvement over the past. Before, the only people I'd see without masks were cops or city works (like bus drivers) hanging around talking.

So it was nice to see some maskless people. Even an elderly couple! The real tragedy is all the 20- and 30-somethings, who are at effectively zero risk, going around with masks on. I guess it's some combination of ignorance (they really are terribly mis-informed) and virtue signaling (even if they understand masks don't work, they wouldn't dare be seen without one).

I've had a few mask fights with Libs on another site, and they are simply impervious to reason. I can (and have) cited multiple studies on masks not working, and they just blow it off. They WANT to believe. At the bottom of the Corona Panic is plain, old cowardice. What a society of weaklings we've become.

PS: Thanks, Mr. Hail.

PS

I should have edited out "something Tim Barber and I explain in our upcoming book;" Apologies!

Mark Changizi and Tim Barber's to-be-published book is called UNMASKED.

PS

The content I copied here are bullet-points from Mark Changizi's videos which he put on Twitter for easy digestion. All the content is copied from his tweets.

Here is the thread whose content I copied:

https://twitter.com/MarkChangizi/status/1369103484721709057

Changizi is a science writer on the side and has a book coming out called UNMASKED which, as far as I can tell, is based on a project that predates the Corona-Mask phenomenon. It's on how/why we express emotions. The title clearly reflects the Corona-Era and probably the content has been revised to align with the Panic, but a lot of the main thrust of the book he gives away for free in forms like.

(It seems that the way most people approach book-publishing these days is put out the content for free and then repackage it as a book sellable to fans; it's puzzled me for years why Steve Sailer has failed to hire someone to do this for his writing -- if he feels he can't do it himself or doesn't want to. He could crowd-source to his commenters for advice on the early-stages/concept and do well with it.)

As for Mark Changizi he was already thinking about the topic of faces and emotions when the Corona-Nightmare began, which soon involved the literal masking of most would-be interactions in public, which, for anyone thinking about the cognitive science behind social interaction, was a disaster. It's no wonder he became an Anti-Panic hardliner.

but in fact Changizi was Anti-Panic from the start, before the masks. He emerged as a high-audience Anti-Panic figure on twitter and remains unbanned there.

On March 17, 2020, he wrote the words that should be the Corona-Panic's epitaph:

"The moral of coronavirus19 will be that social contagion via social networks is more dangerous than biological contagion."

____________

Changizi has several other lists of reasons why masks are bad; a big one is here:

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1365343607931211776.html

PS: Robert, that's an interesting theory about beards, especially. Women want to be able to read us, so, yeah, maybe that's why lots of them don't like the Grizzly Adams look - it screws up their system.

Dieter, I'm pretty sure by "I", Mr. Hail meant Mr. Changizi, but then that makes me realize my previous comment didn't need to ask if this was cut and pasted from Mr. Changizi. Unless Mr. Hail has a book coming out??

On the burkhas, I agree with the Swiss, of course. I don't think it's completely about the facial expressions but also just foreigners that are so foreign they make the country foreign to the Swiss. If they all wore Pope hats or something, maybe it'd be a little better, but that "WTF??" feeling would still be there.

PS: Mr. Hail, re your first comment, I did read the whole thread including Mr. ML. (He came off kind of disparaging on his first comment*, though but I read the rest. Thank you

Re your 2nd comment, I didn't look anything up about the subject before I wrote this post. It's just my thoughts. I can't tell if your 7 points are directly off his writing (in which case, if you have a link, I'd appreciate it so I can put it in this post). If that's yours, thank you. Numbers 2 and 3 are things I've never thought about. The masks don't affect [7] but affect the rest to some, could be a large, degree.


* Likely because he had a mask on while writing on the internet, heh.

PS - The Swiss last weekend said no to Burkas in Switzerland - the Swiss people themselves, so to speak (via direct democracy that is - nine out of ten political parties were pro Burka. But the
Swiss didn't care about their political parties' will - a democratic luxury, the Swiss can afford, to paraphrase Joe Cocker's album title - Luxury You Can Afford).
One of the most heard arguments during the anti-Burka-campaign is much like the one that is made by Tim Barber and ?you (who is this I - you, Mr. Hail?): Facial expression is central to our public behavior/culture/life and thus we don't want the Burka in Switzerland's public sphere.

PS: That question was prompted by Hail's list below. In the same line, do thick glasses (I am almost blind without them) also hide eye-contact?

PS: How do beards/moustaches factor in? Does a full beard and moustache hide facial expressions as well as a mask?

Perhaps this is part of the reason 'civilized' men are encouraged to shave, or at least keep beards well trimmed and short?

PS

Anti-Panicker Mark Changizi (Iranian ancestry) (pop-medical Youtuber, medical-professional, and author) has lately been slamming the communication effects of mask wearing just as you have here:

_____________

EMOTIONAL EXPRESSIONS ARE *EVERYTHING*

Face masks have eliminated something most of us do not consciously appreciate. But it’s evolution’s first, and most important, language, something Tim Barber and I explain in our upcoming book.

[1] PERCEPTION OF EMOTIONAL EXPRESSIONS

You’re less sensitive to emotional expressions on faces far from what you’re used to.

2] THE COLORS IN YOUR SKIN

Your skin can achieve any hue. ...because your color vision evolved so that’s the case. To sense our emotional expressions.

[3] WHAT MAKES SKIN LOOK ALIVE

When we see skin we’re not really seeing skin, but the blood under the skin. That’s one crucial aspect to how we see emotional expressions

[4] WITHOUT EMOTIONAL EXPRESSIONS WE’RE TROLLS

The key behind good social behavior is emotional expressions. Face masks kill that.

[6] EXTRAPOLATING NON-EMOTION

Our perception of someone with a mask is that they have a neutral expression. It forces the color of life to be gray. I

[7] EYES MEETING

Online meetings ruin our ability to look folks straight in the eyes.

_____________

This is a big, but not the only, family of reasons for why mask-wearing is bad.

PS

When was the Peak-Mask-Stupidity point? Are we (sure we're) past it? I don't know.

The exact link to the discussion on states lifting mask orders is here:

https://hailtoyou.wordpress.com/2021/02/26/all-life-years-matter-on-the-corona-panics-social-and-economic-costs-vs-covid-deaths-in-life-years-lost-terms/#comment-47540

A follow-up discussion, in which commenter ML challenges the idea that "a handful of states" lifting the (theoretically legally enforceable) mask orders means anything within the wider Corona-Panic, is here:

https://hailtoyou.wordpress.com/2021/02/26/all-life-years-matter-on-the-corona-panics-social-and-economic-costs-vs-covid-deaths-in-life-years-lost-terms/#comment-47579