Open (More or Less) Post on Covid 53

[ecosophia]

As we move into the second year of these open posts, it's pretty clear that the official narrative is cracking as the toll of deaths and injuries from the Covid vaccines rises steadily and the vaccines themselves demonstrate their total uselesness at preventing Covid infection or transmission. It's still important to keep watch over the mis-, mal- and nonfeasance of our self-proclaimed health gruppenfuehrers, and the disastrous results of the Covid mania, but I think it's also time to begin thinking about what might be possible as the existing medical industry reels under the impact of its own self-inflicted injuries. 

(Yes, the change in image theme reflects that; the earlier sequence served its purpose. With a nod to El Gato Malo (1, 2, 3), the posts to come will be headed by thoughtful memes relevant to the Covid mess. Yes, I'll take nominations -- you can post links in the thread.)

So it's time for another open post. The rules are the same as before: 

1. If you plan on parroting the party line of the medical industry and its paid shills, please go away. This is a place for people to talk openly, honestly, and freely about their concerns that the party line in question is dangerously flawed and that actions being pushed by the medical industry et al. are causing injury and death. It is not a place for you to dismiss those concerns. Anyone who wants to hear the official story and the arguments in favor of it can find those on hundreds of thousands of websites.

2. If you plan on insisting that the current situation is the result of a deliberate plot by some villainous group of people or other, please go away. There are tens of thousands of websites currently rehashing various conspiracy theories about the Covid-19 outbreak and the vaccines. This is not one of them. What we're exploring is the likelihood that what's going on is the product of the same arrogance, incompetence, and corruption that the medical industry and its tame politicians have displayed so abundantly in recent decades. That possibility deserves a space of its own for discussion, and that's what we're doing here. 
 
3. If you plan on using rent-a-troll derailing or disruption tactics, please go away. I'm quite familiar with the standard tactics used by troll farms to disrupt online forums, and am ready, willing, and able -- and in fact quite eager -- to ban people permanently for engaging in them here. Oh, and I also lurk on other Covid-19 vaccine skeptic blogs, so I'm likely to notice when the same posts are showing up on more than one venue. 

4. If you don't believe in treating people with common courtesy, please go away. I have, and enforce, a strict courtesy policy on my blogs and online forums, and this is no exception. The sort of schoolyard bullying that takes place on so many other internet forums will get you deleted and banned here. No, I don't care if you disagree with that: my journal, my rules. 

With that said, the floor is open for discussion. 

Comments

Re: Reconciliation?

[dendroica]

I think that if we were look at various groups' resilience across historical time, we would see that more traditional societies with more traditional gender roles would score higher.

That said, I don't personally think there is any magic sauce in the *gender roles* of traditional Christian, Jewish, or Muslim societies. Rather, I think it is the presence of *roles* in general. A group could assign wholly different roles to men and women, or assign roles to more than two genders (e.g. https://www.insideindonesia.org/sulawesis-fifth-gender), or perhaps even neglect to assign roles based on gender altogether. But I think it is important when the going gets rough for all members of a group to have culturally/religiously assigned roles and relationships that function as a glue and a safety net in the face of disruption. If not based on gender those could be based on age, family relationships, inheritance, geography, occupation, etc.

In our modern "free" society everyone is encouraged to live in isolation and have many shallow relationships, to get whatever job they want, to be whatever gender they want and to ignore traditional gender roles, and to eschew traditional family structure. That near complete absence of defined roles creates a serious vulnerability, as there is nothing to fall back on when jobs are lost, dear friends die, and certainties like the expertise of doctors and the availability of food and medical care become uncertainties.

So...to the extent that "conservative" means close-knit communities built around shared narratives/rituals and defined roles that voluntarily limit personal freedom and impose specific responsibilities to others, then I think that "conservative cussedness" is indeed a key ingredient. But I don't think it is fundamentally incompatible with gender fluidity or a conception of gender that deviates substantially from the Christian ideal.

Re: Reconciliation?

[(Anonymous)]

I agree with the general thrust except for a few things.
“That said, I don't personally think there is any magic sauce in the *gender roles* of traditional Christian, Jewish, or Muslim societies. Rather, I think it is the presence of *roles* in general.
But I don't think it is fundamentally incompatible with gender fluidity or a conception of gender that deviates substantially from the Christian ideal.“

I think as we look across cultures that certain roles are more tied to biology.
Men are, typically, larger, stronger and more aggressive. At least in Humans. They are also more expendable. In the old model women were gatherers and men were hunters. Again plenty of exclusions gray areas etc. Like Deserts where women outnumber men substantially.
So men are warriors, engage in typically more dangerous work construction, logging, etc.
I think that’s something hardwired into our DNA and comes from many harsh and unforgiving lessons and not necessarily some silly “arbitrary” judeo-Christian hang up. It’s easy to dismiss but that lesson as a man, father and construction worker (in a field more dangerous than police work according to the bureau of labor and statistics.) this is a lesson I feel in my bones. I don’t want to take a single thing away from anyone’s capabilities but women and children first is the rule. Men hold the line. We see it over and over from our culture to plains Indians to China etc.