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?

[(Anonymous)]

Good. When I was growing up there was an absolute bias against it. Everyone HAD to go to college and get an office job. It was also looked down on. There was a distinct whiff of “that’s for dumb kids.” To the point where I was often questioned and multiple good men I consider mentors tried to get me to go back to college.
I tried it, it wasn’t for me, I’d rather be outside contributing value in a tangible way. I’ve studied the old models as I can and very much think that Dave Canterbury’s model of metal work and carpentry will get you about anything you could want.
I’ve seen that worm turn but haven’t really forgiven the people who implied my Dad was stupid for being in construction and my family was somehow lesser for it. “You’re too smart for construction.” It seemed like a compliment but when they are unwittingly insulting generations of your family? It still stings.
Anyway I highly recommend the trades and can’t count the number of very smart people with dislexia I’ve met in it. More any interesting aside than anything.

Re: Reconciliation?

[methylethyl]

I teach my kids from bitter experience. I went to college because I was smart and everyone expected me to. Had no fracking clue what I was doing there, and didn't want *any* of the jobs my degree might lead to. Dropped out of junior year with still-decent grades. Never went back. Gigantic waste of resources. Looking back, it was a lucky escape. The *one* field I might have pursued, library science, went full-on coof-crazy and has also bought all the woke crap.

At this point, I'd prefer my kids *not* go to college. But I'm hoping by the time they reach that age, there will be more and better options for both college (for those so inclined) and vocational training. I guess once we're done eliminating the middle class in the US, college will no longer be a finishing school for admission to white-collarhood, and maybe it can go back to being just continuing education for the intellectually-inclined.

Re: Reconciliation?

[(Anonymous)]

I had a similar experience.

I was one of those rare kids who really wanted to go to college to learn. I was lucky enough to go to an elite school that at the time really did have a good, solid, liberal arts program. I did learn so much and it was well worth it, imo.

BUT....I didn't really want any of the jobs that degree could have led to. I just wanted the learning opportunity, not the chance to go to law school or join the corporate rat race. I tried the academic track, but found it to be venal and corrupt. Fortunately, I graduated without debt, so my four years of learning things didn't leave me with a financial burden.

The school I went to has since turned into a woke joke, and I wouldn't recommend anyone go there now. It's horrible.

But I do think that there is a place and a need for good old fashioned liberal arts learning for kids who want it. I saddens me that higher education is so awful and expensive and that those who want the traditional liberal arts opportunity will have a hard time finding it.

Re: Reconciliation?

[methylethyl]

My sister went to a tiny catholic liberal-arts school and got a lot out of it. By the time I was looking at college ten years later, that same school was far, far beyond anything anything I could possibly afford, even with the scholarship they offered me. When my sister went, she was partially subsidized by family, and took on just enough student debt to pay it off in 1 year of working as a bank teller. By the time I was looking at college, the kind of debt I would have had to take on... heaven forfend! I would have been *forced* to try for a competitive high-paying corporate job if I ever wanted to pay it off. The marriage-and-kids track would have been utterly closed to me. Would have ruined my life. I conclude that "a good liberal arts education" for the sake of knowledge and intellectual development is now a luxury item for very rich people, and about as relevant to my family as a yacht or an Italian sports car. I'm sure it does wonders for people who can afford it. Only in a complete fantasy world is it for everyone.

So... sure, in theory liberal arts education has a place. Just not for us. The way it's priced now, it would actively prevent my kids from being able to work in professions they choose (rather than being shackled to the highest-paying job they can get) or start families before middle age. I would never encourage them to do such a thing.

If nice liberal-arts colleges ever decide to bring their tuition back down to earth, I'll happily reconsider. Until then, it's a yacht... and it's so tiresome to hear the ebullient graduates of such places go on about how the liberal arts are essential and great books are going to save the world and blah blah blah (not you personally, but I've known a few bright young Johnnies plus my sister's old classmates and crikey they're irritating)... yes. You bought a Ferrari. It's very nice. Now go away.

Re: Reconciliation?

[(Anonymous)]

The sad thing is, a liberal arts education, even one at a residential college, doesn't have to be as expensive as it is. It didn't used to be this expensive. Somewhere along the line, institutions decided they needed a gazillion over-paid administrators, costly sports programs, fancy new buildings, cutting-edge scientific research equipment, all sorts of non-academic programs, you name it. And now here we are.

Re: Reconciliation?

[methylethyl]

I don't know all the details, but I believe the turning point at my sister's school was accepting federal student aid. It came with a lot of very expensive strings attached, apparently. Still ironic that "student financial aid" made the college completely unaffordable, when it had previously been pretty reasonable.

Re: Reconciliation?

[hearthspirit]

It's funny because I had the opposite instruction from my parents - my electrician stepdad would lament the declining of trades (this was 20-25 years ago) and I'd say I should enter. I worked with him in the summers, and there was a woman plumber. He was adamant I'd do no such thing because it wrecked his body (and is very dangerous, as someone pointed out below). I'd go to university, which no one else had done, and escape the meat grinder.

The number one killer of tradesmen here, of course, is the opioid addictions they get when they try to control their pain (one guy I know simply calls it "excavator body" like "tennis elbow" because everything hurts from the twisting and jarring). A bunch of pot shops are run by former tradies and first responders who wanted to put the less harmful alternative out there.

So I see the new romantizisation of trades rather wryly, especially from those coming from whiter collar backgrounds.

I suppose we could, while trades have the upper hand in terms of setting their demands as their value skyrockets, insist on shorter working hours, better health packages with access to osteopaths and massage therapists, and that at least as much ergonomic development go into the manufacture of excavator seats as the $2000 office chair a coworker of mine just got.

Lol, oh sorry I must have left the window open, I promise I don't smoke anything.

Re: Reconciliation?

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, this is the reality of it. When the universities opened wide for the first time, like the state schools in California, people had a reason to run towards them. Universities been twisted beyond all recognition by this point, but working with your body really takes a toll. To be fair, so does sitting in a cubicle, but in different ways. Pick your poison I guess.

Re: Reconciliation?

[methylethyl]

My dad has worked a whole host of blue-collar jobs: construction, commercial fishing, metalwork, and yeah, my parents wanted all of us to go to college and get nice white-collar jobs. But not all blue-collar jobs are equally dangerous, or equally hard on the body. Operating an excavator is a short career: the constant vibration causes nerve damage. Operating a small crane is something you can do well into retirement age. I don't romanticize this-- I try to give them as much info as possible. Learning the basics of any of the trades is handy even in a white-collar profession. My grandfather, a chemical engineer, could also wire a house, lay out plumbing, and build a brick wall. It served him very well. I want my kids to have that baseline of real-world competence and experience, whether they make a career of it or go into something else.

Re: Reconciliation?

[hearthspirit]

I think that's just the key, you've said - the whole host.

The training to do Just One Thing that is done for 8-10 hours is brutal in any position. The excavator body guy can drive/fly/pilot anything with a motor, and CNC anything. But like the Great Big Sea say, "young men like their money and they all go back for more" (I used to "haze" the new recruits on the oil sands with that song, the first time we'd go over the rise and then down into the river valley where the refinery was, haha).

The "informed" part of the consent again, eh! Even if someone will still keep paying you to do it, have other things to do, too, so you will still have a body at the end.

Re: Reconciliation?

[methylethyl]

Exactly. I think most of us would be better off as generalists. Overspecialization just means that when the next great thing comes along, or your amazing skill gets automated or outsourced, or the type of machinery you're a whiz at using becomes impossible to source parts or materials for... well, what *else* do you know how to do? What happened to all the travel agents when the internet came along?