General Discussion

I remember going to work on site Monday to Saturday because my employer dictated that we were essential and working remotely was or part time was out of question, we were given cheap masks and a carpet on the floor with a bit of sanitizer for our safety and the customers (several customers died... Especially the older ones that didn't want to use masks, which were required to enter the place).

That is all I remember mate, ah and covering the turns of the people that they were forced to go home for months full paid by the country laws (no home office) because of higher risk due to medical reasons... Fun times.

I 'member

I didn't get sick for years thanks to all the social norms changing, then we had a kid in daycare and I got sick all the time anyway.

Well, I do remember being worried about whether I could ever be within 2 metres of anyone else ever again...

That said, I have learned really that it takes an event that kills millions spread all over the world at essentially the same time for people and our legislatures to act. I thought nothing would ever get us to do anything seriously about the climate crisis but when we all stayed home for a bit we actually managed to reverse the upward trend in emissions for a time.

OOOOOO I MEMEBER

As a strong introvert, I didn’t hate it. I can understand a lot of extroverts losing their minds though.

I only remember printing out (Germany) home schooling stuff for the kid before my shift, and trying to work in home office and doing school stuff with them in parrallel. Man was I tired.

Aside from the death and fear it was great. All plans canceled. Lots of distant community. Lots of processes that seemed impossible (like work from home) suddenly were easy.

Then fuckers started whining. Place started opening too early and raising infection rates. More people died.

Fuckers started selling counterfeit masks. Medical misinformation ran rampant.

As USA N95 supplies drop due to fired inspectors, and misinformation increases, this next pandemic will suck.

Edit: Even UBI seemed possible. Which is wild.

I was in LA during the lockdowns and Floyd protests. I think the greatest example of people coming together was when entire neighborhoods would start shooting fireworks at police helicopters that were flying around, telling everyone to go inside after 8pm or whenever curfew was.

No.

Yes, ironically I hadn't felt so close to people in years.

It was incredible how reduction in emissions seem to instantly have an effect on the health of regions. Everything seemed to be up in the air as we adapted to find new ways of doing things in order to keep our vulnerable members safe. I really thought this was our chance to change things for the better.

Obviously the deadly virus that killed millions was tragic, but I did have a sense that things might actually get better for everyone overall.

Not really no, my cynical ass expected nothing to change in the long run

There were these things like smog clearing up, I hoped that would bring about something. Mostly I was worried that people would get radicalised by the isolation and anti-lockdown grifters though.

Yep, there was a sense of people coming together in the first few weeks but it didn't last long...

Who thought of it as a great reset of society? Everyone was miserable and wanted to go back to their regular lives.

No? I remember feeling scared and sad that we were doing all the wrong things and everyone was trying to use the chaos to profit, often making things much worse.

And we all thought murder hornets were coming for us.

Man, those were the days.