I want to add a bit more fuel to the fire in this thread
I am FASCINATED by the dimorphism of the answers in this thread. It is utterly utterly interesting to see what 100% of the discussion (after I derailed it, once again apologies, I did not check the earlier history of the thread) fall into the following behavioral categories:
* Complete compliance and deference of authority to the group.
* Utter disdain for authority / total anti authoritarianism.
It is absolutely fascinating to watch. I have seen this with the most clarity since the election of Donald Trump in 2016 when the left effectively left me behind and morphed into this bizarro combination of authoritarianism through the demand of total and absolute compliance to the group.
Obviously, we have all seen this throughout our lives, we are highly compliant chimpanzees and are always working through the individual vs conformist behaviours which are self contradictory in nature.
I bring that up to share with everyone here something I heard like 25 years ago or so, one of those deepities (
) I couldn't forget (you guys might find this just as interesting as well):
PROPOSITION: Did you know that a certain type of obligate prey animal (ungulates like horses, cows, giraffes, etc.) once shared an ancestor with obligate carnivores (like wolves, cats, etc.) that feed on them? Do you know what one line of reasoning for the evolutionary split is?
That one line of reasoning for the split in the species is basically that one group decided to run toward danger (fight) and another group decided to run away from danger (fight). A hundred million years later, one branch of the species eats the other because of that simple change in the root tendency toward one behaviour versus another. There are a lot of other reasons that we can think of to explain the split, but, watching just how scared ungulates are of everything around them and how lions literally look THROUGH their pray supports the proposition at a certain core level to my mind.
Look at the top right of this evolutionary diagram:
http://bioweb.uwlax.edu/bio203/s2014/paulson_kate/1024px-An_evolutionary_tree_of_mammals.jpeg
Wolves / cats come from the same ancestors of bovidae / cervidae / moshidae about 86 million years ago or so.
I am not saying that we are necesarily going through a similar split now. Statistically we are bound to dissapear as a species altogether if we don't get off the planet (and I don't think we will) before a split happens. However, I am endlessly perplexed by just how strong the desire to believe the authorities of one half of the posters vs. the other half (that I belong to) to dismiss any authority and look at everything with skepticism.
I bring this up because I was thinking about how far am i willing to go to disobey orders to wear a mask and further down the line to get vaccinated. If you don't know, there are plans already in place to require a vaccine visa in order to travel between countries, there are plans for forced vaccinations in various countries already, some place are mandating 100% usage of masks and where we went from "this lockdown will only last 6 weeks" we are now into "this lockdown is already 6 months in, we expect to see it go into 2021 at least". And, watching this thread and watching just HOW WILLING 50% of you are to go along with this bullshit is utterly fascinating.
So, on the one hand, there is a huge group of idiots willing to go along with these idiotic plans. Then, there is another group of idiots (my group) that is seeing a whole set of patterns the other group simply cannot see or imagine. It got me thinking about whether or not I will wear a mask / get a vaccine or not and why.
Then, I watched a few videos and started to see a splitting of the narrative:
* The SJWs (the main group followoing compliant behaviour patterns) is starting to be called racists. This split in the narrative is perhaps not entirely related and might be indicating a split in the main group of compliant behaviour followers into two groups, one of which is moving toward the right and away from the left.
* The non compliant group of users seems to be not only growing in a stable manner, they are starting to discuss authoritarianism and compliance in two ways: half of the authoritarianism is planned and being implemented by force via shadowy figures (Bill Gates is now part of this narrative, quite funny) and the other is half of the authoritarianism is coming from the observation that a lot of the controls starting to materialize that did not exist even 6 months ago are as a result of the self emergent nature of systems (think how ants can solve complex problems through emergent self organization properties of different ant species).
The more that I see of the controls that are starting to emerge in western countries, the more I don't like that I see. I can honestly say that the more people tell me we need to wear mask, we need to get vaccinated, we need to submit, the more I hear them tell me that I need to be afraid.
I have to tell you, I don't share that fear. In January, I had fear. Now? Not even a little bit. The longer this goes on the more I can see my decision being no masks and a greater willingness to not only not participate but to participate in helping people take this entire infrastructure down.
Talk is cheap of course. As λ the β-Redex Reducer Jr. said, it's not the masks. It is the rise of this GIANT set of control mechanisms that will never go away once they are in place is just wrong. It is being put into place by a set of mechanisms driven by fear, not driven by bravery.
The people in charge, throughout the system, are weak and compliant. These are not my kind of people.
