General Politics Discussion VIII [ARCHIVED] • Page 1100

Fox News in meltdown tonight

 

Over 2,000 people died from COVID in Illinois the past two weeks and driving through my town multiple bars and restaurants are packed. Vile fucking people.

 

If fucking Bill Barr of all people won’t play along, what hope do you have for Ken Starr?

 

I just saw this post as jingle bell rock was playing on Home Alone 2 on free form lol

 

Update: I am so angry I emailed my county's department of public health. I have no doubt that my Trump-dominant town's clientele, business owners, and cops think the pandemic is nbd but this kind of just shook me to my core of the absolute callousness of so many people in this terrible country.

 

Lol we were literally just putting on Home Alone from Disney+ as I read that too

 

Introduced my son to Home Alone last week, he loved it

 

I just don't understand what magical pandemic-preventing properties people think a school building has lol. There is no rational reason for thinking a school is somehow safe while virtually every other indoor activity isn't

 

the same one restaurants apparently have if the tables are spread out lol

 

I believe, BELIEVE, that the argument is that children rarely are admitted to the hospital for COVID. Which to be clear, is a flawed argument for about a thousand reasons. BUT I think that's the argument they're trying to make? Maybe?

 

nevermind the fact that they can spread it to others, including teachers

 

The answer is, I think, obvious. At schools, we can enact and enforce the policies that actually do make people safer. We can mandate masks for students in attendance, we can set up classrooms to ensure social distancing, etc. General society can’t (won’t) do that and then actually enforce it in a meaningful way. This is not an argument that schools ARE safe and should be in session, just that I do think you can say they are (can be) safer than other general public activities.

 

my girlfriend is a teacher and none of this checks out.

children are unruly and are frolicking around especially in breaks with a very lax understanding of what it means to keep your mask on or your distance; classrooms are way too small to "ensure social distancing" but I guess thanks to the constantly open windows everyone is constantly cold so that's nice :) It's essentially a daily super-spreader event where children from 1000s of separate households converge every day.

yeah huge thanks to everyone who is propagating this "schools are safe" bullshit. fucking idiots.

 

i only say this as a teacher who has taught school in person basically all year. I don’t support it. I don’t like it. I don’t think it’s right. But I definitely feel more comfortable in a classroom than in a random restaurant.

so yeah, checks out.

 

well yeah because people have their masks off in restaurants. I mean at least we closed those.

but do you supervise the children in breaks? can you ensure proper social distancing and mask wearing at all times? not to mention the problem with schools is that children DO exhibit symptoms at a much lower rate than adults but can still carry the virus.

 

but the original post was what makes people think schools are safer than a place like restaurants - not what makes them *safe* That would, of course, be a ridiculous argument.

and yeah, we do supervise them. Every free period they report to a designated classroom with supervision. At lunch, there are faculty supervising. Passing time in hallways are the only times when the social distancing isn’t enforced, but because that’s legit impossible and there isn’t any chance for sustained contact/exposure, so that risk really is limited. We send kids home for the day if they don’t follow the protocols in place. It’s not perfect, and it helps that we are teenagers and not five year olds, but I’ve actually been extremely impressed with our students and how they’ve responded. Even more impressed with my colleagues who are working their ass off to make it happen.

but still, we have no business being open and shouldn’t be. Just because it’s gone fine doesn’t justify the bad decision.

 

not a single one of the parties in our government is for closing them, only our chancellor who Felix Biederman once famously called "the Doogie House of racism" (who's mother happens to be a teacher). It is fucking WILD.

They keep saying shit like "we have to hold up and compare the children's well being to the damage caused by lack of education over that period as well as other factors", (the other factors being stuff like lack of social life etc.). Like what the fuck?
I get keeping schools open in a supervisory role so essential workers can send their kids someplace other than grandma/grandpa during working hours, but everything apart from that is beyond foolish.

 

I also just assumed you were in America until you said chancellor and didn’t realize you are in Austria. Which yeah, I have no fucking concept of how things are over there nor will I pretend to. Although the argument to open schools doesn’t sound all that different

 

oh we only have more cases per capita then the US, don't mind us in little ole Austria

 

I still don't think there's any major difference -- geographically -- that makes opening schools here safer or less safe than in the US as the concept of a school is essentially 100s or 1000s of people in the same building.

 

Conservatives: kids need to be in schools, interact and learn in person, socialize, make friends, date, have fun.
Also conservatives: kids need to be homeschooled to avoid liberal indoctrination, stay away from peer pressure to use drugs and alcohol, bullies, and the temptations of the opposite sex.

 

A rich and complex ideology