A few weeks ago I’d just finished watching Curb Your Enthusiasm, a highly amusing TV show, and as the post-episode credits rolled, I happened to notice that a large number of people — 14, to be exact — were listed as performing a whole slate of new jobs associated with COVID. They had newly-invented job titles like “COVID Data Analyst” and “COVID Digital Tracking.” As sometimes is my inclination, I
Having worked on a "set" I can tell you that even bureaucrats are "people" and I caught several of them, in a moment of exhaustion, mask less...trying to catch their breath, of course in a break towards the end of the day, I guess when the virus is also tired and not interested in invading the immune system. I suppose I should have "screen-shotted" them and posted the photos to ruin their lives but I had better things to do. This lunacy all starts at the top...how soon we forget Fauci attending a ball game...MASK LESS!
The best analysis of the current situation I can imagine! How is it that "humanity" (for want of a better word) was divided into two separate groups that just scream at one another without listening to what the "other side" has to say. Either the Pandemic is a hoax or the failure to get vaccinated is going to "kill us all".
The fear is infectious. I've been "detected" with COVID (although 3x vaxxed), if it weren't for the DoH calling me twice a day and the complete domination of all social media by this new "Godzilla", I'd probably just be living my life while dealing with "a cold".
The image of fully grown adults sitting at work and signaling each other with secret codes just to escape the admonishment of COVID “hall monitors,” both saddens and terrifies me.
For the longest time I've wondered how to describe it and you totally nailed it tyvm, now it's a question of luck to remember what you said.
"Each of these colleges has its own little COVID bureaucracy, often populated by the types of people who pre-2020 would’ve been writing memos on parking decals and roommate disputes — but who today routinely promulgate infectious disease regulations."
It's tragic to watch the power tripping desk jockeys and more alarming to me to see the level of compliance by students.
"I’m not in any position to offer firm predictions on the severity of “Omicron.”
Me either but Dr Robert Malone is and he thinks Omicron is the best thing that could happen.. the mildest variant less than a cold and once you've had it you have immunity for life from all variants. Check him out here on Substack and he does read his comments & betcha a nickle he would weigh in on the medical insanity of campus policies. https://rwmalonemd.substack.com/p/physicians-declaration-ii-updated
"Bullsit jobs"? Many of us are probably in bullshit jobs. If you're not on a production line making beer or potato chips or working in a hospital ER then you're in a bullshit job. We should get a shorter work week and higher pay. That will reduce bullshit jobs, increase beer and potato chip consumption and provide greater job satisfaction to the people who repair with duct tape the robots that make those things and the people that eat them. I call it "capitalism 2.0".
The more you learn about Omicron, the more you realize we are all going to get it eventually, providing herd immunity at the cost of relatively mild illness, and it could basically end the pandemic within a few months.
And the problem with the Momentum of Bureaucracy. Or as John Gall puts it in Systemantics - "The System Behaves as if it has a Will to Life" and "Systems Develop Goals of their own, the Instant they come into Being" and "The System Continues to do its Thing, regardless of Circumstances"
And there's the Trump Syndrome, which arrived in this century, after the middle of the last decade - "When Trump isn't available, glob onto any binary conflict that guarantees you an exciting on- going conflict, generates endless Bullshit Jobs producing endless Bullshit Psychological Reinforcement media, and that makes you feel superior to other side." And since the Vax vs Anti-Vax dichotomy is pre-mapped with our beloved Left vs Right dichotomy, it's nearly impossible to break out of.
If Trump runs again, Vaxing and everything else will take a back seat. It's so much more convenient when you have a figurehead to point to.
I agree with your observations! And on the flip side there’s a whole set of employees who don’t want to add Covid policing to their job descriptions. I freelance for retailer & groaned when I found out we’d be requiring masks again. Don’t shoot the messenger!
This scamdemic was exposed by MTracey, Taibbi and Greenwald when, suddenly, you could "protest and riot" and ignore the 'covid' protocols. Because racism was a bigger threat than covid. And getting bad Orange Man bad out of there. Remember, there was a huge rally in Brooklyn for 'black trans lives' (they're the most important ones), and masks were obviously optional, and social distancing was vaporized.
Too many people are afraid of just saying "we're not doing that here anymore".
Having worked on a "set" I can tell you that even bureaucrats are "people" and I caught several of them, in a moment of exhaustion, mask less...trying to catch their breath, of course in a break towards the end of the day, I guess when the virus is also tired and not interested in invading the immune system. I suppose I should have "screen-shotted" them and posted the photos to ruin their lives but I had better things to do. This lunacy all starts at the top...how soon we forget Fauci attending a ball game...MASK LESS!
The best analysis of the current situation I can imagine! How is it that "humanity" (for want of a better word) was divided into two separate groups that just scream at one another without listening to what the "other side" has to say. Either the Pandemic is a hoax or the failure to get vaccinated is going to "kill us all".
The fear is infectious. I've been "detected" with COVID (although 3x vaxxed), if it weren't for the DoH calling me twice a day and the complete domination of all social media by this new "Godzilla", I'd probably just be living my life while dealing with "a cold".
The image of fully grown adults sitting at work and signaling each other with secret codes just to escape the admonishment of COVID “hall monitors,” both saddens and terrifies me.
"offending the sensibilities of COVID-paranoid"
For the longest time I've wondered how to describe it and you totally nailed it tyvm, now it's a question of luck to remember what you said.
"Each of these colleges has its own little COVID bureaucracy, often populated by the types of people who pre-2020 would’ve been writing memos on parking decals and roommate disputes — but who today routinely promulgate infectious disease regulations."
It's tragic to watch the power tripping desk jockeys and more alarming to me to see the level of compliance by students.
"I’m not in any position to offer firm predictions on the severity of “Omicron.”
Me either but Dr Robert Malone is and he thinks Omicron is the best thing that could happen.. the mildest variant less than a cold and once you've had it you have immunity for life from all variants. Check him out here on Substack and he does read his comments & betcha a nickle he would weigh in on the medical insanity of campus policies. https://rwmalonemd.substack.com/p/physicians-declaration-ii-updated
"Which I reserve the right to pronounce as “Oh, c’mon.” And the anagram is Moronic. I think they are just fucking with our heads now.
Thanks and -- the approaching freak-out:
It looks more and more likely -- in 2024 elections it will be a repeat of HILLARY versus TRUMP...
"Bullsit jobs"? Many of us are probably in bullshit jobs. If you're not on a production line making beer or potato chips or working in a hospital ER then you're in a bullshit job. We should get a shorter work week and higher pay. That will reduce bullshit jobs, increase beer and potato chip consumption and provide greater job satisfaction to the people who repair with duct tape the robots that make those things and the people that eat them. I call it "capitalism 2.0".
Mr. Tracey has answered the classic question in these circumstances: “Qui bono?”
😆. I love you, man. Great stuff.
The more you learn about Omicron, the more you realize we are all going to get it eventually, providing herd immunity at the cost of relatively mild illness, and it could basically end the pandemic within a few months.
It's really terrifying!
Yeah, there's the Job Security factor, of course.
And the problem with the Momentum of Bureaucracy. Or as John Gall puts it in Systemantics - "The System Behaves as if it has a Will to Life" and "Systems Develop Goals of their own, the Instant they come into Being" and "The System Continues to do its Thing, regardless of Circumstances"
And there's the Trump Syndrome, which arrived in this century, after the middle of the last decade - "When Trump isn't available, glob onto any binary conflict that guarantees you an exciting on- going conflict, generates endless Bullshit Jobs producing endless Bullshit Psychological Reinforcement media, and that makes you feel superior to other side." And since the Vax vs Anti-Vax dichotomy is pre-mapped with our beloved Left vs Right dichotomy, it's nearly impossible to break out of.
If Trump runs again, Vaxing and everything else will take a back seat. It's so much more convenient when you have a figurehead to point to.
Readers may want to google about Michel Foucault's notions of "biopower".
I agree with your observations! And on the flip side there’s a whole set of employees who don’t want to add Covid policing to their job descriptions. I freelance for retailer & groaned when I found out we’d be requiring masks again. Don’t shoot the messenger!
This scamdemic was exposed by MTracey, Taibbi and Greenwald when, suddenly, you could "protest and riot" and ignore the 'covid' protocols. Because racism was a bigger threat than covid. And getting bad Orange Man bad out of there. Remember, there was a huge rally in Brooklyn for 'black trans lives' (they're the most important ones), and masks were obviously optional, and social distancing was vaporized.
Too many people are afraid of just saying "we're not doing that here anymore".
Michael, this post was hilarious! You nailed the absolute obscurity of it all…. Yes, the “Oh, C’mon” variant…. That’s it, for sure…
The fact that these people can’t see how totally worthless this whole thing is is mind numbing….
Enjoyed it very much! Keep it up…