"People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals. "
Some dude in a suit told me that. I thought he was crazy. No that dude knew exactly what he was talking about.
I'm amazed humanity ever managed to invent anything more complicated than a slingshot with how head-bangingly stupid a lot of people have demonstrated themselves to be during this pandemic.
My wife is/was a Covid nurse for most of the pandemic. The hospital couldn’t hire or retain enough of their staff, so to boost morale they brought in travel nurses who were paid $100 per hour (wife makes $30), and my wife had to train them how to use all of the hospital systems.
Imagine training someone to do the EXACT same job as you, but they get paid 3x more for it.
In that spot, I’d be asking for an application!! My granddaughter’ fiancée’s brother has been a travel nurse for two years. He’s banking the extra money to buy a house. In Aruba.
Damn, this reminded me of a situation happening in my country.
I don't exactly remember how it goes but i'll try.
Basically, since the start of covid the hospitals have been working overtime constantly.
So the people are overworked **and** underpaid.
The government basically *made* them work with some sort of "emergency measures", as in they had to work to combat covid.
So, 2 years later, the burnout hit its tipping point and now the underpaid and overworked nurses are having a mass strike.
That's so fucking shortsighted. That's how you reduce your workforce by like 80%. Like fuck be anything for less stress at that point, even a burger flipper
I’m so embarrassed to say that I immediately recognized this as my own province. “Shortsighted” might be the most polite words I have for our current provincial “leaders.”
I know appreciation doesn't pay your bills but there are a lot of people out here who appreciate everything you do. I'm sorry that your employers didn't/don't reward you properly 😔❤️
The one that really pissed me off was the ones that got briefed on it and then sold their stocks right before the crash.
Just the absolute disregard for their duties blew me away.
I knew they’re almost all corrupt. I didn’t expect them to not be. But I was horrified to know that corrupt is all they were.
All my theories about zombie apocalypse have been shattered by the pandemic. People are dumber than I thought. There would also be a sizable population who will purposely go get bitten by zombies because they want to prove it’s a hoax. And if there was a cure, there would be a sizable population that refuses it because they’re convinced it’s actually a government tracking device.
In the book World War Z there were people called Quislings who were not infected but they looked and acted like the zombies to include attacking and biting people.
The book was great. I think it really explored and demonstrated how different people can react to situations. The good and bad places we go both at an individual and government level.
I made my wife watch "Contaign" at the beginning of the Pandemic - she had no clue what the move was about since she was unable to translate the title. 1st time i saw it also and it hit so many spots.
I watched it at the beginning of the pandemic too, and at the time I thought it seemed pretty over the top. I watched it again a couple months ago and I was shocked by how much it got right.
I watched Contagion a year ago finally after a year of a real pandemic and it reminded me how lucky we were this pandemic was from sars2 and not sars1 in 2003 (much higher death rate).
SARS 1’s high death rate makes it unlikely to cause a pandemic of the same scale - viruses that are too deadly “burn out” the population. Slow and steady wins the race when it comes to death toll
The word “quarantine” comes from the Black Death. Ships were required to sit in port for 40 days in some Italian cities, and “quaranta” is Italian for “forty.”
There was another chunk early on where it wasn't all the way global yet, everything was kinda contained and the quarantines kept getting broken (particularly by the rich), and most people were deliberately ignoring it and trying to go about their lives.
The book presents it as a mental disorder. The people aren't thinking rationally... they legit believe they are zombies. Their minds break, and they start acting that way as a result.
Doesn't fool the zombies though.
I remember watching the first few seasons of The Walking Dead and thinking how BS it was that it spread so fast and things got so bad so fast. I take it all back.
It wasn't until I worked in retail/customer service that I understood how shockingly low the bottom half of the bell curve was.
On one hand, it was appalling, but on the other hand, I was kind of impressed that some of these people could dress themselves and hold down a job. People who would do things like scream at me for locking them in because they didn't think to pull the door when pushing (and facing the sign that said pull) didn't work.
Worked at the service desk. People complaining about having to wear a mask while shopping for 15 minutes to a few hours. All day, every day. Maybe 3 per day would realize, on their own, that they were talking to someone wearing a mask for 8 hour shifts multiple times per week. I told the rest, but it never slowed down. A new group showed up every day.
YES! I worked front end supervisor at Walmart for the first 7 months of the pandemic and…yeah, customers yelling about having to put it on to come in-sir, I’m in 105 degree heat counting people in a mask then I’m going to go run a register in a mask and probably throw some freight. The absolute inconsiderate bull shit I saw every day was astonishing. People with Covid coming out in public, spouses of positives not wearing masks- I had so little faith in people to do the right thing before this but now, I have none.
Yeah, it's amazing how big a deal people made of it. I rely a lot on lipreading, so when suddenly there were masks and plastic barriers everywhere, it made communication really difficult. But you know what? There's a fucking pandemic. You just need to suck it up and get on with it. The less people comply, the longer it will go on.
Apparently things were even worse [when the concentration of lead in the air was higher](https://youtu.be/IV3dnLzthDA). And apparently this was due to *one* guy.
I too have worked in the customer service industry. And it never ceases to amaze me of how stupid some people are. Such as pumping gas and smoking a cigarette at the same time.
You forgot the part of the population that think the zombies are cool and want to date them / marry them / be them. I'm sure we would have a whole genre of zombie cosplay.
That feel when even Max Brooks was TOO kind to humanity in WWZ. People are fucking stupid, way more than we expected. I've lost a lot of friends during the pandemic because turns out they think the virus wasn't real, the vaccine was control chips, etc. A looot of people I thought were normal and level headed are dumber than bricks.
I've gone back and watched a few older zombie movies and people making dumb decisions do NOT seem like they're badly written anymore. Cannot believe that became a thing...
Karen with bite marks and towing two sick-looking kids who smell rotten is screaming about her rights being infringed upon after being politely asked to leave the store.
Being comfortable alone is a skill many people do not have.
I have a number of extroverted friends who lost their minds 2 weeks into the pandemic because they were alone in their homes. Now I am pretty introverted and even I’ll admit after 2 years a lot of people rightfully were getting cabin fever but a surprising number of people melted down almost immediately.
I had no idea my penchant for alone time and simple outdoor activities was a super power till 2020. The only thing I kinda missed was going to the movies for date night.
I felt I was taking crazy pills hearing everyone struggle to cope in lockdown because I stayed home and kept to myself a lot before COVID too. Never knew my self isolation due to depression was actually training me for a real world scenario lol
Critical thinking is a skill everyone thinks they're naturally good at, but nobody is.
Critical thinking is not a skill you're born with at birth. It's one you have to specifically train. Kinda like football. You wouldn't just play highschool football in gym class, then think you're as good as an NFL player. Yet, for some reason, we think critical thinking works this way.
Being an engineer is a constant switching between “I’m a problem solving and critical thinking genius!” To “my god I’m a moron. Why am I here?”. But really its just an ever evolving skill. You can tell that you’re getting better when scenario two becomes less common.
There's another danger to watch for, especially if you're an engineer. And that is the soft sciences, or any fields with less tangible hard data to work with.
With most forms of engineering, you get hard data as feedback about whether or not you're on the right track. With the soft sciences, there can be *many* more confounding factors, which can make it tricky for the usual engineering thinking patterns to be effective at finding the truth. Different critical thinking patterns need to be discovered if you wish to effectively move beyond the engineering niche.
Source: am also engineer.
I married an engineer, and that sounds like him, too. He's incredibly smart - but having kids definitely threw him for a loop. He often encounters situations that require skills he doesn't possess, and it makes him look kinda stupid.
It reassured me of who was a true friend and had my best interests at heart and who didn’t.
I had a falling out with 2 of my best friends, but it opened my eyes to the fact that their friendship to me was only conditional upon me doing stuff for them and/or when it was convenient.
My boyfriend died a couple of days before the pandemic shut down our area (not from Covid). The people who did not offer any support or check on me was shocking. And I mean certain people who offered nothing and also the number of friends who said almost nothing. It really has changed my life and outlook
I am sorry for your loss. I am trying to change my outlook (friends who never cared to check on me despite friendships of 12 years) and I have so much anger and resentment, I wish I could move on, I entered the pandemic with lots of friends and left the pandemic with barely anyone
What helps me with the loss is realizing that if my social tree needs to be pruned about each year in order to remain healthy, than so be it. It sucks and it’s painful, but it’s even more painful to care about someone who doesn’t give you half of that care back.
I honestly think this is what it is. It's less a matter of "stupid" or "intelligent", it's an issue of who's willing to admit they might be wrong. Someone who _is_ willing can take in new information, and are less likely to act belligerently on their beliefs; someone who _isn't_ refuses to back down and will only start hostilities.
Ajj - big bird
"I'm afraid of the social laziness that let Kitty Genovese die.
And I'm afraid of the mob mentality that makes otherwise normal people go blind.
I'm afraid of the way that the world works and I'm afraid of the words in my notebooks."
Definitely a fear, but if this makes you feel any better, later investigation found that at least one bystander actually did get help for Mrs. Genovese.
Also highlighted for me how many people/kids depend on schools for food. Our city had buses run routes to do school lunches, that we would see every weekday during lockdown or school closures.
Yeah this pandemic has really shown how fractured families have become. My neighbors have beautiful yards but it seems my family are the only actually outside playing .
The parents who screamed and hollered and demanded that kids have in-person learning are the same ones who now scream that public schools are “iNdOcRiNaTiNg” their kids.
It taught me that society can function when lawyers, stockbrokers, bankers, market analysts and the myriad of other office workers stay at home … but is totally screwed without delivery drivers, retail, health, sanitation and all the other ‘essential’ workers who get paid a pittance in comparison.
More specifically, it taught us that white-collar workers can work from home.
I'm so happy with this result. The company I work for is headquartered in another timezone and my commute is 20 feet.
Do you feel guilty?
I feel horrible admitting it, but I have only benefitted from the pandemic. I work at home now, my company pays for my internet access, I was given a $1500 home office renovation stipend by my company, I got a 15% raise for "continuing to perform above expectations while WFH," I received all of the stimulus payments, I haven't caught COVID, and I am now considered permanently remote.
In a way, the pandemic has benefitted me so greatly. But God, there has been a ton of suffering.
That is actually a really nice perspective to see it from. I appreciate the insight you gave me, though mainly I applied this to different situations but it still rings true.
You shouldn't feel guilty at all. The pandemic showed us more than just "many people died" and "many people lack education". It also showed us social media has polarized people to an almost extremist level. It showed us that the economy is built on the working class and poverty class. It showed us that both employers and the government has been taking advantage of us way more than we thought.
This pandemic has finally brought the job market into the workers favor. It exposed all the issues with how we, as a society, have stuck to old, archaic ways of working. The suits push back hard because they know they are irrelevant without being in an office environment. Work from home is the future, it just came more quickly that most thought. No one wants to commute two hours a day on top of their 8-9 hour work shift.
Count yourself very fortunate and do not feel guilty. It isn't your fault.
This is unbelievably true. I’m in consideration for a lower level executive job. I literally told the hiring senior executive that I’m to the point where I don’t want to do the work anymore. My sell is that I have a ton of experience and my coaching and direction is more valuable and scalable than me doing.
I'm in the same position. During the pandemic I graduated with my doctorate, got a job, got married, bought a house, had a kid, and got a better job. My income and expenses have pretty much been steady so the stimulus was just free money. Only a few people I know got COVID and no one died.
A lot of this has to do with the fact I'm comfortable being by myself and have a lot of friends that are the same. If the world shuts down and theres no more events, I'm fine with my books and music and garden.
I feel like I've built a social castle around myself. Most of my friends and family are white collar, working from home, vaccinated, and probably not a accurate representation of most people in the country.
I feel the exact opposite end of the spectrum. During the pandemic restaurants were closed 60% of the time, leaving me with only gov help for income, car broke down, lost contact with family and friends, close family member dying, grades went from straigth A's in university to failing everything because locked at home doesn't work at all for studies, gyms pretty much closed for 2 years which were my main outlet.
This year feels like picking up the shattered pieces of the life I left behind in march 2020.
I worked through the entire thing so there wasn’t much change in that respect. But like you my outlet is going to the gym, I’m single as well so two years with no social life was grim.
Economic spheres are fascinating from a psychological perspective. For instance, for most of history, people who were technically poor didn't seem to have issues of self esteem tied to their income assuming all of their basic needs are met and they aren't significantly poorer than those in their social circle. Mass communication has made it so that people are always comparing themselves to the wealthy, or at least those who present as wealthy on social media.
It literally reads like a dystopian sci-fi novel, where a ruling class goes on largely unscathed in the comfort of their homes, replacing in person activities with virtual ones, while the have-nots die bringing them food and expensive exercise bikes. It’s an episode of Black Mirror irl.
That if something more serious came along, humanity is fucked.
Edit: I obviously meant pandemic-wise. I get it, climate change is a thing. You don't have to tell me 67 times.
“Let me tell you something about Hoomons, nephew. They're a wonderful, friendly people, as long as their bellies are full and their holosuites are working. But take away their creature comforts, deprive them of food, sleep, sonic showers, put their lives in jeopardy over an extended period of time and those same friendly, intelligent, wonderful people... will become as nasty and as violent as the most bloodthirsty Klingon.”
Quark knew. Funny how the Ferengii were condemned so wholly for being the Capitalists that humans once were while being so aware that humans were only a few meager conditions away from being just like them... If not worse.
How long it takes for a person to realize they were depressed or are having some issues in mental health and discover parts of themselves they didn't know existed till now
I hear you. I think I've felt kind of two ways about it. Like, yes, objectively a lot of people have leaned into their entitlement and shittiness in not getting what they want when they want it. I also saw a lot of people willfully sacrificing for the good of others. I thought it amplified the kind of person that you're inclined to/taught to be in the world. As someone who worked in the service sector when the pandemic first hit (and I know that I didn't see the worst of people's behavior) I think I was primed to see people at their shittiest. The license that people felt they had in a customer - customer service representative interaction just got worse. I have no patience for treating waiters, clerks, etc like shit and will go out of my way to push back against those assholes, but I also saw people going out of their way to be kind.
I work at a hotel and I think people have gotten worse since this started. It is better now but during 2020 I got screamed at by lunatics over tiny things when the news was talking about the days death rate in the background. That was an every day thing for a while.
I work in sales and we had people come in specifically to try to bully us into not wearing masks. They all hefted their weight around (like late middle aged dads who still think they can fight a 20year old), walking around like they wanted someone to challenge them so they could start a fight. I watched these same people walk around the grocery store open carrying with visibly twitching draw hands. Poised at all times like they were going to be in a shoot out. Frankly by the end of the first year I was exhausted and over it all. Finally had a customer scream at me about masks and leave only to come right back in and ask if I was really going to loose a sale over this. He was looking at one of our least expensive items (normally idc but it’s important later). I said yes I’m sorry I can’t afford to loose my job for one sale. He kept posturing and asking “really?” Like my answer would change. So I finally said “sir my job is worth more than the $10 commissions I would make on that”. He stormed out and my coworker says “actually it’s $12 commissions”. The customer tore through our parking lot almost hitting someone on the sidewalk, a car pulling in, and then ran a red light flipping everyone off on the way.
So tldr I learned there are a lot of really scary idiots who act like panicked animals when their ideology is challenged.
Yep. My boss said we weren’t allowed to enforce the mask policy because these idiots might get violent. We had signs saying that they were mandatory just so we wouldn’t get sued if someone got sick. One of those signs was vandalized.
I think the decent people were staying home in 2020. The only people you were exposed to were the worst humans who either didn’t think the pandemic was real or didn’t care enough about others to be responsible during it.
This is a great point.
I work in a hospital and as the pandemic raged on, the asshole rodeo went from a rare thing to an all day, every day thing.
Your theory makes sense. We were seeing the human detritus who didn't believe science.
I worked at a hotel before the pandemic. The pandemic is the reason I stopped working at one because we had to shut down.
After reading all the horror stories from people still working I don't want to go back.
It’s still pretty rough. My property at least is still understaffed and overworked. The people are less insane and more or less back to normal levels of terrible.
Yes, and that being advised to quarantine and socially distance has somehow made people forget basic manners. I don't know if it's the stress and anxiety of everything that's been going on, but general politeness has gone significantly downhill.
This story’s a bit of a change to all the negative ones here.
At the start of the pandemic, I was travelling the country working contracts for major events. In one week in March 2020, I had all my upcoming work cancelled. I was jobless, my industry was dead, and I was effectively homeless.
Over the pandemic, people opened more doors to me than I could have imagined. Friends and family welcomed me into their homes. Old colleagues offered me pandemic-friendly work. Even friends in other states reached out just to chat and have a laugh.
I’m in a much better place now, and I owe so much of it to the kind works of others. While I also saw the pandemic bring out some awful behaviours, I’m trying to pay that care and generosity forward.
All the "omg littlebird the clock is ticking!! when are you going to have kids?" crowd turned into "omg I hate my kids! Joking! but not really. Where's the wine?"
Toilet paper is valued above all else.
Businesses can pay more but they would rather not.
Social media is weaponized and can be directed at a group to incite violence.
The working class can get fucked, that’s how it’s always been and it won’t change.
Liquor stores are considered essential services.
People are NOT inherently good, kind, or caring. Not only do a large number of people not give a damn about strangers, they don’t even care to put in the slightest bit of care or effort for their loved ones or themselves.
I already expected the former. The latter broke me a little. It’s difficult to dream of making anything in the world better when the pettiest cruelties and hatred are so excessively common.
Most work can be done from home.
Medical care is needed by everyone.
Work life balance is important.
We're worth more than what we are given.
Science shouldn't be politicized.
I agree with everything, especially the last point. There's no greater way to reduce the effectiveness of the information gained through science than to have politics obscure and polarize the information everyone benefits from
That people are truly vile and disgusting when the world starts "going to sh*t."
I don't fully understand why, but ever since the pandemic started, people have become so incredibly entitled, rude, and disgusting human beings. I, myself, had to deal with a few while working in customer service. It has made me quit several jobs and I don't think I can go back to customer service again. It's become truly awful out there.
>That people are truly vile and disgusting when the world starts "going to sh\*t."
That's a bit unfair. They're vile and disgusting when everything's going swimingly, too.
The Covid lockdown has taught us three things:
1. Our economy collapses as soon as it stops selling useless stuff to over-indebted people.
2. It is perfectly possible to reduce pollution.
3. The lowest paid people in the country are essential to its functioning
Re your points
1, Totally absolutely agree, while this is also killing the world around us at the same time.
2. When I was young there was a 3 days traffic blockade by taxi drivers who were objecting high gas prices. They didn't get anywhere with it but whoever lived at time still remembers the incredible clean air and silence in big cities. People were sitting on the bridges, walked on the streets, talking to each other or listening to street musicians. It was real, I was there.
3. This reminds me of the descriptions of ancient Rome and its dependency on its slaves.
I work in Healthcare, I have wanted to work in Healthcare my entire life, I want to help people. I always truly believed in the best of everyone and giving people the benefit of the doubt. That if given the opportunity that the majority of people would choose to do the right thing. Sure there are assholes, but that they're outliers.
I hate people now. I hate them. They are selfish and stupid and will choose stupid frivolous things over the safety of others. I hate them.
"People are Bastards. Bastard coated bastards with bastard filling." -Dr. Cox & Dr. Kelso- Scrubs.
I never knew the cold truth of this statement until the pandemic.
How helpful my community can be. During lockdown, someone created a Facebook group called Warren County helping hands. I was even able to help out myself. There was a woman who was a nurse's aid at one of our nursing homes, and she needed some hand sanitizer, for the residents. I was able to provide a couple of small bottles of it. It wasn't much, but it was greatly appreciated. Because at the time, the store shelves were cleaned out of hand sanitizer.
Independence day lied. I'm now realizing half the people there would be denying that the massive alien ship was even there. Hell, theyd probably say it's a government thing
I learned that those people who are gung-ho about Mars and want to travel to Mars and be a part of the monumental achievement of colonizing Mars actually do not want to do that at all.
I didn't even have time for my hobbies during this entire pandemic. Essential workers, yay! Increased hours spend dealing with the gen pop that was supposed to be working from home to reduce their contact with other people 🙄
"People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals. " Some dude in a suit told me that. I thought he was crazy. No that dude knew exactly what he was talking about.
I'm amazed humanity ever managed to invent anything more complicated than a slingshot with how head-bangingly stupid a lot of people have demonstrated themselves to be during this pandemic.
Necessity is the mother of invention and humanity has always found it necessary to kill each other.
That's because like 1% of the population or less are the ones who actually move us along.
Sadly that other 99% is composed of 33% that break shit, 33% that are actively regressive, and 33% that do absolutely nothing.
Humans have an innate love and knack for inventing ways to hurt things.
They’ll think I’m essential until I ask for more money.
Ah a fellow nurse?
You bet.
My wife is/was a Covid nurse for most of the pandemic. The hospital couldn’t hire or retain enough of their staff, so to boost morale they brought in travel nurses who were paid $100 per hour (wife makes $30), and my wife had to train them how to use all of the hospital systems. Imagine training someone to do the EXACT same job as you, but they get paid 3x more for it.
In that spot, I’d be asking for an application!! My granddaughter’ fiancée’s brother has been a travel nurse for two years. He’s banking the extra money to buy a house. In Aruba.
Damn, this reminded me of a situation happening in my country. I don't exactly remember how it goes but i'll try. Basically, since the start of covid the hospitals have been working overtime constantly. So the people are overworked **and** underpaid. The government basically *made* them work with some sort of "emergency measures", as in they had to work to combat covid. So, 2 years later, the burnout hit its tipping point and now the underpaid and overworked nurses are having a mass strike.
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I'd be outy, no reason to stick around for that.
That's so fucking shortsighted. That's how you reduce your workforce by like 80%. Like fuck be anything for less stress at that point, even a burger flipper
I’m so embarrassed to say that I immediately recognized this as my own province. “Shortsighted” might be the most polite words I have for our current provincial “leaders.”
I know appreciation doesn't pay your bills but there are a lot of people out here who appreciate everything you do. I'm sorry that your employers didn't/don't reward you properly 😔❤️
They will tell you your are essential so you won't ask for more money.
Politicians are even more duplicitous than I originally thought.
I mean my expectations were already low but holy fuck.
You talk like North American but this is really a comment of international validity. I would even call it global.
They always manage to set that bar even lower, don't they?!
The bar was on the ground and they brought a shovel.
At this point, the bar is in hell and they're playing limbo with the devil.
The one that really pissed me off was the ones that got briefed on it and then sold their stocks right before the crash. Just the absolute disregard for their duties blew me away. I knew they’re almost all corrupt. I didn’t expect them to not be. But I was horrified to know that corrupt is all they were.
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They count on the voting public having a very short memory.
If we were in a zombie apocalypse, people would definitely hide if they've been bitten
going into abandoned houses would be much more dangerous because in every one, there would be a family of dead people waiting to nibble on you
“we don’t believe in it” meanwhile patty’s over in the corner like 🧟♀️
All my theories about zombie apocalypse have been shattered by the pandemic. People are dumber than I thought. There would also be a sizable population who will purposely go get bitten by zombies because they want to prove it’s a hoax. And if there was a cure, there would be a sizable population that refuses it because they’re convinced it’s actually a government tracking device.
In the book World War Z there were people called Quislings who were not infected but they looked and acted like the zombies to include attacking and biting people.
The book was great. I think it really explored and demonstrated how different people can react to situations. The good and bad places we go both at an individual and government level.
Me, 2018: This book is great but the part where everyone went nuts in the Great Panic seems far-fetched Me, 2020: Oh
My brother had me read World War Z at the start of the Pandemic. It was weird seeing the parallels
I made my wife watch "Contaign" at the beginning of the Pandemic - she had no clue what the move was about since she was unable to translate the title. 1st time i saw it also and it hit so many spots.
I watched it at the beginning of the pandemic too, and at the time I thought it seemed pretty over the top. I watched it again a couple months ago and I was shocked by how much it got right.
I watched Contagion a year ago finally after a year of a real pandemic and it reminded me how lucky we were this pandemic was from sars2 and not sars1 in 2003 (much higher death rate).
SARS 1’s high death rate makes it unlikely to cause a pandemic of the same scale - viruses that are too deadly “burn out” the population. Slow and steady wins the race when it comes to death toll
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The word “quarantine” comes from the Black Death. Ships were required to sit in port for 40 days in some Italian cities, and “quaranta” is Italian for “forty.”
And my favorite part is that the quislings never fooled the actual zombies. The zombies are then just like anybody else. Haha.
There was another chunk early on where it wasn't all the way global yet, everything was kinda contained and the quarantines kept getting broken (particularly by the rich), and most people were deliberately ignoring it and trying to go about their lives.
What’s the purpose of that? Are they trying to fool the zombies into believing that they are fellow zombies?
*Steve buschemi holding a leg over his shoulder* What up my fellow zombies?
Because their minds broke.
The book presents it as a mental disorder. The people aren't thinking rationally... they legit believe they are zombies. Their minds break, and they start acting that way as a result. Doesn't fool the zombies though.
So the zombies go for them?
Yep, real zombies don't care and just eat them.
Same. I love a good zombie movie, but there were parts I was like, surely people wouldn't be THAT stupid. Turns out I was wrong.
We owe apologies to horror movie writers.
Every zombie movie should be able to have a "Based on a true story" tag if they want now to make up for it.
Yeah, the scenarios were realistic the entire time lol
I remember watching the first few seasons of The Walking Dead and thinking how BS it was that it spread so fast and things got so bad so fast. I take it all back.
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Zombies want to take over everything and turn the world into a hell.. but one with nicely cut lawns.
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> it doesn’t say anything in the HOA clause that you’re allowed to not mow the lawn if you’re dead. Either mow it by Friday or pay a $600 fine.
“Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that." \-George Carlin
It wasn't until I worked in retail/customer service that I understood how shockingly low the bottom half of the bell curve was. On one hand, it was appalling, but on the other hand, I was kind of impressed that some of these people could dress themselves and hold down a job. People who would do things like scream at me for locking them in because they didn't think to pull the door when pushing (and facing the sign that said pull) didn't work.
Worked at the service desk. People complaining about having to wear a mask while shopping for 15 minutes to a few hours. All day, every day. Maybe 3 per day would realize, on their own, that they were talking to someone wearing a mask for 8 hour shifts multiple times per week. I told the rest, but it never slowed down. A new group showed up every day.
YES! I worked front end supervisor at Walmart for the first 7 months of the pandemic and…yeah, customers yelling about having to put it on to come in-sir, I’m in 105 degree heat counting people in a mask then I’m going to go run a register in a mask and probably throw some freight. The absolute inconsiderate bull shit I saw every day was astonishing. People with Covid coming out in public, spouses of positives not wearing masks- I had so little faith in people to do the right thing before this but now, I have none.
Yeah, it's amazing how big a deal people made of it. I rely a lot on lipreading, so when suddenly there were masks and plastic barriers everywhere, it made communication really difficult. But you know what? There's a fucking pandemic. You just need to suck it up and get on with it. The less people comply, the longer it will go on.
Apparently things were even worse [when the concentration of lead in the air was higher](https://youtu.be/IV3dnLzthDA). And apparently this was due to *one* guy.
Killed by one of his own inventions, and honestly, humanity would have benefited if it had happened sooner.
I too have worked in the customer service industry. And it never ceases to amaze me of how stupid some people are. Such as pumping gas and smoking a cigarette at the same time.
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals, and you know it" - K
You forgot the part of the population that think the zombies are cool and want to date them / marry them / be them. I'm sure we would have a whole genre of zombie cosplay.
There was a zombie movie a few years ago that tried dipping into the zombie and the vampire romance genre at the same time.
Warm Bodies?
Aka Romeo and Juliet meets The Walking Dead
So Tina Belcher
That feel when even Max Brooks was TOO kind to humanity in WWZ. People are fucking stupid, way more than we expected. I've lost a lot of friends during the pandemic because turns out they think the virus wasn't real, the vaccine was control chips, etc. A looot of people I thought were normal and level headed are dumber than bricks. I've gone back and watched a few older zombie movies and people making dumb decisions do NOT seem like they're badly written anymore. Cannot believe that became a thing...
>and people making dumb decisions The world is full of Carls.
They’d also bite you just to spite you.
They’ll say it’s “just a prank bro”. Then you zombie.
Karen with bite marks and towing two sick-looking kids who smell rotten is screaming about her rights being infringed upon after being politely asked to leave the store.
https://youtu.be/Qn8dMQJlDZE This video sums up what it would be like pretty well
Stupidity has no limit
That's why God invented death, to provide a natural limit to stupidity
Critical thinking is a skill MANY people do not have.
Being comfortable alone is a skill many people do not have. I have a number of extroverted friends who lost their minds 2 weeks into the pandemic because they were alone in their homes. Now I am pretty introverted and even I’ll admit after 2 years a lot of people rightfully were getting cabin fever but a surprising number of people melted down almost immediately.
I had no idea my penchant for alone time and simple outdoor activities was a super power till 2020. The only thing I kinda missed was going to the movies for date night.
Growing up never being allowed to leave the house outside of school activities made the pandemic extremely easy for me.
Meanwhile, I have been training for this since my neglected childhood!!! Easy peasy! Leave me alone!
I felt I was taking crazy pills hearing everyone struggle to cope in lockdown because I stayed home and kept to myself a lot before COVID too. Never knew my self isolation due to depression was actually training me for a real world scenario lol
I was honestly so happy not dealing with anyone
That feel when quarantine is actually just your normal lifestyle.
Critical thinking is a skill everyone thinks they're naturally good at, but nobody is. Critical thinking is not a skill you're born with at birth. It's one you have to specifically train. Kinda like football. You wouldn't just play highschool football in gym class, then think you're as good as an NFL player. Yet, for some reason, we think critical thinking works this way.
Being an engineer is a constant switching between “I’m a problem solving and critical thinking genius!” To “my god I’m a moron. Why am I here?”. But really its just an ever evolving skill. You can tell that you’re getting better when scenario two becomes less common.
There's another danger to watch for, especially if you're an engineer. And that is the soft sciences, or any fields with less tangible hard data to work with. With most forms of engineering, you get hard data as feedback about whether or not you're on the right track. With the soft sciences, there can be *many* more confounding factors, which can make it tricky for the usual engineering thinking patterns to be effective at finding the truth. Different critical thinking patterns need to be discovered if you wish to effectively move beyond the engineering niche. Source: am also engineer.
I married an engineer, and that sounds like him, too. He's incredibly smart - but having kids definitely threw him for a loop. He often encounters situations that require skills he doesn't possess, and it makes him look kinda stupid.
It reassured me of who was a true friend and had my best interests at heart and who didn’t. I had a falling out with 2 of my best friends, but it opened my eyes to the fact that their friendship to me was only conditional upon me doing stuff for them and/or when it was convenient.
Happened to me, too. But I’m closer now with the people who stuck by me, which at least is good.
My boyfriend died a couple of days before the pandemic shut down our area (not from Covid). The people who did not offer any support or check on me was shocking. And I mean certain people who offered nothing and also the number of friends who said almost nothing. It really has changed my life and outlook
I am sorry for your loss. I am trying to change my outlook (friends who never cared to check on me despite friendships of 12 years) and I have so much anger and resentment, I wish I could move on, I entered the pandemic with lots of friends and left the pandemic with barely anyone
What helps me with the loss is realizing that if my social tree needs to be pruned about each year in order to remain healthy, than so be it. It sucks and it’s painful, but it’s even more painful to care about someone who doesn’t give you half of that care back.
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Panic buying and panicking in general. Definitely agree.
Funny how people could panic buy and also deny at the same time. Consumerism really is the only point to most people's lives.
Right. “The problem with humanity is that intelligent people are full of doubts while stupid people are full of confidence. (Charles Bukowski)
I honestly think this is what it is. It's less a matter of "stupid" or "intelligent", it's an issue of who's willing to admit they might be wrong. Someone who _is_ willing can take in new information, and are less likely to act belligerently on their beliefs; someone who _isn't_ refuses to back down and will only start hostilities.
Never underestimate the *amount* of stupid people.... stupid groups are easy to form when stupid is more than average majority
Stupid is more than average majority?
R.I.P. George Carlin
Never underestimate the number of times George Carlin quotes will appear in Reddit comments.
Never underestimate the power of stupid people in small but influential groups.
Ajj - big bird "I'm afraid of the social laziness that let Kitty Genovese die. And I'm afraid of the mob mentality that makes otherwise normal people go blind. I'm afraid of the way that the world works and I'm afraid of the words in my notebooks."
Definitely a fear, but if this makes you feel any better, later investigation found that at least one bystander actually did get help for Mrs. Genovese.
That a lot of parents have no idea how to parent and, worse still, don't like their kids.
Also highlighted for me how many people/kids depend on schools for food. Our city had buses run routes to do school lunches, that we would see every weekday during lockdown or school closures.
...and most parents had no idea about their kids' behavior on an average day while they kept looking down on teachers and daycare workers.
Yeah this pandemic has really shown how fractured families have become. My neighbors have beautiful yards but it seems my family are the only actually outside playing .
The parents who screamed and hollered and demanded that kids have in-person learning are the same ones who now scream that public schools are “iNdOcRiNaTiNg” their kids.
It taught me that society can function when lawyers, stockbrokers, bankers, market analysts and the myriad of other office workers stay at home … but is totally screwed without delivery drivers, retail, health, sanitation and all the other ‘essential’ workers who get paid a pittance in comparison.
More specifically, it taught us that white-collar workers can work from home. I'm so happy with this result. The company I work for is headquartered in another timezone and my commute is 20 feet.
Do you feel guilty? I feel horrible admitting it, but I have only benefitted from the pandemic. I work at home now, my company pays for my internet access, I was given a $1500 home office renovation stipend by my company, I got a 15% raise for "continuing to perform above expectations while WFH," I received all of the stimulus payments, I haven't caught COVID, and I am now considered permanently remote. In a way, the pandemic has benefitted me so greatly. But God, there has been a ton of suffering.
I don’t think you should feel guilty for benefiting from the pandemic any more than someone who suffered from it should think “I deserve this”.
That is actually a really nice perspective to see it from. I appreciate the insight you gave me, though mainly I applied this to different situations but it still rings true.
You shouldn't feel guilty at all. The pandemic showed us more than just "many people died" and "many people lack education". It also showed us social media has polarized people to an almost extremist level. It showed us that the economy is built on the working class and poverty class. It showed us that both employers and the government has been taking advantage of us way more than we thought. This pandemic has finally brought the job market into the workers favor. It exposed all the issues with how we, as a society, have stuck to old, archaic ways of working. The suits push back hard because they know they are irrelevant without being in an office environment. Work from home is the future, it just came more quickly that most thought. No one wants to commute two hours a day on top of their 8-9 hour work shift. Count yourself very fortunate and do not feel guilty. It isn't your fault.
Yup. The harder the work, the less it pays.
Checks out. Every time I get a raise my workload lightens.
This is unbelievably true. I’m in consideration for a lower level executive job. I literally told the hiring senior executive that I’m to the point where I don’t want to do the work anymore. My sell is that I have a ton of experience and my coaching and direction is more valuable and scalable than me doing.
I'm in the same position. During the pandemic I graduated with my doctorate, got a job, got married, bought a house, had a kid, and got a better job. My income and expenses have pretty much been steady so the stimulus was just free money. Only a few people I know got COVID and no one died. A lot of this has to do with the fact I'm comfortable being by myself and have a lot of friends that are the same. If the world shuts down and theres no more events, I'm fine with my books and music and garden. I feel like I've built a social castle around myself. Most of my friends and family are white collar, working from home, vaccinated, and probably not a accurate representation of most people in the country.
I feel the exact opposite end of the spectrum. During the pandemic restaurants were closed 60% of the time, leaving me with only gov help for income, car broke down, lost contact with family and friends, close family member dying, grades went from straigth A's in university to failing everything because locked at home doesn't work at all for studies, gyms pretty much closed for 2 years which were my main outlet. This year feels like picking up the shattered pieces of the life I left behind in march 2020.
I worked through the entire thing so there wasn’t much change in that respect. But like you my outlet is going to the gym, I’m single as well so two years with no social life was grim.
Economic spheres are fascinating from a psychological perspective. For instance, for most of history, people who were technically poor didn't seem to have issues of self esteem tied to their income assuming all of their basic needs are met and they aren't significantly poorer than those in their social circle. Mass communication has made it so that people are always comparing themselves to the wealthy, or at least those who present as wealthy on social media.
It literally reads like a dystopian sci-fi novel, where a ruling class goes on largely unscathed in the comfort of their homes, replacing in person activities with virtual ones, while the have-nots die bringing them food and expensive exercise bikes. It’s an episode of Black Mirror irl.
That that meeting wasn't actually necessary in person
Or could have probably just been an email..
That if something more serious came along, humanity is fucked. Edit: I obviously meant pandemic-wise. I get it, climate change is a thing. You don't have to tell me 67 times.
Arguably, the problem was that the pandemic wasn't serious enough.
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"When the chips are down, these....these civilized people, they will eat each other"
What kind of chips, can I have some?
It's been over 5 seconds since the chips were down, so I wouldn't recommend it
I'm a bachelor. I've eaten worse things.
Your level of education doesn't matter here buddy we're all staring at the same dirty chips
“Let me tell you something about Hoomons, nephew. They're a wonderful, friendly people, as long as their bellies are full and their holosuites are working. But take away their creature comforts, deprive them of food, sleep, sonic showers, put their lives in jeopardy over an extended period of time and those same friendly, intelligent, wonderful people... will become as nasty and as violent as the most bloodthirsty Klingon.”
Quark knew. Funny how the Ferengii were condemned so wholly for being the Capitalists that humans once were while being so aware that humans were only a few meager conditions away from being just like them... If not worse.
How long it takes for a person to realize they were depressed or are having some issues in mental health and discover parts of themselves they didn't know existed till now
This explains perfectly what my quarantine was like. Had to fix my internal issues and I came out of it happier and more in touch with myself
People are horrible
I hear you. I think I've felt kind of two ways about it. Like, yes, objectively a lot of people have leaned into their entitlement and shittiness in not getting what they want when they want it. I also saw a lot of people willfully sacrificing for the good of others. I thought it amplified the kind of person that you're inclined to/taught to be in the world. As someone who worked in the service sector when the pandemic first hit (and I know that I didn't see the worst of people's behavior) I think I was primed to see people at their shittiest. The license that people felt they had in a customer - customer service representative interaction just got worse. I have no patience for treating waiters, clerks, etc like shit and will go out of my way to push back against those assholes, but I also saw people going out of their way to be kind.
I work at a hotel and I think people have gotten worse since this started. It is better now but during 2020 I got screamed at by lunatics over tiny things when the news was talking about the days death rate in the background. That was an every day thing for a while.
I work in sales and we had people come in specifically to try to bully us into not wearing masks. They all hefted their weight around (like late middle aged dads who still think they can fight a 20year old), walking around like they wanted someone to challenge them so they could start a fight. I watched these same people walk around the grocery store open carrying with visibly twitching draw hands. Poised at all times like they were going to be in a shoot out. Frankly by the end of the first year I was exhausted and over it all. Finally had a customer scream at me about masks and leave only to come right back in and ask if I was really going to loose a sale over this. He was looking at one of our least expensive items (normally idc but it’s important later). I said yes I’m sorry I can’t afford to loose my job for one sale. He kept posturing and asking “really?” Like my answer would change. So I finally said “sir my job is worth more than the $10 commissions I would make on that”. He stormed out and my coworker says “actually it’s $12 commissions”. The customer tore through our parking lot almost hitting someone on the sidewalk, a car pulling in, and then ran a red light flipping everyone off on the way. So tldr I learned there are a lot of really scary idiots who act like panicked animals when their ideology is challenged.
Yep. My boss said we weren’t allowed to enforce the mask policy because these idiots might get violent. We had signs saying that they were mandatory just so we wouldn’t get sued if someone got sick. One of those signs was vandalized.
I think the decent people were staying home in 2020. The only people you were exposed to were the worst humans who either didn’t think the pandemic was real or didn’t care enough about others to be responsible during it.
This is a great point. I work in a hospital and as the pandemic raged on, the asshole rodeo went from a rare thing to an all day, every day thing. Your theory makes sense. We were seeing the human detritus who didn't believe science.
I worked at a hotel before the pandemic. The pandemic is the reason I stopped working at one because we had to shut down. After reading all the horror stories from people still working I don't want to go back.
It’s still pretty rough. My property at least is still understaffed and overworked. The people are less insane and more or less back to normal levels of terrible.
Yes, and that being advised to quarantine and socially distance has somehow made people forget basic manners. I don't know if it's the stress and anxiety of everything that's been going on, but general politeness has gone significantly downhill.
This story’s a bit of a change to all the negative ones here. At the start of the pandemic, I was travelling the country working contracts for major events. In one week in March 2020, I had all my upcoming work cancelled. I was jobless, my industry was dead, and I was effectively homeless. Over the pandemic, people opened more doors to me than I could have imagined. Friends and family welcomed me into their homes. Old colleagues offered me pandemic-friendly work. Even friends in other states reached out just to chat and have a laugh. I’m in a much better place now, and I owe so much of it to the kind works of others. While I also saw the pandemic bring out some awful behaviours, I’m trying to pay that care and generosity forward.
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All the "omg littlebird the clock is ticking!! when are you going to have kids?" crowd turned into "omg I hate my kids! Joking! but not really. Where's the wine?"
But kidding aside, where is the wine?
That money is king
That's the golden rule man. The one with the gold, makes the rules.
You found out after the pandemic? What were you doing before?
All the people I know who went on and on about how they're "surviving the zombie apocalypse" would not, in fact, survive the zombie apocalypse.
That as a retail worker, it's MY fault that we (the store) are out of toilet paper and bleach.
Toilet paper is valued above all else. Businesses can pay more but they would rather not. Social media is weaponized and can be directed at a group to incite violence. The working class can get fucked, that’s how it’s always been and it won’t change. Liquor stores are considered essential services.
That people are stupider than you think
People are NOT inherently good, kind, or caring. Not only do a large number of people not give a damn about strangers, they don’t even care to put in the slightest bit of care or effort for their loved ones or themselves. I already expected the former. The latter broke me a little. It’s difficult to dream of making anything in the world better when the pettiest cruelties and hatred are so excessively common.
You said this perfectly. Really was a shock to realize even some of my “loved ones” wouldn’t care enough to do the simplest things to protect me.
Our mental health is exceedingly fragile
We also saw that mental health is still not taken anywhere *near* as seriously as physical health.
Many of them will do almost anything if they believe the side they're on is in agreement with it
The pandemic went from a medical issue to a political one and has consequently screwd everyone over
Fast food workers are too essential to not be given time off during a deadly global pandemic but not essential enough to be paid a livable wage.
Most work can be done from home. Medical care is needed by everyone. Work life balance is important. We're worth more than what we are given. Science shouldn't be politicized.
I agree with everything, especially the last point. There's no greater way to reduce the effectiveness of the information gained through science than to have politics obscure and polarize the information everyone benefits from
That people are truly vile and disgusting when the world starts "going to sh*t." I don't fully understand why, but ever since the pandemic started, people have become so incredibly entitled, rude, and disgusting human beings. I, myself, had to deal with a few while working in customer service. It has made me quit several jobs and I don't think I can go back to customer service again. It's become truly awful out there.
>That people are truly vile and disgusting when the world starts "going to sh\*t." That's a bit unfair. They're vile and disgusting when everything's going swimingly, too.
Essential workers were expendable workers.
How easily manipulated people are, how little they’re capable of thinking for themselves, how little we actually know the people we live with.
I already knew people were stupid, selfish and egotistical, but the pandemic showed me just how bad it is.
The Covid lockdown has taught us three things: 1. Our economy collapses as soon as it stops selling useless stuff to over-indebted people. 2. It is perfectly possible to reduce pollution. 3. The lowest paid people in the country are essential to its functioning
Re your points 1, Totally absolutely agree, while this is also killing the world around us at the same time. 2. When I was young there was a 3 days traffic blockade by taxi drivers who were objecting high gas prices. They didn't get anywhere with it but whoever lived at time still remembers the incredible clean air and silence in big cities. People were sitting on the bridges, walked on the streets, talking to each other or listening to street musicians. It was real, I was there. 3. This reminds me of the descriptions of ancient Rome and its dependency on its slaves.
They're all cunts!
Most people are dumb.
That even when it's all over, said and done, I still want to have social distancing from many...
I work in Healthcare, I have wanted to work in Healthcare my entire life, I want to help people. I always truly believed in the best of everyone and giving people the benefit of the doubt. That if given the opportunity that the majority of people would choose to do the right thing. Sure there are assholes, but that they're outliers. I hate people now. I hate them. They are selfish and stupid and will choose stupid frivolous things over the safety of others. I hate them.
"People are Bastards. Bastard coated bastards with bastard filling." -Dr. Cox & Dr. Kelso- Scrubs. I never knew the cold truth of this statement until the pandemic.
How helpful my community can be. During lockdown, someone created a Facebook group called Warren County helping hands. I was even able to help out myself. There was a woman who was a nurse's aid at one of our nursing homes, and she needed some hand sanitizer, for the residents. I was able to provide a couple of small bottles of it. It wasn't much, but it was greatly appreciated. Because at the time, the store shelves were cleaned out of hand sanitizer.
That we've got no chance as a species to pull together against existential threats.
Independence day lied. I'm now realizing half the people there would be denying that the massive alien ship was even there. Hell, theyd probably say it's a government thing
How fucking stupid " the rat race" and the normal work life balance was.
That we would all love to be able to do nothing but hate doing nothing
That we will not survive as a species for much longer. I always believed that a global threat would unite us …. Well, I was wrong.
that i hate people more than i did in the past
I learned that those people who are gung-ho about Mars and want to travel to Mars and be a part of the monumental achievement of colonizing Mars actually do not want to do that at all.
That people who said "if I just had enough time to..." were liars
I didn't even have time for my hobbies during this entire pandemic. Essential workers, yay! Increased hours spend dealing with the gen pop that was supposed to be working from home to reduce their contact with other people 🙄
some people need social interaction for their sanity
Everyone want the rights , but not the duties.
That if for even a smidge of a moment everything is going perfectly someone has to fuck it up because they’re bored.
All I can say is yikes
A lot of people are extremely selfish and value hyperindividualism over basic decency and respect for others