Edit: Trying hard to not say something snippy about climate change deniers, with great difficulty. Let me simply suggest possible correlations between climate change denial, coronavirus denial and anti-vaccination.
My bedphone experience was not good. Spouse complained about noise leakage, and they stopped working within a month. Otherwise, they _could_ be more comfortable than ear buds depending how well they fit. Most wired earbuds survive <6 months in bed. Generally they short out from being slept on, crushed, rolled over etc.
Wearing silicon tipped in-earbuds all night is likely courting ear infection. I have settled on JBL T205 Earbud Headphones. They are in-ear but without silicon tips (i.e. ear canal is not sealed shut all night), are comfortable enough, last 6-12 months and are cheap.
Wish someone would make a pair that would last at least a couple years. Hate the waste.
One of the "doctors" who recently published research on "psychobiotics" was
later selling a brand of "clinically tested" probiotics tailored for mood disorders. Gut microbiome studies, at this point in time, need to be taken with a pinch of allum.
I worry that you're just tossing insults at the wall. A poor pandemic response is surely not a good thing, but it's hard to see how it constitutes irrational populism or intolerance.
The poor pandemic response is just one symptom of our societal malaise. I think that's the point. One might expect a country to pull itself together and work for the common good in a crisis. The U.S. no longer seems capable of doing that. We're like Ahab strapped to the Moby Dick, preferring to die exacting vengeance than to live.
Is there reason to believe that the US's poor pandemic response is due to a general unwillingness to pull together? There are scattered stories of people hosting irresponsible gatherings and being jerks about masks, but those are available in every country I know of.
I think it is (although my comment about populism was not directly solely at the U.S.). As an outsider, I would attribute the poor pandemic response to lack of coherent leadership. The U.S. federal government is obviously incapable of pulling itself together across partisan lines for the greater good of the people it is supposed to serve. Even if you disagree about politics, the numbers do not lie. Just north of the border, Canada is doing literally ten times better (for the moment).
Don't get me wrong, I don't agree with the pandemic response. But everything I see suggests that American leaders truly, honestly believe the health crisis isn't important enough that it should override their other priorities. Many have explicitly argued that other causes they support are just as important as the virus.
And thank fuck for that. EDIT: Fuzzing or downvoting? Was it the profanity? I do thank fuck for the temporary reduction in incoming vectors during a pandemic.
In western countries you can, in general, publicly mock your leaders on the front steps of your legislature. Try dancing in a Winnie-the-Pooh costume in front of the Great Hall of the People and see what happens...
True. I completely misread the comment to which I replied. Oops!
However, my preference is still to live in a socialist country where the government can be openly criticized.
That is a naive view to look at a situation where an armed man is telling you at gunpoint to "move a little way down the street" with the implied ending to the statement being or I will shoot you, or forcibly remove you to an iron cage
People always seem to forget, all government actions and regulations no matter how small are acts of violence. They are not voluntary and are backed by the threat of legal violence to anyone that dare resist.
I don't like the ridiculous idea of "free speech zones" but law enforcement does need to be able to move people who block streets or doorways. It should be independent of why the person is there. Of course they shouldn't shoot them.
