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hihereami · 9 months

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I want to chime in to the ''AI debate'' to cut the debate on the whole ''but these machines are inspired by art just like humans are!'' from root.

THAT'S NOT THE DISCUSSION HERE. This is not a philosophy debate. There's an active, material WORKERS RIGHTS issue here.

These are companies straight up using artists's work without licensing or compensation to cleanly do what's basically a collage of all their works and then profiting off it.

They are actively and consciously trying to cut the labor from artists, illustrators and visual developers from all industries that need our work to exist by stealing their already existing copyright.

And yes, the artists who are currently suing and on the frontlines against this DO know how these AI systems work. It's not a mystery. Go check out Karla Ortiz (& co) exposition on it in front of the US Senate.

The outrage isn't based on some unfounded fear. It's based on knowledge from experienced artists on how our process works and how it's very different from this "AI". It's not artificial inteligence yet. It's prompts that the machine uses to create from a database of already existing, non-consenting artists.

The outrage is based on the fact that some of these prompts are literally artists names, deceased or alive, none of them compensated. This was a conscious decision made fully aware that it was a legal iffy zone. Since "AI" hasn't been legislated yet and there's no regulations, they took advantage of the legal grey zone.

So. This isn't a "human insecure they're replaced by a machine" issue. This is a "workers's copyright is infringed by companies and individuals who seize a legal grey-zone to profit off using their non-consensual, unpaid work" issue.

The whole "bohoo it works just like inspiration!" argument is a misdirection the people who are actively profiting off this labor theft throw to distract and create a debate of something that isn't debatable.

And also? It's incorrect. That's... not how "inspiration" works. The closest example to what Midjourney, etc do would be if I as a working artist did photobashing and tracing from other known artists, without any processing of an idea, without any comprehension of form and meaning. That is... 1) Impossible. Any human artist de facto needs to put some level of thought, decision and idea - even if they're just making a collage. These servers do not have intelligence , no matter the name, to make decisions. They work by inputs. 2) If the photobashing or tracing is based from non-licensed pictures, that would get the human artist into legal trouble or, at the very least, put them in murky waters. See the Kevin Bao scandal.

TLDR; The current fight from working artists against Midjourney, StableDiffusion and "AI" generators is about these companies building their databases from unlicensed, unpaid work by artists who have not consented to this use in any shape of form and then actively wanting to profit off this work. It's not a philosophy debate. It's not insecurity.

Stop debating the meaning of inspiration. It's a distraction from the real material issue here: copyright theft to replace labor from those copyright holders.

More sources:

Written testimony submitted to Senate's hearing.

BBC breakdown

Conversations from the MJ public server that show they were aware of the legal murky waters they were in. Not only about copyright but also about the generators creating porn from real people pictures.

Full video from the hearing in the Senate.

#AI #stable diffusion #ai artwork #artists on tumblr #for christs sake if this even circulates im gonna get so much bullshit arent i #midjourney #babbling babbling #ai is theft #signal boost #workers rights #labor rights

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purgetrooperfox · 4 months

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how come you do post much about gaza?

assuming you meant don't*? because this makes no sense otherwise? anyway

that you don't see my activism doesn't mean it isn't happening. tumblr is a terrible platform for activism, so I don't use it for that

#i won't pull up donation receipts for a fuckign tumblr anon #i won't sit here and try to explain that tumblr activism is typically restrained to tumblr. people rb the posts and never do anything else #people here notoriously do not click on links #so what i do. what i donate. where i protest. my household's boycotting. i do it and i talk to people about it but i don't do it here #because it won't do jack shit here and i'm trying to connect with people who might actually participate. for tangible results #sorry if that sounds Angry. it's because it is.#if y'all want to free palestine then you have to participate more than just reblogging. boosting voices is good but it takes more than that #tumblr rbs don't put pressure on politicians. they don't fund relief efforts. they don't pay for esims. they don't demonstrate organized #support for palestine in a Visible Manner to your city or state or country #they aren't disruptive #that's why you don't see me post on here. i'm trying to concentrate my efforts where they might do something #NOW. before you come for my throat. obviously there is nothing wrong with circulating posts about aid and resources to help #but then you should really consider like. contributing to those resources. that's key. that's the point. and some people here do! great!#i just. am more likely to be able to find and reach people who do in other places #maybe i should've said all that in the post instead of the tags but i really don't want to bring a bunch of misunderstanding down on myself #asks answered #'i wont sit here and explain' and then i did. damn

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saddlepunk · 11 months

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need some help getting to work

i hafta ask for a little help again :'D

left my previous job a week or so ago (wasnt getting very good hours to begin with), but i've got a new and MUCH better paying/more regular job starting this week (hopefully tomorrow (7/17) morning)!! My current issue is that I don't have the funds to get to and from work before my first paycheck hits.

I'm looking to raise $200, which should cover rides to and from work for the next week. I think I should be getting paid fairly soon after starting, so I just need a bit to last me til then!

pp: mapletownmopdog(at)gmail(dot)com

k-f: snailpups

#saddle says #i never know what to tag these as-#also putting this down here as an addendum but #im gonna be getting paid pretty well so id be willing to pay folks back too!#if you include your pp email in your dono id be happy to do it that way too #and also ofc if anyone needs anything boosted ill circulate any im sent!

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ereborne · 3 months

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Song of the Day: February 26

“Diamonds in the Mud” by Gerry Cinnamon

#song of the day #another song off that same excellent concept playlist by losersimonriley #there's so many more Scottish bands added to my circulation now it's wonderful #this is a song specifically about Glasgow being his hometown so he uses more of his accent for it which I love #I've been pestering my brothers with accent and slang fun facts for a while now #more or less since the first time somebody had Soap use a particular Scottish saying in their CoD fic and made me go over all !!!!#'innsidh na geòidh as t'fhoghar e' translates to 'the geese will tell it in autumn' and reading that nearly made me explode #because when I was a small child and I asked my uncle too many 'why' questions he told me not to worry about it #that the geese would tell me next fall #amazing to me to find out decades later through Call of Duty fanfiction that that's an actual phrase #preserved for who knows how many generations between the first Scottish folks who must've brought it to Appalachia #and then eventually my Uncle Tommy who decided to use it to turn the aggravation tables around on a child #I'm thinking about that again now not just because it still blows my mind a little bit #(really truly had so firmly accepted it as just my Uncle Tommy trolling me with nonsense. it's such a thing he'd do)#but also because of a specific bit from the end of the song 'it's thirteen degrees and there's folk in the street in the scud'#that's just under 60F (a blissfully warm sunny day in Glasgow it seems) and 'in the scud' means 'naked'#which is also a thing I've almost heard from my family!#my aunts up the mountain and therefore also my father at times would say 'in the scuff' (my aunts with a little tilt to the vowel sound)#there was a sort of connotation of it being a silly or immature or maybe drunken sort of naked. an unimpressive naked at least #like 'Tommy fell into the muddy end of the pond trying to catch that damnfool heron' (this is a true story btw. take that Uncle Tommy)#'when he got back his wife made him take off all his clothin in the yard and hose down first. had to walk into his house in th scuff'#and then all the old ladies cackle about Tommy walkin through his door 'both heads hangin low' and my dad winces a little bit #it's important I share all these memories with my siblings now. most of the family's dead and gone and the boys don't remember #very fun for me to tell the stories now and see Nick do the exact same wince at the slightly mean-spirited dick commentary #just a little family legacy in action. thank you Gerry Cinnamon #(in the spirit of song-of-the-day though I will share my favorite line without the contextual boost of silly ereborne family stories:#'I know a guy who's a lightweight / one or two jars and he's buckled #he's the guy that loses keys / has to break into his ain house and gets huckled'#ungodly fun to sing and I do know several of this guy. not related to them though. my whole family drinks like fish)

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lhrry · 2 years

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#also really hope louis’ team has something up their sleeves to get fan excitement up for the release week because boy is this weak and they #really should do better to ramp it up #post tiktoks with tiny snippets of the songs and having the fans guess what song it is for example #or something to boost fan engagement because ive been through many impending album releases in this fandom and this is not it #the excitement is quite mild #they did a big push for bigger than me and a lot of it seemed to me to be for promo rather than for the single #there was scarcely anything new for out of my system in the sense that the questions are still the same as they were for btm #they are circulating the same old and it’s not interesting for many people to watch and then they manage to sneak in babygate always and in #quite ridiculous senses like him listening the album first and stuff and while i still think there’s a reason for this (and i’ve spoken #about what i think may be happening with that and with the reasons for it before so i’ll not repeat myself)#but it just alienates more and more people and with the promo being repetitive there’s nothing much to outweight it for many people #and unfortunately since louis himself is saying he does not care for charts the fans are not very motivated to stream and do listening #parties as they used to be when getting to number 1 was encouraged and by the boys and desirable #plus imho they messed up the tour announcement and sale which shouldve come after the album comes out because people will know what they’re #buying tickets for #but anyway i wonder whether there’s something up still with sabotage of louis and radios not playing him and stuff #because despite the emphasis on him being free and in control there are so many old patterns recurring that it’s incongruent #im really excited for the album and the music and the direction louis is going to take artistically and creatively #but some things about his promo still seem very off #especially knowing what an astute businessman he is and just how deep an understanding he has #of his fanbase as well as the GP and marketing #also i really do think it’s purposeful they’re building on chicago and danielle associations and ramping up babygate and that E is out #for good

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creesims · 1 year

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Found some pretty recolors by karidad on MTS. It's more than just shelves, but I was so excited about the shelves I had to show them off

#I'm in a deep dive through MTS #the older stuff doesn't get circulated much anymore #so I like to boost the hidden gems #sims 2

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flower-zombie-rob · 1 year

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Vent in tags

#tw vent #i sometimes debate just giving up on art #or barely bothering honestly #the problem im having is that i just dont gets notes anymore. and this isnt a boo hoo no attention woe is me thing #this is a thing with my confidence now because i'm having issues. i used ti get almost 90 notes per drawing and people used to luke my art #but nowadays i barely crack 40 with a self reblog and thats in the case of leaving the post for a few days because in the first circulation #my posts dont even break 20-30 notes anymore. it feels like people have lost intrest in what i have to sgare and that hurts a little. i #thought my art was really improving with my lineart and my pose drawing but it just feels like no ones interested in my art. people dont #share it anymore #people dont want it anymore. and it really makes me wonder what the point is. and i dont mean to be like Boo who woe is me i mean the #fandoms I draw for don't want me to make content for them anymore despite a growing follower base. Occasionally I try going back and #Drawing the characters and the concepts that captivated people at first and boosted my notes. I tried drawing the ships that people liked #The first time around I tried roaring the same characters that people gave hundreds of notes when I first drew them. But no matter what I #Try I just can't recapture the same love that people seemed to have at some point for my art which has just dipped off over the year.

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herespaaa · 2 months

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Embracing Mobility: How Massages Benefit Movement at Any Age | HereSpa

As we journey through life, our bodies undergo various changes, and maintaining mobility becomes increasingly important, especially as we age. While it's natural for our muscles and joints to experience wear and tear over time, there are proactive measures we can take to support our mobility and overall well-being. One such method that offers countless benefits is regular massage therapy. At HereSpa At-Home Salon and Spa, we believe that everyone, regardless of age, deserves to experience the rejuvenating effects of massage therapy. Let's explore how massages can help you move gracefully through every stage of life.

1. Enhancing Flexibility and Range of Motion

As we age, our muscles tend to become tighter, leading to decreased flexibility and limited range of motion. Regular massages can help alleviate muscle tension and improve flexibility by promoting blood circulation and loosening tight muscles. Whether you're struggling with stiffness due to age-related conditions or simply want to maintain your flexibility, massages can be a valuable addition to your wellness routine.

2. Relieving Pain and Discomfort

Chronic pain is a common issue that many seniors face, whether it's due to arthritis, back problems, or other ailments. Massage therapy offers natural pain relief by targeting tense muscles, reducing inflammation, and releasing endorphins, the body's natural painkillers. By addressing the root cause of pain and discomfort, massages can provide much-needed relief and improve your quality of life.

3. Improving Posture and Balance

Maintaining good posture and balance becomes increasingly challenging as we age, but it's essential for preventing falls and maintaining independence. Massage therapy can help correct postural imbalances by releasing tension in muscles and aligning the body properly. Additionally, massages stimulate proprioceptors, sensory receptors in the muscles and joints that contribute to body awareness and balance, thereby reducing the risk of falls and enhancing overall stability.

4. Boosting Circulation and Mobility

Poor circulation can exacerbate issues such as muscle stiffness, joint pain, and swelling, making it harder to move comfortably. Massages improve blood circulation by dilating blood vessels and facilitating the delivery of oxygen and nutrients to tissues throughout the body. Enhanced circulation not only promotes faster healing but also increases mobility, allowing you to move more freely and with greater ease.

5. Promoting Relaxation and Stress Relief

Stress and tension can take a toll on both the body and mind, contributing to muscle tightness, headaches, and insomnia. Massage therapy is renowned for its ability to induce relaxation and alleviate stress by triggering the body's relaxation response. As stress levels decrease, muscle tension dissipates, and you'll find yourself moving more fluidly and with a greater sense of ease.

At HereSpa At-Home Salon and Spa, we understand the unique needs of our senior clients, which is why we offer tailored massage therapy services designed to promote mobility and vitality at any age. Whether you're seeking relief from chronic pain, looking to improve your flexibility, or simply craving some relaxation, our team of experienced therapists is here to help.

Ready to experience the transformative benefits of massage therapy? Book your appointment with HereSpa today! Visit our website at www.herespa.com or give us a call at +1-234-437-3772 to schedule your at-home salon and spa experience. Take the first step towards enhanced mobility and well-being—your body will thank you for it!

#HereSpa #Enhancing Flexibility #Relieving Pain #Improving Posture #Boosting Circulation #Promoting Relaxation

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martin-james2121 · 2 months

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Embrace the Chill and explore the surprising benefits of Cold Showers

In a world where comfort often takes the lead, the idea of willingly subjecting oneself to a cold shower might seem counterintuitive. Yet, cold showers have been embraced by cultures worldwide for centuries, cherished for their revitalizing effects on both body and mind.

Beyond the initial shock of icy water cascading down your skin lies a myriad of health benefits waiting to be discovered, offering far more than just a bracing wake-up call in the morning. So, the next time you find yourself reaching for the hot tap, consider embracing the chill instead and enjoy the rewards of this simple yet transformative wellness practice.

Check out this list of the advantages of incorporating cold showers into your daily routine.

1. Boosts Circulation

One of the most immediate effects of a cold shower is its ability to stimulate blood flow throughout the body. The sudden exposure to cold water causes blood vessels to contract, which in turn forces blood to circulate at a faster rate to maintain body temperature. This improved circulation can help improve overall circulation health and promote better oxygen delivery to vital organs and tissues.

To Read More Click here...

#health #healthy #healthy life #tips for health #healthy routine #healthy living #Cold Showers #Boosts Circulation #daily routine #Chill

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skin105com · 2 months

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IV drip therapy provides nutrients to the body directly through the bloodstream. This bypasses the digestive system to ensure the body absorbs all the vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. Unlike face treatments in Sugar Land, Texas, IV therapy’s benefits are felt by the whole body. Here, we discuss the positive effects of IV drip therapy:

#Boost Energy Levels #Improve Circulation #IV Therapy

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ms-demeanor · 2 months

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Friends, I think we need to talk about Covid.

I want to get a few caveats out there before I start:

I am aware that there are people who need to exercise extreme caution about Covid; I live with someone who has two solid organ transplants and who is at the most immune compromised level of immune compromised. *I* have to be extremely cautious about covid.

Masking does prevent a certain level of transmission, and people who think they may have covid should mask and people who are concerned that they may be at high risk for covid should mask.

You should be vaccinated and boosted with the most recent vaccines that are available to you; covid is highly transmissible and very serious, you do not want to get covid and if you do get covid you don't want it to be severe and if you do get covid you don't want to give someone else covid and up-to-date vaccinations are the best way to reduce transmission and help to prevent severe cases of Covid.

We should be testing before going to any gatherings, and informing people if we test positive after gatherings, and testing if we suspect we have been exposed.

It is bullshit that there aren't good protections for workers who have covid; you should not be expected to go to work when you are testing positive

It is bullshit that people who are testing positive are not isolating for other reasons; if you have Covid you should not be going out and exposing other people to it even if you are experiencing mild symptoms or no symptoms.

We do need better ventilation systems for many kinds of spaces. Schools need better ventilation, restaurants need better ventilation, doctor's offices and hospitals and office buildings need better ventilation and better ventilation can reduce covid transmission.

I want to make it clear that Covid is real and there are real steps that individuals and systems can take to prevent transmission, and that there are systems that are exerting pressures that needlessly expose people to covid (the fact that you can lose your job if you don't come in when you're testing positive, mainly; also the fact that covid rapid tests should be ubiquitous and cheap/free and are not).

All of that being said: I'm seeing some posts circulating about how we're at an extremely high level of transmission and the REAL pandemic is being hidden from us and, friends, I'm pretty sure that is just incorrect and we're spreading misinformation.

I'm thinking of this video in particular, in which the claim is made that "your mystery illness is covid" in spite of negative tests. The guy in the video says that there's nothing else that millions of people could be getting a day, and that he predicted this because a wastewater spike in December meant that there was a huge spike in cases.

I've also seen people saying that deaths are where they were in 2021-2022, and that we're still at "a 9/11 a week" of excess deaths and friends, I'm not seeing great evidence for any of these claims.

I know that we (in the US, which is where the numbers I'm going to be citing are from) feel abandoned by the CDC and the fact that tracking cut off in May of 2023. But that only cut off for the federal tracking.

I live in LA county and LA county sure as shit is still tracking Covid.

If you want a clearer picture, you can see the daily case count over time compared to the daily death count:

Okay, you might say, but that's just LA.

Alright, so here's Detroit:

Right, but maybe that's CDC data and you don't trust the CDC at this point.

Okay, here's fatalities in New York tracked through New York's state data collection:

It's harder to toggle around the site for South Dakota, but you can compare their cases and hospitalizations and deaths for early 2022

To cases and hospitalizations and deaths from early 2024

And see that there's really no comparison.

Okay, you might say, but people are testing less. If they're testing less of course we're not seeing spikes, and they're testing less because fewer tests are available.

Alright, people are definitely testing less than they were in 2021 and 2022. Hospitalization for Covid is probably the most clear metric because you know those people have covid for sure, the couldn't not test for it.

Here are hospitalizations over time for LA:

Here are hospitalizations over time for New York:

As vaccination rates have gone up, cases, deaths, and hospitalizations have gone down. It IS clear that there are case spikes in the winter, when it is cold and people are indoors in poorly ventilated spaces and people are more susceptible to respiratory infections as a result of cold air weakening the protection offered by our mucous membranes, and that is something that we will have to take precautions about for the forseeable future, just as we should have always been taking similar precautions during flu season.

So I want to go point-by-point through some of the arguments made in that video because I'm seeing a bunch of people talking about how "THEY" don't want you to know about the virus surge and buds that is just straight up conspiracism.

So okay, first off, most of what that video is based on is spikes in wastewater data, not spikes in cases. This is because people don't trust CDC data on cases, but I'd say to maybe check out your regional data on cases. I don't actually trust the CDC that much, but I know people who do tracking of hospitalizations in LA county, I trust them a lot more. Wastewater data does correlate with increases in cases, but this "second largest spike of the entire pandemic" thing is misleading; wastewater reporting is pretty highly variable and you can't just accept that a large spike in covid in wastewater means that we're in just as bad a place in the pandemic as we were in 2022. We simply have not seen the surge of hospitalizations and deaths that we would expect to see in the weeks following that spike in wastewater data if wastewater data was reflective of community transmission.

The next claim is that "there is nothing else that is infecting millions of people a day" and covid isn't doing that either. The highest daily case rates were in January of 2021 and they were in the 865k a day range, which is ridiculously high but isn't millions of cases a day.

But what we can see is that when people are tested by their doctors for Covid, RSV, and the Flu, more tests are coming back positive for the Flu. Covid causes more hospitalizations than the other two illnesses, but to be honest what the people in the video are describing - lightheadedness, dizziness, exhaustion - just sound like pretty standard symptoms of everything from covid to the cold to allergies. There are lots of things your mystery illness could be.

The video goes on to talk about the fact that people aren't testing, and why their tests may be coming back negative and I'd like to point out that the same things are all true of Flu or RSV tests. People might be getting tested too early or too late; getting a negative test for the flu isn't a good reason to assume you've got covid, getting a negative test for covid isn't a good reason to assume you've got the flu, and testing for viruses as a whole is imperfect. There are hundreds of viruses that could be the common cold; there are multiple viruses that can cause bronchitis; there are multiple viruses that can cause pneumonia, and you're not going to test for all of these things the moment you start feeling sick.

He then recommends testing for multiple days if you have symptoms and haven't had a positive test (fine) and talks about the location of the tests (less fine). Don't use your rapid tests to swab your throat or cheek unless it specifically says that they are designed to do so. Test based on the instructions in the packet.

He points out that the tests probably still pick up on the virus because they're not testing for the spike protein, they're testing for the RNA (good info!)

The video then discusses something that I think is really key to this paranoia about the "mystery illnesses" - he talks about how covid changes and weakens your immune system (a statement that should come with many caveats about severity and vulnerability and that we are still researching that) and then says that it makes you more susceptible to strep or mono and that "things that used to clear in a day or two now hit you really hard."

And that's where I think this anxiety is coming from.

Strep throat lasts anywhere from three days to a week. A cold takes about a week to clear. The flu lasts about a week and can knock you on your ass with exhaustion for weeks depending on how bad you get it. Did you get a cough with your cold? Expect that to take anywhere from three to eight weeks to clear up.

I think that people are thinking "i got a bad virus and felt really sick for a week and haven't gotten my energy back" but that just sounds like a bad cold. That sounds like a potent allergy attack. That doesn't even sound like a bad flu (I got a bad flu in 2009 and thought i was going to straight-up die I had a fever of 103+ for three days and felt like shit for three days on either side of that and took six weeks to feel more like myself again).

Getting sick sucks. It really, really sucks. But if you're getting sick and you're testing for covid and it's coming back negative after you tested a few times, it's almost certainly not covid.

The video then says "until someone provides evidence that it's not covid, it should be assumed to be covid because we have record levels of covid it's that simple" but that's not simple. We don't have record levels of covid and he hasn't proved it. We have record high levels of wastewater reports of covid, which correlates with covid cases but the spike in wastewater noted in december didn't see a spike with a corresponding magnitude of cases in terms of either hospitalizations or deaths, which is what we'd have seen if we had actual record numbers of covid.

He says that if you want to ignore this, you'll get sick with covid, and that about 30-40% of the US just got sick with covid in the last four months (which is a RIDICULOUSLY unevidenced claim).

He says that we need to create a new normal that takes covid into account, which means masking more often and testing more often and making choices about risk-avoidant behaviors.

Now, I don't disagree with that last statement, but he prefaces the statement with "it doesn't necessarily mean lockdown" and that's where I think the alarmism and paranoia is really visible here. We are so, so far away from "lockdown" type levels that it's absurd to discuss lockdown here.

What I'm seeing right now is people who are chronically ill, people who are immune compromised, and people who are experiencing long covid (which may not be distinct from other post-viral syndromes from severe cases of flu, etc, but which may be more severe or more notable because of the prevalence of covid) are talking about feeling abandoned and attacked and left behind by society because covid is still out there, and still at extremely high levels.

I am seeing people who feel abandoned and attacked because the lgbtq+ events they are attending don't require masking. I am seeing people who are claiming that it is eugenicist that their schools don't have a negative test policy anymore.

And this comes together into two really disconcerting trends that I've been observing online for a while.

The claim that the pandemic is still as bad as it's ever been and in fact may be worse but we can't know that because "they" (the CDC, the government, capitalist institutions that want you back in the office, the university industrial complex that wants your dorm room dollars) are covering up the numbers and

Significant grievance at the fact that people are acting like number one is not true and are putting you at risk either out of thoughtlessness (because they don't realize they're putting you at risk) or malice (because they don't care if the sick die).

And those things are a recipe for disaster.

I think I've pretty robustly addressed point one; I don't think that there's good evidence that there's a secretly awful surge of covid that nobody is talking about. I think that there are some people who are being alarmist about covid who are basing all of their concern on wastewater numbers that have not held up as the harbinger of a massive wave of infections.

So let's talk about point number two and JK Rowling.

Barnes and Noble is not attacking you when it puts up a Hogwarts Castle display in the lobby. Your favorite youtuber isn't trying to hurt you when they offhandedly mention Harry Potter.

If you let every mention of Harry Potter or every person who enjoys that media franchise wound you, you are going to spend a lot of your time wounded.

People are not liking Harry Potter at you.

Okay.

People are also not not wearing masks at you.

You may be part of a minority group that experiences the potential for outsized harm as a result of majority groups engaging in perfectly reasonable behaviors.

There are kind, well-meaning, sensible people who go out every day and do something that may cause you harm and it's not because they want to hurt you or they don't care about whether you live or die, it is because they are making their own risk assessments based on their own lives and making the very reasonable assumption that people who are more concerned about covid than they are will take precautions to keep themselves safe.

We are not at a place in the pandemic where it is sensible to expect people with no symptoms of illness to mask in public as a matter of course or to present evidence of a recent negative test when entering a public building in their day-to-day life.

I think now is a really good time to sit down and ask yourself how you expect things to be with covid as an endemic part of our viral ecosystem. I think now is a good time to ask yourself what risk realistically looks like for you and for people who are unlike you. I think now is a good time to consider what would feel "safe" for you and how you could accomplish feeling safe as you navigate the world.

I'm probably going to continue masking in most indoor spaces for years. Maybe forever. There are accommodations that SHOULD be afforded to people who have to take more precautions than others (remote learning, remote visits, remote work, etc.), and we should demand those kinds of accommodations.

But it is going to poison you from the inside out if you are perpetually angry that people who don't have the same medical limitations as you are happy that they get to go shopping with their faces uncovered.

So now I want to talk to you about my father in law.

My father in law had a bone marrow transplant in 2015. That's the most immune compromised you can get without having your organs swapped out.

The care sheet for him after the transplant was a little overwhelming. The list of foods he couldn't eat was intimidating and the limitations on where he could go was depressing. It cautioned against going to large events, it recommended outdoor gatherings where possible but only if he could avoid sunlight and was somewhere with no history of valley fever. It said that he should wear masks indoors any time he was someplace with poor ventilation and that he should avoid contact with anyone who had an illness of any kind, taking special note to avoid children and anyone recently vaccinated for measles.

It was, in short, pretty much what someone immune compromised would need to do to try to avoid a viral infection. Sensible. Reasonable. Wash your hands and social distance; wear masks in sensitive contexts and don't spend time in enclosed places with people who have a communicable illness.

This is what life was always going to be like for people who are severely immune compromised, and it was always going to be incumbent upon the person with the illness to figure out how to operate in a society that is not built with them in mind.

It is not the job of every parent I encounter to tell me whether their child has been vaccinated against measles or chicken pox in the last three months. That isn't something that people need to do as part of their everyday life. However it IS my responsibility to check with the parents I'm hanging out with whether their children have been vaccinated against measles or chicken pox in the last three months so I know if it's safe for my immune compromised spouse to be around them.

If you want an environment in which you feel safe from covid, at this point in the pandemic (when the virus is endemic and not spreading rapidly as far as we can see from case counts) it is your responsibility to take the steps necessary to make you feel safe. Some of those steps will involve advocating for safety improvements in public spaces (again, indoor ventilation needs to be better and I'm personally pretty extreme about vaccination requirements; these are things we should be discussing in our school board meetings and at our workplaces), some of those steps will involve advocating for worker protections, guaranteed sick time, and the right to healthcare. But some of the things you're going to need to do to feel safe are going to come down to you.

If you are concerned about communicable diseases you have to be realistic about the fact that our society doesn't go out of its way to prevent communicable diseases - norovirus among food service workers pre-pandemic is pretty clear evidence of that. You are going to have to be proactive about your safety rather than expecting the world to act like Covid is at 2021-2022 levels when it is measurably not.

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