#pandemic quotes

[lowcountry-gothic]

Tweet by Mohamad Safa.

​[Text ID: “What we learned from COVID? That oil is worthless in a society without consumption. That healthcare has to be public because health is public. That 50% of jobs can be done from home while the other 50% deserve more than they're being paid. That we live in a society not an economy“ /End ID]

#quotes #mohamad safa #tweet #pandemic #covid-19 #politics #socialism #healthcare #work #society

[zilabee]

on walking in the park one evening during the pandemic, listening to music:

[the song that started playing] was I’ll Get You, which is really a true 50/50 Paul and John song, and as I listened, the song slipped behind my defences so easily that it took me a moment to realize what was happening, that I was hearing it, first in indistinct glimmers, then completely, with the same ears as I had when I was little. It sounds so slight the day afterward, like most such experiences. But it wasn’t. When the song ended I put on a random Beatles playlist, practically in a trance. I didn’t even want to look at my phone for long enough to get distracted by a text, I didn’t want to lose the feeling, and walked for hours through the night, listening. I had put so much of myself inside those songs for safekeeping.

...

There are millions of bigger Beatles fans than I am, but I feel stubbornly certain in my heart that no one can love the Beatles more than I do. They were incredibly alive to me from the moment I heard them. Looking back, I think it was their joyfulness I found so mesmerizing. Even their saddest songs have an undercurrent of happiness. (You’re never too far from a 7th chord with the Beatles.) I think it’s because they were four working class kids whose crazy plan had actually worked. Especially in their early pictures they look dumbstruck to be so famous and gifted and rich and happy. It’s there in their first perfect song, Please Please Me. A minute and a half in, John and Paul mess up the lyrics, then sort of cover it as they launch, with John laughing — but not to the listener, just caught up in the happiness of the playing with Paul, this other genius he found in Liverpool — and then covering the laugh with the start of the chorus.

...

Last night, I listened to all of it. In my head I tracked the other songs in which various band members laugh (I Should Have Known Better, It’s Only Love, If I Fell, etc.) and observed with intense satisfying scrutiny just how weird and sad and good John’s parts of A Day in the Life are, so much of each that it’s hard to believe it’s a part of mainstream culture... until you remember that one of Paul’s transcendent gifts is to lift the sensation of hopelessness from a song without rejecting its presence. I listened to I’ve Got a Feeling. “Everybody had a hard year.” I nodded, in the misting dark, as I headed home. In my defence it was very late by then. Everybody had a hard year.

[Charles Finch, LA Times, Nov 2021 ]

#I googled charles finch #because of that quote from a hotel manager about the four beatles 'pretending' to be in the same bed #but this is a different charles finch #but there are some quotes I really liked in here about the happiness of beatles music and the importance of that #which you feel so personally #but which is deeply universal #beatles quotes #quotes #beatles #the beatles #charles finch #pandemic

[burgercheese1812]

Frank: you know, body parts are often used as metaphors.

Frank: Like guts are courage

Hazel: the spine is also courage

Percy: Balls are also courage

Annabeth: you can ‘shoulder’ a burden

Leo: And toes are small pigs that participate in the market economy.

#he would #percy jackson #pjo fandom #heroes of olympus #leo pjo #leo valdez #piper pjo #piper mclean #annabeth chase #annabeth percy jackson #frank zhang #frank pjo #hazel levesque #hazel pjo #pjo headcanon #pjo incorrect quotes #vanilla extract #vanilla extract pandemic

[pipzeroes]

Excerpt from the above link:

First thing’s first. If the phrasing in the title feels unfamiliar, it has a purpose: We are eliminating the passive voice from the pandemic. Right now.

Someone INFECTED Neil Gaiman with COVID-19.

And many someones in overlapping layers of responsibility ENABLED this infection.

This linguistic shift from the passive to active voice might seem irrelevant but, instead of just echoing the framing we see in the headlines — that Neil Gaiman got COVID-19— it’s time to own that somebody has infected Neil.

The passive voice has served a macabre purpose in this pandemic. The passive voice, by erasing the subject of the sentence, neatly obscures accountability, and with it our own role in unmitigated infections. Moreover, it has prevented us from identifying the layers of responsibility in enabling infections on a mass scale. This mental block is the first obstacle to advocating for effective mitigations and constructive solutions. It stops us from preventing infections. But that is changing now.

It is time to own the damage that we are causing by infecting others with COVID-19. I believe that we all know, deep inside, that we are causing harm. And many of us are suffering from the cognitive dissonance of pretending that we aren’t. Because, in a pandemic, this is serious and large-scale harm.

This harm that, according to estimates, has killed over 25 million people and disabled at least 65 million and counting. The sooner we face the harm we are causing by infecting other people, the less damage we will cause to ourselves, to our loved ones, to our community, to strangers on the other side of the world. And to people who entertain and inspire us, like speculative fiction author and TV creator Neil Gaiman. And inspiration is necessary when we are facing so many challenges. It’s that simple.

COVID-19 is a serious, multi-system vascular disease that creates severe and cumulative damage.

Reinfections tend to be more severe and Long COVID occurs in 1/10–1/3 infections.

Up to 60% of infections are spread asymptomatically… Wait, let me rephrase that. People, who are asymptomatic, or presymptomatic, are infecting others with COVID-19 in up to 60% of cases.

A person who is presymptomatic can transmit a COVID-19 infection up to two days before symptoms arise.

People infect other people with SARS-CoV-2 through aerosols. An infected person expels them just by exhaling. The aerosols accumulate in the air, and spread across large spaces like cigarette smoke. They also remain in the air for hours, so even if a room is empty, if a symptomatic person was there earlier, the aerosols will still be there. Crowded, indoor spaces are high-risk for transmission.

We are currently in a wave caused by a new variant for which a vaccine has yet to be developed. In a crowd of 100, statistically 1-2 people will have active infections.

If we put all of this together, we see that live events in crowded, indoor spaces are particularly dangerous, and that masking only when someone is symptomatic is woefully inadequate to prevent infecting others. So, in order to not infect other people, we need to individually mask at these events, and to collectively apply pressure to venues that are enabling these infections, as well as to lawmakers who have removed protections.

That’s the tl;dr. Now, if you have some time, and feel motivated to prevent further infections, let’s look more systematically at the problem of people infecting other people, especially at live events, and how to constructively address it.

Neil Gaiman requested masking at his events, from both venues and audience members

It’s fucked-up that, three days after Neil Gaiman requested that attendees voluntarily mask at his tour events — because the venues themselves refused to enforce audience masking — Neil announced on social media that he has another COVID-19 infection and “this time it means business.”

This infection — and any COVID-19 infection — is terrible, but unfortunately not surprising. We are in a wave caused by multiple variants, and lawmakers worldwide dropped most COVID-19 public health mitigations earlier this year. So people who are appearing at live events now are at an incredibly high risk of being infected. The risk is also increased due to a swarm of new variants — so many versions of the virus are circulating now, you can get a case in August and another in September

As a fan of Neil Gaiman, I guess I wished that somehow it would miss him. COVID-19 infects the brain, and his brain has created my favorite TV series, Good Omens, a queer love story between an angel and a demon. This series has helped me, and countless others, heal from religious trauma. It also rekindled my appreciation for David Tennant in his role as the demon Crowley, who witnesses everything from Old Testament atrocities to a modern-day armageddon, and seems to be the only one suggesting that God might be a tyrant. With so many of us experiencing a dark night of the soul in the pandemic, it’s much-needed validation.

What also worries, but not surprises, me about Neil’s infection is that, if his statement that “this time it means business” is anything to go by, (especially for someone who can be quite understated), this infection is more severe than any previous ones. This unfortunately is also not surprising, as reinfections tend to be more severe. The damage from these infections is cumulative, and SARS-CoV-2 attacks the immune system, in many cases after a person has recovered from an initial infection. Viral reservoirs continually attacking the body are believed to be the mechanism of Long COVID. However, his more severe course reminds me of other performers who are currently touring, almost without exception at massive, indoor, unmasked events.

Actually, it’s more accurate to say that it scares the hell out of me.

Actors from another TV series beloved by queer fans, Our Flag Means Death, including Rhys Darby, Vico Ortiz and Samson Kayo, will appear at London Comic Con on October 27–29th. The event will have more than 100,000 attendees and does not require masks. And David Tennant, who sparked my motivation to advocate for safer venues, will appear at New York Comic Con October 12-15th. NYCC will have over 200,000 attendees and also does not require masks. I checked.

The math on the likely damage is pretty fucking grim.

It’s estimated that in a crowd of 100, 1–2 people have a COVID-19 infection. So that’s at least 2,000 attendees spreading the virus.

Each person infects 2–3 other people. This is total, so they may not infect people at this event. But because the venue is extremely high risk: indoors, crowded, no mitigations, they may infect more people than averge.

So, from 2,000 people who go to Comic Con with infections, that’s at least 4,000 people that they will infect.

Between ⅓–1/10 infections result in Long COVID, so at least 400 people statistically may develop Long COVID. From one event.

tl;dr 200,000 attendees/100= 2,000 infections x 2= 4,000 newly infected/10 =400 Long COVID cases

And that’s the conservative estimate. The upper-end estimate, based on data, is up to 2%.

You can bet that I’m well-aware that David Tennant has a .2%-2% chance of developing Long COVID from this one event, especially because he’s due to play MacBeth in London this winter. The luckiest person who ever existed would statistically develop Long COVID after their 50th event.

It’s not just headlining performers who need to worry about infections. Any attendee has a .2% chance of developing Long COVID from this one event, and that’s a tragedy in the fan community, but also for people working on staff who don’t choose to be there. I wonder what would happen if the damage were immediately visible, like setting fire to 400 guests, fans, and staff people at the door. What then?

If you have read my first article sounding the alarm on unprecedented numbers of performers becoming seriously ill and dying in the pandemic, you will know that my own fannish devotion to David Tennant inspired me to advocate for COVID-19 mitigations at venues and nourishes me with the love and compassion to do this work. With Neil Gaiman’s infection, it hits home that everyone who is currently doing live events, particularly large ones with no mitigations, are quite likely going to be infected. And in the fourth year of the pandemic, that means reinfected, which means that, like in Neil’s case, it will probably be more severe.

Performers are just my own corner of advocacy, but we all breathe the same air, so these new infections will affect everyone. And people with disabilities, who work in service and customer-facing jobs, or who have inadequate access to medical care, will be the most vulnerable. But most people now have had at least one infection, so we’re all facing danger here.

This is why I want to prevent people from infecting people at events, and by doing so to raise awareness in the wider public that this is an escalating emergency. And I think it’s achievable.

The first step is identifying the causes, both individual and structural. Then to come up with workable interventions at each point of responsbility.

Individual responsibility: someone infected Neil Gaiman with COVID-19

Preventing infections begins at the individual level. As the founder of #FansMASKUP, which is dedicated to raising awareness in the fan community about masking at live events, my first feeling was rage at the person who infected Neil. The incubation period for COVID-19 varies widely, from 2–14 days, though on average 5–6. So, if Neil developed symptoms on October 5th, it’s possible that someone in the audience on the October 2nd event infected him. And if that person is such a fan of Neil that they paid to see him live, I ask: why didn’t they just wear a mask? But even this is not so simple.

From my conversations with other fans who have been diligent about masking, they sometimes experience harassment, and fear for their safety and mental health. And since so many of us are LGBTQIA+, neurodivergent, BIPOC and/or disabled, we are statistically more vulnerable to people harassing us, or even assaulting us, if we are the only ones masking. So as much as I’d like to judge this person for infecting someone who they admire, I have to admit that safety is too often a real concern for our community.

What can we do on an individual level to promote safer venues?

If we feel sufficient safety to mask at live events, then we should do so.

If we are going with friends, we can encourage them to mask too.

We can connect on social media and find other fans who are attending and mask together.

Heck, if we have a spare $20 (which not all of us do), we can even give out masks at the event so that we’re not the only one.

Aside from fear and social pressure, people may have stopped masking due to exhaustion, despair and misinformation — we MUST start again. Every masked person can break a chain of transmission and save many, many lives. Maybe even Neil Gaiman’s life, and certainly the lives of your loved ones, including fellow fans.

Institutional responsibility: venues are enabling people to infect other people with COVID-19

It would be a mistake to lay all of the responsibility on the person who infected Neil. There has been systemic neglect, and even malfeasance, at every level of responsibility, and the people who are making these decisions are enabling people to infect others. Though this reaches into the level of policy, let’s begin with the most direct enabler in this instance: the venues.

Remember, Neil said on social media that he requested audience masking at venues, but they refused. Then after his first tour date, he announced that someone had infected with with SARS-CoV-2. We can’t know whether someone infected him at this particular event, though the timing is consistent with the virus’s incubation period. Regardless, the venue has approximately 1,700 seats, and if Neil’s event was sold-out, as most are, that’s: 17 active infections, 51 new infections, 5 cases of Long COVID. So wherever someone infected Neil with COVID, it is worthwhile to advocate for venues to use mitigations.

The mitigations required to significantly reduce people infecting other people at live events are relatively simple and have been proven time-and-again to reduce the the transmission of SARS-CoV-2:

Audience masking and vaccination

Making use of HEPA air purification/filtration.

This is achievable, and venues should have been doing this since 2020. Some venues do it, and it is certainly possible, and not terribly complicated, for more venues to adopt these simple precautions.

Now, the more complex question is: if it’s so simple, why are venues refusing to use mitigations? Some of it is simply greed. It costs money, though not a lot of money, between £300–600 ($370–740) to purchase a HEPA air filter. And for truly cash-strapped venues, vendors likes Smart Air UK are renting out HEPA air filters for events. So there really is no excuse. For those who are unfamiliar with HEPA, here’s a primer from outreach coordinator (and fan herself) for Smart Air UK, Guilia Villanucci.

I’m quoting at length, but tl;dr: HEPA purifiers can remove more than 99.97% of virus particles from the air, and protecting Neil at one of his events would only have cost between $400-$700. And you can’t put a price on his brain, so…

HEPA stands for “high-efficiency particulate air.” HEPA air purifiers are nothing else than a box with a filter and a fan inside. Researchers agree that, based on their efficiency, air purifiers can remove more than 99.97% of virus particles from the air when used continuously. Now, does this extra layer of protection have to be very expensive? It can be, especially if you look only at brand names without paying attention to the technical specifications. I recommend Smart Air products, partly because I work for Smart Air UK, but mostly because these air purifiers are cheaper than most on the market, are highly efficient, and are pretty quiet. NOTE: If you are a performer based in Chicago, USA, you should check out Clean Air Club, they loan air purifiers at no extra cost to artists and touring musicians. If you are a venue or a performer based in the UK, you can rent air purifiers from us, or purchase them to take them on tour with you, just like singer and songwriter The Anchoress does. An investment of between £300 to £600 will probably be enough to keep performers safer in a venue if you purchase from Smart Air UK.

Again, HEPA air purifiers are effective and affordable and I can only think a noxious mix of greed, inertia and denial are preventing most venues from using this basic precaution.

There may be other financial considerations. Requiring masks could lead to lost revenue as people who refuse to mask will not attend. And, as of yet, venues face no financial liability for enabling infections. Though with lawsuits winding their way through courts regarding liability for COVID-19 infections, this may change.

However, like fans, venues may also have legitimate concerns for safety, The far-right has so politicized masking that the people responsible for venues are likely afraid of repercussions, ranging from the awkwardness of barring an unmasked person from attending an event, to someone throwing a brick through the window, or even assaulting a person on staff. These fears are not entirely unreasonable. But we need to make clear that these venues are enabling people to infect their headliners, Neil Gaiman or David Tennent or Taylor Swift. Additionally, lack of mitigations endangers attendees and people on staff, and lawsuits against employers who have exposed employees to COVID-19 infection have had more success. This changes the risk calculation.

What can we do to encourage venues to create safer event spaces?

We can contact the venues themselves, beginning with the ones who likely are not using basic mitigations. These can be any venue where you or one of your favorites will be in attendance.

We can also start with the venues where Neil was scheduled to appear. Here is a list of these venues with the ways to contact them.

Emerson Colonial Theatre (888) 616–0272 [email protected] Twitter-X/IG: @BroadwayBoston

The Westport Library (203) 291–4800 Twitter-X/IG: @WestportLibrary

Cooper Union [email protected] (212) 353–4100 Twitter-X/IG: @cooperunion

Peter J Sharp Theatre (212) 864–5400 [email protected] Twitter-X/IG: @SymphonySpace

Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts [email protected] 407.839.0119 @DrPhillipsCtr

Venice Performing Arts Center [email protected] (941) 218–3779

Zoellner Arts Center at Lehigh University 610–758–2787 [email protected] @LehighU @ZoellnerArts

Frikirkjan i Reykvavik+353 552 [email protected] @iclandnoir

Piggott Theatre (British Library) [phone] [email protected] Twitter-X/IG: @BritishLibrary

New Jersey Performing Arts Center 1973–642–8989 [email protected] @NJPAC

If, like me, cold-calling gives you anxiety, here’s a script that you could follow:

“Hello, I am calling to ask what COVID-19 mitigations you use. [If they require audience masking and use HEPA air purification, consider thanking them for their conscientiousness. If they do not, you could say:] Neil Gaiman requested COVID mitigations at venues, but now someone has infected him. To prevent infections at your venue, I am requesting that you require audience masking and purchase a HEPA air purification unit. These are proven to significantly reduce COVID transmissions.”

I know, it’s a bit wooden, so feel free to improvise. But remember: please don’t harass these people, because most likely you will be talking to a staff person and not the person who has made the decision not to use mitigations. And if the person answering the phone is on your side, this has a better chance of success.

You can also request mitigations through social media and e-mails, although phone calls bring the most attention. But do what’s at your comfort level. Most of us who are aware of the ongoing pandemic are burnt-out and need to conserve our energy.

To sum-up, we need to hold ourselves and other fans accountable, but they face real risks and cannot be held wholly responsible. Same for venues. We need to apply pressure for them to adopt COVID-19 mitigations, but they are not wholly responsible. This brings us to the final level of accountability for people infecting other people with COVID-19.

Structural responsibility: governments are enabling infections by eliminating COVID-19 protections

The highest level of responsibility falls to governments, generally, and public health authorities specifically. It’s alarming how quickly people have reverted to using little-to-no precautions. But, remember, for many places lawmakers only eliminated public health protections within the past few months.

The state of affairs in which we find ourselves is not normal, and I think it is a brief interlude in which politicians and the very wealthy are encouraging us to continue with business-as-usual, but as those around us become sicker and sicker, we know that this is not sustainable. If 10%-30% of COVID-19 infections lead to Long COVID, and we conservatively assume that most people are infected once per year, what will that look like in ten years?

The most wide-reaching change required to stop people from infecting other people is on the level of policy. There is a basic social contract for governments to ensure public health because, in a complex society, individuals cannot carry that entire burden themselves.

In a simpler example: governments are responsible for putting stop signs at intersections. If a government legislated that there should be no more stop signs, people would get seriously injured or die in more car accidents. And we could blame the individuals who cruise their cars through the intersections and t-bone other people in their cars, or the city whose employees removed the stop signs — but the lion’s share of responsibility falls onto the government who legislated that there should be no more stop signs.

In the widest frame, we also need to advocate to our city, county, state, provincial and national lawmakers for a return of COVID-19 protections.

We also need to advocate for improved public health communication. It’s alarming how many people lack the basic facts of how not to infect themselves and each other with COVID-19.

In a nutshell: If you have learned anything new about COVID-19 from this article, that’s a problem.

**A concerned David Tennant fan should not be doing science communication that is the rightful job of public health officials.**

We need to pressure public health authorities to improve communication, and meanwhile to educate ourselves and each other about COVID.

What can we do to bring back COVID-19 protections on a societal level?

1. Call or write to your representative. By mail, if you can. I know, it’s a pain and an archaic throwback to pre-digital times, but this is most likely to be heard. But if it’s not possible, call or e-mail as it does make a difference.

Find your representative: US: https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative UK: https://members.parliament.uk/FindYourMP

2. Educate yourself and your community The Pandemic Accountability Index maintains a large repository of research on COVID-19 and its effects on the body here:

https://www.panaccindex.info/p/what-covid-does-to-the-body and here: What SARS-CoV-2 Does to the Body (2nd Edition, July 2023)

3. Stay updated on COVID news. Folks on social media have been sounding the alarm on the pandemic, like @1goodtern and performers specifically, like @MeetJess and me, @WaltzTales.

A twitter user has also kindly provided this list of scientists and concerned people worth following: @kprather88 (full credit to efforts to educate about all things covid) @jimrosenthal4 (C-R box, ’nuff said) @linseymarr (MacArthur genius grant https://forbes.com/sites/michaeltnietzel/2023/10/04/macarthur-foundation-names-the-winners-of-its-2023-genius-grants/?sh=6c3c96af4379… ) @joeyfox85 (mitigating airborne spread) @c19vaccinefacts (safe & effective) @scienceupfirst (not just covid!)

The final level of responsibility: the universe

This may sound a bit woo-woo, but if you read my first piece, which started with a loving-kindness meditation, you’ll have clocked that I think attending to ourselves emotionally is necessary for facing this emergency.

I honestly don’t know if there’s anything like a God who has an overview of the situation. And even though my Theology professor said the question of theodicy (“why is there evil in the world?”) isn’t a particularly interesting question, my answer is:

But *gestures broadly at everything.*

If there is a God they have a lot to answer for. But I do think that a real emotional crisis we’re facing is black-pilled misanthropy where we want to let the world burn, and all humans in it. But Neil Gaiman is a human. Whoever inspires us is a human. The feeling of being inspired in this particular way is your human experience. We humans aren’t more special than other animals. We only have the experiences that are unique to us in the landscape of all things, including high-concept science fiction from dynamic minds like Neil Gaiman’s.

I don’t think we should deny or suppress our feelings of despair and rage, or even hate, but to acknowledge and take care of them, and at the same time to nourish those aspects in us which support our joy and thriving.

It is possible to suffer and thrive at the same time. Perhaps if we could come up for a word for it, it would capture an essential strategy for moving forward with this pandemic. What do you think: Suffriving? Thrivering?

Let’s try leaning into some “Thrivering” together by advocating for safer venues, so that people like Neil Gaiman can continue inspiring us.

Special thanks to: Giulia Villanucci, Smart Air UK, Outreach Coordinator Nerdcake78 for the scoop. And for the slow-burn Aziraphale cuddlefic that is keeping me sane.

And everyone who is providing information, amplifying posts, and offering support. I would not be able to do this without the people who are helping out of simple kindness and solidarity.

#should have been more explicitly clear about this but too late to edit as it's been reblogged: this is an excerpt of someone else's article #this is not my own writing I am just quoting the link here #neil gaiman #david tennent #covid is not over #covid is airborne #covid is ongoing #pandemic #mask up #sars-cov-2 #long covid #masks #covid #covid-19 #long post

[remythologise]

bestie… what’s the 600k incomplete merlin fic please drop the title

SO glad you asked and also I misspoke. It is actually 871k. THE HANDS OF A HUNDRED WINTERS by FOURLEGGEDFISH. It is in four parts and you both can and should read it despite being incomplete, I have only read 3/4 parts because I am loathe to part with the reading experience of writing this good. This is both my favourite Merlin fic I've ever read and potentially my favourite longfic I've ever read (though hard to assess when it's incomplete and I haven't read it all as yet). It's AMAZING to me that the author has managed to sustain and even increase my interest over this many words, a feat managed by no other fanfiction I've read longer than 400k words ever (and I read a lot of those!). Don't get me wrong it's not perfect, and I do have minor scruples with some things*! I also don't think it's for everyone, my dear friend didn't like it and found it too dark for her personal tastes. But for ME? SPECIFICALLY FOR ME? To quote something I said to my friends 'wells for boys, lads, wells for fucking boys.' I also think it's so immaculately beautifully written that even if it's not your personal cup of tea you should read it anyway. ALSO the sheer dazzling breadth of research that went into this fic is REMARKABLE. I am not joking when I say this author has achieved everything I want to achieve as a writer in this fic. In many ways this is Ur Merlin Fic. The Once and Future Fic. To Me!

*I have minor scruples with almost every fic I've ever read and frankly remarkable how few scruples occur with a fic on this size. There are also scruples I had with things like tone, characterisation or even sex scenes that were then resolved with plot explanations that made sense a mere half a million words later in a quite satisfying way. This fic is a masterpiece in how it threads things like that through and pays them off very handsomely. I know how much blood sweat and tears goes into creating fanfic and I am overwhelmed by the skill, love and zillions of hours that must have gone into crafting this. Nothing but respect for such an incredible piece of art.

#this is what fanfiction should aspire to be. this is the star by which we should all navigate. #merlin #fic rec #arthur x merlin #ask #anonymous #kira for ts #I cannot say enough about this fic you should see my group chat history about it. #again I do have a few scruples or Things I Would Have Done Slightly Differently but like #what is that in the face of being constantly dazzled by the writing. arrogance I'd say. I only mention it bc as I said #I know it's not for everyone and I will state that upfront #but this is literally like to me. everything I've ever ever ever wanted in a merlin fic #and more! #looking back through my chat log on this fic and to quote me #funny that some people will just come out of covid and write a 800000 word cross-era merlin epic #well we all went through things during the pandemic wish mine was half as productive

[zeawesomebirdie]

Definitely totally not inspired by seeing a post about transitioning-

Day 1 of testosterone vs 3 years 5 months and 22 days

Ngl the most surprising part of my transition has been coming full circle back to dressing like a time traveler, just instead of 50's repro dresses I'm wearing what my mom calls "80s throwback" plus late 00's makeup

#also i did not have 'i want to wear more makeup and jewelry' on my pandemic bingo card #but then again #i didnt have 'actually be able to transition' on my pandemic bingo card either #and look where we are now 😌 #my only quote unquote transition goal was to look like a bear #and while it will take *several* more years *at least* to get the rest of my body hair #id say i achieved it 😌

[ravenkings]

Feminists know that if women are paid equal wages for equal work, women will gain sexual as well as economic independence. But feminists have refused to face the fact that in a woman-hating social system, women will never be paid equal wages. Men in all their institutions of power are sustained by the sex labor and sexual subordination of women. The sex labor of women must be maintained; and systematic low wages for sex-neutral work effectively force women to sell sex to survive. The economic system that pays women lower wages than it pays men actually punishes women for working outside marriage or prostitution, since women work hard for low wages and still must sell sex. The economic system that punishes women for working outside the bedroom by paying low wages contributes significantly to women's perception that the sexual serving of men is a necessary part of any woman's life: or how else could she live? Feminists appear to think that equal pay for equal work is a simple reform, whereas it is no reform at all; it is a revolution. Feminists have refuse to face the fact that equal pay for equal work is impossible as long as men rule women, and right-wing women have refused to forget it. Devaluation of women's labor outside the home pushes women back into the home and encourages women to support a system in which, as she sees it, he is paid for both of them–her share of his wage being more than she could earn herself.

–Andrea Dworkin, Right Wing Women

#this is making me think of the frankly ghoulish push at the beginning of the pandemic to get young women to make only fans accounts #andrea dworkin #quote

[pandemic-info]

That laws against seeking higher wages and lower rents were necessary suggests that in the immediate aftermath of the Black Death and in the subsequent decades of the fourteenth century there was a perceptible change in mentalité.

... Lamentations for times past, when people knew their station in life, were common in the decades after the Black Death.

... Laborers in Italy demanded higher wages, too. In Florence, the chronicler Matteo Villani noted that “serving girls and unskilled women with no experience in service and stable boys want at least 12 florins per year, and the most arrogant among them 18 or 24 florins per year, and so also nurses and minor artisans working with their hands three times or nearly the usual pay, and laborers on the land all want oxen and all seed, and want to work the best lands, and to abandon all others.” That these demands were more than the disgruntled wishes of a few is clear when one sees the official responses: attempts to cap wages and force people to accept employment no matter the terms.

- Pandemics: A Very Short Introduction, by Christian W. McMillen

—

Sound familiar? "Quiet quitting", anyone? How about all the ridiculous articles on the disadvantages of remote work?

The appearance of the word "arrogant" there in reference to workers requesting fair or even good pay is especially funny.

—

The Black Death (~ mid 1340s to 1350s) was the most deadly pandemic in recorded history.

#black death #pandemic #historical #pandemics a very short introduction #book #quotes #plague #economy #quiet quitting #workers rights #covid #history repeats itself #those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it

[peevishpants]

self portraits over about from 2018 to 2023.

somehow all of these r supposed to be the same person, drawn by the same person?

#weiwei art #art of weiwei?!?!?! #consistent style may be god but whats a god to a non believer #sorry for quoting kanye but frank ocean sings that line anyway #self portrait #artists on tumblr #i went from rectangles to circles to hexagon glasses!!! #and so many jank pandemic haircuts #my wardrobe hasn't changed save like 3 new garments #...i need to buy new clothes...

[renegade-hierophant]

I shared this back in 2020 when COVID-19 pandemic started and there was still a lot of fear and uncertainty.

#marcus aurelius #quote #stoic #stoicism #plague #pandemic #covid #covid 19

[evilkitsch]

seeing people pass around articles with this quote in the headline

the “expert” in question quoted here is john fulton, a pharmaceutical industry consultant for vaccines, originally told to the daily mail, a tabloid notorious for its sensationalism.

he is not an expert in virology or epidemiology. he is an expert at selling vaccines.

i’m not saying bird flu isn’t scary, but if you’re gonna share information, please share information that comes from actual virologists and epidemiologists.

#also the quote is like. this could be 100 times worse than covid IF xyz happens #and xyz hasn’t happened nor is there any evidence for it happening #txt #pandemic stuff

[missnmikaelson]

Caroline: Klaus... Why did you draw a pentagram on the floor?

Klaus: Your text told me to satanize the house before you returned.

Caroline: …

Caroline: I wrote sanitize, Klaus!

#klaroline #Klaus Mikaelson #caroline forbes #the vampire diaries #the originals #incorrect Klaroline quotes #early pandemic days lbr

[quotesfrommyreading]

Clinicians may see tens of thousands of patients during their career, but there will be one or two cases strange enough that they call the health department for assistance. This is especially important in developing or low- to middle-income countries where there's not necessarily great diagnostic support, and autopsies are rare. You really are depending completely on clinical acumen, and intuition, to discover the anomalies. Once there's a big outbreak everybody realizes it, but the initial ones – you need to find them and put prevention measures in place if you want to decrease the size of the outbreak before it gets out of hand.

  —  The Next Pandemic: On the Front Lines Against Humankind’s Gravest Dangers (Ali S. Khan)

#book quotes #ali s. khan #the next pandemic: on the front lines against humankind’s gravest dangers #healthcare #medicine #public health #epidemiology

[eelhound]

"Ralph Nader says that the U.S. operates as a 'democracy of minimums' (minimal pay, minimal education, minimal healthcare, etc.). In that light, Biden’s messaging [that 'the pandemic is over'] reflects not just a flippant dismissal of the medical reality of COVID but belies a far darker truth as explained by epidemiologist Justin Feldman: 'Things become much clearer when you realize the debate [ab]out whether we’re in a pandemic is actually a debate about whether the ruling class should do anything to address the pandemic.' Feldman also gave an excellent talk in which he argued that the country’s pandemic response has been used to 'assimilate' COVID into a narrative of personal responsibility and choice which characterizes the way we treat other chronic social problems such as racism, environmental pollution, or poverty."

- Nathan J. Robinson, from "Biden Declared the Pandemic Over. I Immediately Got COVID." Current Affairs, 26 September 2022.

#nathan j. robinson #quote #quotations #covid 19 #pandemic #healthcare #american culture #american politics #classism #neoliberalism #capitalism #ralph nader

[sunburnacoustic]

With Muse I've done a lot of songs dealing with apocalyptic visions and post apocalyptic ideas, so a lot of Muse's music and a lot of my music has come from a place of deep anxiety or worry, and then in that I sometimes find this kind of bizarre optimism, which is unusual. That's what I've found through delving through my inner psyche on songs like Apocalypse Please and Take A Bow. These songs are quite 'end of the world'-sounding.

But what I've also noticed is I'll write songs like Invincible and [Tomorrow's World], where somewhere in the murky waters of anxiety and worry, there is this deep-rooted optimism and hope. That to me was the right tone [for a song released during early lockdown].

Me being me, I could've obviously easily written another, totally doomsday, end-of-the-world type song, but I'll probably save that for the next Muse album [Will Of The People]. I don't think it's the right time for that kind of song.

Matt Bellamy on his different modes of songwriting and where he draws inspiration from | Zane Lowe interview for Apple Music, 2020

#aesthetic whatever—I need to know: is it readable?? #matt bellamy #muse band #muse #on songwriting #Muse song themes #muse quotes #muse interviews #2020 #one of the few periods of Muse that doesn't really belong to any 'era'. Just pandemic homesitting. #lyrics #writing #music #musicians #rock musicians #Zane Lowe

[devsquared]

For Theatre International we're supposed to bring in the text of a post from the internet that we find this week that is particularly striking

There's a bird site post floating around here I'm going to use, a post Michael Sheen wrote to a fan in answer to a question about their lack of confidence causing them trouble in a role they'd been cast in:

"Imagine the character is a real person who can only live again when someone plays them. They're desperate to be alive. To connect with people. To breathe. To see. To touch. Only you have the power to give that to them. Now get on with it and leave your worrying about yourself"

I love this so, so much. Memorised it immediately

Never been able to just "be confident." Oh sure I can fake it, but it's brittle and liable to lead to a self-centred sort of insecurity that revolves on itself getting ever worse, like the midnight picking of a hangnail. Bah. Useless. Boring

But shift the lens from the artist as someone who has to do it "right" - whatever that even means - to the artist as someone helping someone else, that's a mental-emotional place I can work from and thrive even in terrifying or frustrating conditions

It's like helping a friend move house, isn't it? You don't endlessly wonder if you're carrying the cartons "correctly." Or how other people will perceive your carton carrying. Cartons need carried; you carry cartons. Doesn't even matter if you're not confident about it. Your friend needs help and you provide it. I'm not trying to say there's no craft; I am saying that if there's craft in carton carrying, it probably comes after self-aware pantomime carton carrying gives way to authentic carton carrying

Very cool and sexy of the world to give me the 52 words that sever the entire artistic process from the rubbish holding me back right when I needed them and was ready to listen

#acting #quotes #Michael Sheen #confidence #hi yes #welcome to my art blog/ photo/ blog / apparently now therapy journal #where I apparently write in round-about fashion about trying to get over whatever the pandemic did to me