i am not a religious person, but there is a popular saying that religious people often trot out:

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.

unfortunately, a lot of people in government seem to have more courage than wisdom right now.

and, maybe they should go watch the wizard of oz.

https://nationalpost.com/news/fatalism-effect-study-says-people-who-overestimate-covid-19-spread-are-less-likely-to-follow-rules

to be clear - recognizing the futility of fighting this virus is not "fatalism", it's just sound reasoning and rational thinking.

and, why is it so cold in here?

fuck.

i've got the window open, and i'm still shivering.

listen.

i'm not getting my information from anywhere at all besides a sense of deductive reasoning. if i have a source to share, i'm not shy to do so.

but, i don't read social media and i don't follow really any "alternative media" at all, for the reason that i find so much of it to be so controlled. those quotes are there for good reason; i'd be more likely to rip apart much of what you see in the "alternative press" as statist bullshit than to follow it with any kind of seriousness.

i'm not a bot, i'm just an independent thinker. that's all. and, what you're afraid of is the example of somebody carrying through with actual critical reasoning, not some imaginary russian propaganda that doesn't actually exist.

what's changed with me over the years is that i've stopped reading the news. so, this page doesn't have the kind of media deconstruction that it may have had in previous years, because i've decided that i have better things to do and don't want to waste my time with it...

i try to get my information from the most basic sources possible, to try to minimize bias, and then draw my own conclusions based on my own knowledge base, and my own reasoning skills.

that is what scares you.

and, your fear is what scares the fuck out of me.

- i don't want comments threads here
- i don't want ads here
- while i would like an rss option, i don't want a friends list, and i don't want a feed to read, and won't read one if i have one

i migrated here to get away from social media, because i don't want to be involved with it.

so, i don't want this site to be more like facebook - the whole point was to get away from it.

and, i should have the option to avoid it, if that's what i want.

there's unfortunately a new interface on the backend of this site that looks like it's going to make it a lot harder to use. i tried it for a few seconds and switched back, because i don't have the interest in relearning how to use something that i already know how to use.

why do they do this? what's the purpose of it? it doesn't make them any money. it doesn't make anybody's lives better. it's just a pointless annoyance.

i suppose i'll have to figure this out eventually, but the first thing i noticed is that they eliminated the separation on the side between published posts, drafts and all posts. how do i find drafts, then? i don't really want to figure it out right now, but i guess i'll have to, eventually.

they're also eliminating the search function, apparently - frustrating for a large site like this, that has over 20,000 posts. hopefully, i can bring it back. but, it's there because i want it there. why take it away, only to force me to re-implement it? do you think i have nothing better to do, or what?

lastly - and this is going to be an incredible annoyance if they don't fix it - they appear to be listing the posts by their post title strictly, meaning a post like this would show up as "untitled post". are they trying to force me to title every single fucking post? why? i don't want to title this post - it doesn't deserve a title, it's just a thought. so, are they going to make me come up with some stupid title as a place holder every time i post a thought? again, why?

this site isn't broken, google. don't fix it. it's not wanted...

this government had a choice of models to pick from, including it's own research, and it picked the most authoritarian, most draconian, most heavy-handed, most right-wing, most conservative models that it could find.

countries like singapore, china, south korea and taiwan - fascist states.

and, we're seeing the obvious result of it - we are now afraid of our own government.

congratulations; that's an accomplishment. no more than ten years ago, we had one of the strongest levels of trust in our government on the planet, justified or not.

we were once like sweden.

now we're like singapore.

welcome to the dark ages, canada. they could last a while...

i actually don't think the pandemic in ontario has even started yet, but the low testing numbers are sending the government the message that we don't want to co-operate with the lockdown.

what i think is happening is that people are deciding that the facts are that the disease is not likely to be harmful to them, which is true. maybe they're making an attempt to avoid the weak, like they should. maybe they're not. but, they're making a decision that this isn't serious enough to seek medical attention.

and they don't want to be told to self-isolate at the butt of a shotgun.

we saw this happen in singapore, and it blew up in the end. that is the likely end outcome.

who do you blame for that, when it happens? well, i told you that was going to happen in the first place, and i'm telling you it's going to happen again. the authoritarian response in ontario has made people afraid to seek treatment. the entity that you blame is the government, and all three levels are responsible for this. this is a complete failure in government policy...

don't listen to me, listen to the scientists - they'll tell you this is still spreading, and that it's increasingly spreading undetected.

you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. and, while i didn't expect much better from the dumbass at queen's park, or the conservative mayor of toronto, the authoritarian response from the feds has been very saddening.

what do you do now?

it's probably too late to unscare people. you'll just have to sit and wait.

but, you should also recognize that people are voting with their feet.

we do not consent to this and we want the government to stop.