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Something like that, because it shows that the correct thoughts were in people's heads and yet they still managed to get COVID so wrong.
COVID came first. So maybe they didn't have the correct thoughts in their heads then. The massive criticism they received during and after COVID seems like it would cause exactly this.
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They got it wrong because their "utilitarian" calculus was fundamentally compromised by tribal bias. When it came to their ingroup, Liberty was priceless. When it came to their outgroup, no punishment was too harsh.
Eh, the lockdowns and other measures applied to all tribes.
I think the most relevant distinction here is women. Namely, there weren’t all that many women dying from their bathhouse adventures in the 90s. So the men kept doing their high-risk behavior.
Covid on the other hand involved all of society, so the neurotics wanted to give it all they had.
Don’t blame utilitarianism for situations where it clearly is not being applied!
The monkeypox outbreak was a result of, to put it delicately, large-scale in-person activities being conducted during lockdown by the gay community. Monkeypox was significantly harder to spread than COVID, which means a monkeypox outbreak during a COVID outbreak very strongly indicates severe violation of the COVID lockdowns and other measures. I recall no enforcement measures of any kind being applied to these activities or the people organizing or participating in them. Did I miss something?
Likewise, the Mostly Peaceful Protests consisted of large scale mass gatherings that made a mockery of the lockdowns and other COVID measures. These were explicitly exempted from the COVID restrictions, despite those restrictions offering an amazing opportunity to restrain the extremely severe damage they would go on to cause, and despite those same measures being strictly applied at the same time by the same authorities to Red-coded groups like, say, churches.
Now, maybe my recollection is wrong, and I welcome correction. But the above does not seem compatible with "the lockdowns and other measures applied to all tribes". It looks like the lockdowns and other measures being applied in an appallingly biased, tribal fashion. COVID lockdown measures directly violated my civil rights, and the civil rights of my immediate friends and family members, while large portions of Blue Tribe enjoyed exemption as a class from those same violations.
You are showing signs of a victim complex.
The COVID lockdowns existed in and only in 2020. Monkeypox in the U.S. went from May to October 2022. The world was back to normal when Monkeypox happened; there were no COVID lockdowns or even distancing expectations to violate.
Yes, you missed that they self-locked down without being told by authorities and contained the outbreak by themselves. Sex parties all got cancelled and the vast majority of gays stopped hooking up.
I understand if, looking from the outside, you didn't see any of that. And I understand that you may resent that red-tribe was told how to behave and blue-tribe wasn't. But it's important that you not ignore the very rational reasons for the difference: blue-tribe self-locked down during both COVID and Monkeypox and red-tribe didn't. Red-tribe had to be told. Separately, Monkeypox is simply vastly more mild. Even the seasonal flu is more dangerous and yet there are no flu lockdowns.
No they weren't- you made this up. There was nothing strict about churches shutting their doors. It was voluntary compliance. Just like you made up the notion that protests had an "explicit" exception. They didn't. This, along with your mis-remembered covid/monkeypox timeline is why I assert that you are falling to a victim mentality- you are severely mis-remembering history to fit your pre-existing victimhood narrative.
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Oh sorry I meant to refer to the Covid lockdowns, no anything with Monkeypox.
While I agree that the Blue Tribe protests and permission from health authorities were extraordinarily hypocritical, that’s the only thing I’m aware of where tribal bias gave an exception. So I don’t quite grant your whole point, because most blue tribers weren’t actually protesting. If it were a general exception instead of the limited one then I would agree.
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