Start by adding the bolded, and I’ll address the rest.
Ok, so let’s start here and what my thinking was. At the time, I had already discontinued any contact with my own family, anyone who was old, and strangers I didn’t know who may have underlying conditions. I even passed on house games when I learned older people would be there. I wore a mask in public at all other times. This made me think my covid footprint was considerably lower than well over 50% of the population who were walking around without masks and carelessly endangering others, which I was NOT doing. Start by addressing that and where my thinking was wrong at the time
The ONLY reason I’ve reconsidered this now is due to hospital overflow and the need to do everything possible to not unnecessarily take up resources that may be more needed by others. For instance, I even stopped doing higher risk activities such as mountain biking advanced trails in order to reduce the chance I break a leg and take up an emergency room bed
btw- I’ll be occupied most of the day, so may not be able to respond. I am not above admitting to being wrong. But you need to address my main point (that it is our government more than the people who have failed us) and refrain from using straw man arguments such as digging up some single sentence I uttered out of turn and incessantly repeating it to make an irrelevant point because you’re unable to successfully argue the point I’m making like most others here resort to
No one denies that our government has failed us, but the people bear some blame, including making it easy for politicians to be anti-lockdown by voting with their feet. No single Trump voter had a huge electoral footprint in 2016, but they all bear collective blame for his selection.
is better than average the mark you should be shooting for?
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In terms of COVID risk to yourself and others:
Working out at home < Working out in an indoor gym with a mask on < Taking that mask off while there
Correct?
Everybody here agrees the government has failed us the most, yet you keep using this straw man
I think you have your “greater than” “less than” symbols backwards, but yes I agree, It’s correct.
Apparently this isn’t true, since everyone here is yelling at people like me and our lack of responsibility for the predicament we’re in.
I hate arguing with people who are only capable of thinking in simplistic binary terms when it comes to subjects that clearly call for range analysis of varying degrees. Not everything is black or white. Not everything fits neatly into a box. This is a huge problem on this, and probably all forum platforms that devolve into their own echo chambers when it comes to politics)
It’s also hilarious that I’m called a stupid “idiot” kid when I seem to be the one of the few here that understands the importance of leadership, role models, and example setting. What kind of example do you think the NFL is creating by playing football games in front of a national audience like it’s just another day? Or the president and all his lackeys by almost never being seen wearing a mask? You think this makes people of all ages more or less likely to say fuck it, why should I stop living my life?
But yeah, keep on blaming the “young idiot kids” who succumb to this messaging of the OLDER generation! Most young people will in all likelihood pull through this virus just fine. But what we will probably NOT pull through the fucked up environment the OLDER generation has left for us, the racist system the OLDER generation created, and the wealth disparity of the OLDER generation’s making.
It’s a fucking joke that if you die from covid you’ll go to your grave blaming young people who are just starting out their lives in this dumpster fire of a world because they went to a bar or gym that was open for business due to YOUR generation’s leadership, but have tried to be responsible in every other area
Wild you just described yourself to the T.
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Really… That must be why I’m a progressive liberal who can’t be stuffed neatly into the box that the wall of sheep here created and why I’m the only one who argues with other so called progressives on the left. It’s because I only think one way. Yeah, I think only in binary and black and white terms. That must be it 
You’re so brave
It really doesn’t take all that much courage to think for yourself, but you gotta be willing to fend off a lot of sheep
Wake up sheeple!
You’re reacting to government failings by saying there is nothing to do! That doesn’t sound particularly independent thinking LOL but rather blind reliance on an omnipotent being
Stop blaming the government and the NFL for your reckless lifestyle. Your girlfriend is a selfish asshole traveling and going to bars in the middle of a pandemic. You’re a giant douchebag risking the lives of others so you can work out maskless in a gym.
You have very, very little life experience. And your tendency to lash out and blame everyone else for your actions is why people make fun of your generation. You know what I would do if my boss told me to come in after exposure? I would tell him to go fuck himself and file suit if I was terminated. Your gf can get her drink on at home like every other responsible “adult”. You can get plenty of exercise at home. But the fact is, you two are selfish assholes looking for an external scapegoat to justify your dangerous behavior.
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This is just so disingenuous, it’s Trumpian. When did I ever say there’s nothing to do?
More disingenuous nonsense. My gf got and suffered thru the goddamn virus and I had to live with the very high risk of getting it myself and I NEVER blamed anyone else for my lifestyle! jfc lol
You seemed very confused. I’m not blaming anyone for my actions. Everyone here is blaming me for my actions. Get it?
What line of work are ya in? I gotta admit, that’s pretty brave. Especially if you have a family to support. I have no family, but I got very lucky getting a good paying job right out of school and sorry if I’m not gonna risk losing my paycheck right now
Again, not looking to justify our behavior. Just setting you straight that there are more important factors out there than us. Wanna hear about some 30-70+ year olds who are acting REALLY irresponsibly? Like many orders of magnitude more irresponsible than we are? Just watch or read some news
They aren’t backwards.
It reads: “Working out at home is less risky than working out at a gym is less risky than working out in a gym without a mask”.
By the tone (and simple logic), you agree with that statement. Good.
Now, I’m just looking for why you seem to think your actions were okay. You seem to want to bring up two things:
- The response of government.
- The fact that other people are doing worse things.
These are both irrelevant points.
What is relevant is that ~every scientist in the field said that doing things like going to an indoor gym and removing your mask would be a mistake and runs counter to the goal of controlling this disease.
Maybe you don’t care. Maybe you still don’t think it’s a big deal.
But I’m hoping what you say is “Yeah, what I did was an irresponsible dumb mistake that I won’t repeat”.
That’s really all it would take for a lot of the heat directed at you to simmer down.
It’s no big deal to admit doing something wrong. I’ve done plenty of things I’m not proud of. When I was your age, I was still telling racially insensitive jokes and using “gay” and “retarded” as synonyms for “stupid”. I’ve since stopped doing those things. I’ve matured as a person. You can too.
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It’s because the actions you have put forth in this thread have been poor actions. Of course we are blaming you for your actions. You are making bad choices.
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To all:
I’ll concede that I jumped into this thread to denounce the actions of two other people being worse than mine (I thought far worse). My gf going to NY with her friend and drinking at a bar and my boss requiring me to come in after I told him I was exposed, which put the entire office at risk. So yeah… I guess don’t bitch about people who don’t recycle when you’ll throw your plastic water bottle into a normal receptacle the 1% of the time when there’s no recycling bin around. The responsible thing to do would be to save the bottle for when you can recycle
But then it devolved into a blame fest with people placing the root cause for our predicament squarely on the shoulders of (mostly younger people, but also many others) who weren’t being as vigilant as you’d like and that’s where I started saying fuck that
I’ll repeat what I said above. The situation this country has found itself in with respect to covid is MAINLY due to boomers and those older than I, who are the ones actually running things. I don’t know of any 24 yo governors, presidents, or local representatives in charge of setting the rules for shutdowns. They’re the ones setting the tone. They’re the ones making it seem like it’s all good when they put professional sports on TV making it seem like everything is back to normal. THAT, imo is irresponsible! THAT, is terrible messaging!
The fact is, we are in this situation almost exclusively due to the actions (and inactions) of boomers, gen xers, and even some millenials. Certainly not because of my generation even if we are more likely to dismiss the virus as not being that threatening to us leading us to some bad choices
If you don’t agree with that, I don’t know what to tell ya. People make plenty of bad choices all the time. Just look up how many big macs are sold each year. Now you might say, well that only hurts the individual and not anyone else. But bad choices are usually a product of influence and the influence to re-open the economy has been overwhelming. If boomers and gen xers open the economy and people follow, I think it’s crazy to place blame on the latter and not the former for the disastrous result to others.
That said, I am NOT absolving people of being responsible for their own actions! You are free to eat as many big macs as you like, but if you clog your arteries and die, I’m going to say it’s your own fault. But the systemic problem of heart disease, poor health, and early deaths in the aggregate, I WILL blame the faulty culture created by others that people are forced to grow up and live in
It’s unfortunate that in the case of covid, poor choices by individuals can have a profound impact on others. But so too, do many other poor choices that aren’t quite as obvious. Rather than blame an entire population, I prefer to blame the faulty system, which allows such poor choices to manifest
I blame the system too but I’m also not doing irresponsible things to spread the virus. That’s the point you just absolutely refuse to acknowledge, and that’s why people keep “blaming” you.
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I can blame multiple things at once; I’m super duper skilled in that regard.
OP is a perfect case study on the importance of leadership and public health messaging though. On the one hand, you get the folks that say government shouldn’t intrude on the citizenry’s ability to make decisions for themselves. But yet we see what happens when you let the citizenry make decisions for themselves - they tend not to make great ones.
On the other hand, if the government had a consistent and steady message of “omg wtf are you doing don’t go work out inside a gym with no mask jesus are you fucking nuts?!”, at least one member of the citizenry allegedly would have made a better decision.
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The problem with that amead, is that blaming doesn’t actually SOLVE anything. Would you rather blame? Or fix a problem?
Edit: The way to FIX our covid problem is through consistent messaging and the government following science and mandating the right things (like shutting everything down for a month while providing stimulus to the people).