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Fryowa

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I know I said I wouldn’t come here until everything’s done, and other than this I’ll stick to that.


I give absolutely no shits which side of the panic gradient any of you reside on, but I’m dropping by to tell all you guys that I love you. I mean that. I’m as cynical as it comes—I’m not changing that, not a chance—but the single remaining family member that I keep in touch with died today from it. He was a heart patient, 64 years old (had a valve replacement at 44), and the exact type that we all knew wasn’t going to make it out alive if he got it. I talked callously about the situation earlier and I own it. Whether I was Kumbaya-ing or not it wouldn’t have kept him alive. It was my uncle and he had the same sense of humor as me. I got to talk to him on the phone three days ago and he made some hilariously morbid jokes as per our style, and in my opinion he died like a fucking Viking. He knew he was done for even though he didn’t come out and say it.


My cousins and I are going to have a humongous party for him at some point this summer since we can’t get together now. Just to give you an idea how funny this dude was, he was a meat cutter his entire adult life, managing meat departments in a couple different grocery stores in SW Minnesota over the past 35 years. Everybody called him “The Butch” (butcher). He told me the other day when he first got to the hospital that he wanted the following on his headstone... “Here lies The Butch. He just couldn’t cut it anymore.” He was joking at the time and wasn’t planning on dying from this deal, but I’m making sure that headstone gets made up.

There will be plenty of time in a few months for all of us to toss blame around and call each other low life douche bags for our approach to how we should have responded. But everyone should F off until then.

Or not, I guess.

Yell at each other if you want, and keep posting your stupid opposing twitter snippets. I’m sure it’ll help resolve everything quicker, lol.


We shoulda done this!!!”


“F you, we didn’t need to do that. See what this guy said on Twitter, you asshole?!? It has to be true because it’s on twitter and it fits my narrative! And your narrative is dumb!!!”


Bullshit, the twitter scientists that I follow said this particular bullshit, and yours wasn’t peer-reviewed and had too small of a sample size, so F you...we shoulda done this, because the shit I found on twitter is what’s REALLY going on, you asshole!!!”

You guys are fucking dolts. Both sides of ya.

My 13 yo’s two remaining grandparents are 64 and 69 respectively, they live in Ocean City, MD and both have it. They ain’t coming home. One is on a vent and the other says she doesn’t want to do it (apparently where there at there’s no shortage), my kid’s mom is driving out there as we speak. She’s in Indiana as of about an hour ago. I’m worried about that one, she’s not handling it too well. Total wreck.

Anyway fellas, you can save the replies telling me how you think this or that about the response to the virus, there’s no possible way I could give a F less what any of you think we shoulda/coulda/woulda done. No offense, but right, left, or middle, your opinions on this whole deal are as worthless to the outcome as hen shit on a pump handle. Stick your world-saving game plans up your asses sideways and give ‘em a nice healthy spin in my name. I love you guys and I hope everyone here is okay through the summer and that none of your friends or family get sick. See you SOBs in a few weeks or months.

I’ll be back to spread discontent before you know it. You’re not getting rid of me that easily.
 
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I'm sorry to hear about your uncle, man. Some tough stuff for sure. Thinking about you and hope to see you back soon.

--Dawg
 
We love ya Fry. It's a terrible loss for somebody who sounds like a helluva guy. RIP Butch, and Fry, take care and throw the party of parties in honor of your Uncle. Would love to join ya
 
Hopping on here quick because I see there are lots of responses and I want to say thanks to everyone. I really, really do appreciate it. This is a great group of people, 100%.

I do think I should mention that literally any sickness at all would have done it. He had had congestive heart failure for quite some time, and his doctors told him that anything that stressed his lungs would in turn stress his heart enough to tip it over the edge. A bad cold, flu, etc. We all knew that he wasn't long for this world.

60 years of roast, potatoes, gravy, bacon and smoking a pack a day without exercise killed him in reality, but I digress.

More than anything I posted because the ridiculousness of people's reactions (from both sides) is making everyone who spouts about their particular twitter camp's scientists, or their news channel, or whatever...turn into pond scum. The people doing it here are no different than the Edward vs. Jacob Twilight idiots. Probably worse.

You have your opinions, and you stick with whatever narrative fits your opinions, no matter how much you say it isn't the case. That's how homo sapiens work. There's no critical thinking, and no objective comparisons; you go with what your gut tells you, find the scientist's twitter account or news source that confirms your bias, and roll with it. I am no more righteous than anyone else because I do the same thing when I make opinions (minus the social media). What it all leads to is being insufferable douche bags to people who are probably just as on edge and anxious as you, and could do with some good news or light-heartedness instead of you telling them that the WHO is conspiring to kill everyone, or that Italy isn't as bad as it sounds, or that their opinion on "masks" is bullshit because you saw it on reddit, or any other stupid bullshit. You're yelling into a vacuum, Jack, and then you yell louder just to try and hear yourself...not changing the outcome, and not doing anyone any good.

Like literally everything in life, the real end to this is going to be in the middle of the two extremes. The people saying it's harmless as the regular flu are wrong, and the people saying we're going to be the next Mad Max are wrong.

This isn't sports. Or even politics. If you have kids, tell them how to act reasonably so they decrease the odds of getting sick/transmitting, don't scare the hell out of them, and for god's sake turn off the news. Do the same things yourself and that's literally how simple it is...there's nothing else to do. I don't know how fine we're going to be and neither does anyone else, but this will end.

I really am serious that I appreciate everyone's kind words. I hope you and your families are healthy and not anxiety-ridden. That's no way to live. Take care.
 
I'd like to say that I'm the exception of Fry's rant because my stance has changed a lot on this over the past few weeks. Probably the reason I voice my opinion on here as much as I do is because I'm dumb enough to assume that just because facts can change my opinion on something, it will other people too. I end up writing 100 posts on something and always think "there is no way they won't see the light after this one".
 
Condolences. I lost my dad last summer otherwise he'd probably be on the list.

Stay healthy & safe .. .. ..
 
Hopping on here quick because I see there are lots of responses and I want to say thanks to everyone. I really, really do appreciate it. This is a great group of people, 100%.

I do think I should mention that literally any sickness at all would have done it. He had had congestive heart failure for quite some time, and his doctors told him that anything that stressed his lungs would in turn stress his heart enough to tip it over the edge. A bad cold, flu, etc. We all knew that he wasn't long for this world.

60 years of roast, potatoes, gravy, bacon and smoking a pack a day without exercise killed him in reality, but I digress.

More than anything I posted because the ridiculousness of people's reactions (from both sides) is making everyone who spouts about their particular twitter camp's scientists, or their news channel, or whatever...turn into pond scum. The people doing it here are no different than the Edward vs. Jacob Twilight idiots. Probably worse.

You have your opinions, and you stick with whatever narrative fits your opinions, no matter how much you say it isn't the case. That's how homo sapiens work. There's no critical thinking, and no objective comparisons; you go with what your gut tells you, find the scientist's twitter account or news source that confirms your bias, and roll with it. I am no more righteous than anyone else because I do the same thing when I make opinions (minus the social media). What it all leads to is being insufferable douche bags to people who are probably just as on edge and anxious as you, and could do with some good news or light-heartedness instead of you telling them that the WHO is conspiring to kill everyone, or that Italy isn't as bad as it sounds, or that their opinion on "masks" is bullshit because you saw it on reddit, or any other stupid bullshit. You're yelling into a vacuum, Jack, and then you yell louder just to try and hear yourself...not changing the outcome, and not doing anyone any good.

Like literally everything in life, the real end to this is going to be in the middle of the two extremes. The people saying it's harmless as the regular flu are wrong, and the people saying we're going to be the next Mad Max are wrong.

This isn't sports. Or even politics. If you have kids, tell them how to act reasonably so they decrease the odds of getting sick/transmitting, don't scare the hell out of them, and for god's sake turn off the news. Do the same things yourself and that's literally how simple it is...there's nothing else to do. I don't know how fine we're going to be and neither does anyone else, but this will end.

I really am serious that I appreciate everyone's kind words. I hope you and your families are healthy and not anxiety-ridden. That's no way to live. Take care.

In the very first few days of this, you advised that no one was going to change anyone else's mind on this topic, and all attempts to do so were like pissing in the wind. Truer words were never said, and as this has unfolded, I have actually thought about you and that advice quite a lot.

For the most part I have stayed out of the fray, but there have been days when I just couldn't help myself, I just had to put my thoughts into words. In some ways it has been helpful, it forces me to research the situation more deeply, and it allows me to understand my own thoughts/feelings better. In other ways it is a self-indulgent waste of time. In pretty much all cases, I would have been better off dedicating that time to my job, my kids, or my own health (weight is up about 5 pounds so far, and it really needs to be going in the other direction).

I think for the most part we are past trying to change anyone else's minds, but we still post info supporting our "side." I disagree with the tone of much of what @tksirius posts, but I have also learned a lot from some of his links that I might not have stumbled upon otherwise. He raises some very good points, and his general skepticism of the, "this is how it has to be done because everyone else agrees or is doing it this way" is important to truly get to the optimum response. If no one ever questioned what we were doing, we might just keep doing things suboptimally into perpetuity because "that is how we did it last time."

Okay, time to get to work.
 
I think this sums up the bitching.

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Great post Fry and you have my condolences.

Like Fry said, this isn't about being right or wrong or which side of the fence we're on in terms of the severity of the coronavirus or how this will play itself out. Regardless of the mortality rate this virus, like many others, is affecting the lives of millions in terms of those that suffer from it (whether recover, those infected, or the deceased) and the friends and families of those individuals.

It's easy to argue from behind a keyboard, but the fact is that like Fryowa, at some point or another we're all going to be directly affected in one form or another. Who cares if it will cause more fatalities than the flu, that shits absolutely irrelevant. People are dying and those people aren't just numbers but parents, brothers, sisters, grand parents, etc... We are talking about people. Lets think of them as people and not just numbers and statistics and try to show compassion when discussing what is going on.
 

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