[QatzelOk]

How many peope have died of COVID in China so far?

How many people died in Iraq during NATO's many wars there?

Do our oligarchs care about these individual tragedies?

During the COVID pandemic, we were locked in our houses, prohibited from working, and forced by economic extortion to get jabs in order to "STAY SAFE!"

And then, five minutes later, the super-safe West started a nuclear war with Russia, revealing how little they really care about anything other than their own obscene levels of wealth.

If you haven't noticed this, it's because you aren't really paying attention.

[Godstud]

QatzelOk is employing 'whataboutisms'. interesting. Normally he doesn't respond to anyone, but when he does attempt to argue a point, he doesn't.

[Robert Urbanek]

My Korean lady friend, who is in her 50s, caught COVID while on a business trip to Germany. She was quarantined, given medication but was still feeling ill when sent home, having a sore throat, a raspy voice, and headaches. She had all her vaccinations and boosters. This was her third trip across the globe in the last several months and I wonder if the repeated jet lag and other stress made her more vulnerable to the virus.

[Fasces]

How many peope have died of COVID in China so far?

Most estimates I've seen from both Chinese and Western sources is they expect China to have around a million excess deaths after this wave is over.

In the non-Korean expat community in Qingdao, around 1,500, people there's been two deaths since November as far as I know: a Pakistani guy during the height of the covid wave and this Irish woman a little later (who I knew personally and would bet her bottle of vodka a night habit had more to do with her renal failure than covid).

[QatzelOk]

My Korean lady friend, who is in her 50s, caught COVID while on a business trip to Germany. She was quarantined, given medication but was still feeling ill when sent home, having a sore throat, a raspy voice, and headaches. She had all her vaccinations and boosters. This was her third trip across the globe in the last several months and I wonder if the repeated jet lag and other stress made her more vulnerable to the virus.

Flying long-haul flights... often gives me a sore throat that can last up to three days.

So let's close down all the world's economies and force people to stay in their basements for two years?

Oh wait. "New York Times says Science says....!"

**everyone obeys**

[Robert Urbanek]

Flying long-haul flights... often gives me a sore throat that can last up to three days.

So let's close down all the world's economies and force people to stay in their basements for two years?

Oh wait. "New York Times says Science says....!"

**everyone obeys**

I suspect a lot of that international business could have been accomplished through Zoom conference calls, saving both airline fossil fuels and the wear and tear on travelers.

[QatzelOk]

I suspect a lot of that international business could have been accomplished through Zoom conference calls, saving both airline fossil fuels and the wear and tear on travelers.

Or, business travellers could take high-speed trains to their destinations, and then enjoy the social capital that comes from meeting with people face-to-face.

But of course, our oligarchs don't want us to travel by high speed train (they own car company and airline shares), and they like their new ability to monitor and record our every conversation.

An elite that is trying to control you, is likely to present you with many new drugs "to try."

[Robert Urbanek]

Or, business travellers could take high-speed trains to their destinations, and then enjoy the social capital that comes from meeting with people face-to-face.

But of course, our oligarchs don't want us to travel by high speed train (they own car company and airline shares), and they like their new ability to monitor and record our every conversation.

An elite that is trying to control you, is likely to present you with many new drugs "to try."

My friend took business trips to Japan, India and Germany. I don't know of any high-speed trains, existing or even proposed, that would have taken her from California to those destinations.

[QatzelOk]

My friend took business trips to Japan, India and Germany. I don't know of any high-speed trains, existing or even proposed, that would have taken her from California to those destinations.

What an excellent point, Robert. I never thought about how a plane could be used to cross the ocean.

I was thinking about how North Americans have absolutely no highspeed trains to go anywhere on their own continent, and how this demonstrates how corporations decide what we will consume WITH NO REGARDS to the long-term effects of their merchandise.

[Godstud]

Yes, @QatzelOk, God forbid if those products extend the life, saves lives, or improve the health of people, right?

[QatzelOk]

God forbid if those products extend the life, saves lives, or improve the health of people, right?

Those are very nice things for a product to do.

But what if there are no products that can do this? Would it be okay to pretend that a product does these things in order to enrich myself?

Also, does the elite care about whether you live or die? Might they prefer death for some of their populations?

[Godstud]

@QatzelOk, your "what if" questions are childishly contrived to push the narrative of your ideology. The questions are answered easily if you engage even the most simple critical thinking. Try it.

No. Yes. No. No. Now go back under your bridge.

[QatzelOk]

childish.... contrived....narrative....ideology...back under your bridge

VERSUS

critical thinking

*Critical thinking* means that you explore contradictory ideas before letting the state inject you with something. People who are too superficial to do this, who are locked into the logic of their own dumbed-down culture, are often unable to do this.

Instead, they simply regurgitate the most recent vocabulary of mass media, engaging in name-calling, in the hopes that their up-to-the-minute vocab words will compensate for their child-like tactics.

Know what I mean?

[Godstud]

@QatzelOk I didn't name-call, so your argument is already lacking the relevant critical thinking. Your ideology is foolish.

[SpecialOlympian]

I'll put down $100 that Qatz is vaxxed and still bitching about it.

Qatz works for the third world Quebecois state, teaching people English as a servant to colonialism and Her Royal Majesty. No way he has his government job without getting vaxxed. Like, sure, Quebec is a backwater shithole, but they're not that backward.

[SpecialOlympian]

Just to be clear, I pronounce it "kwibbik-CUH" because that's how little respect I have for the loserest part of the least significant North American country.

I'm not making weird mouth sounds to accomodate your identity. I respect trans people and trans rights, but talking like a 1600's era French indentured servant who had the choice of going to Canada or death for stealing a bagett is lame. The brave ones chose death, the modern Quibuckian is the progeny of cowards.

[Patrickov]

I am amazed at how both @SpecialOlympian and @QatzelOk stand firmly against racism, yet one of them despise the other.

[Godstud]

@Patrickov Qatzelok ALWAYS attacks anyone who is an Anglophone. He's as racist as they come.

[Rancid]

*Critical thinking* means that you explore contradictory ideas before letting the state inject you with something. People who are too superficial to do this, who are locked into the logic of their own dumbed-down culture, are often unable to do this.

CRitical thinking also means not defaulting to a contrarian position on everything by default. Which is what you do.

[wat0n]

Or, business travellers could take high-speed trains to their destinations, and then enjoy the social capital that comes from meeting with people face-to-face.

But of course, our oligarchs don't want us to travel by high speed train (they own car company and airline shares), and they like their new ability to monitor and record our every conversation.

An elite that is trying to control you, is likely to present you with many new drugs "to try."

I've never understood the fascination some parts of the left have with trains.