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Young and unafraid of the pandemic? Good for you. Now stop killing people

newsweek.com

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Re: Young and unafraid of the pandemic? Good for you. Now stop killing people

#31

Post by stetrain »

Lots of reacting to the title here. Which, granted, is sensationalist.

I think this nicely sums up the article's point:

"It's the civic and moral duty of every person, everywhere, to take part in the global effort to reduce this threat to humanity. To postpone any movement or travel that are not vitally essential, and to spread the disease as little as possible. Have your fun in June, July and August when this—hopefully—is over. Stay safe. Good luck."

In other words, it's not "this is young people's fault" but "just because you are young doesn't mean you should ignore this"

Re: Young and unafraid of the pandemic? Good for you. Now stop killing people

#32

Post by wrs »

eranima wrote: post #4

Blaming young people seems stupid considering that everybody can spread the virus. This ageist nonsense isn't going to help stop the virus.

It's been well-established for some millennia that young people think they're indestructible. Here's some anecdata for you [1] including the following illustrative Twitter quote from a 27-year-old:

> Okay I know the world is in a state of panic but flights are cheap AF. I definitely just booked a flight to see my grams for her birthday.

(Her grams is 71 and well into the COVID danger zone.)

[1] https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/young-people-capitalize...

Re: Young and unafraid of the pandemic? Good for you. Now stop killing people

#33

Post by stetrain »

gre wrote: post #26
nostoc wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not ageist nonsense. This is aimed directly at the rampant discourse of " only the elderly dies, why should I bother" ?

It's an ageist and offensive narrative to say that young people are saying that phrase and acting it out like they don't care about killing their elders.

I missed that part of the article body text, can you quote it?

Re: Young and unafraid of the pandemic? Good for you. Now stop killing people

#34

Post by headcanon »

keeganjw wrote: post #15

They make a good point in this article, I just wish Newsweek and other media outlets would get this pissed off about climate change. "Old and unafraid of the climate crisis? Good for you. Now stop killing future generations." If we're mobilizing to stop a pandemic, why the hell aren't we mobilizing to stop climate change? I know this is going to get downvoted into oblivion, I just wanted to say it.

We're just not wired to think about things at that scale and over long periods of time. IMO the reason we're taking climate change as seriously as we are now is because of the visceral evidence provided by the hurricanes of the last couple of years.

We collectively need things to be observably happening right now in order to believe they are true.

Re: Young and unafraid of the pandemic? Good for you. Now stop killing people

#35

Post by geerlingguy »

keeganjw wrote: post #15

They make a good point in this article, I just wish Newsweek and other media outlets would get this pissed off about climate change. "Old and unafraid of the climate crisis? Good for you. Now stop killing future generations." If we're mobilizing to stop a pandemic, why the hell aren't we mobilizing to stop climate change? I know this is going to get downvoted into oblivion, I just wanted to say it.

Not to excuse anything, but the main difference is the time scale—within days/weeks we saw differences, and death counts... with climate change it's not only difficult to measure easy-to-understand direct correlation sometimes, it also is at minimum on time scales of months to years.

Most news cycles are hours or days, not months or years.

Re: Young and unafraid of the pandemic? Good for you. Now stop killing people

#36

Post by lostcolony »

antonzabirko wrote: post #16
stetrain wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point is that young people are more likely to think "Oh this won't affect me, I'll continue as normal" because the severity and mortality of this illness is statistically higher for older people. I don't see it as blaming young people, just pointing out that even if you aren't in the statistically "at risk" part of the age curve, you can still play a part in the spread and effects of this epidemic.

The article should've shed light on what govts can do better, not what individuals can. That's where the blame lies.

Who is more likely to read and listen to a Newsweek article, an arbitrary individual reading the article making a decision for themselves, or a governmental policy maker when deciding what to tell the country?

Re: Young and unafraid of the pandemic? Good for you. Now stop killing people

#37

Post by 3fe9a03ccd14ca5 »

headcanon wrote: post #34
keeganjw wrote: post #15

They make a good point in this article, I just wish Newsweek and other media outlets would get this pissed off about climate change. "Old and unafraid of the climate crisis? Good for you. Now stop killing future generations." If we're mobilizing to stop a pandemic, why the hell aren't we mobilizing to stop climate change? I know this is going to get downvoted into oblivion, I just wanted to say it.

We're just not wired to think about things at that scale and over long periods of time. IMO the reason we're taking climate change as seriously as we are now is because of the visceral evidence provided by the hurricanes of the last couple of years. We collectively need things to be observably happening right now in order to believe they are true.

Plus, climate models and predictions just don’t resonate with people.

Re: Young and unafraid of the pandemic? Good for you. Now stop killing people

#38

Post by weare138 »

vernie wrote: post #5

Is this from the same issue as the "OK, Millennial: Boomers Are the Greatest Generation in History" piece?

Yes, I caught that the other day. I couldn't even finish the article. I'm from gen-x and it even annoys me how hyper-critical the baby boomers are with millenials and gen-z. Attempting to lay blame on young people for the spread of corona-virus is just absurd and irresponsible.

Re: Young and unafraid of the pandemic? Good for you. Now stop killing people

#39

Post by celdon25 »

keeganjw wrote: post #15

They make a good point in this article, I just wish Newsweek and other media outlets would get this pissed off about climate change. "Old and unafraid of the climate crisis? Good for you. Now stop killing future generations." If we're mobilizing to stop a pandemic, why the hell aren't we mobilizing to stop climate change? I know this is going to get downvoted into oblivion, I just wanted to say it.

But we aren't mobilizing to stop the pandemic (or at least, not enough), and the WHO even cited that as a reason for declaring COVID-19 as a pandemic today.

Many of these media outlets still publish their Coronavirus content behind paywalls, or plastered with advertisements everywhere. That isn't mobilizing, that's capitalizing.

Re: Young and unafraid of the pandemic? Good for you. Now stop killing people

#40

Post by lostcolony »

tra3 wrote: post #6

> Do not go to places where you are more than 20 people in the same room. It's not safe and it's not worth it. Why 20? Is this simply about reducing exposure to potential carriers?

Arbitrary number, but yes. Network effects. The more people, the more likely one has the virus, and the more people likely to be affected by it, and thus carry it to still more places.
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