161: 5 Uncomfortable Points to Consider
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Today, I tackle five random and possibly uncomfortable points that we all need to ponder as things “ramp up again” and we walk through current events. This might be fiery and spicy, but that just seems to be where I am right now. 😉 Let me know your thoughts in the comments, and feel free to share this with your pals on social media.
Ready? Here we go.
1 — Understand there are Karens everywhere.
(No disrespect meant to my friends who are actually named Karen.)
Last week, a friend said, “Oh my God! They are making people show proof of vaccination or proof of a negative covid test at First Ave now!”(a concert venue in MN) She was really upset about it.
I listened to her, and then asked, “When was the last time you were at First Ave for a concert?” She thought… and she couldn’t remember.
I said, “I was 19 the last time I was there.”
I’m 42 now, so it’s been “a minute” since I went to First Ave. Get the point?
It seems funny to say, but I feel like we’re headed for not just a divided world, but a world where there are two different sets of rules and realities. And if you choose to step from one world into the other, you have to be aware that you’re stepping out of your world and into the other one. And there are different rules to follow.
I personally believe that if First Ave wants to require vaccinations or cowboy hats or purple hair or cats on a leash, that’s First Ave’s business. Is it not? I don’t have to go to First Ave. If I want to go to First Ave, I have to play by their rules.
But I’m not going to First Ave. I don’t care. And that’s not a come fight me! or down with businesses who require Covid Cards!, it’s just a statement of fact. I’m not going to First Ave. And I don’t care what they do.
Having said that, my kids were recently in a rock concert at a place that requires masks because it’s a huge indoor venue. I chose to go see my kids in that concert—I didn’t have to go—so I wore a mask.
If someone showed up at my farm, and started telling me what I should and shouldn’t be doing, I’d be like, “Mkay, Karen. Run along now.” And everyone would understand that.
If I had a business and I said, “no, I’m not going to require that people do this, that, or the other thing to be served by me”, most of y’all would be like YAS! You tell them! That’s YOUR business!
There was a local restaurant here that was pretty vocal about not following the rules in the last shutdown/pandemic mess and people were cheering them on because of the choices they made for their business. Because it was their business.
But we only think it’s cool for a business to choose when we sit on the same side of the choice the business made.
If it’s all about choice, I wonder why with the majority of these places that are requiring vaccinations or masks or whatever… do you have to go there? And if you don’t, just… don’t. Put your dollars and your time somewhere else. At what point is the oMG yOu haVE tO hAVe a VAccInE tO Go thEre aNd THeY CAn’T DO thAt really… just… being… a… Karen?
People got mad when I said this earlier last week on social media, because it’s just one giant slippery slope and First Ave demanding their patrons do something is just opening the door for it to be okay for every other business in the world to do the same thing.
I do believe there’s a difference between private business, and things happening in the public sector/government. And I also don’t completely buy the “fact” that government is making these businesses mask/require vaccines. At this point, I think there are lots of businesses that want to do it, whether they honestly believe it is making things safer or because they want to virtue signal to the public or because that’s what they believe their customers want.
Most of the people who are saying, “I hope that business closes” are people that were never going there in the first place, and the people who are still going there are people who will continue to go there no matter what.
Two different worlds, remember?
Things are getting really complicated, and lines are getting blurred and everything is getting lumped together. It is a slippery slope to hop on to. There is plenty to get mad about and plenty of things that need to be changed. There are lots of things that need our voices. But that doesn’t mean we put away our brains and just scream about everything. It’s possible that four things can be true and horrible, but the fifth and sixth things aren’t (even though they sound like they’re true and horrible).You can still point out those fifth and sixth things without discrediting the horrible nature of the first four things.
It’s not an all or nothing thing. Don’t lose your heads.
2 — Understand there is a lot to be upset about, and there always has been.
You have to pick what you’re going to be upset about. You have to choose what you’re going to do something about. I honestly believe there are people on both sides who get off on anger, on being upset all the time, on finding the next big thing to get mad about.
Stay away from these people.
There are enough issues in the world for people to be angry about something. But it doesn’t work if everyone is angry about everything. Nothing gets done. Nothing changes.
3 — Understand that some stuff that people talk about never ever happens.
…and they forget that stuff about a week later when the next big thing winds up and explodes. (And, when asked what happened to the last big thing, some people will tell you the reason these things didn’t happen is because they got angry and riled up and told people the way it was.) You guys, half that stuff would have never happened anyway whether you knew about it or not. It doesn’t matter what’s happening, it matters what people think is happening. And there are some problems that we can talk into “existence”.
Experiment: If you watch the news or hang on out social media, write down what people are talking about, worried about, angry about, and what they are warning you about. Write it down. Then fold that paper up and tuck it away for a month. Or two. Or six. You will be AMAZED when you open it back up.
Do you remember when people were saying that the emergency broadcast system was going to be taken down during/after the 2020 Presidential Election, and you needed to change the settings in your phone to make sure Google didn’t mess with your ability to get messages from Trump?
Yeah. I remember people talking about that, too.
People like to talk. People like to get other people riled up and keep them in panic mode. I remember when the NRA called me one day before the 2016 election and asked if I was worried that Hillary Clinton, the democratic candidate, was going to take our guns. And I said no, I’m not. That wasn’t the answer they expected, and they asked me why I wasn’t worried about it. And I said, you guys have been saying forever that they’re coming to take our guns. If the NRA didn’t have to talk about how everyone is coming to take our guns, what would you talk about?
Side note: Who is going to take the guns? Who is going to actually carry out taking the guns? I can only speak for the law enforcement in the area I live in, but if something was handed down that said now all the officers have to go confiscate guns, they’d be like um, nope. Not only because they think it’s ridiculous bullshit, but because that’s a suicide mission. Hi, I want you to go to the house and take this dude’s guns because he won’t give them up...
Come ON.
It’s kind of like when there were all the mask mandates the first time and people can’t gather and blah blah blah. Did anyone know any actual officers, in real life, who were enforcing that? Our dispatchers weren’t even taking calls on that. They even put out stuff on social media that said do not call us about this because we will not be responding.
4 — Understand what medical freedom actually means.
There is a big movement right now regarding #stopthemandate and medical freedom. Medical freedom means being for medical choice, which doesn’t automatically mean that you’re against the vaccine—you’re just against people being forced to get it.
Those are two different things. You can be against something and still think it’s really important that other people can choose to do that thing if they so desire. Similarly, you can be for something and think it’s really important that people have the choice to not do that thing if they don’t want to. So when you are dealing with people talking about freedom and choice, please do not automatically assume what they believe about either side of that choice. Do not assume they agree with your stance on that choice. All freedom and choice is supposed to say is that you have the freedom to make a choice.
Side note: The whole “my body, my choice” thing. We’ve got (generally) conservative folks throwing this in (generally) liberal folks’ faces, meaning “y’all, said my body my choice when it came to abortion, but now you’re not wanting me to have a choice when it comes to a vaccine?”
Y’all, this argument is making me crazy, because it’s gonna come back to bite ya in the ass. And I get that it started as a “ha ha, funny, isn’t that ironic” sarcastic sort of “my body my choice”. But really, unless you believe in my body, my choice across the board… come on. The truth is that for a lot of people on either side, it’s only my body, my choice when it’s convenient for them or serves their specific end goal. So be careful with using my body, my choice if that’s not what you really truly believe across the board. You don’t want to have to eat your words later.
5. Understand what kind of world you want to live in.
Do you know what kind of world you want to live in? What kind of world do you want to participate in? Do you know what the boundaries and rules are? What’s allowed, what’s not, and what doesn’t even have to be discussed in that world? How people act and what they will and won’t do for each other? What and who actually matters and what or who you don’t give another thought about? What makes that world turn and happen and continue and what’s a total deal breaker?
What kind of world do you really want to live in, honestly? I’m not talking about your fantasy world of moving to the woods and living in a tree house forever away from human beings. I’m talking about a world that actually exists, where there are good and bad points. What does that world look like?
I don’t know what that world is for you. Only you know. But once you figure it out, I mean really figure out, away from the noise and the drama and the politics and the chatter, here is your to do list:
A ) Do whatever you can to make that world a reality for you.
B ) As much as you can, don’t participate in whatever goes against that world.
C ) Don’t suck stuff into your world that isn’t a part of that world.
Does XYZ affect you? Then fight. Or change direction. Consider your options. Do business elsewhere.
But if XYZ doesn’t affect you, it doesn’t affect you. Don’t get caught up in someone else’s noise. You have a world to bring in to reality and a life to live in it.
— Amy Dingmann, 8/10/21
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My lifestyle pretty much ensures that I will stay at home regardless. When the first wave hit, I was terrified that I couldn’t go anywhere if I chose to. My wife works outside of the home, and I sprayed her down like a cockroach when she got home daily. I have several conditions that would have likely made my reality a dead one if I wasn’t careful. My brother died of Covid. Covid is real.
When I could get a vaccination, I did immediately. I went into the world (not often, but still) feeling much safer. I could finally go w/o a mask- and I did.
Now, here we are again. The country is red on the map-AGAIN. Delta variant is here and real and as long as many are not vaccinated, there will another variant come along soon. Now, because so many are more concerned with their rights than their fellow Americans, I am at risk-AGAIN. My grandkids that are under 12 are as well- STILL. Yes, people have the right to do what they want to–UNTIL it affects others negatively and endangers lives. There are still those that do not believe in the reality. There are still those that are on their deathbeds dying from Covid, but don’t “believe” in it. The virus doesn’t give a rip. It kills. A lot of people are going to die because they only get their info from the same places and refuse info from others. They don’t care that there is proof and more proof about this virus. They haven’t yet heard that the vaccination RMDNA to be specific, has been in existence for about 20 years. They only had to introduce THIS specific virus into it to see if it worked. It works. There is proof that it works. They think some dude whipped it up in a bathtub while wearing only his underwear a couple of months ago. I have heard comments like that continuously and I want to scream.
I have stayed off of social media for the most part. It has been a hotbed of stupidity and lazy (and crazy) thinking. I have found other ways to live my life. This is the only time and place online that I am expressing what I think, because the screaming of the tragically uneducated is loud and obnoxiously, woefully wrong.
I’ll go back to staying home and letting the world destroy itself. Back to having to wear a mask in public places even though I did what science said to do- because others only give a rip about themselves and nobody else. If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.
Most of you have never had mumps, measles, rubella, polio, and certainly none of you have had small pox. Why? Vaccinations. Even if YOU weren’t vaccinated, enough around you were that saved you from it. Those that have had any of the above (and I have) didn’t die from it unless there is internet service in the afterlife. NOBODY has died of small pox since 1977- it was eradicated. How? Vaccinations. I pray that enough folks get their heads out of their tails and get the dang thing before more die needlessly. If you are still on the fence… please, get it done. My grandbabies are out in the world and this virus is vicious. I personally will likely not survive a new variant.
There are those of you that are going to flip out after reading this. I really don’t care anymore. I’d rather you hated me and did what you should to save not just your life, but the lives of others. It is a choice to live or die (yourself or others), or live the rest of your life suffering from long term brain, heart, lung and other system damage. That is your choice now. Know what choice you are making.