Relaxation of Restrictions, Part XII *Read OP For Mod Warnings*

Was in a pub yday - twas v busy... bit of a culture shock... had to think - will I stay or go... a lot of my friends wer there - the vibe was great - I stayed..

here goes.. not had covid so far.. we'll see now if that changes in the next few days ekk..

Judging from Twitter, there's still a sizeable amount of folks out there that want the mask mandate back.

Thankfully (and I don't sing their praises very often), the Gov and what was NPHET can see that masks or no masks, it's going to spread regardless just like it did over Christmas.

You might and will likely not even know

Although the funniest thing I find with people and all this nonsense is that they'll be rather ill but have a negative antigen and be like "thank God it's not covid"..

You're still sick like. It's the same as any other illness.

I see Micheal is already undermining the upcoming/inevitable inquiry:

So a review of all the decisions, mistakes, damage that's been done, and the cost of it to society and the economy won't include those who made those decisions? Get out of jail free card for everyone and yet another enormous payday for the lawyers!

Worse than that, Martin actually believes that they shouldn't have (had) any oversight or accountability in the first place - which just confirms the widely held opinion that it was in fact Tony and NPHET who were making the decisions, not merely offering recommendations, and exposes Micheal as the weak, completely ineffective, administrative drone that was (like Enda Kenny) far more concerned with his personal achievement scoreboard than actually leading the country and Government through this.

I shouldn't be surprised or angry really. I even predicted it ages ago. This is Ireland after all. Despite the superficial layer of liberal, democracy, and modernity, it's still the same banana Republic it's always been!

True

A few of those who suffered have left a lot of heartbreak behind but nah its grand 'we done well'

Infuriating

The biggest issue i have with these people is their views can gain traction. The media pick up on them and its reporting as being what the public want.

By all means, people can wear masks if they want, they can leave premise that are too busy but please don't make the rest of us life our lives through their eyes.

Not sure if you're including me on that, the comments to Maia's tweet are what I was referring to.

That's the inference (and the narcissistic "look at me, aren't I responsible" angle of course!), and likewise with many of the replies - one person even dismayed about all the "no maskers" in shops, and no one approaching them to ask they put one on, many others saying they were the only one with a mask wherever it was they were and complaining that others aren't.

The other thing that jumps out from that tweet and replies is the need for validation - "glad I'm not the only one" etc

I've said it many times before, but what this tweet and replies shows is how insecure and needy many Irish people are. There is most definitely a national inferiority complex out there that leads to an excessive level of virtue signalling on social media, and the reason we soak up the worst of the identity politics/culture war nonsense like a sponge - including things that we have/had no real problem with here in Ireland such as America's racial problems, transgender issues etc - and are increasingly trying to impose these issues into everyday life.

The problem is that not everyone lives and dies by twitter crusading and have no interest in having a lot of the nonsense that is leaking into society and the aggressive "you're with us or you're to be attacked and marginalised" attitude that it comes with.

Of course, while the Western world has turned inwards and is consuming itself with this stuff, other "less enlightened" countries are getting on with things and gradually supplanting the West. Even Putin's aggressive war was met with surprise and disbelief because too many ordinary people in the West couldn't get their heads around the idea that not everyone has become as "progressive" as they have - you see it in calls for NATO and even Irish involvement: a complete disconnect from the reality of what that would mean if it happened, but it plays well for Twitter likes and kudos.

TL;DR: Social media can be an occasionally useful tool to get information like the on the ground position in Ukraine for example, or as a way to get breaking news - but the "social" aspect of it often anything but and is increasingly causing more harm than good as the tweet in question shows.

Solutions and treatments should start to emerge for that pretty soon.

Not a fan of freedom of the press no?

Fúcked up taste and smell. Knackered all the time.

Just anecdotally talking to my customers yesterday lot of talk about

“the virus is spreading like wildfire after paddy’s day” and

“the government were too quick to lift restrictions that will come back to bite them” and

“there will be another lockdown the way things are gone”.

Eh sorry now but that’s uncalled for dont chute.

Whoa. Patronising much??

They are convenience store managers and staff, and the general public who shop at those stores. far from “morons”.

Now another call for the mask to be reintroduced.

This is getting ridiculous now, just can't let it go.

Leo himself yesterday said the numbers in intensive care are much lower than in January, half of those in hospital were there for something else entirely and therefore knock 50% of the numbers we are seeing, yet people are still panicking about the mask.

Far more important things going on in the world than the fuckin mask.

"I love how the fact of only 49 in ICU is buried among the doomsday waffling."

Buried? They've actually stated that that's the highest figure in almost a year. "Only"?