@coyotebill

Where in Montana are people pushing back?

We’ve lived there, but many years ago, and are thinking of retiring up there, so trying to figure out which areas haven’t gone mad. North of Billings, like Roundup, is particularly intriguing because the property is still more reasonably priced.

@OTG_in_MT

@MountainJay @coyotebill

I haven't been down to Billings in a few months, but just when things were "ramping back up" in October, my wife ran a marathon down there and said there were lots of people without masks both outside and in public buildings. The whole state had closed it's restaurants and other stores for a few weeks back in May, but by June most things were open. I've been bowling in Great Falls every week since September. Not one mask in the place and it's packed wall to wall.

@OTG_in_MT, an actual CROWD of maskless humans?!? 😍

@coyotebill

@MountainJay Two weeks ago the new governor repealed the mask mandate so people are feeling a little easier being seen in public with out it. Of course, now you have counties each passing their own mandates with fines to back it up. Power hungry douches.

@MountainJay @OTG_in_MT in Ravalli county when the Governor had a mask policy in place, the sheriff's office said they would not enforce it unless a business complained. We have a new governor and he had rescinded the mask policy. So, in Ravalli it's pretty much like life as normal here.

@coyotebill “pretty much like life as normal here” ... that sounds like heaven!

@OTG_in_MT

@OTG_in_MT I'll be visiting Kalispell in June and am bracing myself for tourist dickbags. Not to mention spending a few days in the park and expect more dickbags. Sigh. Nice to hear some areas are still face friendly. @coyotebill

@MrsShill I was just up in Kalispell last weekend. Since the governor lifted the mask mandate 70% of the people in Bigfork had no mask. Probably 50/50 in Kalispell.

@OTG_in_MT Excellent news!!
What do you think of the new governor? I've only started following Montana politics for the last six months or so, since realizing we'll be escaping Washington for greener pastures.

@MrsShill I don't know what to think of him yet. I thought it was funny that he punched a reporter in the face when he refused to get his mic out of his face a couple years back. I also like that he lifted the mask mandate two weeks ago, which in my opinion is a big reason the last Governor got voted out. I haven't really heard much else from him, not that I've been paying close attention...

@OTG_in_MT He's also talking about lowering the income tax. 👍

@MrsShill Honestly, I keep my head mostly out of politics for my own sanity. I am truly thankful to live in this state through all of this though. Life has largely carried on as normal... or closer to normal that the vast majority of the country anyway.

@OTG_in_MT Aaaaand that's why you're about to get 80 gazillion new neighbors. 😁
Five from just the Shill family!

@OTG_in_MT on Hwy 93 just North of Hamilton

@coyotebill

(screenshot included in case you're wondering what I'm looking at)

@thatfightnerd @coyotebill what is this devilry on the left side there is a brow a nose a small mouth is this a shaitan? :-(

@thatfightnerd @coyotebill what's the source of the map and what's the methodology behind risk assessment?

@Binkle @thatfightnerd @coyotebill don't talk like that. You're too serious. Talk about catgirls.

@laibanzai @coyotebill @thatfightnerd is this better?

@Binkle @coyotebill @thatfightnerd much better. Almost like the ideal delirium. This is the peak of evolution.

@Binkle @coyotebill

7 day rolling average of daily cases per 100,000 residents, according to USAFacts and WHO data. This methodology does not account for reinfection or relative mobility of the infected population, so a small group of people with recurring infection would elevate the risk levels even if they were under effective quarantine.

For a nation that has a federal declaration of the right to self-defense, America isn't doing a great job at it.

@thatfightnerd @coyotebill self defense against what, exactly? Do you mean against the endemic/seasonal illness which was projected to be endemic since its inception? Or do you mean against the people trying to go about their lives normally in light of said information? Your worldview seems absolutely bonkers in this instance

@Binkle @coyotebill

Yes, that thing with no clear seasonal pattern is clearly seasonal, and going about your lives means creating massive disturbances and making already an already difficult situation harder by actively demoralizing your fellow citizens.

People were stabbing each other to death over fucking toilet paper and nobody was getting shit done before guidance was issued to bring risk down to a reasonable level. Did you forget that?

@thatfightnerd @coyotebill this thing which is extremely similar in transmission vectors and infection rates to other coronaviruses which are seasonal clearly has *no* likelihood of being seasonal. You're right.

Also yes of course I forgot that - because clearly I'm a moron and you're not being disingenuous at all. There's obviously no nuance to the discussion and you're 100% right.

I wish you luck with your restrictions. Maybe by 2030 you'll be allowed to see other people's faces in public again. Wouldn't count on it though

@Binkle @coyotebill

It's probably going to be this year, in all honesty. The national daily case rate has been declining off of a massive third wave, a lot of other countries aren't as lucky.

People who pretend like having to wear a mask is hardship are spoiled, simple as. I'm sorry you're new to things not going your way, the rest of us have been dealing with it for a while now.

@thatfightnerd @coyotebill doubt it. There's been signals from both Fauci and Biden which suggest they'll likely give the OK to extend it into next year - probably without any assurances about the possibility of further extension. Sort of like what's been happening for last year.

Remarkably cold response, given the significant rise in suicide, drug overdose, etc.

@Binkle @coyotebill

Yes, the country decades into an opioid epidemic just now had a spike in overdoses. A country where the mean life expectancy for White males born after 1985 plummeted to the late thirties due to rampant drug abuse and suicides related to underemployment.

If you think things just got bad because of some Chinese bug, you've been living in a fantasy.

@thatfightnerd @coyotebill did I say things "just got bad"? I was saying "things got worse" - because they have. Demonstrably so with these policies.

@Binkle @coyotebill

Just one more in a series of catastrophes for me. Then again, I grew up in one of the most active drug trafficking corridors in the US, so friends suffering unnatural deaths isn't new.

@thatfightnerd @coyotebill surely you should want to avoid making that problem worse then - since you have experience with its effects.

@Binkle @coyotebill

Yes, the neoconservative NIMBY crowd that shoots down rehabilitation and expansion of counseling services suddenly gives a shit when they have to wear a mask.
They weren't insane malingerers, they were my friends and you and your ilk left them to die alone and afraid after repeatedly defunding the services that could have helped them because "fuck you, got mine."

But wearing a mask is too difficult for you.

@thatfightnerd @coyotebill jesus dude I don't know who you think you're talking to but you're punching at shadows here. One of my best friends self-medicated himself into the dirt trying to deal with untreated schizophrenia, and there's a bunch of people I grew up with who either killed themselves or OD'd. Not everybody who opposes masks is some self-entitled neocon boomer.

@thatfightnerd
>They weren't insane malingerers, they were my friends and you and your ilk left them to die alone
lol calm down.

@vayda
Credentialism is a fucking awful argument. Personally I would disregard any study which doesn't publish it's data.

@thatfightnerd @Binkle @coyotebill it's not about the "hardship" - it's about how it's being used as a tool to control people. Not to mention the fact that it's been creating a false sense of security among the masses going everywhere thinking they're safe as long as they're wearing a mask instead of social distancing. Not to mention how there's evidence that masks also cause respiratory infections.

@vayda @Binkle @coyotebill

If you're getting an infection from your clothing, you aren't cleaning it. Might as well tell me that I shouldn't wear a shirt because there was a massive outbreak of skin infections among Papuans due to lack of laundry services.

You have everything at your disposal, in the richest country in the world, with the lowest cost of living in the developed world, and even with opportunities most would envy, you only seek to rationalize persecutory delusions.
I get it, we all have baggage and sometimes it gets in the way of even the simplest tasks, but emotionally bargaining with a viral pandemic is a bit deluded.

@thatfightnerd @Binkle @coyotebill Masks don't help and they never did. Keep on virtue signaling, so everyone will know you're a good person.

@vayda @Binkle @coyotebill

Yes, arresting fast turbulent flow of air, the same turbulent flow that allows droplets to travel further, is totally ineffective.

Never mind that we can use a variety of imaging techniques to demonstrate this fact (and can even use this technique to demonstrate why some popular mask substitutes, such as neck gaiters, don't work,) let's just try emotionally bargaining with fluid fucking mechanics.

@thatfightnerd @vayda @Binkle @coyotebill does my bandana work?

@RoyUnderhill @thatfightnerd @Binkle @coyotebill can you smell your fart through your underwear

@thatfightnerd @Binkle @coyotebill
Here's a study with thousands of participants which concludes masks make a negligible difference.
https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M20-6817

@vayda @Binkle @coyotebill

@thatfightnerd @Binkle @coyotebill a study conducted by...
Henning Bundgaard, DMSc,
Johan Skov Bundgaard, BSc,
Daniel Emil Tadeusz Raaschou-Pedersen, BSc,
Christian von Buchwald, DMSc,
Tobias Todsen, MD,
Jakob Boesgaard Norsk, MD,
Mia M. Pries-Heje, MD,
Christoffer Rasmus Vissing, MD,
Pernille B. Nielsen, MD,
Ulrik C. Winsløw, MD,
Kamille Fogh, MD,
Rasmus Hasselbalch, MD,
Jonas H. Kristensen, MD,
Anna Ringgaard, PhD,
Mikkel Porsborg Andersen, PhD,
Nicole Bakkegård Goecke, PhD,
Ramona Trebbien, PhD,
Kerstin Skovgaard, PhD,
Thomas Benfield, DMSc,
Henrik Ullum, PhD,
Christian Torp-Pedersen, DMSc,
Kasper Iversen, DMSc


But yeah I'm sure all of these doctors are just full of shit.

@vayda @Binkle @coyotebill

Names don't fucking matter, data does. Scientists are not gods, they are normal people with conflicts of interest like anyone else.

Oh, wait, real scientists share their fucking data.

@thatfightnerd @Binkle @coyotebill where's your data to support mask effectiveness?

@vayda @Binkle @coyotebill

It's called Schlieren photography, and it's one of the major demonstrations of mask effectiveness since well before the current pandemic. There's also the candle test and the florescent dye test. If a method can be used to visualize or demonstrate the lack of turbulent flow compared to a control, you can use it to confirm that masks are indeed effective.

Unless you think a neck gaiter or bandana is PPE. Those things will fare worse in these tests over the control in pretty much any test you throw at them.

@thatfightnerd @Binkle @coyotebill do you even care that asymptomatic people don't spread it? Why are we allowing the government to mandate perfectly healthy people to wear masks? There's no sense to that.

@vayda @thatfightnerd @coyotebill not the route I would've gone with that - it smacks a bit of credentialism.

@Binkle @coyotebill @thatfightnerd I mean millions of people are following any word that drips out of Fauci's mouth, so fight fire with fire?

@vayda @Binkle @coyotebill

Fauci's not a great communicator or an effective leader. That's why I'd rather deal with the data than his constant pandering to minor celebrities.