“Virtue Signaling”, sprayed at us in one of Billy’s texts.

Jesus Christ, these right wingers with their memes and talking points catchphrases. Not to mention their all time favorite -— LIBERTY!

Then they die of Covid by exercising their liberty. I guess he’s been liberated then. SMH.

Along with Think! Yeah Bill, today we’re all thinking about what your stubborn refusal to take your health and the health of those around you seriously.  May your eternity be full of the very memes you posted on social media, over and over and over again. Think!

I’m not angry at this guy and his death is a sad thing, but we need to learn the danger of “epistemic closure” where all challenges to your world view are rejected. This guy had apparently good intentions — liberty and freedom are good things.  What killed him, alongside covid, was his inability to listen to the friends who cared about him.  He projected his own problem, virtue signalling, onto the person who challenged his opinion. All of the crap he wrote was right wing virtue signalling.

That is why  I will challenge anyone here including kos when I think he has gone astray. Democracy, liberty and freedom depend on an open discussion of ideas not controlled by hierarchy. The right wing falls in line while talking of liberty and here we are with a solid fraction of the Republican party wanting to make Trump a dictator in the name of liberty.

Somewhere back around 30 years ago Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich destroyed honest debate in the GOP. They turned it into an authoritarian cult. And guys like this guy who recently died of covid are victims, like fish called bycatch caught in a shrimper’s net. The right is ruthlessly killing it own, all in the name of freedom while engaging in sedition against America and treason against democracy.

You are much kinder. I feel angry. Our healthcare system is stretched beyond the brink. Nurse, doctors, etc exhausted. The cost of care for each Covid patient in the intensive care unit - think what we could do with the money on public health and preventive care. We have to stress over our children under 12 who can’t get vaccinated. Anger is what I feel since August when delta unnecessarily impacted our lives.

Someone has died needlessly due to their own foolishness.

I might be angry at the waste but not at them.

They’ve already paid the ultimate price.

I am angry at the people who put this crazy train in motion for their personal profit or political gain. I am angry at people working in health care delivery who refuse to get vaccinated. They owe it to their patients and coworkers.

If I got angry at every little guy out there my blood pressure would be 200/140 and I would end up with a stroke.

Somewhere back around 30 years ago Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich destroyed honest debate

They did it by learning to use the language of “honest debate,” the language of “democracy,” the language of “liberty and justice for all,”  twisted to be in the service of fascist ideologies (both political and economic). Sedition is now  the true patriotism. It’s like when somebody twists everything you say into a sexual innuendo, there’s no escape because everything gets twisted.

Yes they have “Liberty” and “freedom”…..nice meaningless overused buzz words which have been used for everything from nuts to soup and now are just sounds….even the old Grok has more meaning.

I notice right wingers, authoritarians, conservatives, KKKonservatives, Christians, KKKHri$tian$, Republicans….But I repeat myself thre (the Venn diagram overlaps a lot in those groups)…yell words which they wither cannot define or have altered the definition to meet some odd worldview.

Freedom is a very broad word which can men everything from freedom to eat cashews to freedom to have an abortion (unless you are a GrOPer KKKonservative KKKhri$tian then no control for women’s bodies).

Liberty is another now meaningless sound, liberty to do what exactly?  Endanger other people and burden the public with your debt?

I would like to see them talk sometimes about responsibilities, duty, honor and critical thinking some times….the pretzel logic that ensued would be quite interesting.

^^^ 100% ^^^

I tell all freedumb loving anti vaxxers, if ya really want freedom, why dont ya text and drive w/o a seat belt while intoxicated 😵 their reaction is pure bliss.

I love these chronicles by Kos. They are sad, but full of irony.

As for Facebook, I'm glad that trump is not allowed on Facebook because, honestly, no one should be allowed on Facebook. And as for dildos, I remember when Ted Cruz went to Cancun.

A banana and a dildo were on his nightstand. The dildo was vibrating. The banana says, "Why are you shaking? First time, heh?"

Our daughter just returned from EU and UK.  Had to show vaccination card everywhere and also was able to get FOR FREE, rapid home test kits.

I just returned from there too. It was hard to leave that island of sanity and common sense and return to….this. Was nice to be in countries full of mature adults.

When even Boris Johnson’s Britain is sane by comparison to us :-(  

Actually, look at the rate of new Covid cases in the UK since they proclaimed “freedom day” a couple months back.  Their fatality rate is lower than ours, so they do at least have that.

If you want to look at a sane and effective Covid response, one place to look is Italy, where the Lazio region (5.9 million people including Rome) is averaging fewer than 400 new cases a day.

New Zealand is pure fun as it pretty much Covid-free.

I can get a home tests in Minnesota.  Free.  If your insurance doesn’t cover it, the state will.  This is a spit test, and you apply on the ‘net, and then go on the ‘net when you are going to do it.  Send it back by UPS, and the results were back in about 30 hours. 

We are thinking of ordering a couple of these again to have on hand in case we get symptoms.  The last two times we did it, we were negative.  The first time was pre vaccinations, back in Nov 2020, after having to travel and be in convenience stores, etc where people weren’t distancing nor masking.

our daughters were 15 minute tests.  surely we have the technology.  might not be as accurate as the ones you can get, but honestly we could do better.

As I understand it, the rapid test and the longer test measure different things.   For test at our hospital,  if you come in really sick to the ER, you would get a rapid test.  The lab has to send the other test to a lab elsewhere, which might be the Mayo Clinic,  so there is the transportation time, plus whatever back log time there may be.  A friend needed a test before a flight, and the local hospital couldn't guarantee the turn around time.  But the big chain pharmacy in another city did, for >$100.

Goodbye Bill. Looks like you lost the hill you were fated to die on.

Even Bill didn’t deserve to die of COVID-19. It’s a bad way to go. My sympathies to his family. “When COVID Deaths Are Dismissed Or Stigmatized, Grief Is Mixed With Shame And Anger”.

I have to think about this...

Even Bill didn’t deserve to die of COVID-19.

there are also chronicles of vaccinated-sane-folks-in-dire-straits with a critical condition who can’t get treatment until bill does

die

I got nuttin’ for this one or any of the other willfully stupid, ignorant deathstalkers.

Another Herman Cain Award winner.

Herman Cain is ALIVE! He tweeted after his death😱

Wearing a mask is really easy. And it works. Just do it. Also, don’t die from covid. Preventable death = no more freedom.

I’ve committed to going with out shoes, pants, and a coat this winter.  I’m no sheep like the rest of ya’ll who wear coats and hats cuz your mommy told you to.  If god wanted you to wear stuff on your body he’d a made you with it.  Think! /s

I’m going to run every red light I see and laugh at all the sheep who have submitted to government tyranny by allowing an inanimate object control their lives.

Freedom, baby! Can you smell it? 

Libertarians actually believe that crap.

To be honest, I HATE masks. For real. I loathe them entirely. Do I wear one? Everyday I leave the house because I don’t want Covid. My hatred subsides when confronted by a deadly pandemic. Think!

He got his way.

FRANK SINATRA — I DID IT MY WAY

For Bill, that should be sung at his funeral.

That was the song played as PolPotUS⁴⁵ was taking off on his last flight aboard Air Force One; at least, that was its designation if it took off before noon.

If this was Bill’s choice before taking off for parts unknown, I guess you could say that stable geniuses think alike.

Their ire toward "globalists" has a one-two punch of racism and antisemitism, it seems. Seems like the right-wingers are saying, "Keep our nice, white America out of the reach of all of the brown people in the global South and the George Soroses (wink wink) who fund them!"

I swear, every time I hear some asshole utter the word "globalist," warning sirens go off in my brain.

they want the US and elsewhere to be run by: White, Christian men.  End of story.  that’s it in a nut shell.  They cannot accept that women, PoC, Yids (I am one), LGBTQAI etc might have power over them.

White Conservatives are full of dread that liberals, once in power, will do everything that they did to them. Worse than saying God is dead. Try telling conservatives ‘God is Black’ or lol ‘God is Gay’ talk about going nuclear lolol

They hate “globalists” but worship at the altar of Multinational Corporations. They make no sense.

They don’t make many cents either, in comparison to the Ruling Rich.

“If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you.”

LBJ

Had a post on Nextdoor about banning short term rentals.  Sure, there are pros and cons but the gist of the posts in favor of banning them included “outsiders”, “crime”, “drugs” “destroying our towns” and the like.  The whole thing had a strong scent of racism, bigotry and protectionism.  Guess globalists are behind Airbnb and VRBO.

It’s unfortunate that the debate has come down to that stuff, because there are solid arguments against short-term rentals in residential areas.

One biggie is that when the owners of those short-term rentals don’t also live there, they have no investment in the community — and that’s how you end up with absentee landlords that allow their properties to turn into one-night party palaces.  That is seriously bad for neighborhoods and is a valid argument for requiring the owners of these places to live on or near their rentals. 

The second concern is that when properties are converted to short-term rentals, those properties are no longer available for residents of the area to live in, which is one more factor driving housing shortages and driving up rents and purchase prices.  It can also put would-be homeowners who would buy and occupy a property themselves in a bidding war against investment consortiums that are buying up large numbers of properties.

An additional problem for urban neighborhoods is that a large number of short-term rentals in an area can undermine the customer base for local shops.  That’s not really much of an issue in most of the U.S., but it is a factor in walkable areas of NYC, as well as in some major cities in other countries (I’m familiar with this being an issue in Rome, for example).

We don’t have one night party palaces, we have pretty strict noise ordinances and our local police are johnny on the spot on noise complaints. Our biggest problems are increased traffic and the occasional wandering tourists hiking on private property. I’ve had people in my back yard say, “We thought this was a public trail!” Right… that makes sense.

But our area towns are resort towns, primarily skiing.  Tourism is the life blood and the closest city is a college town where students compete for affordable off campus housing.  Without tourism our area would be economically in the dumper.

“Globalists” just seems to be the modern-day version of the “global Jewish conspiracy.”  These people can’t come up with new crap, so they just recycle the old stuff with new names attached.

He’s finally free. From having to live in a world that refuses to conform to his fantasies.

I think we are looking at at least 2-3 million dead Americans by the end of this. There are also going to be big social changes. For one thing, assholes like Zuckerburg need to be brought to heel. Civil action suits ought to be brought against Carlson for his unending assault on public health.

I think more like 10 million. 

Actually, with all the obfuscation and lies, especially in/from red states, I believe we’re probably already around 1.5 million. And I think by the time all is said and done, with all the ignorant, stubborn idiots out there, it’ll be more like 20 million. IMHO.

Just to clarify my own position: I would never demand that an actual dickhead don a skull dildo.

One more dead neckbeard. 

 

Oh well. One less dangerous, brainwashed douchebag. 

“You don’t die from the virus , you die from the acute symptoms...”

“You don’t die from the fall, you die from the sudden stop at the end...”

Well guess what, idiot? You’re still dead.

He’s pining for the Orange.

Wonderful plumage though

I know, right? You don’t die from the cyanide, you die from the oxygen being starved out of your cells. 

It wasn’t the smoking that killed him, it was the lung cancer. 

It is a strange qualification. Nobody dies from asthma, they die because they can’t breathe because their airways are constricted, because of asthma. Huh?

What a dumb shit.

That’s what I found so utterly stupid.  “You don’t die from the virus, you die from the symptoms”.

“You don’t die from the gun, you die from the bullet.”

That bit made me think of my dear departed Dad (heart attack in 2000, not covid symptoms). 

He used to say, “It’s not the cough that carries you off, it’s the coffin they carry you off in”.  I have no idea what that meant, but it’s about as useful and anything Bill ever tweeted.

Who’s docile now?

He went from standing his ground to laying under ground.

What's really sad is that this guy seemed to be reasonably intelligent. Unlike many other subliterate people in the Anti-Vax Chronicles, he wrote fairly well and articulated his thoughts without the fanatical "in His name be the glory!" Fundamentalism that littered many of the other posts in this series.

And as Kos points out, he did have a small number of at least Facebook friends who had the good sense to steer him in the direction of sane healthcare decisions. It's too bad that he let whatever tribalism/racism and the resultant misinformation infect his brain enough to allow COVID to eventually consume his body.

The Dunning-Kruger Effect is stronger with intelligent people. Most unintelligent people know they are don’t have a clue and don’t jump to the conclusion they are smarter than the experts.

Libertarians.

Some people are so bull-headed and defiant, even when they’re gently nudged in the right direction, their first and only impulse is to push back hard the other way in spite of any facts or logic.  It’s like they’ve made up their mind to never change their mind.   

It’s like they cut off their nose to spite their face.

They would literally rather die than admit error. 

I’m sure most of us have heard the expression, but it’s worth repeating, a mind is like a parachute, it must be open to work.

You can’t fix stupid. You can’t fix stupid. You can’t fix stupid. You can’t fix stupid. You can’t fix stupid. You can’t fix stupid.

But Covid-19-D sure does!

And did I mention that you can’t fix stupid?

OTOH, nurses can sedate it!  Another reason to love nurses….  ;-)

“Know-nothing experts” say the know-nothings who don’t understand how science works.

“Don’t be sheep” say the sheep who repost every anti-vaxx meme they come across. 

“Trust in God” say the Covidiots who depend on doctors and scientists to save them. You know, the “know-nothing experts”. 

You cannot make this shit up.

When the photo scrolled by I just burst out loud: “Stupid fu*k, you didn’t have to die”

Damn. . .

Nothing of value was lost

i would not be surprised if as part of the investigations we get the truth about tfg’s covid response — that he liked the worst case scenarios intel was giving him about states of emergency powers and cancelling elections and from then on it was his goal to make COVID worse. if he wanted to slow of stop it he would not have had limbaugh call it a hoax at first and then “just another flu” etc

He chose his hill to die on.

Two quick observations:

1. The anti-vax memes and posts are overwhelmingly nasty, cruel, conspiratorial, and absolute. I might look at the world differently if Bill simply said he was concerned about side effects. But instead they blarp out idiocy wrapped in authoritarian politics.

2. FB is the connective tissue for all this tragedy, here and in so many other places. They could cut this shit out with a keystroke. But Zuckerman and Sandberg are incapable of placing protection of human life above revenue. And nothing will change until they are gone, if ever.

Truly sad for the people who loved and cared about this guy.  As Kos points out, he was half right about the ills of society (class-inequality, para-capitalism, etc,) but he got his brain in a knot -helped along by pigs like Mark Zuckerberg, Tucker Carlson, and a bunch of GOP politicians.  But what do We learn from this?  I think that it behooves us, if we want a better society, to look at the social forces that created that knot in Bill’s brain, and work to change them.  

Sure, Bill was a grown man who made his own choices, and his choices clearly endangered, and very possibly harmed, others. And in the end he caused his loved ones great suffering.  But he was also a victim of a society that tolerates Zuckerberg, Carlson, Abbot, DeSantis, the Sacklers, the Trumps….

Truly sad for all of us.

If Bill was actually a Philadelphian, I am sorry that he's dead. In any case the  city's vaccination rate at 83% is among the highest of the largest cities in the country. And, yes, the  indoor mask mandate did come back in August. But since the VAST majority here actually care about keeping others from getting sick with covid there was no real drama about it. Starting today there is at least one city-run  vaccination clinic to start giving folks booster jabs in addition to pharmacies. 

Bwahahaha! I’m seriously tired of it!

I chuckled at the “head dildo” meme. 

But really, if the science said that wearing a head dildo would keep me safe from Covid? I’d wear the effin head dildo. 

Better to look foolish than dead. 

He’s got nothing left to lose.

I have zero sympathy for these assholes. None. I just wish they weren’t able to hurt others with their deadly ignorance.

My favorite argument by the late, great fountain of wisdom named Bill was the fact you don't die from the covid virus, but from the"acute symptoms" caused by the infection.

Been in health care for 50 years, worked at a couple of major research medical centers, and never understood that distinction till right now. Thank you, Bill.

Bet those acute symptoms were a bitch at the end. RIP.

So here’s something I notice (see below, begin with Bill’s “We could just say NO” part). We’ve heard that same rant before, many times, with the word “science” changed to “patriotism,” and directed against Trump, fascism, and Fox News spreading fear and deceit and authoritarian propaganda, and it would work, it would actually be accurate. We actually should be hostile and defiant against fascism. In Bill’s post, it may truly be projection on his part, but what is insidious is that here the language of “rational” and post-modern relativism, the language of justice, is being completely hijacked for pre-rational, tribal, ethnocentric purposes. I find this hijacking far more disturbing than the content of Bill’s posts.

Yeah the worse liars don’t lie 100% of the time. They sprinkle 20% of their lies w 80% truth.

"Just say no" oh boy, if only that was all it took to make covid go away. Riddle me this, no masks/no vaccine, how exactly do you propose we end covid? I'd probably get nothing but bullshit answers from them.

Re-elect the fascist Chump! Would be their truth but they know we would laugh at them so hard it would be embarrassing 🙈 

I am sure Bill, gasping his last ventilated breath, took great solace in knowing that he did not “die from the virus but the acute symptoms that were brought on during infection from it.”

I have known more than a few Bill types. They often proclaim themselves to be libertarians and in fact, they can be pretty well-informed on some issues. Like Bill, if you hit on just the right topic with these types, such as deleterious influence of corporate $ on politics or big pharma’s complicity in the opioid crisis, it would be easy enough to find some common ground. But “Bills” tend to be absolutist in their thinking. If government is bad in one situation, it is bad in all others. If Big pharma is bad on opioids, then its vaccines are exactly the same untrustworthy thing.

And Bills never modify their position when confronted by refuting evidence not do they ever concede a point. Instead they will twist themselves into Bill O’Reilly knots to win a rhetorical battle such as drawing an inane distinction between dying of a virus and dying from the symptoms that occur while infected by the virus. Yes, so clever!!!! and so needlessly dead….

Oh nooooooo telling what people do in their own beds is a conservatives RIGHT to know! They love big govt in all its crypto fascist glory.

I had a grim chuckle at that, too.  Because nobody dies when the fall off a tall building.

It's the sudden stop at the end.

I’m musing on the possible connection between being anti-mask/anti-vax and poor grammar...

They use that as a way to get around the Facebook censors as well but yeah many of them can’t spell either😂🤣😂🤣

I got no sympathy for loudmouth liars. But the longer this Redhat defiance goes on,  the more it feels like the epidemic of suicides and opioid addiction that swept through white working class communities in the last decade.  Could they both be driven by the same self-destructive despair?

Wow.  Why did I kind of know that a guy who looks like that would be a conservative troll who knew better than the experts?

No, that's not right.  You can't tell by looking.

I wonder if any of his anti-vaxx buddies woke up after the funeral?

Naaaaa….

Right now in 2021, we are experiencing a pandemic of the unvaccinated. They have burrowed themselves in an end of days bunker w a picture of Jesus (white & blue eyes) on the back wall. Facebook is their shrine and pureblood is their password.

This appears to be the hill they are, in fact, ready to die on.