Was 1918 better equipped for a pandemic? Quite possibly yes, despite having almost no medical interventions once people did get sick. They barely had oxygen, no antibiotics, steroids or bronchodilators. What they did have, we haven’t been able to rebuild.
Continue reading “Was 1918 Better Equipped to Weather a Pandemic?”Category: psych
Luxuries Bought With Others’ Lives: NPCs, Dehumanization, and Pandemic Ethics
Opening monologue:
This is Free City.
Look at this guy. He’s one of the sunglasses people.
And the people who wear sunglasses? Are heroes.
They have a devil-may-care attitude and they run this town.
Bombshell:You are so hot.
Revenjamin Buttons, dropping into driver’s seat: Oh, I know.
See? That’s not even his car. Or his wife.
For the sunglasses people, they get to do anything they want.
They go on all sorts of missions, they got cool hair, cool clothes.
I mean, laws aren’t really laws to them.They’re more like mild suggestions.
Like, I don’t think he’s gonna return that car.
Or that nice lady.
See what I mean? Hero.
Thus begins Free Guy. 105 words of thesis statement.
Continue reading “Luxuries Bought With Others’ Lives: NPCs, Dehumanization, and Pandemic Ethics”Expensive Hope
Originally a twitter thread:
In my day job, one of the signs of progress and health is the ability to look at a situation as it is, without either catastrophizing OR denial. So yes, sometimes the goal of the next set of therapy is to come to terms with a terminal dx or the end of a relationship.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with setting eyes on This Thing and recognizing that This Thing is now THIS. Maybe it used to be THAT, but it is no longer THAT and the chances that it will ever be THAT again are very small. Or not in this lifetime, with these circumstances.
Coming to terms with This Thing can be hard, and slow, and painful, but the emotional honesty of coming to terms with it is much healthier than the usual alternative — denial.
Continue reading “Expensive Hope”Peelian Principles and American Policing
Originally a Twitter thread, April 24, 2021
A long thread on the primary alternative to the US model of policing, with some history, mostly for context.
Long thread. References used at end. (And yes, there is synthesis here.)
The US police system is an independent evolution vs the rest of the Anglosphere. And a blighted evolution, since ours developed out of systems specifically intended to support racist institutions. The American system started with slave patrols. It’s fruit from a poisoned tree.
But our system is not the only system.
Continue reading “Peelian Principles and American Policing”The Monstrous Arrogance
Originally written on Twitter, February 21, 2018.
Nothing has changed, except it’s gotten worse.
Reposting it here, now, because there is no room in my heart to say this again.
(Note: read the link if possible. I like the gifs.)
I’ve spent my entire professional career putting people back together after trauma, especially gun trauma. 19 years.
Continue reading “The Monstrous Arrogance”Demographics of Opiates
Originally a Twitter thread. (Minor edits for clarity) (and some additions)
Koldony seems to miss a major factor in opiates use: demographics. His fav stat is opiate use increased drastically starting in 1997.
Which was the year the oldest Baby Boomers started turning 50, and before occupational repetitive stress injuries were widely acknowledged, and while pre-existing conditions still excluded many people from any health coverage. It’s the largest demographic cohort in history; they’re comfortable with drugs, & occupational abuse of workers was the societal norm for the 20th century.