At the Movies (nope - not about the Oscars)

Cineplex is getting heat for mask and CO2 issues.

From LandBack

It says, "All guests are asked to lower medical masks and hoods while having their tickets scanned."

Why would Cineplex need people to remove masks and hoods when scanning their tickets?? Tickets can be given to other people so it's not a fraud issue. People aren't being asked for ID for proof of age. These aren't restricted movies. Hmmm....

Kathryn pointed out,

"Does Cineplex understand that requiring disabled patrons to unmask would likely constitute a human right violation in Ontario, specifically, that of adverse effect discrimination? Adverse effect discrimination occurs, 'where a requirement, policy, standard, qualification, rule or factor that 'appears neutral excludes or disadvantages a group protected under the Code' (OHRC, 2016). Friends, keep this in your back pocket. It is powerful." 

How We Look After the Least Fortunate

Back in the day, the left was all about protesting for rights for marginalized people, and the right fought for a more individualistic, pull-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps ideology.  

Another thread from Kelly, this time on something I've also noticed in my life: this individualistic right-wing ideology in left-leaning friends:

Had a discussion with a friend on CDC isolation guidelines and how we’re fostering a culture of eugenics and forced infection. Their response? “More like we’re just finally going to stop paying people to sit at home.” 

This is someone who had been a kind and logical person. This type of personality shift is one of the aspects of the pandemic that bothers me the most. This person was kind and considerate and never opposed paid time off. Now they’ve become angry, intolerant and spew right wing rhetoric despite claiming to not belong to any “side.” 

How to Profit from Pandemics

Three threads from this week outline the political and media pandemic protocol being followed around the world, the similarities and differences between prior pandemics, and how the profit motive fuels it all.

Prognostic Chats outlined a baker's dozen of steps taken by many countries to get us to this damaging place. His post comes with receipts, but I've grown weary of including them. I don't think they need evidence. It's just how most of us are living now. 

"Masks have been removed from healthcare. Now schools are encouraging parents to send their sick children to class. We didn’t get here by accident. We have been brought here through carefully orchestrated system changes. They have been common in many counties. Few have noticed.

Covid and the Brain

Two slightly different takes from lengthy threads on how the brain operates in such a way that makes it ignore Covid risks as it protects us from the trauma caused by Covid risks: 

First, career coach Lisa Petsinis outlined how we think about Covid and why we aren't acting on it. In a nutshell, our brain automatically protects itself from knowledge of a difficult situation (like we did something wrong) with defence mechanisms until it's ready to deal with it. Getting people to focus on which behaviours feel worse generates a more moral outcome than a focus on which creates the best outcome, but we generally tend to solve any internal dilemma by sticking firmly to one side, and then we hunker down there regardless any new information. 

Petsinis explains,

"The mind can protect from trauma by using mechanisms such as repression, denial, and dissociation. This is helpful short-term to allow you to function until you're ready to process the trauma. Repression can allow you to avoid feelings of overwhelm or guilt associated with them. With unethical behaviour, rationalizing, burying, or ignoring can be coping mechanisms. A leader might convince themselves that downplaying reality is needed to prevent widespread panic or economic collapse, or compartmentalizing it, so they can get on with other business. Acknowledging a crisis' gravity can raise questions about past decisions and avoid blame. How convenient! 

I think this has been a major factor in workplace health and safety, as well. Employers, unions, lawyers, HR leaders, association, insurers--all playing hide and seek.

The mind can also be involved in an unconscious tug of war - the battle between what is right vs what is good for someone or in picking from two horrendous options. Check out the role of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and the ethical dilemmas at the end of this study."

The Vulnerable will Fall by the Wayside

Fauci's line to the BBC, "The vulnerable will fall by the wayside," said while projecting that we're unlikely to have another tsunami of cases of death as happened with Delta or early Omicron, reveals an acceptance of callousness around mortality now that would have been absolutely unnerving four years ago. It's an ableism that effectively dismisses "losses" as inconsequential, and an othering that can further harassment and abuse of people who are perceived as being less valuable. It gives tacit approval to this perception, suggesting it's okay if they die. 

The CDC, which stands for Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, presented a draft of suggested precautions in June that are less stringent than previously, including claiming that there's no difference between N95s and surgical masks (p. 30), which many are pointing out is simply untrue.

They also claimed Long Covid just lasts weeks or months, and Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding called them on it: 

Why would the agency tasked with protecting the public, lighten precautions and downplay the risks as another wave is beginning? Even though death rates might be lower right this minute, we're still seeing 10-20% of cases lead to Long Covid. 

The System of Ableism Can Be Weaponized Against Anyone

Imani Barbarin is a wealth of information and so funny! If you're new new to TikTok, and you think it's all just dumb trends like eating Tide pods, Crutches & Spice is a great starting place to remove that bias against the younger forms of social media. Like any social media, it's only as good as the people you choose to follow!

Recently she tweeted this t-shirt worthy quote:

"Remember kids: It's not an inspirational story; it's a systemic failure that's being talked about through the lens of an individual good."

This could be about so many things, but she's been talking about the "adoption" (conservatorship) of Michael Oher as featured in the film The Blind Side. He's currently suing this family.

First, listen here about why she centers ableism first among prejudice against any other group (2SLGBTQLIA+, women, racism...):

"If you are a marginalized person in any other way, you're the most likely to get a disability. You're the most likely to feel the impacts of systemic and structural ableism. . . . That is the entire point of ableism in this country because ableism is the greatest weapon in their arsenal. Not only is the system designed for this, but even people within these groups will agree that disabled people deserve to be discarded. That's the point of ableism."

And this bit of history:

"We can't ignore that the Great Depression in the 1930s happened because of the 1918 flu pandemic, and the economic pressures of the Great Depression LED to the rise of fascism and eugenics whose greatest indicators initially was obsession with fitness and the perfect body, which gave way to phrenology and race science. You know that canthal tilt filter? Mmm. All that culminates in genocide. We are on a fast track towards genocide because of what is currently going on with the pandemic, and disabled and immunocompromised people are the people who are going to be impacted the most, particularly those who are Black and Brown as well. But then it'll get into the people what were disabled from Covid. You know that 20% of people who are permanently disabled from Covid, whether they were symptomatic or asymptomatic? Lots of bad things are gonna happen to them very very quickly. Happening right now. But I need y'all to start asking yourselves, What happens next?"

Ableism Affects Everyone - Even You

Happy Friday, everyone! Here's a fun TikTok explaining how ableism comes back to bite you in the butt in less than 2 minutes:

@khoyadoc you're not gonna be "fine". #ableism #capitalism #disability #longcovid #covid19 #left ♬ original sound - khoya doc

Self-Diagnosis with Checklist Criteria: the Big Five and ASD

When I was a kid, my folks said I was a little slow to warm up to people and sometimes needed a nudge to interact. Then, in grade 11, we all had to do this really long test, filling in stacks of Scantron-type cards with our answers, which were fed into a giant computer that generated reports for each of us, which required a specialist to come in to interpret. The upshot of it all? I'm introverted, an INTP, and I should consider a career as a minister. Then twenty years later, I went to grad school and took a course in Carl Jung, including his typology. We were given a test to do, on paper, which was sent away to be carefully analyzed by a specialist. I got a 30 page typed report in return that said I'm still an INTP, and that can't predict my career goals (assuming it can is a fallacy of affirming the consequent*), but it can help me understand and accept why I need so much alone time, why I struggle to notice the mess I leave in my wake in a way that my partner (ex-partner) finds inexcusable, why I'm good at getting stuff done, and why I'm so scattered. This was a special privilege, getting this 30-paged report, offered only to us because we were taking the course. But another twenty years went by (damn, I'm old!), and now anybody can do these tests online and find out all about themselves. And it's FREE!!!