My theory is Covid - bc it causes cognitive decline and looks like how people act after a stroke - confused and angry but for no reason

It also seems to reveal their racism bc they think they’re saying normal things that are abysmally racist

So better education about race relations? What a novel idea. Not in this regime. Across the board they're against anything that would have people actually thinking.

Loss of inhibitions. But also, when people adopt racism as a way of classifying people, it makes the world ultra-simple. People with cognitive decline often rely on simplistic ways of navigating the world.

Yessss. We see that always with the cult but when you see Gillibrand doing it you know something’s up

Gillibrand has BEEN this way! Full disclosure that I have no idea what she’s done🙃However, remember her fake “moral high road” that she took against Al Franken🤷🏾‍♀️We have a lot of⚪️Dems who think like the GOP, except they use morality to absolve themselves from the liability of their misdeeds!

It’s really horrific

I agree!

Yay! 💜

🙌🏾

I just thought of her first - it’s pervasive now

Haven’t kept up with NY politics. What did Gillibrand do?

She’s saying hugely racist things about Mamdani

Yuck. Shameful. Thanks for sharing.

You’re welcome

More like loss of shame. Bloated Orange and Poxnews tells them its ok again to be that way and so they are that way.

This comes when 75 percent of the population and all the billionaires and the politicians they own are on opioids and speed (adderall) mixed with other big pharma meds. Adderall which all the trump regime are on reduces empathy significantly. Ps the Nazis were mostly all on speed.

I call it the death of shame, it started when he came down that escalator to the cheers of paid actors

That is a good - and scary - theory. First round Covid - up to 6 points decline in IQ if you had it bad. Later ones - a couple points off every time. And you have a planet full of people getting steadily less intelligent and more belligerent, with predictably horrific results.

See the huge increase in traffic accidents as well - cognitive decline isn’t just intelligence

I submit that this party which started as the DEM party of Lincoln went partially underground after the Civil War. They learned PC ways of saying things so they could get elected. Reagan eliminated the Fairness Doctrine so faux news could rise up &propagandize the GQP &so they hate being woke or PC

The FD never prevented propaganda and didn’t have anything to do with cable channels.

Faux news could not have maintained a license under the Fairness Doctrine without offering all true opposing views of all issues affecting the community. Fox never would have created the propaganda network without Reagan's help. It was his deal with Roger Murdoch.

Cable channels neither have nor need broadcast licenses.

I think that very phenomena is trying my brain mightily these days. I keep fighting it. I see it as a must. Other people fold like lawn chairs.

Democrats have no leader, no direction and no set plan. The problem is all the left wing radical extremists have banded together and formed a fringe lunatic cult that is hell bent on destruction and you are going to keep losing to Republicans. America loves winners and right now that's MAGA!

Ayo, you’s a bitch and yo mommas a ho. Go fuck yourself fascist trash, happy pride month

Back at ya champ🙂

I take all of that back in stride except fascist trash. I draw the line at being associated with yalls MAGA brand, mindless fucking drones the lot of yall

I understand how hard this must be for you - March 2025 NBC News poll reported the Democratic Party’s favorability at a historic low of 27% among registered voters, with only 7% having a "very positive" view. Distance yourselves from the lunatic fringe cult

Wow you’re dense bud. Dems are the past, we’re leftist now. The people have realized dems are republican lite, serving the same corporate overlords, not the people. Might be hard for you to understand seeing as you have MAGA in your bio. Doesn’t get more brainwashed than that.

youtu.be/cKUaqFzZLxU

The fact that you sent this and are still a MAGA fuck boy tells me all I need to know. You lost the plot a long time ago, get your head out of your ass and smell the roses. Do not disrespect Carlin with your ignorance and misrepresentations, he would have thought you were scum of the earth.

There is help if you reach out ..

Oh bud I got more than anger for your kind

I admit, the GOPTrumpCult is unmatched in effectiveness & resilience in the face of truth & justice, formerly known as “The American Way.”

They always were broken, it's just they feel they can say it out loud now.

But they’ve managed to keep their keen ability to defend EVERYTHING he does because they don’t want you to know they’ve been duped

It is hard to understand.I saw the PBS documentary on Hannah Arendt last night.She spoke about how masses of people-who had been your neighbors, your friends, your colleagues-could become so susceptible to repeated lies & the scapegoating of "the other" that they embraced Nazism in all its horror.

I used to be. Then I watched the Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. We will suffer the flaws in the weave.

MAGA VOTED FOR THIS...

Just think! After almost ten years and billions of dollars spent in propaganda, you're still not brainwashed. In all due honesty, you should be proud of yourself...and the same goes for anyone reading this who hasn't gone bonkers yet. Give yourself credit, big time credit.

How DOES one fall under the horrible spell of menticide you may ask? Take some time to learn about it. It's worth the effort...

🌻 thanks for this

You're welcome. You deserve the credit. All of us on this side of menticide deserve it. It has been extremely difficult, but I'm a very tenacious mthrfkr.

You’re awesome! 👏👏👏 I also think in addition to tenacity, it’s the willingness to not go along with the group, to be OK being on the outside. Btw I had to look up the term menticide… and yup 💯

I've always been an outlier and an outlaw. So very hard to brainwash. I just spend my time now trying to figure out how to escape the madness, while fully immersed in the madness. Its fun.

"Menticide"... Are you familiar with Joost Meerloo? He coined the term. It very accurately describes our era, sad to say.

I've not read up on him, but now that you mentioned him, I certainly will! Thank you 🤓

Most days I honestly feel like I am losing my mind because how can so many believe what is blatantly false and wrong?

It's menticide. They no longer think for themselves, and it suits the intellectually lazy to just take a powder on that cognitive stuff.

Respectfully, it has been a lot longer than 10 years. Propaganda was unleashed in 1987 with the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine. First, Rush Limbaugh, and then Fox News, and the rest is history.

The Fairness Doctrine never prevented propaganda.

I never said it did. It mitigated the impact of propaganda because it required opposing views to be aired.

So it spread more types of propaganda.

It enabled the spread of more and more intense propaganda, yes.

Yes, the Fairness Doctrine enabled the spread of more and more propaganda and gave it validity by providing airtime for it.

You’re wasting your time with this guy. Check his threads today.

Modern digital marketing mixed with social norms that promote belief over critical thinking and evidence. Shake and serve over ice.

I'm struggling to maintain my composure with the maga sect at work. More difficult every day.

I've seen the same kinds of behaviors. Accept they are showing or revealing who they are. Being "reasonable" whatever that may imply, was always a facade.

Baffled is the new normal.

I had to cut off a close friend of many years because this is no longer “just politics” And I miss her every day, but I’m mostly angry at myself for feeling that way. This showed me some ugly I didn’t know existed

I get it. The thing I remember is that they aren't the people they were, and their caring and love is entirely conditional these days. Plus their morals aren't something I'd want my kids to emulate, ever. 😞

I've been saying this since Covid19...

Because america

They try to minimize the horrors we are witnessing.

too much chaos

I'm really hoping that they're not entirely broken beyond repair,but that given time & a lot of media energy,they can recover sufficiently to recognise truth from lies,kindness from cruelty&which is the better path.Greed & fear are powerful motivators,& Trump et al are great at triggering both!

“There’s simply the reluctance ever to imagine what the other person is experiencing. That is the banality of evil.” (Hannah Arendt)

Ideas go in their heads to die.

Hence the campaign of false truths & lies we've been showered with for the last 10 yrs ! Isaiah 5:20 This is and has been by design !

Media Overload... purposely men and designed to break people down... while they are curating the content you consume: THEY ARE CURATING YOU bsky.app/profile/ogre...

Racism and sexism are powerful. And pour in propaganda and the poison is complete.

I’m just blown away that so many former reasonable people have just fallen for the sheer bullshit that right wing media pushes as far as “these things are problems”

It is terrifying and frustrating. I write postcards as therapy. We have to act and find a way to fight back however we can.

As someone on the spectrum, I can assure you that the 1st Impression of ppl's reasonable nature is often a lie Once you get past ppl's social persona, you'll find a great deal of grotesqueness underneath. Not because ppl are inherently evil, but because most don't do the shadow work on themselves

Brains are broken by design. Daily atrocities are now the norm. The racism is overt and becoming normalized. Watching this from Canada makes me sick to me stomach.

I totally agree

Their brains are willfully broken in my opinion.

One aspect of climate change no one is addressing is that oxygen levels are shrinking...which can lead to cognitive impairment in humans

I think the assumption was the internet would expand access to information and translate into more intelligent people. But we failed to account for how physically, ideologically, and intellectually lazy white people are.

How it lined up on my TL

YES you are totally right and even on the internet. It's absolutely crazy that I have to log off. 🤔😐☮️❤️✨✝️🙏🏾

I honestly think the climate crisis is a big driver of the collective sociopathy we see now in the US—that people collectively sense the Immensity and the gravity and the insane choice not to pull out all stops to mitigate/save ourselves from ourselves. Some get it, most are in psychotic denial

Shock and denial are first on the 7 stages of grief

It’s the drugs: religion/fear/hate/bigotry/misogyny. Through line

#FolieAuDeuxEnMasse Medieval dancing craze that affected all levels of economic, social, and intelligence. No known reason, and not known why it stopped. This has been a deliberate psyops by Fox, etc.

I am so glad I am a strong minded Boomer who was home alone from Kindergarten on.

This is something to keep in mind right now in America. A larger share of the population are entertaining illogical concepts and thoughts. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dancing...

One theory going around is neuro damage from covid. I mean, if the demographic fits!

This statement exactly captures how I've felt for a while now.

I think the reality is that people have always been this broken. They were just hiding it until they felt permitted to let the mask fall off.

Like, we genuinely have to come to terms with the fact that people operate in (at least) two modes of morally: 1) The personal/private morality that is instinctual. 2) The public morality that is only really held in place by a sense of social obligation. We're in an era where #2 is eroded.

Are there any reasonable people left ?

Word

Me too. That's the worst.

That’s because they were never reasonable. They were always guided by bigotry, greed or ignorance.

Broken. Irreparable.

Dishonesty & greed

😢

This! It’s been really eye opening for me. A lot of people that I thought were genuinely intelligent are actually feeble imbeciles.

Right? Mine feels broken on the daily. And, I’m constantly screaming out, what the fuck is going on? Like I’m a crazy person.

It's tough to stay reasonable within an unreasonable reality

I am convinced it's the untested, unregulated use and dumping of dangerous chemicals in our food, skin products, cleaning products, water, air. We know intelligence levels are going down by every measure in America. It's not just failed education, it is a pandemic of stupid.

Cult

The power of bigotry.

You're not wrong. Covid lowers the human IQ by roughly 10 points. Don't take my word for it. Fact check me. For the vast majority of people the brain recovers after a year or so. Some people are not so lucky. I have long covid; I'm one of them 😣 (and the unvaccinated are at higher risk)

okay i wont take your word for it because IQ is rascist pseudo-science. Covid can negatively effect people's cognitive function but saying "covid lowers human IQ by roughly 10 points" is nonsense

Think of "IQ" as shorthand for "Human intelligence" in online vernacular. You're right in that the "IQ" test itself is limited and shouldn't be taken out of context, but it does usually (not always) map directly to human intelligence. bsky.app/profile/jooc...

Another way to say that: if someone does not measure high in stan. binet IQ test, it may not mean they're not exceptionally smart, it may mean that test can't measure them accurately. However it's rare that someone does score high in that test without having high cognitive function.

IQ is a score on a test. No one is saying it IS intelligence. Studies show that covid impacts IQ scores. That is all. Now let's talk about EQ...

Whatever the bias on the tests, if the same people are scoring LOWER on the same tests, something bad has happened to them.

no. people score lower on tests for a whole host of reasons: they're tired/hungry/stressed, etc. IQ test are particularly vulnerable to these variables. as i clearly stated before there is absolutely a link between covid and cognitive dysfunction/impairment. we don't need bunk science to know that

Of course many factors can affect the performance of an individual on a test. That is why a large sample size is important. There is plenty of empirical evidence that COVID causes cognitive impairment. How do we demonstrate that in controlled studies?

Not with the IQ test. It's just too hampered by bias baggage, and it isn't culturally neutral. Test them with the cognitive test President Trump keeps paying a nerd to take for him.

I'm suddenly reminded of a Monty Pythons Flying Circus sketch where they attempt to prove that penguins are just as intelligent as humans by first IQ testing the penguins, then putting a bunch of non English speaking humans in the penguin enclosure and using the same English IQ test on them.

Never underestimate the penguins!

Wondered when someone would point out penguins live next door to Cyclopean cities. 😆

That cognitive test that Trump took is a ten minute screening test. It doesn’t prove anything. A real cognitive test takes hours. I just took one last week. 😉

too many people on social media who claim to be promoting public health messaging are actually ableist and using the same weirdo crap talking points as the right-wing libertarian pandemic denier eugenicists... it's a real problem for years now

No need to fact check. I can tell you have had covid about 20 times already.

Yep. I've had long COVID for almost 5.5 years. I lost 16 IQ points. Fortunately, I started with 135. I am so sick of being disabled. If I get COVID a second time, I'll have to go into a care home. At 65.

😢😢😢 agreed.

If you soak any food in vinegar for too long, it gets permeated by it. I assume that a lot of people got exposed to misinformation for a long time and will have a hard time walking back for a cleanse. In a way, it is also sad, if you are taught something wrong, you are a victim.

This is why I as a child felt responsible to learn things so that I would not do harm the people who trust me and take me at my word. I though it was the obvious thing to do. Apparently not for everyone.

This gave me some insights. www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAo2...

Brilliant explanation. Thank you for posting

I already subconsciously knew all this, but its nice to have it articulated.

Are they broken or are they just blinded by all the lies?

Yes. Theory: The force of our propaganda pandemic is strong.

multiple factors going on, including selective bias in looking for 'what's up with me lately, I feel like my brain is broken' and that aggregating into herd mentality. let's not forget neuro-plasticity and the ability to build back some sense into ourselves. the powers that be need soft minds.

They're broken because there are too many paths for easy answers. Hard answers require hard, critical thought, not memes.

Critical thought and actual hard work required.

Mine breaks sometimes, because i get so angry with MAGA family. After this is over, how do we forgive? How do we keep from marginalizing people so that a hundred years from now we don't have another civil war?

People are taking sides and standing on hills to due on making themselves deaf to everyone and everything around them not realizing the isolation and damage about them as long as they are comfortable within their isolating ideals even if it hurts the world around them and set fire to their own feet.

Microplastics in the brain.

Anything specific, because I like to think I'm reasonable but recognize that you may be talking about a specific thing If it's the SCOTUS the simple answer there is easy: That isn't about being "Reasonable", they've been politically bent for decades.

...it's not their brains, it's their hearts.

You and me both.

You're not alone in that astonishment. Me, too. Every day. Many times a day.

Why are you starting with the assumption that a bunch of organic matter should be behaving rationally? That is itself a deeply irrational assumption.

It appears that there is a group psychosis that has taken over a significant number of our citizens. It started when Trump descended the golden escalator in 2015. Those of us who can still think for ourselves are the only hope we have to save our Republic.

Don’t be. fox state tv propagandists are very good at what they do.

People are always screwy, ask any psychology major

Hypnosis? I dunno, I can't figure it out either. Their full ability to not be affected by what's going on right under their noses.

I'm with you brother, somehow I think we missed out on the KoolAid.

1) Convince the Boomer generation to follow Leary's "Tune in. Turn on. Drop out." philosophy. 2) Remove critical thinking in schools with No Child Left Behind. 3) As GenX was exposed to Punk and Anarchist philosophy, make sure they never get any real power.

It's the "Big Brother" effect...constant barrage of lies and hate

When were they reasonable though?

2007

Like when they were allowing sociopaths to sell people houses they couldn't afford and lying to them about "flexible" interest rates?

Im not talking about banks, im talking about actual humans

Humans run banks, and so does human nature.

Humans who rushed into war with Iraq based on assurances of Hussein's "weapons of mass destruction"?

Everyone is feeling wounded, which makes us more inclined to follow our animal instincts. Wounded animals retreat into a familiar corner and growl at anyone who comes near. Might even swat at them.

My cat has informed me that leading with a treat makes an animal less likely to growl at you. So start off with pleasantries and gently work your way into the disturbing stuff. Oh, and give your pet a treat. Now.

Micro plastics and Fox News

Even one covid infection can cause brain damage and most people have had it more than once or even twice... 😬

3 times for me, still not a piece if shit

*of*

So, how do you explain this country electing Trump *before* Covid?

It is like a horrid virus that started with one entity and has spread to every corner of the world.

Really? I’m impressed the brains of seemingly reasonable people are largely performatively intact! Thought we’d all be like that loud, rambling, ‘crazy’ guy on the subway by now 🫤

Stockholm Syndrome

Two words: MONEY & GREED

They drank the kool aid containing brain worms🤣

It's ignorance and greed plain and simple. People don't know the truths out there. Influencers and legacy media peddle the story that sells vs what matters or the truth. The right has been gutting education for decades. If you never see the truth, how can you believe the truth?

Are you talking about Americans? About the U$A? Mass psychosis is the diagnosis.

56 percent of the American population cannot read or comprehend beyond the 6th level. 27 percent are at the 3rd grade level. The first rule of attaining and maintaining power is to keep the population ignorant. Reagan started the process in the 60’s with his war against higher education.

This is why we don't report our literacy rate. Check other countries' rankings sometime, it'll surprise you how behind we are. Instead we point to the percentage of us that have college degrees and ignore literacy.

America has become the land of the barely educated. Without the influx of immigrants who strive to become successful through hard work and education we are destined for ruination.

Exactly! The impacts on the medical field, education, colleges, and agriculture alone could be enough to sink us

And they all haven't picked up a book since they left school.

That's the only correct answer in all the comments here.

I’ve been watching this for years. Most people never even pick up a book after they graduate from high school. It’s frightening that they don’t even realize that the world continues to spin, while they sit in ignorance. Slow burn.

Agreed I am confounded by the hype over what books are in the libraries, as most of these folks have no idea what a library card looks like let where the library is located

Our decades-old library is being renovated so the books were temporarily moved to the mall, which has several empty stores available. I've been stunned to hear people say "oh, we have a library now"

A friend who teaches High School History was astonished that so many of his colleagues never read a book beyond graduation.

This is Fox News taking advantage of our dumb.

It's the word seemingly you're mistaking it for a positive word, when in this context it is in fact a negative. They were always pretending that's called lying. They were never good people. They never cared about anyone but themselves!

All Those Questions Like Yours, Without An Explanation?...The Answer To Just About All Of Those"How Could This Happen" Questions Is FAUX NEWS.....Endless Lying Has Caused Endless Severe Problems.....

It's sad. Just imagine what all this is doing to our children's mental health. We are teaching them to be judgemental, racist and hateful. Add in the pressure that you might be killed any minute by a school shooter, and apparently no one cares. What are we doing? Wake the fuck up America!

But YOU'RE Batman, dammit, you're supposed to solve all these problems! 😋 Don't you have some Bat-device(tm) to unbrainwash everyone?!

There is such a device, but if I threatened use it, Bluesky would suspend me. Ha ha.

COVID infections have been shown to significantly reduce IQ

Absolutely. I wish doctors would read the research, but alas, they know everything and, therefore they do not need to read or learn anything new so they can tell their patients to mask and use air purifiers.

THIS all day long. I still read the research daily and this is exactly what’s happening. It’s autoimmune neuro-inflammation, and in some, active viral reservoirs in the gut.

I do the same daily reading of the literature. I concur.

Can you share some of that research (links)

www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/...

It does make full sense - we've found Covid does do a number on the Human nervous system and the brain is just a part of that system. fibromyalgia-like symptoms are emerging which is a result of Covid's effects on the nerve linings and other nerve tissue.

Re the thread - I think our dumbing-down has more to do with education funding, K-6 especially, and the effects of propaganda on the electorate than the mass effects of Covid, even though those effects are probably real.

Well the 3-7 IQ point drop due to neural inflammation doesn’t help with the reduction in education. IQ isn’t really affected much by education though, spatial, visual etc cognition is up to some debate whether education improves this significantly, even reasoning skills may not be much affected.

Well, I can't speak to the research Hubba Bubba referenced, but there are many papers out there now about how Covid affects cognition. Hampshire et al. (2021), "Cognitive deficits in people who have recovered from COVID-19" (talks about the ~ 7 pt loss in IQ) www.thelancet.com/journals/ecl...

Covid is known to exacerbate and/or unmask autoimmunity (possibly via what's known as molecular mimicry), and it is believed to be able to find reservoirs in various places: the gut is one such place; another is in specific cells in the brain called astrocytes. It's been linked to neuroinflammation.

Microplastics are in our brains.

Never underestimates the power of lead and heavy metal contamination + air pollution + substance abuse

I've had it 3 times, still don't hate people for no reason. It's not covid.

Well, we had plenty thanks to Fetid Orange and his poor handling of it.

Remember, he had it. They gave him treatments that weren't available to the public to save his sorry ass.

Trump wouldn’t be able to function at all if he had any loss of IQ, so I’m not surprised.

It feels like a zombi apocalypse. Nothing is as it once was. I resent the stealing of daily happiness. Hard to go full in with joy while all this hate is being fostered. The sense of security has been shattered. And some people are applauding every step of the way. I am deeply saddened.

It’s more a case of ignorance than lack of intellect. For example, it seems a majority of Trump Humpers believe all the MAGA merch is made here in the U.S.A. Many go ballistic, or insist it’s all made here. They just don’t know!

Yep. How did SO many people’s bull$hit detectors all malfunction at once.

The horrible things hiding in the minds of folks I thought I new, that are being released, by the darkess hearts, is so saddening. 💔

The Whitelash against Obama was so insane!

Some people are told their whole life that, politically, their culture is Republican, and they tie their whole cultural and family identity to the political party like it's a sports team, no fair-weather fans allowed. We've seen people twist themselves up to not have identity crises over this.

Facts. Plenty of churches preach that your political vote affects your eternity. Ever wonder why evangelicals have a crazy high voter turnout rate?

Im not even just talkijg about Republicans

Sure. I can totally see that. Personally I think it's overwhelmingly right wingers. Like a global epidemic of insanity.

But, it is a good example

Indeed.

Right?!

My brain would rather be broken at this time.

Watching any kind of news in this day in age will do that

It is the initial blow The Lost fascism to take over. We all hope it will end. In the end we have to fight like hell.

They are willing to be broken. There’s many of us who refuse to.

People that are miserable, hurting, and struggling are much easier to control and manipulate than ones who are happy and hale and whole. They are miserable, and cannot accept what the real cause of this suffering is, so they latch on to racism and sexism, because it's easier.

Seemingly reasonable and actually reasonable are two entirely different things

🥴 so true.....

Racism over rationale

Due to extreme or failed or frustrated ideologies?

This is the thing that breaks my brain

They "lost" their minds.

Sadly, I believe MAGA simply shined a light and normalized the evil that was laying dormant.

Im not even just talking about MAGA

You’re right. I think my point can still apply. It’s truly mind boggling.

Yep, I'm a fucking Psychologist and I'm completely lost. 🤷‍♀️

IKR!

I highly recommend watching this video, and then reading @cultexpert.freedomofmind.com's excellent and important book The Cult of Trump. www.reddit.com/r/50501/comm...

Facts.

That's cuz they're ppl not human. Ppl are a dime a dozen, humans are priceless. It just sucks the theory of supply & demand. Demand calls for more ppl than humans. Where TF is God? Did God make people or humans? Are humans freaks? Are ppl monstrosity? I can do freak, monsters are terrorist.

All because of disgraced trumps and rich republican donors!

Not their brains Their hearts Their desire to hurt others

There's a lot to take in now

It's pretty obvious that, since the rise of the internet and smartphones, intelligence has been declining. Maybe we're not far from some sort of... Singularity (where even intelligence cannot escape)

Social intelligence dictated by profit driven algorithms is the experiment that broke too many minds.

We are all broken. It's how we fix ourselves the changes the world.

That’s exactly how I feel about medical professionals and COVID. Like did you go to medical in a Walmart parking lot?

Exactly my thoughts. Working to save people from death & disability but yet willing to pass on potential death & disability via covid. Make it make sense.

There's an interesting systems-level failure there, to do with the intersection of the cookbook-level (and often badly outdated) science taught in a lot of medical schools, medical exceptionalism that says everything from outside medicine is inferior and irrelevant, and the Dunning-Kruger effect.

Excellent article. My family & I realized early that we’d hv to follow the science & instead of listening to what we were hearing. It’s paid off bc we are going into year 6 without having caught Covid. We still wear N95s in indoor public spaces even if we’re the only 1s.

You can do all that and still be infected by the virus. I have immune issues and am a certified infection control nurse; I'm also a masker. I've been gifted the virus 4 times by science deniers. All it takes is one little gap in your mask. I can't wear N95s, but I do wear KN95s.

I’m sorry that happened. We wear 3M Aura N95s. They have a great seal & are also adjustable so as to fit your face so that there are no gaps. They’ve worked really well for us.

I have nerve damage in my face,so I can't wear a mask with straps going around my head. It causes a level of pain you couldn't imagine. In addition, the straps, staples, and nose bar of N95 masks contain rubber and metal; I have an anaphylactic reaction to latex. I'm really glad you've been lucky.

Wow, sorry to hear that. How do you wear your KN95 since the straps can’t go around your head?

Ear loops. How else?

Ha! I’m so used to the ones around my head that I forgot about the ear loops. There aren’t any comfortable N95s that you can use? Or do they all have the materials that irritate you?

‘Well, my doctor told me’ OMG.

Feel like 2020 created a globe of mentally ill people, medically & spiritually. Not sure we ever recovered. It germinated thru social media, licensing & oxygenating everyone to have their own brand of crazy but Covid was the rubicon crossed. Adam Curtis Hypernormalisation. Watch!

I think their brains are working the way they have been wired to operate from years of white supremacist indoctrination. The steady diet of propaganda they are fed from their overlords serves their perverted worldview and dictates how they interface with the world.

Every coincidence becomes an act of cabal, a perceived slight, confirmation of deep state innovation. Christian nationalism seems to be the gateway drug, the medium which introduces these concepts of entitlement and privilege as well as the intolerant attitude that manifests in their fragility.

I tried to have this conversation last evening, and I think I sounded unhinged, but I KNOW I’m not crazy. But when you try to explain it out loud, oh boy…

Invasion of the body snatchers (snatcher bodies?). Soylent green next?

The country was founded on racism and capitalism. Now add in 9/11 that made us mistrust ppl and took away our privacy. Add in the 2008 crash, which took away ppl's savings, and the gov saved the bankers. And then covid, which took away our families and friends, and made us hate each other.

Fox News and Rush Limbaugh made us hate each other.

They had a lot of things to work with, especially covid and masks/no masks controversy. And look at how they are attacking the nyc dem candidate. I don't think it would be as vitriolic if 9/11 didn't happen. They took horrible things that happened to this country and used it as ammunition.

You're entirely enjoined by me, in this my sweet friend. Love to those who can see.

Who did that to them? Or what?

It’s rough out there. www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...

That all of western civilization burned to the ground in less than a decade is pretty pathetic.... Decades of trickle down economics, the post pandemic corporate oppression, and a sprint to enshitification didn't happen over night. But the illusion that we lived in a functioning society fell fast.

And look so normal on the outside

It used to baffle me and it now angers me to hear responses like, “well my job gives me insurance” “well I live in the city. Why should I care about rural hospitals?” “My parents are healthy and have money” the selfishness that’s grown from the Reagan Revolution is sickening.

Christofascist Confederates are the problem. Let's talk about the Heritage Foundation and Kevin Roberts. Immediately! They have the backing of the richest people on the globe.

Ugh.. one of these days, an American will finally use their Amendment rights against these fake ass "ICE" agents. 😳 I know these Christofascists are praying it happens so their dreams of civil war begins and they can be "raptured".. LITERALLY makes me ill.

Also - - The Proud Boys - The Oath keepers - The Heritage foundation - The republican party ... Just while we're at it !!

Apparently they were never reasonable people. Just great actors perhaps? Drumpf gave them permission and encouraged them to openly and proudly be their worst selves.

Wake-up It America it and its people will continue doing what it has always done to justify the undefensible.

racism and hate fills their belly

I feel like I was sucker punched. People are not nice. About half our country are bigots racist homophobic child molesters evil mother motherfucking Christians.

These people paid good money to break them

I agree it's bizarre!

Omg. Yes! I have a family member who's bright and has a good, if wounded, heart.

I hope when we get science back that this is heavily studied. I’m ok with my tax dollars going to this research.

every demographic in imminent political danger (except Black ppl and the vast majority of Jewish ppl) took a collective stroke last year

Dear Leader is their permission structure to release all of their bigotry, prejudice and selfishness. Instead of calling on the cult to look to their better angels and walk a mile in someone else’s shoes all he asks is for their $$$ and devotion, in return he tells them they’re perfect, never change

Living in a red state I can say that the massive amount of propaganda and fear being broadcast under the guise of “news” has a lot to do with it. RW talk radio and networks like Faux News are obvious examples but the legacy tv networks have done their fair share.

That’s obvious if you ever drop into X.

Permanently broken.

This assumes there are brains present.

Right? And not just their brains…their hearts. People close to me who I thought were intelligent, caring folks. Not anymore…

Stress grinds everyone down. Hard to be rational these days, especially if it's not in your nature to be so.

Just watch the highest rated movies and series and it is easy to see how conflicted people have become - what used to be viewed as SYFY, ironic, satire, horror... have taken on a reality life of it's own. So much violence and hatred - hard to tell if the 'good or the evil" are the winners any more!?

Big Tech enshitifies everything

‘Seemingly’ being the KEY word here. 🤔

Covid damaged a lot of people’s brains.

I never saw anything like it until Covid19. Family members were so angry. Public was angry. How dare you lock us in? I stayed home, peaceful, I thought. Watched people anxiety go through roof. In our 5th year now. And politics just took over the conversation, that guy...

That’s how propaganda works

Population-wide long-term neurological damage from COVID?

People were shitty pre covid.

Brain is not resilient for those people

Because Trump's puppet masters have been working on Project 2025 since Reagan was in office, and Trump employs some of the same employees who were trying to get more power under the President. It was created by every even slightly well-known conservative PACs

Power and money and some like the chaotic orbit

Studies are showing Covid giving people up to a 20 point ding in IQ. On top of our systematic destruction of education over the last 45 years. On top of people getting news from the echo chambers of social media. On top of journalistic integrity disappearing. On top of... 🤦 People are dumber now.

This has been happening globally for at least 10 years though. Brexit was a key indicator of people voting against their self interest as is Trump. We can now understand why people voted for Hitler then turned a blind eye to horror.

Lots of us are pretty sad but all will come out in the wash and truth will prevail

Where do you get your optimism because I am completely out, fully drained, wholly depleted.

We shall overcome

It’s not their brains, unfortunately, we can see their broken character. It’s their character. And it’s heart breaking to recognize….

🤯

Covid took away 9 IQ points. The media took away 10. And the new executive orders will drop them another 25 permanently. Welcome to 1888