Peripheral to topic but always relevant to Drumpf: Robert Reich in the Guardian about how 45 isn't an authoritarian, he's a total fascist and the media should describe him as one. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jun/17/trump-republican-party-fascism

Bit of a sad one here. Sitting down in an open-air cafe, I was joined by a man clearly suffering mental health problems. He was quite friendly but seemed lonely and anxious and after a while he began telling me about all this wisdom he'd learned from a certain website. It was clear to me that this was far-right conspiracy stuff, all jumbled up with astrology and other kookbabble - also clear that he had no real handle on it whatsoever, didn't even realise it was antisemitic. He just wanted to be in the know about something, and to have friends and affection (everything about him screamed this). He'd come out with his theories the night before in a pub and unsurprisingly someone had punched him. I suggested he start looking at a wider range of websites for his information, but of course he'll just find similar sites. Despite the hatefulness of the ideas he'd picked up, I couldn't feel anger towards him, just pity. Give him a few more years and he'll be completely groomed and probably leading antivax protests. He was British but he made me wonder how many MAGA are this type, deep down under all the macho shouting: sad, lonely and dysfunctional.

It's pretty offensive to women, for the same reason.

Maybe it's worse in the USA, I wouldn't know and it's common knowledge that the US is more religious-minded than the UK, but it's definitely not just an ordinary word in the UK. It's offensive. If you used it in a job interview, you wouldn't get the job. You wouldn't use in addressing anyone you didn't know well, except to deliberately insult them. I'd never call a friend 'you cunt' because many people find it gross. Anyone claiming on Wikipedia or Quora that it's just fine in the UK is having a laugh - the equivalent of teaching some innocent to say filthy things in a foreign language.

I don't have the scientific background to understand all of that, but I can see the news is Not Good. Does it say anywhere whether those people were vaccinated? After walking away from the smug old man, I thought: I should have said to him, 'Is that what they taught you for your microbiology qualification, then? Ignore science, take no health precautions, just pray to Jesus?' Perhaps if I meet him again and he starts on the same rubbish, I'll ask him that question. But it's possible he's in the early stages of dementia, in which case it would be pointless and cruel to argue with him any more.

Well, that's 2 in 2 days. What have I done to deserve these people? Maybe the heatwave is bringing them all out. Today it was an elderly man (80s or maybe 90s) who stopped me in the street to admire the dog, then started to complain about Covid restrictions (which Boris Johnson ended waaay too early IMHO). 'This is just flu, I'm a microbiologist, I know what I'm talking about...during WW2 we were being bombed in Birmingham and we just went about our daily lives.' 'You had blackout,' I said. 'The real lesson here is PREVENTION. Are you vaccinated against Covid?' 'Of course not.' He looked so frail I could have pushed him over. I said, 'Well, good luck! You're going to need it.' He then started telling me that all I needed was faith in Jesus, 'because he made everything.' I said, 'In that case, he made all the horrible plagues in the world,' and walked off. No fool like an old fool. Covid's going to have fun with him.

Feeling fed up as this morning I went walking my dog in a shady place (plus Dog was kitted out with a cool coat). The UK is suffering a heat wave at present. I had to find a shady table for Dog, so asked a bloke if I could share with him. Yes, he said. Older man, no hint of either of us hitting on the other, but it's a sociable place so we had a chat. Nice guy, I thought. Friendly. Then he started on the conspiracy theories. 'They' are controlling the weather via chemtrails, Biden has dementia, 'they' are planning to turn America communist (I burst out laughing at the last one and said, 'Well, good luck with that'). He said I obviously hadn't heard about any of this. I said I'd heard all of these theories before - what I'd never heard was a single scrap of convincing evidence to support them. After a bit more talk we agreed to disagree. This is what's got me down - he wasn't a monster, he was a friendly type, but he was also completely impenetrable to reason. Everything I said was supposedly because I was living in deep ignorance - he had a look of pity on his face at my belated mental condition. It just brought home to me, once more, the hopelessness of trying to connect with CTs. One consolation: he won't be voting.

Doomed In Ludicrous Folly Destiny is Loser's Fate Dead Ignoramus Loved Fascism

Today while I was out of the house, a friend texted to tell me she'd been infected by an antivaxxer colleague. When I got home there was a 'truther' paper stuck through my door. Fuck these people with a big metal spike. 😡

Maybe it's suggesting you need a capital C?

If you're sitting, you're not walking past other people's tables, breathing Covid over them. It's about others.

Same here. Breaks my heart.

In the 80+ group, partially vaccinated seem to be doing fractionally worse than unvaccinated. Why would that be? Any ideas?

Just discovered two more cases locally. One is a close neighbour (his garden lies alongside mine) who is vaxxed. The other is a friend who practically never goes out because her health is fragile and vulnerable; she is vaxxed and always masked up if she does go out. She asked me today to collect and post a test for her. I feel there's a tsunami of cases about to break over us: this morning the news report said cases were up by 30%, but I reckon it's more than that here because of the festival.

Those people are nowhere near 6 feet apart anyway. Even during the very first UK lockdown, when people were much more willing to make an effort, I noticed that most people seemed to think 3 feet = 6 feet.

It really is. Take care of yourself.

I'm feeling distinctly down this week. Not only was there an explosion of Covid cases after the Glastonbury festival (entirely predictable, especially with good ole Sir Paul McCartney and others urging the tightly packed crowd to sing) but I'm now seeing people walking round the streets of my town (just down the road from the festival site) that I know have Covid. I know, because they've told me. One woman was out wearing a mask two days ago and told me she had Covid. I asked if she shouldn't be at home. 'Oh, no, I'm feeling OK.' I said, 'I meant, for other people.' 'Oh, it's OK, I'm wearing a mask whenever anyone else is near.' Yesterday I saw her on a crowded pavement, chatting to some guy - no mask. Called over to ask how she was. In a nutshell, she still had Covid, but was 'going to do a test tonight.' As I walked off, I heard the ahole with her babbling about Ivermectin. Which she will doubtless take - I've never had any medical condition that I've mentioned to her without being advised to use herbs/essential oils/cider vinegar/anything that's not actually medicine. Today, at a cafe with counter service, there was a long line of people, mostly seniors, and one woman was coughing like a machine gun. No mask. Nobody moved away from her or reacted in any way whatsoever. Local Covid cases are through the roof and on Tuesday I heard about our first case of Monkey Pox (at least, the first I know of). We. Are. Doomed.

Slightly OT but I have just discovered this Fb page on antivaxx, woo and general insanity. Very funny but probably not for the squeamish. https://www.facebook.com/thatsnotlemonade/posts/1523859871350345

@DeathofRats-BadgeHoorMaroon Lots of Ukraine flags here too. I honestly think the people in the Russian flag houses have crossed the line from having bizarre beliefs to being seriously mentally ill (not just because of unpopular Russian flags but because of all sorts of stuff over the last few years). They live in a shadow world of delusion from which they are unlikely to emerge. It's frightening to observe. Where will they end up?