I personally had COVID and it was less severe than the last time I had the flu, so why should I treat COVID different than the flu or care at all?
> Are the current rules effective?
Not in liberal democracies, that's what the data shows. If you live in an authoritarian regime where people are willing to completely give up their lives then it is effective, but at that point you might argue are they still living or just existing like zombies? In all Western nations it didn't matter if one took more stringent or more lenient actions, everyone had a first wave, everyone has a second wave. Nobody invented a testing regime, a track and trace regime which allows us to live normally, so what's the point in taking those measures when they didn't prevent a second wave for anyone?
> Colouring the rules themselves as "silly" only reveals a bias in your argument
Fair point. Young generations have been taught for many decades now that we are not in this world together. Nobody pays off your debt. Nobody else will look after your health if you don't do it yourself. Nobody will come and provide you shelter when you become homeless. Look at the most woke state in the USA - California - every woke person walks past homeless people and couldn't are less. People who claim we are in this or in anything else together are selfish afraid human beings who want to control the population out of their own fear. The notion that we are in this together is wrong and that is the education that young people have been given for many years now. This is how it was in the last economic crisis, this is how it will be in this one too. So as far as I'm concerned COVID was nothing to me and my wife and it is not a threat to our family, so why should we care any longer about this? Other people's problems is not our problem. Just like every woke Californian walks past homeless people and doesn't care, I walk past the COVID death statistics and equally don't care. Why am I the villain now?
I appreciate that you elaborated on your opinion and I believe many of your points are valid. COVID is not a big threat to you and your family (based on my assumptions about you which could very well be wrong). Neither is it a big threat to me, 30 year old, healthy, single male living in Germany.
However, some of your assertions are not true. The COVID waves were vastly different in different countries across Europe, and despite Germany having elevated cases again and a second "Lockdown" the situation is nowhere near what it was in May. No constant Sirens from Ambulances (where I live), no overcrowded ICUs (some exceptions). Similarly, the lockdown proposed now is more lenient than a couple of months ago.
There is a definite talking point to be made about which rules are more effective than others and I personally would be more lenient than what my government proposes, but all in all we fared fairly well in comparison with our neighboring countries.
One point you made about a generation only caring about itself I can falsify immediately: The only reason why I am missing a basketball game with friends tonight is because I had an encounter with a positive covid case (my cousin). While I'm >99% sure I'm COVID free, I opted to argue on the internet tonight as some of my basketball peers are in a risk group (>60).
> Young generations have been taught for many decades now that we are not in this world together. Nobody pays off your debt. Nobody else will look after your health if you don't do it yourself. Nobody will come and provide you shelter when you become homeless
You picked some extreme examples. We are in this world together. It's called a society. It's unfair, it's cruel,
it's skewed, but to imply everybody is completely on their own is disillusioned. Humans cooperate. Not always willingly, but effectively. This is how we prospered for millennia and occupied every corner of the globe. You're sharing your thoughts now thanks to cooperative work by countless people who built the information age.
Thinking you can lift yourself up from your bootstraps and only think for yourself is ignoring how interconnected the society where you live is.
Pointing out extreme cases where people put a limit to their compassion doesn't change the fact that you do owe your successes in your life also to the effort of others you have never met.
Everyone with the 'I've got mine' mentality is the villain. I expect that reasoning from my 3 year old son, but my 5 yo daughter has already moved passed it. That an entire nation basis it's philosophy on that of a toddler is... Disturbing.
Not to the vast majority in every age category.
I personally had COVID and it was less severe than the last time I had the flu, so why should I treat COVID different than the flu or care at all?
> Are the current rules effective?
Not in liberal democracies, that's what the data shows. If you live in an authoritarian regime where people are willing to completely give up their lives then it is effective, but at that point you might argue are they still living or just existing like zombies? In all Western nations it didn't matter if one took more stringent or more lenient actions, everyone had a first wave, everyone has a second wave. Nobody invented a testing regime, a track and trace regime which allows us to live normally, so what's the point in taking those measures when they didn't prevent a second wave for anyone?
> Colouring the rules themselves as "silly" only reveals a bias in your argument
Fair point. Young generations have been taught for many decades now that we are not in this world together. Nobody pays off your debt. Nobody else will look after your health if you don't do it yourself. Nobody will come and provide you shelter when you become homeless. Look at the most woke state in the USA - California - every woke person walks past homeless people and couldn't are less. People who claim we are in this or in anything else together are selfish afraid human beings who want to control the population out of their own fear. The notion that we are in this together is wrong and that is the education that young people have been given for many years now. This is how it was in the last economic crisis, this is how it will be in this one too. So as far as I'm concerned COVID was nothing to me and my wife and it is not a threat to our family, so why should we care any longer about this? Other people's problems is not our problem. Just like every woke Californian walks past homeless people and doesn't care, I walk past the COVID death statistics and equally don't care. Why am I the villain now?