[Aeolun]

Yeah, I don’t want to say bad things about people but…

I’ve very recently found that a lot of very smart people are still quite capable of doubling down on stupid.

It’s not even really wrong. They just weigh the risk disproportionately against the benefits (for the person themselves and society). I just cannot understand how a rational person can do that.

[sangnoir]

> I’ve very recently found that a lot of very smart people are still quite capable of doubling down on stupid

Being consistently the smartest person in the room can lull some to believe they are smarter than everyone, everywhere, every time.

Sometimes the lack of intellectual humility is an independent personality trait, but I've encountered a number of very smart people that held really weird beliefs which bordered on conspiracy thinking, but was self-reinforcing because they thought everyone else was not smart enough to cotton-on to "the man" (one believed in over-unity energy,the other one is basically synthesizing a new religion(/cult?) by gaining "insights" into "correct" aspects of multiple existing ones, whose current practitioner's "get it wrong" in one way or the other.)

[billycorben2]

I have found: The smarter I think I am, the dumber I behave.

[skinkestek]

You are in good company:

«Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit? There is more hope of a fool than of him.» ‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭26:12‬ ‭

This chapter was probably written around 2700 or so years ago according to my reading of Britannica :-)

[daddylongstroke]

Firstly, I hope you accept and understand that we are all fucking idiots. Every last one of us, yourself and myself included. I'm not sure what specific nuanced position you believe equals "doubling down on stupid". I honestly can't tell from the previous handful of posts in this thread, what specific arguments yall are making. It would seem, COVID is not a problem for 99% of humans (according to CDC Data Tracker numbers). The humans it is a potential serious problem for, are already stricken with obesity, hypertension, and diabetes (at the least), and likely have systemic chronic issues due to these diseases. With this in mind (very low risk of serious illness for most people), and seeing how studies show natural immunity is more robust (not just reactive to the spike protein, but "surprisingly" all 4 major proteins in the virus) and longer lasting than the vaccines we have available, it would seem counter productive for me and my family to get vaccinated.

[hardolaf]

I found when losing weight that the first 20 pounds was easy. After that every half pound was a major mental challenge to keep going. Then COVID-19 hit, I stress ate, my activity level fell to virtually 0, and yeah. Back to -0 from where I started. Time to start over.

[raxxorrax]

I think there are pretty rational cases to forego a vaccination, especially young people under 20. And that there is advertising for them getting a vaccination might even be borderline irresponsible.

Add some political urge to stand out and make disproportionate regulations and I cannot call many of them irrational. I am vaccinated but surely that is irrelevant for the argument.

We will get the invoice for Covid in a few years in any case.

I have lost a lot of faith in people and their ability to argue and this doesn't really stem from the anti-vaccination camp, far more this comes from people asking for restrictions.

[LudvigVanHassen]

All of these are reasonable arguments. I personally agree with them. I am vaccinated (J&J), and was vaccine hesitant for 6 months prior to making my decision. I still stand far more in unity with the anti-vaccination camp than those asking for restrictions.

Many in the "people asking for restrictions" camp will not see these arguments as reasonable because they don't comply with "the science" (which is actually a crafted narrative).

Part of the problem is that we aren't just dealing just with a morphing dataset being communicated very imperfectly across digital mediums to the entire globe. We have all of that, and then that already fantastically complicated scenario is being ham-fisted into a narrative, and the narrative trumps all the data.

[daddylongstroke]

Yes, what's troubling to me in this imperfect communication, is the media reporting "COVID deaths", as if they were "deaths of COVID", instead of "deaths with COVID". The spin is palpable, and completely unnecessary.