The Wuhan Coronavirus

[Guest]

I mean I think it speaks volumes about the populace re: what they've been hoarding...

Toilet paper?? Really??

I don't get that at all. I haven't heard anything about diarrhea or excessive shitting being symptoms of COVID-19.

[Mister Obvious]

It's honestly pretty hard to turn away from watching the event that you've talked about and seen coming for over 15 years...

I can tell it's gonna be a daily struggle.

[Mister Obvious]

One thing I don't think we put enough thought into was WTF we'd ACTUALLY do when it arrived.

[Guest]

Walmart was nearly back to normal stock levels this morning, except there was still no bottled water or chicken thighs. They were running out of chicken thighs every so often even before the panic shopping started though.

I didn't check toilet paper because the half roll I have will last at least a couple more weeks. It's utterly beyond me what people want all of that asswipe for. They must not be eating right. If they were, they'd hardly use any asswipe at all.

[Mister Obvious]

I mean I'm pretty sure the idea was to WATCH it go down...

Always the Watchers.

But...

Now that I'm actually watching it, I feel complicit and as though it's my fault it's going on because I'm paying attention to it.

[Mister Obvious]

Walmart was nearly back to normal stock levels this morning, except there was still no bottled water or chicken thighs. They were running out of chicken thighs every so often even before the panic shopping started though.

I didn't check toilet paper because the half roll I have will last at least a couple more weeks. It's utterly beyond me what people want all of that asswipe for. They must not be eating right. If they were, they'd hardly use any asswipe at all.

Did you see a sign saying the store would close instead of being open 24 hrs.??

I've seen some people talking about taking late night trips to WalMart in the next couple days and I don't think they got the memo that WalMart's gonna be closed.

[Mister Obvious]

This is why it's bad to be addicted to news and current events, AND the internet...

But especially current events.

How am I supposed to kick that addiction NOW?

I should have done it a super long time ago, I've been addicted for a long time.

[Mister Obvious]

I actually did successfully turn away from global news/current events for a while there... maybe even a couple years or so.

I pretty much swore it off and said fuck the news, fuck current events, it's all bullshit and I'm not giving it my attention anymore.

[Guest]

It's honestly pretty hard to turn away from watching the event that you've talked about and seen coming for over 15 years...

I can tell it's gonna be a daily struggle.

Living in a sophisticated civilization necessarily entails a shitload of denial on the part of the participants.

By all rights, humans should be toiling in the fields from sunrise to sunset just to put bread on the table. We've been extremely fortunate to not have to do that for the last 150 some odd years.

We constantly have to pretend to ourselves and each other that the world we know, with all of its excesses and conveniences and "first world problems," is completely normal. Our society couldn't function if we acknowledged that doomsday could come at any moment. The Cold War era was pretty much a living parody of this state of affairs.

One disaster is all it takes to bring the whole thing crashing down. It has always been just around the corner, and, if civilization recovers this time, it will once again always be there.

[Mister Obvious]

Well said, Guest.

Wow...

What a time we've been living in.

I mean it's an INTERESTING time in history (in my opinion)...

This whole 100 year segment has been unbelievable.

[Guest]

Did you see a sign saying the store would close instead of being open 24 hrs.??

I don't know if that particular store was ever open 24 hours. I had heard that the first store I went to yesterday (across town near the office) was a 24 hour store, but they were closed 11PM to 6AM yesterday. There was no sign indicating it was a new or unusual thing. Just the typical blue sign with the store hours on it.

[Mister Obvious]

Thanks for the info...

[Guest]

Here's something I find rather troubling. My Boomer auntie, who is used to getting everything she wants, doesn't seem to grasp that she may no longer be able to do so. I described to her the situation at the two Walmarts and Dollar General on Saturday and expressed my concern about not being able to get everything she needs on Sunday. Her nonchalant answer was: "If Walmart doesn't have it, try Brookshire's." As if it made a difference which fucking store I went to.

Fortunately for her, she didn't need meat or bottled water or toilet paper this time. Just little bullshit first world items that nobody is binge buying. But she will need those things eventually. And she may be in for a rude awakening.

[Mister Obvious]

Yeah I have seen similar situations playing out with the older folks...

Which surprises me a lot if I'm being honest.

You would think that growing up the way a lot of them did, often in total scarcity, often to farming families, etc., they would realize what a hardcore dire situation this could be on a food/supplies level.

They seriously don't seem to understand.

And at a certain point, people (family, friends, etc.) may not be able to come from miles and miles around to help 'em if they need it.

I genuinely think that is a very real possibility right now, and in the times ahead.

[Mister Obvious]

TBH...

If some hotass National Guard dudes start patrolling my countryside road...

I'm gonna have to get sexual with them.

[Mister Obvious]

And God help them if they start sending drones...

[Mister Obvious]

With cameras.

[Mister Obvious]

There are no limits or boundaries to my sex and how dirty it can make you feel...

Face to face, through lenses, over vast distances through spacetime, nothing can stop it.

[Mister Obvious]

You can't wash it off.

[Mister Obvious]

It's soul deep.