Three Years of Stupid

The last three years (approximately) has proven that the human race can be pretty stupid at times. Here’s a (non-exhaustive) list of things I found incredibly stupid.

1. Arrows at Entrances. In order to stop the spread of an airborne pathogen, arrows were placed at entrances of shops to make sure people filed in through one lane, and filed out through another. Nobody really understood the science, but overzealous door guards enforced it nonetheless. I wonder if airborne pathogens knew this. Did the pathogens floating through the air follow human directions and stay in their lanes? Clearly, arrows at entrances are STUPID!

2. Announcing Pronouns. “I’m Kamala Harris. My pronouns are She and Her. I am a woman sitting at the table wearing a blue suit”. STUPID!

3. Check-in Apps. I only ever checked in twice at my university, and then the powers that be decided that we had to start checking in to every building on campus we visited throughout the day. How many lives did these apps actually save by the way? I’d guess zero, or close to zero. STUPID!

4. Dots on the Floor. Apparently, standing on these dots 1.5 metres apart will stop the spread of an airborne pathogen. STUPID!

5. Labor Election Promises. I’m normally fairly neutral towards Labor. I’m not a fan, but I usually don’t actively despise them. But in the run-up to the federal election in May, Anthony Albanese promised to address cost-of-living issues facing the poorest Australians. Four months on, those very same Australians are facing the worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation. STUPID!

6. Outdoor Mask Mandates. Especially when you’re by yourself, or in a car by yourself. STUPID!

7. The Police Who Enforced Outdoor Mask Mandates. STUPID!

8. Indoor Mask Mandates (Except When You’re Sitting at a Table). Yes, if you sit down without a mask, airborne pathogens can’t travel between tables. STUPID!

9. Forced Gender Equality. I’ve been getting these emails over the last couple of years from my employer stating that, “The next Academic Board elections will be held to appoint one (1) female academic staff member…”. Surely this is bordering on illegal? If they said the same thing, but with a male instead, there would be protests would there not? Queensland Police tried enforcing a quota system of 50/50 males to females. The result was that lots of lesser applicants were employed simply because they were female, while 200 meritorious males were excluded because they weren’t. Staff shortages ensued. STUPID!

10. Hand Sanitiser. I’m all for washing my hands, don’t get me wrong. But during the pandemic, we were told to sanitise our hands over and over again to prevent the spread of an airborne pathogen. STUPID!

11. Elbow Bumps. Apparently, using your elbow instead of shaking a person’s hand prevents the spread of an airborne pathogen even though your heads are closer together. STUPID!

12. Plastic Screens. When I speak to the person at the register, we usually can’t hear each other through the plastic screens, so of course, we lean around the side of the screen to communicate properly. Unless these screens are fully enclosed, hermetically sealed boxes, they pretty much meet the definition of STUPID!

13. Person Limits in Shops. The local supermarket I went to had a limit of 249 people based on their internal area, you know, to stop the spread. First of all, nobody ever checked how many people were going in and out (although, some Kmart’s did pretend to do this). Secondly, 249 people in an enclosed space isn’t going to prevent the spread of an airborne pathogen. As with most rules during this pandemic, it’s clearly STUPID!

14. Check-in Apps. Yeah, I know, I’ve already mentioned them before, but I thought these apps were so stupid that they were worth mentioning twice. STUPID!

And number 15, the most stupid of them all, Vaccine Mandates. This is not me saying that vaccines are stupid, but the mandates certainly were… certainly are! They resulted in people losing their jobs. They resulted in a divided society where only certain people could visit a restaurant for example. They resulted in an increase of people becoming distrustful of the health authorities. They resulted in a growing resentment towards government in general. And now, thanks to these stupid mandates, less families are getting their children vaccinated against other illnesses. STUPID!

Although a lot of these things have since disappeared, we still have remnants of this disastrous period of human civilisation. Plastic screens. Used masks strewn across the environment. Dots on the floor that they can’t peel off. Bottles of hand sanitiser attached to the walls. Mandated masks in national parks. STUPID!

MUSIC
Melancholia by Godmode