I live in NYS, our infections are exploding. I went to the park today with my wife, and streets are full with cars, people working, people out and about. Everyone at this point knows there are lock downs, just not enough people are taking it seriously.

I bring this up because politicians can only do so much. Unless you want martial law with soldiers paroling your streets, what else do you expect them do to force people inside?

Both sides of the political spectrum, through the MSM (which is dumbed down for the lowest common denominator) need to be reiterating ad nauseum that: crowds are illegal, travel is illegal, being within 6 feet of other people in public is illegal. They also need to give people a heads up that once enough N95 masks are produced, it will become illegal to be in public without one. Hopefully that will be in like 2 weeks.

Instead, the point they belabor most heavily is how bad a job the people on the other side is doing (and how good their own side is doing).

There isn't a fine line between failing to make people to take it seriously vs. inducing panic: there is a wide chasm between them. There is plenty of space in between that accomplishes getting people to take it seriously without also inducing panic. Their message has been far too soft. They need to make stronger statements to get people to take it seriously. And they need to repeatedly hammer those statements (the same way that Trump currently hammers the statements about "what a good job he's doing"). So far, they've just been mentioning the guidelines once and then casually referring to them in vague terms later. The guidelines need to be the main chunk of the conversation. That's the message that people need to hear from their leaders.

This post was edited by Kayeto on Mar 26 2020 05:04pm

says people not taking this seriously yet your out going to a park... walk around your area not park ....

It's nonsensical to make it illegal. If you are going to make something illegal, you have to have some sort of punishment/cost as a penalty which isn't practical. What are you going to do, start pulling people over gestapo style and arresting or fining them for going outside? What if they are just going to the store for food? How would you check on the reason for them being out of the house?

This isn't China. Best we can do in the west is scare people which doesn't work for many. I don't think i ever saw a crisis in which someone wasn't blamed for it in some way or fashion. Is a politician, on whatever side some 147 IQ person that can see in 4 d and can see how to maximize utility for a population? Not excusing incompetence or inaction but come on, man can't control everything.



Yes i went to the park with my wife, where you are like 10-15 feet minimum from every other person. Deal with it.

This post was edited by ofthevoid on Mar 26 2020 05:12pm

This is fine to do as long as you are several feet away. The issue is people going into crowded places, hanging out with their friends, etc.

We need automatic executions for people like this.

Even if they don't have cops on the street punishing people for going out, at least telling people that it is illegal will send the right message. Many people will change their behavior if they hear the right message. There are speed limit signs all over the road and even though most people drive faster, the constant reminder of the law does impact people's behaviors. 80% of people in this country are generally honest people and they do their best to follow the law. The reason they aren't taking it seriously is because the news is telling them that they don't need to. And, for the record, if martial law was declared, I'd be in favor of it. I know it can't happen yet, so that's just a hypothetical, but I'm just saying. No Crowds, no travel, >6ft space, N95 masks required in 2 weeks are all perfectly reasonable limitations to put on people right now. They allow lots of essential business to operate yet also slow the spread by a huge amount.

I realize our system is not up to the task of this challenge and I don't criticize them for that fact. But that doesn't stop them from being able to say the right thing when they are on the podium for an hour. "Guidelines" = failure.

This post was edited by Kayeto on Mar 26 2020 05:36pm

"Cruel and unusual punishment" comes to mind...

It would be more cruel to let them live.