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Eastern Tufted ... (not verified)
This pandemic forced me to consider very difficult choices

Here's one, from my direct personal experience:

I have a type of aspergers or autism (not sure which) where you absolutely have to be free to move around at any time, and any confinement sends my mind into a physically painful, "sit and spin, tighter and tighter" mode.

When the lockdowns came, I knew I could not consider compliance. I also knew that nobody knew much about this virus at that time, and I had to think long and hard about whether it was appropriate to continue in existance at all given that existing in confinement is not a viable option for me. I could not live with lockdown, yet also could not live with the price of my life being that others would die from this virus. On top of all else I have genetic lung problems and autoimmune issues and would be unlikely to survive the virus if I do get it. Thus if I could not escape the lockdown without getting the virus, I would gain nothing but others would pay the price.

The challenge became to find a way to live at all without contributing to the pandemic, and without any advice from the medical establishment whose "answer" to such questions is to lock people up. As it worked out, the way I survived was to get out of populated areas until defenses were found, and the consensus I got from friends was to keep going despite the risk. Exit the population in rejection of a pro-lockdown near-consensus, but don't exit the species. Break contact, deny them right to complain on grounds of no more risk to themselves. I held then, and I hold now that I can never be part of any social group that agrees to spend time in confinement as the price of breaking any disease, no matter how deadly. If everyone else wants to do this, I have to cut my ties to that community and exit their space.

I spent the next 6 weeks on the road as essentially a refugee from lockdown, deliberately in very remote areas that minimized the risk of either getting the virus or worse, passing it on. Think of this as the rolling or mobile quarantine that moves with you and your crew, rather than locking you in one place. I had zero prior camping experience and had a very difficult time, but I made it. While I was out, there was very nearly a gun battle in my neighborhood over stay-at-home enforcement between one neighbor and a patrolling band of do-gooders. By the time I returned to populated areas, it was understood that masks and staying outdoors when around people were effective defenses-and that lockdown enforcement had died out in my home turf. With everyone else ignoring the stay at home order, I could come back without introducing a unique hazard into the community.

A week and a half later, the cities blew. One murderous cop's knee set the match to the combustible mix racist policing added to lockdowns had created. In my town the response to this began literally on the same day the stay at home order was junked. Smoke rose over the city as two months of pent-up fury erupted into three nights of fire, tear gas, fireworks, and wierd police weapons. Fierce battles were fought day after day, and fences rose as statues fell. Due to the use of masks, we never had the expected surge in covid cases from the sudden appearance of crowds of thousands in the streets. The surges among cops after all those unmasked pro-Trump MAGAts showed up Nov-Jan later proved it was our masks that kept the virus away from us in the BLM protests. Seemingly all cases came from the jails, and did not spread back into us.

If I had lived in a place like Australia with their iron-fisted lockdown, I would not have lived to see that explosion. A failing state, remote areas, and trusted friends saved my life.

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