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livI am getting so angry about trying to deal with a viral pandemic by stopping people from enjoying themselves.
I understand that people are scared and trying to claw back some control. I understand that some people are excluded from even infection-safe forms of fun, because of existing disabilities or because they have extra work at the moment rather than extra free time or because of poverty. But enjoying yourself isn't an infection risk and it isn't morally bad.
If I choose to take my exercise by heading to an attractive area with nature and nice views, I'm not doing anyone any harm. There's no benefit to punishing myself by walking alongside a busy road through a suburban wasteland. If a family have fun together, have a kickabout or play fetch with their pets, that's at least as good and probably better than joylessly frogmarching the children and dog round the block.
And even in normal times, I hate the assumption that exercise has to be grim and miserable to count as exercise. It's still exercise if you move your body in ways that bring you joy, if you play, if you take your exercise somewhere that uplifts you. I got annoyed with someone (who I basically quite like) on Twitter mocking people who never normally take exercise chafing at only being allowed to go out for exercise once a day. But plenty of people are deprived of movement by the pandemic even if they don't normally put on special clothes and gear and 'go for' a walk or run. Lots of us exercise by walking or cycling to do our errands or to see friends, or we exercise by dancing or climbing or whatever, and those things are still bloody exercise.
If I go to the shop or make an online order for provisions, in order to be able to, you know, eat for the next however many weeks, I'm not doing any harm by buying treats as well as the most virtuously dull possible staples. Nobody's risk of illness is increased if I also buy something that curtain-twitching busybodies consider "exotic", or alcohol, or, shock horror, something containing ~sugar~.
If I stop for a minute during my necessary excursions to admire the cherry blossom, I'm not doing any harm. I'm not increasing infection risk, I'm not suddenly invalidating the necessity of my trip. If I take a snack or a drink with me to enjoy outdoors instead of shut up in my home, so what?
And even worse than people trying to police each other for having fun during a pandemic, is the actual literal police harassing or even arresting people for perfectly innocent, low risk activities that happen to be considered too enjoyable.legionseagle, a real life lawyer, says Everything currently coming back from the policing front has got me more scared than the virus itself, and I was pretty fucking terrified about the virus.. I'm scared that people are going to be intimidated and criminalized, and we all know who is preferentially targeted by the police, but I'm also scared that the police are a huge vector of infection. Which is worse: me taking a walk in a pleasant park while staying 2m away from everybody else, or the police, who regularly interact with all kinds of different people in the course of their jobs, getting into my social distancing space in order to reprimand me for being somewhere pretty rather than somewhere boring?
Anyway, just let people harmlessly enjoy themselves, FFS.
I understand that people are scared and trying to claw back some control. I understand that some people are excluded from even infection-safe forms of fun, because of existing disabilities or because they have extra work at the moment rather than extra free time or because of poverty. But enjoying yourself isn't an infection risk and it isn't morally bad.
If I choose to take my exercise by heading to an attractive area with nature and nice views, I'm not doing anyone any harm. There's no benefit to punishing myself by walking alongside a busy road through a suburban wasteland. If a family have fun together, have a kickabout or play fetch with their pets, that's at least as good and probably better than joylessly frogmarching the children and dog round the block.
And even in normal times, I hate the assumption that exercise has to be grim and miserable to count as exercise. It's still exercise if you move your body in ways that bring you joy, if you play, if you take your exercise somewhere that uplifts you. I got annoyed with someone (who I basically quite like) on Twitter mocking people who never normally take exercise chafing at only being allowed to go out for exercise once a day. But plenty of people are deprived of movement by the pandemic even if they don't normally put on special clothes and gear and 'go for' a walk or run. Lots of us exercise by walking or cycling to do our errands or to see friends, or we exercise by dancing or climbing or whatever, and those things are still bloody exercise.
If I go to the shop or make an online order for provisions, in order to be able to, you know, eat for the next however many weeks, I'm not doing any harm by buying treats as well as the most virtuously dull possible staples. Nobody's risk of illness is increased if I also buy something that curtain-twitching busybodies consider "exotic", or alcohol, or, shock horror, something containing ~sugar~.
If I stop for a minute during my necessary excursions to admire the cherry blossom, I'm not doing any harm. I'm not increasing infection risk, I'm not suddenly invalidating the necessity of my trip. If I take a snack or a drink with me to enjoy outdoors instead of shut up in my home, so what?
And even worse than people trying to police each other for having fun during a pandemic, is the actual literal police harassing or even arresting people for perfectly innocent, low risk activities that happen to be considered too enjoyable.
legionseagle, a real life lawyer, says Everything currently coming back from the policing front has got me more scared than the virus itself, and I was pretty fucking terrified about the virus.. I'm scared that people are going to be intimidated and criminalized, and we all know who is preferentially targeted by the police, but I'm also scared that the police are a huge vector of infection. Which is worse: me taking a walk in a pleasant park while staying 2m away from everybody else, or the police, who regularly interact with all kinds of different people in the course of their jobs, getting into my social distancing space in order to reprimand me for being somewhere pretty rather than somewhere boring?Anyway, just let people harmlessly enjoy themselves, FFS.
(no subject)
Date: 2020-04-01 11:54 am (UTC)The overreach of police power in these cases is a legit worry. Both my roommates have papers from their employers in case they get stopped on the way to or from work, stating the law that makes them essential employees. It bothers me that the companies felt that was a necessity. Who cares where you're going if it's just you in the car? If you're going to a party or something like that, it should be dealt with at the party, not on the way to the party.