i want to be a yahoo

Image: "Yahoos" - CBC

​See also:
Greencrow: Vancouver March for Freedom to Walk the Streets and Talk with One Another


I want to be a "Yahoo"...

First time ever that I've truly wished I lived in Toronto!

I'll tell you why -- but first:

Everything in this post is from the CBC (well, somebody has to keep an eye on them):

Filipino workers at meatpacking plant tied to Canada's biggest COVID-19 outbreak feel unfairly blamed

Blamed for what?  That they are "foreigners" being over-worked to keep our meat supply going?  Or because they may inadvertently prove a point, which is that C-19 is a mild flu that kills only older people or people already compromised by other health problems? In other words: like all the other flu pandemics we've come through in the past without being forced into lockdown.

Next:

Attack on Jewish congregation being investigated as hate crime, police say

Note the misleading wording?  It was a cyber-attack. They happen all the time, everywhere.

I acknowledge that this was a nasty thing to do and that the victims were justified in being rattled by it, but only feelings got hurt, since it was all done over the Internet. The presenters were pretty naive to have broadcast without investigating the software's protective measures first.

Surely we all should know by now about Internet trolls.

Next again:

This case was in in California, though there is no mention of "hate crime" or police investigation:

• 'Zoom-bombing' attacks on video conferencing platform leave victims shaken
• Doctoral candidate says profanity, porn appeared on the screen during his dissertation defence
• He is the first college graduate in his family, so his mother and 68-year-old grandmother were watching the presentation along with his professors. He says even after he regained his composure and was told he had passed, feelings of sadness replaced what should have been pride.
• "I spent three years working on this paper, you know, working on this research," he said. "This moment was taken away from me in front of my family, in front of my friends. I was disrespected on a level that I could never imagine."

The Doctoral candidate was, of course, a "person of colour".

Mind you, there are a lot of people out there right now who also spent a lot of years honing their professions ... eye doctors, optometrists, lawyers, dentists, teachers ...  and their employees ... of every hue, shade, lifestyle and religion ---  who are not allowed to practise their professions at all now, due to the lock-downs. It might help this disheartened young man to put things into perspective by taking a good long look at the larger picture, and maybe view himself in a different light, as a proud member of a much wider group of professionals negatively affected by current events.

More from the above article:

• "Women, people of colour, Jewish community groups and the queer community," said [YWCA Canada CEO, Maya] Roy. "The onus shouldn't be on us to protect ourselves against hate online."

Again, as deeply sympathetic as I am to all of these cases of online degradation, I have to disagree with Ms. Roy's statement. Only in a perfect world should we not have to protect ourselves.

People need to realize that the Internet is exactly like a poorly-lit walkway, in the wee hours of the night, where nameless criminals can hide behind trees and leap out to rob, rape, injure, destroy. (See image at bottom of this page)

It's foolhardy to be out there without some form of protection. If you're going to use the Internet as your platform, don't be fool-hardy!  You need to educate yourself on how to avoid being attacked online. It was pretty naive of all of the victims in these cases to think they could put themselves out there without first learning the risks and how to properly use the safety equipment provided in the software.

Otherwise, you either just stay at home like good little children, or else take a chance and put your actual physical body on the line -- as some Americans did, and even earned the sympathy of their President:

Pro-Trump protesters rally against governors over stay-at-home orders

• While many Americans are filled with fear, Melissa Ackison says the coronavirus pandemic has filled her with anger. The stay-at-home orders are government overreach, the conservative Ohio state Senate candidate says, and she believes the labelling of some workers as "essential" is arbitrary.
• "It enrages something inside of you," said Ackison, who was among those who protested Gov. Mike DeWine's orders at the statehouse in Columbus with her 10-year-old son. She has "no fear whatsoever" of contracting the virus, she said Thursday, dismissing it as hype.

And her words were met with approval from her President.

In Ontario, Canada, in "the true North strong and free", not so much approval from on high:

• Ontario Premier Doug Ford called anti-lockdown protesters at Queen's Park on Saturday "a bunch of yahoos" and said they were being "selfish" and "irresponsible" for demonstrating against provincial emergency orders in place to slow the spread of COVID-19.
• Scores of people gathered on the Ontario legislative grounds on Saturday afternoon to call for an end to the shutdown of many services, businesses, activities and public spaces across the province amid the pandemic. At its peak, the protest drew about 200 people.

Poor Dumb Dougie. Those people were being brave; not something he's familiar with, obviously.

"Call me irresponsible" [YouTube], but he's the reason I want to be a "Yahoo". I want to find a large group of old people willing to walk together in the streets to protest the lock-down.

Take a look at the Parliament Hill webcam. There's still a bit of lawn available despite the fencing, but have you seen a living soul out there protesting? Please let me know if you do.

Ford has no shame, blatantly kissing up to the Federal Libs after running provincially on the Conservative ticket, and pretending to be a man of and for the people. The good old boy; the "buck a beer" guy. Chrystia Freeland's therapist, of all things, which probably means they both need a real one, pronto!

He might have been prevented from crudely insulting a brave group of eligible voters who might actually prove the hypothesis of herd immunity through NOT locking down the whole population.

I'm thinking that if he doesn't stop the name-calling, he's going to have to do an awful lot of fence-mending before the next election. And he really doesn't have the linguistic finesse for that.

I'm solidly with this expert [YouTube], and I doubt very much that I'm alone in that:  

• Professor Knut Wittkowski, for twenty years head of The Rockefeller University's Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Research Design, says that social distancing and lockdown is the absolutely worst way to deal with an airborne respiratory virus.

He also proudly states that he's not paid by government, so he can speak the truth!

Image: from Pond5

The Internet looks like this: