From "Party City is closing and champagne sales are down. Are parties dying too? 'We’re so divided, we’re so tribalized,' says one nightlife habitué. But don’t pour one out for the social gathering yet" (WaPo).
Speaking of post-coronavirus culture, the new episode of "The Daily" podcast is "Were the Covid Lockdowns Worth It?" (Podscribe): "And I was so struck at the lack of skepticism over the course of the pandemic about these measures.... In the quarters, you know, that I travel in among academics or in mainstream media. That's where there seemed to be little questioning. It was almost seen as sort of wrong or immoral to raise questions about whether this was feasible for most of the population.... Business closures... economic loss... isolating human beings who are social creatures will have a whole series of knock-on effects...."
Posts
63 comments:
I find it hard to care about the sheeple who slavishly obeyed COVID rules or still worry about it. It's kind of the idiots who still wear little blue paper masks to advertise the fact that they are idiots (N-95 wearers might have a legitimate reason, though).
I read stuff like this and then I read elsewhere how young men and women don't really socialize together, and then I'll read how online dating is becoming cancer for everyone who's not a homo, and then I read that friendfinder apps are starting to outpace dating apps and I come to the following conclusion:
Start finding and investing in artificial womb technology.
I never understood how Party City made it in the first place, to be honest. Their business model seemed to depend on the supply of older, run-down, storefront properties well past their prime, but in locations that were still viable for traffic flow. But how often does a person throw parties, really? It can all be had from Amazon now.
If nothing else, COVID is a teachable moment on the extent to which people are suggestible and susceptible to social programming, as well as a cautionary tale on the willingness of others to exploit that trait.
It was almost seen as sort of wrong or immoral to raise questions about whether this was feasible for most of the population
I'm so old I recall when the nastiest thing they could say about GW Bush was "he's incurious." Yet curiosity -- about possibly ameliorative medicines and treatments, or whether masks actually helped the wearer, or about the horrendous costs of closing businesses and social distancing -- was treated like the worst thing one could have.
Many commenters here refused to even consider that "the experts" were wrong about anything, to the point people like me "raising questions" were called murderers and said to be "wishing death" on others. Especially so when pointing out that masks are not magical virus traps at all.
Once you live through a mass hysteria in which the government goes full fascist "for your own good" the memories are seared into the brain. I'll never forget. I'll never trust any public expert again. Even my own doctors are suspect until I get a second possibly third opinion.
Office parties. There are no more office parties for birthdays and such. We buy fewer fancy cakes or favors for the office now, only an occasional round of drinks for the ones who show up in the office.
As a person who ignored lockdown, as I was building a house at the time and the illegal alien employees of my subcontractors really needed to continue sending money back home to Cental America, all I can say is that I miss speeding at 80+mph down the formerly always-blocked interstate highway I-35 between my suburban home & the work site. Some of us look back on the COVID lockdown days as the greatest mass societal stupidity we have seen in our lifetimes, and I grew up when avocado green shag rugs and bell bottom jeans were a thing, so that's saying something!
...or maybe there's more people willing to disrupt any gathering for their agendas...
The Narrative is at work here. I mean the clubs could be closing down because of crime, right? People are afraid to be in the city after dark. But that doesn't allow a Trump Tariff dig...
The only people I see wearing paper masks are the "street people" & urban proles who are mainly trying to hide their identity or else the absolutely crazy nut job hypochondriacs. But then that's Ann Arbor for you. As for the credibility factor Althouse speaks of it has been my observation that lying liars who lie tend to lose their credibility over time. First a little bit then all at once. And this observation applies even to the New York f****** Times. The only reason that they're cited so often is because they have such a big infrastructure readily available that goes back centuries and the other papers mostly don't. That'll work for them for a while but it won't last.
My teenagers are home more on the weekend than I was, but we've also made it more difficult. My son can't drive his friends anywhere because of new graduated license laws. It becomes an issue.
For a lot of people Covid was a proxy for Trump. Anything to keep those Trump cooties away.
We don't have office parties like in the past because so many people here are working from home. I agree with the JPMorgan CEO on how this is a horrible thing for young workers. I've made significant changes/improvements to my work life in the past simply because I happened to be in a room and overheard a discussion. That cannot happen with WFH.
I think atleast some of the decline in social gatherings is linked to cancel culture. Cancel culture has raised the potential risk and therefore the cost of in person gatherings. Doing something while out that someone disapproves of could tank your reputation and cost you social and professional opportunities. There was an article I saw a few weeks ago that talked the decline of bars and clubs. The perception of the cause according to one interview subject was that the young folks are terrified of being caught on cell phone doing something embarrassing.
It's an "emperor's new clothes" situation, where the intimidation against dissent makes people either keep quiet, or even convinces them to believe the prevailing groupthink. I've had private conversations with people who now realize, or knew all along, that the lockdowns and shots were a complete waste, but even now remain afraid to say so publicly.
"In the quarters, you know, that I travel in among academics or in mainstream media. That's where there seemed to be little questioning. It was almost seen as sort of wrong or immoral to raise questions about whether this was feasible for most of the population..."
These are the people who wanted to punish/imprison those who refused to follow orders to mask up or get the jab. Of course there's little questioning. What do you suppose the odds are, that they honestly want to confront having been wrong about so much, and having treated those who weren't so badly?
(N-95 wearers might have a legitimate reason, though)
There’s plenty of real science that shows that masks are not particularly effective in protecting the wearer from disease, but it can be close to 90% effective at preventing others from catching a disease that the mask wearer has. When I go out in public wearing a mask (yes, an N-95) it’s because I have a mild upper respiratory tract infection that I jealously refuse to share with strangers. (And if it’s a serious URT infection I stay home.)
I think the covid lockdowns indeed played a part. In 2020, my wife and I had planned a trip to celebrate her Masters degree, which of course included her receiving it at a ceremony. That was all cancelled because of lockdown, and we were told it wasn't important. We are old enough to have perspective, but imagine being a high school or bachelor graduate and being told the last 4 years doesn't deserve a celebration at the end? Why would you celebrate smaller things?
Also in 2020, our daughter wanted to marry. She had planned for a church wedding and celebration. Again, this was cancelled by lockdowns, but not the wedding. Instead, we held it in our backyard, had 40 guests over, and hired a company to come to the house and decorate. It went very well. My point is that event also caused a loss of trust with venues that closed their doors to us. The church at least sent the minister to formally perform the ceremony, but social places we had planned to go to abandoned us. One never has reopened. Others are struggling. I don't necessarily blame them, but we now trust to do our celebrations at home, while friends and family like that arrangement too.
The Party City closing may also be attributed to the illegal communities laying low and saving their money. In our area the number of quinceaneras has really come to a stop.
What Mikee said. I spent April through September working in California. We stopped staying in a hotel in Ventura when we discovered we could get from Rancho Cucamonga to Powell and Peralta in 55 minutes. By July, we were in Sonoma working on a bunch of wineries, hauling ass everywhere and staying in the Doubletree for $50.00 a night (No pool, service once a week), but still.
Then the fires came and burnt most of what we did down. Only two built back.
"In the quarters, you know, that I travel in among academics or in mainstream media. That's where there seemed to be little questioning."
Academics and the media. Humpf! Aren't they supposed to be questioners of authority? Those who claim trained brains acted like trained seals on COVID-19. Intellectual regression as far as the eye can see on this one. What? Me think? Bah!
And I was so struck at the lack of skepticism over the course of the pandemic about these measures....
There was plenty of skepticism, ruthlessly suppressed by fools, idiots, and third-rate jerks working in academia or government or the newsmedia and united by their common joy in jerking ordinary people around and desperation to get rid of Trump.
Inspired by a retrospective COVID post by Simulation Commander on Substack yesterday, I went back and reread Althouse posts and the attached comments from late February to early April of 2020. Pretty much everyone who got it wrong was exactly who you would expect to get it wrong if you didn't have any evidence at all to make a judgment.
Chi-Com Covid - elite experiment from the Bill Gates types.
My favorite media/ Soviet-D Vaccine song.
Deep State Reformer said... "... But then that's Ann Arbor for you."
I can second that observation -- both ends of the distribution are heavily populated.
As they say, the more people go Progressively nutty, the more I would rather stay home with my dog (or cat) I stay away from crazy as much as I can.
In MAGA Sussex WI that bars are packed. So is the bowling alley. Friday night fish fry etc... Liberals are nuts. I try to avoid Madison, WI so I wonder if crazy pandemic fear still exists. But it's a college town, and I'm sure the college kids who can get into the bars want to party.
The smart phone has separated everyone. Before the smart phone, if you wanted to find people, or see what was going on, you had to go out. Go to a bar, church, restaurant, parties etc... Now you just have to log on.
Worst social invention ever.
the executives in MY FAMILY (Director of Engineering, and her husband a Vice President of Engineering), TO THIS DAY; are CONVINCED:
a) the Lockdowns were "necessary"
b) the "vaccine" was a success
c) the "vaccine" STOPPED TRANSMISSION
d) the "vaccine" was designed BY, and FOR Joe Biden
What to take from that?
It's NOT that Democrats are living in a bubble.
It's that Democrats are living in a fantasy land.
facts WILL NOT sway a person's beliefs, if that person's beliefs were never based on facts
And I was so struck at the lack of skepticism over the course of the pandemic about these measures.... In the quarters, you know, that I travel in among academics... Funny how it was the "poorly educated" MAGA white people that knew the COVID lockdowns were bullshit from the start.
It really illustrates academia is populated with mediocre sheep. They swallowed it all, and held on to COVID as long as they could.
I was disappointed to see that Dershowitz was one of the vaccine absolutists in your vaccine song. Every single person in that video needs to explain themselves.
Ocarina sales plummeted.
oh, my sister and her husband ALSO believe:
a) the Russians are LOSING the war in the Ukraine
b) the Ukrainians are WINNING.. because they are HEROES!
c) within 6 months of the start of the war, the russians will RISE UP,
and oust Putin because of his Horrible failures
They STILL think this.. a couple of years after their predicted timeline. They live in a fantasyland
I wonder if the elites understand how insane this sounds to us normals? I'm grateful to live in Florida, far away from places (both geographically and culturally) such as New York City and London.
I recall writing a comment back when Covid was starting that as a joke I was going to wait about 5 years, for all the hysteria to pass and public contamination fervor to wane, then wear a mask in public to scare people. Looks like I have to wait at least another 5 years for my joke to have any effect at all, if then.
"If nothing else, COVID is a teachable moment on the extent to which people are suggestible and susceptible to social programming"
I traveled around a bit in rural areas during the Covid panic, the people there were not fooled. If you walked into a store wearing a mask they looked at you like you were a dimwitted fool. I attended a funeral (not Covid related) and the funeral home had a list of rules they had to display (masks, mandatory distances, etc) and absolutely no one was paying attention to them. If some government busy body had tried to enforce them then I imagine they would have risked being rode out of town on a rail.
As a couple of folks have noted, I suspect this has a lot more to do with post-COVID expansion of WFH killing off a lot of office-related gatherings. I'm also quite sure the ongoing baby-bust and decline in marriages has more than a little to do with it, also. I highly doubt that COVID specifically ended people's desire to throw celebrations.
Gilbar- I do not believe I made this up. I think I read it somewhere, but I cannot remember the source. You cannot reason someone out of an idea they emotioned themselves into.
You still see people living in fear, but I think that the phone scrolling when in a social setting is something completely different. It's very depressing. The other day I had guests over, and we were watching a movie, but one of them was out on the deck watching his phone alone. I don't think he was afraid of COVID. I poured him a drink, and poured one for myself to go out and socialize with him, but he took the drink and continued to watch whatever he was watching on his phone.
Compared to the impact of phone addiction, I think COVID. was a bump in the road.
I have a friend, M.D. who is a virus hobbyist. From the jump he told me a couple of things. First, not to worry, deaths would br for elderly-ill and also that masks won't work.
He also said that deaths registered as "with Covid" were $$$ incentivized as "of Covid", and ALL stats were FUBAR.
The rule that kept me laughing were the one way arrows on the floor of the grocery stores!
Everytime I think of covid, facemasks, and cellphones I think of Little Dumpster Fire's - Chamber of Reflection. It resonates because the tropes are so depressingly similar.
I think that our elites are like members of a cult, and maybe they all suffer from imposter syndrome and their biggest fear is that they will be banished from their comfortable spots by the mind guards, so they go along and shut down their critical thinking.
"And I was so struck at the lack of skepticism over the course of the pandemic about these measures.... In the quarters, you know, that I travel in among academics or in mainstream media. That's where there seemed to be little questioning. It was almost seen as sort of wrong or immoral to raise questions about whether this was feasible for most of the population.... Business closures... economic loss... isolating human beings who are social creatures will have a whole series of knock-on effects...."
They all knew, or should have discerned, that it was a social experiment and a political tactic to make the most vulnerable people die, to instill fear about COVID, and to manipulate the elections. It stands to reason that there was no skepticism, and that questions were tacitly forbidden.
@MadTownGuy:
Covid was not an accident.
My wife and I threw a big birthday party for ourselves when we both turned 50, and we bought napkins and plates from Party City that said "Happy 100th!" The clerk said she'd never sold any of those before.
@ Ride
Re: Chamber of Reflection
That's awesome. Hadn't seen that. Thanks.
“The only people I see wearing paper masks are the "street people" & urban proles who are mainly trying to hide their identity or else the absolutely crazy nut job hypochondriacs.”
Saw a young woman come into a store awhile back, all in black, with a black mask and hood pulled up. I joked with the store security that she must really have wanted them to follow her around the store that day. He agreed.
What must be remembered is that general masking became a thing several months after the BLM riots where the AntiFA instigators made masks part of their fashion statement. They could have gone to prison under the Klan masking law, for that - until masking became mandatory under COVID-19 rules. They are doing it again, but this time aimed against Teslas and Tesla dealerships. I expect, with Patel heading the FBI, for it not to go as well this time around.
Nobody goes there anymore because it's fucking deserted.
People don't get together to party anymore because everybody finally figured out that I was right about everybody.
Parties aren’t dying where I live. In 2024, the last child from our cul-de-sac graduated high school. Her Hispanic family threw a massive party. They had an open bar, catered TexMex food, and ping pong . We even had to shush a Black woman who was praising Trump, no politics at neighborhood parties please. Not a mask was in sight, it was great fun.
“I traveled around a bit in rural areas during the Covid panic, the people there were not fooled. If you walked into a store wearing a mask they looked at you like you were a dimwitted fool.”
We drove through mostly rural AZ, NM, CO, WY, and MT on our annual late spring sojourn from AZ to MT. Mask mandates were not being enforced, even in leftist CO. Then we got to Missoula, and stopped at an Albertson’s by campus, and a guy got in my face about not wearing a mask. I asked him if he had been Vaxed (we didn’t know yet that they didn’t work - that was a couple months away). Of course he had. Then why was he masking? Because it’s the rule! College aged store manager backed him up. Haven’t been back to an Albertson’s in Missoula since. In any case, got home the next day, in rural MT, and the only place you saw masks was in the hospital and the local clinic. And the occasional tourist driving through, usually with WA or OR plates. You didn’t see social distancing, or arrows on the floor in the grocery store either.
I blame Trump. If he had just imposed insane limitations on our freedoms, the sensible people at the leading media institutions would have made certain that our freedoms and social fabric were protected.
The Party City nearest me closed down about a year ago.
I walked in there once - and the whole place smelled like China. the whole place smelled like cheap toxic plastics. It made me turn around and leave without shopping.
I'm all for throwing a party - but if you need that much crapola to make your party "special" - uh.
A good party is when the food is good, and the conversations are fun. Loads of useless plastics = not needed.
Younger, single people go to parties to find dates and hook up. I wonder if the plethora of dating apps has replaced party-going.
BUMBLE BEE: You know what got looks at the grocery store? Backing down an aisle so you were facing the correct way because you knew what you wanted was close to where you were “supposed to” exit the aisle.
I did it all the time, got lots of comments and nasty looks and laughed at every one!
The nearest thing to a party that I've been to in the last 4-5 years was the visitation for a deceased work colleague about three weeks ago. There were refreshments, and a few of the folks in attendance were masked.
My wife and I have been invited to a big wedding and black tie dinner in May, and dancing afterwards. I could rent a monkey suit of course, but my wife can truthfully claim that she has nothing suitable to wear--and we don't intend on spending money to enjoy the company of people richer than ourselves. (And neither of us dance.)
We're debating whether to spring for a gift. Probably should--the father of the bride is one of my oldest gaming buddies and there aren't many left.
I've noticed no decline in the number of parties or social gatherings, but we are at an age where a number of our friends' children are getting married, so there are engagement parties, weddings, etc. I have noticed a small number of people who have more or less disappeared from the social scene, but they are the exception and don't affect the overall picture.
For the 20s and 30s crowd, I suspect social media and dating apps have encroached on parties as means of meeting people and interacting.
The "special" laws and expectations weren't about health, it was about control. America, the home of the Free and Brave failed spectacularly. Trump messed that up for personal political reasons IMO, but he was told lies by Fauci and Birx, who should be held accountable. They lied. They knew those lies would have a serious impact, but they did it anyway.
We held parties during the pandemic. Several. No masks. No social distancing. Just a bit of hand sanitizer.
And I'll be damned. Nobody died.
Live your life in a constant state of fear if you want. Stay home. Hide under your bed. Suck on your binky. Just don't expect the rest of us to come along.
Here in Oregon there was a time when we were asked/required to mask when outdoors walking on trails in parks etc; I never did, nor did many, but some certainly did.
The rule that kept me laughing were the one way arrows on the floor of the grocery stores!
The supermarket did have those arrows on the aisle floors for a while. When they disappeared, I didn't notice.
Post a Comment
Comments older than 2 days are always moderated. Newer comments may be unmoderated, but are still subject to a spam filter and may take a few hours to get released. Thanks for your contributions and your patience.