Notices by Buffy the Psych Prof (drpsybuffy@mstdn.social), page 3

@mmlvx @MisuseCase I only saw one nurse wearing a mask when I visited my sister in the hospital. Everyone else was unmasked, despite rates of COVID, flu, and RSV being very high in our areas. ERs are packed, with waits lasting hours. But you know who were wearing masks? The cleaning folks. Every housekeeping type employee I saw was masked. *How many of them cannot afford to miss a day of work?* Our society is so awful in so many ways.

My sister was in the hospital for over a week and I saw her yesterday and she was complaining of a terrible headache that started in the hospital. I suggested she consider that she might have contracted COVID while there—she looked annoyed. Ppl just prefer to pretend COVID isn’t an issue anymore. I wore an N95 mask when at the hospital and also when I saw her yesterday. I can’t even trust those closest to me to give a shit about *themselves*, so they definitely don’t care about others

@MisuseCase she was annoyed that I suggested it was COVID and that she should test and put on a mask, not annoyed because it might have been COVID.

Anyone who says he will be a dictator for a day has no intention of being a dictator for only a day

The phrase “immunity debt” is going to be directly responsible for the massive drop in life expectancy we will continue to see https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1730800968999079992.html

I see stuff like this all the time. "How French women remain so beautiful." "European women age better than American women." Yeah, well, they have readily available healthcare. And more help (especially in France) after having a baby. They get maternity leave. They have more vacation time. There's assistance with elderly care for when they have to care for parents. America hates women so much they make their lives hell & then blame them for aging badly https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/what-french-women-get-right-about-aging-well

Someday people will be absolutely fucking marveling at all the opportunities there were to stop Trump from getting on the ballot—legitimate reasons—and yet judges were too afraid to do it. Acting like things are normal while we slow motion slide into fascism. It’s bizarre as hell. Like does no one remember their history teacher saying that authoritarians are always elected and then there’s no more elections? What has the fucking point of teaching about fascism been?!? This is nuts

Today in my Abnormal Psychology class, I was covering anxiety disorders, and I was talking about when anxiety and even depression can be considered a fairly rational response to terrible circumstances. One of my students, a black female, mentioned how frightened she is when she is driving and sees a police car. And it led to a great convo about how it’s basically gaslighting to tell members of marginalized communities that feeling anxious or depressed is irrational.

The fucking irony

I feel like I’m living in some kind of bizarro world

I’m so happy for #Ohio!! Things are looking pretty sad for the GOP lately. Gee, that’s too bad 😎

@skykiss It’s still a genuinely good idea 😊

@GailCBull That is true on the home timeline, but I venture into federated land now and then because I’m a curious person. My comment was an observation. Not a cry for help. That’s it. 😊

Mastodon can be so weird. My feeds are filled with lots of posts complaining about how and why people are doing mastodon wrong, how they should post, why they should change their server, shaming people for forgetting to add text to an image, calling people who haven’t deleted their twitter accounts Nazis, now followed by posts ripping on people trying Threads….all followed by posts wondering why people don’t seem to enjoy Mastodon as much as they think they should. I just can’t imagine why 🙄

I like Mastodon, don’t get me wrong. But a lot folks on here who write these kinds of posts also talk about how Mastodon is superior because it isn’t as mean as Twitter, but I’ve seen quite a bit of meanness, it’s just wearing different clothing. Just my .02. 🤷♀️

The real danger is right in front and people still can’t see it https://www.joemygod.com/2023/06/texas-pastor-pleads-guilty-to-child-porn-charges/

Just reading the news has become fairly traumatizing. We are trapped in a pseudo-terrorist state by the NRA and its boot lickers.

America is a giant trauma stew. Our cruel parenting practices, the affinity for a religion that is rooted in shame, the lack of structural social support, the lack of healthcare (without risking bankruptcy)…I could go on and on. Trauma stew. And it shows up in our apathy, our depression, our anxiety, our drug and alcohol abuse. We treat systemically generated problems as individual weakness and it’s destroying us