How much of a role did Covid play in America's meltdown?

COVID was the seasoning that made this specific stew. Consider all the T&E people permanently laid off, all the staying at home, Working/Schooling online, etc. That made a partially expense paid trip to Washington an outing for many.

[quote] T&E people

Travel and Expense People.

The quote Stanley Kowalski, "we had this date from the beginning."

Don't blame Covid for those people losing their minds. There was no other way for it go. But do blame the people who enabled them the last 5 years. Making jokes about their racist uncles, tolerating the crazy, and complaining about spending the holidays with their Trumper family members, but doing it anyway to "keep the peace."

this is sad, but COVID made me realize I had ZERO personal life.

I live in LA, work in the biz and have an extremely FUN job. 6 Hollywood events a month -- sometimes double that in the summer or during awards season.

That all came to a screeching halt because of COVID. A few zoom events. I get some swag stuff in the mail. But...ALONE.

Lost a parent during this. And a dear friend to suicide two years ago. No family. All back east and we're not close.

I. Am. ALONE.

When COVID's over, I'll change that.

I owe it to myself to try, at least.

r4 I am very sorry for your loses. I hope your mental health remains steady. But I am very very sorry.

If you'd like to lighten the mood you can send us a piece of juicy gossip. Just a treat and please let it be gay.

Good for you for making those changes if you feel they're necessary, R4.

Don't beat yourself up too much. Many people aren't close to family; many people have consuming jobs they enjoy that also serves a social purpose.

The people who committed this don't give two shits about covid or staying indoors.

r2 - Sorry T&E, in this context, is the Travel and Entertainment sector. I should have written it out.

[quote] The people who committed this don't give two shits about covid or staying indoors.

The people of Wuhan?

I think the truth is that a lot of people who voted for Trump had a lot of the problems for a long time that the rest of America has only experienced since Covid. They had had massive job insecurity, or flat-out unemployment, for years, and with it the loss of direction and self-esteem that means. They had poor health because they had no insurance, and poor mental health because of all these factors. A lot of them were probably lonely because they're poor at relating to people and they had no jobs to get their social life started around.

But unlike the rest of the country, they can't be assured that things will improve when Covid is over.

[quote] they can't be assured that things will improve

But Kamala and Joe will be looking out for us all!

I think it definitely played a role in the riots over the summer. A lot of those young adults were unemployed or underemployed. There are still daily protests in my city, and all of the protest leaders (which may very well be all the protesters who show up every day) live off e-begging.

I don't know if it contributed to the Capitol riot, but something else I've noticed since lockdown started is how plain mean people are, and not just online. Many people in my neighborhood are unnecessarily hostile when they wouldn't have been a year ago. Whatever the reason, I think that's also played a role in all of the unrest over the past several months.

No doubt they preferred Trump's instructions in May, which were to get out in the sun and fresh air and ignore it. He already saw mail-in voting was going to be a threat to his re-election, and quickly appointed Repug operative DeJoy to destroy the USPS.

Then Covid took-off like wildfire.