Despite all the negative effects of Corona, I prefer to appreciate the novel experiences.
Corona Skies
The European airspace is one of the most utilized on earth.
Thus it is rare to look up the sky and not see any condensation trails.
Now, living in a city with a nearby airport, we have Corona skies, which I would define as:
The natural sky either clouded or cloudless without any signs of human flight.
Eventually, an increase in condensation trails may be a good metric on how much we are going "back to normal".
Dystopian Malls
Whenever getting supplies, there are recorded public announcements playing.
The content always boils down to:
- Mind the government Corona laws
- Stay safe and healthy
- Enjoy and keep shopping
EL-OH-EL!
Digitization on Warp Speed
I was slightly ahead of the curve by working remotely in a distributed team, having read relevant literature before and ac. Due to the Corona situation, our company and team adapted quickly to full-remote and without problems.
There are studies on how much the Corona situation sped up digitization. Here's an example from our household:
- Ordering clothes online, mostly at uniqlo.
- Ordering toiletries, cleaning utensils etc. online. Yes, they ship even soft, pleasant, scarce, super valuable toilet paper -- for pennies! WHO is the idiot here?!
- Ordering organic vegetables, fruit and meat from a local farmer, online
The Soundtrack
Update 2022-03-11: all songs are also very suitable for staying sane in war propaganda times.
German:
English:
Update 2022-03-06: Lingua Coronae
In reference to Victor Klemperer's LTI, gathering primarily from the German media:
- Speaker announcements "Helden an der Front" (meaning "heroic front line" workers like supermarket employees, farmers, medical personell. Wartime propaganda language)
- coronapositiv, "mit Coronavirus infiziert", anstecken, infizieren (invoking language with majority association to HIV)
- social distancing (taken over from English, similar but different to "public viewing", which isn't an actual English concept. Signals some kind of internationally accepted standard)
- Coronaleugner, Coronaverharmloser (invoking language with exclusive association to the Holocaust and anti-human views. Exclusivity was first broken for climate change: "Klimaleugner")
- Lockdown, Shutdown (previously primarily used in prison/military context)
- Concern for public health (Nazis would have called it "Volksgesundheit", trying to make individual/private health decisions a matter of public concern, shaming/blaming, claiming higher morals)
- Einschränkungen (restrictions, euphemism for gross loss/forfeiture/revocation of basic civil liberties, destruction of small-/medium-sized businesses)
- Impfung, Inzidenz (re-use of existing words with new, slightly altered meaning, not publishing number of tests, not marking/controlling for significant changes in pandemic response)
- Impfgegner (enemy metaphor, wartime propaganda language), Impfstützpunkt (as in "military base", again militaristic language)
- 3G, 3G+, 2G, 2G+, 1G, -Regel (scientism, buzzwords, variation of those rules have no scientific merit besides pushing people to get vaccinated. As benefit, inconveniences imposed by those rules may be temporarily skipped)
- Schwurbler (discrediting opposing arguments and people voicing them as idiots, mentally ill)
- Sicher und effektiv (safe and effective, with various degrees), "trust the science!" (good science doesn't need trust, it is self-evident and accessible to at least any academic. Flying to the moon requires a leap of faith in all the science, engineering and people involved. Experimental drugs do, too!)
- Alltagsmaske, medizinische Maske, FFP2 mask, Maskenpflicht (salami slice tactic of conditioning population to masks, starting with near-useless ones, moving up to proper masks. Guaranteed sales due to amigo politics)
- Coronawarnapp, Coronaapp, Coronapass, Coronapasspflicht (salami slice tactic, pushing acceptance of digital means of identification, normalization to "check-in". Implementing technocratic "computer said no", offloading responsibility from politics to technocratic system)
- "Politisches Versprechen" (political promise, as in: a promise which will be broken for sure, e.g. "no wall", "no road charges", "no additional lockdown")
- "For freedom!" (through the opposite means of lockdown, technocratic testing and coerced vaccination)
- News reports suggesting to peach, spy on neighbors during lockdowns
- News reports of married couples having arguments of vaccine decision, holiday advice on how to deal with relatives having different views
- Geimpft, genesen oder gestorben (both German president and health minister echoed this triplet of "vaccinated, recovered or dead". Aimed to push people to get vaccinated, although a tautology: after more than two years of pandemic, most people are probably recovered without even knowing [if they didn't get vaccinated])
