# People who don't take precautions relative to Covid have the lemmings gene.



## Phoenix (Dec 24, 2020)

Most of my relatives are that way.  So are the relatives of a friend of mine.  Her family is highly educated.  Mine is the opposite.  So this is her conclusion.  I agree.


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## Pepper (Dec 24, 2020)

*Lemmings do not commit suicide.*
So why is the myth of mass lemming suicide so widely believed? For one, it provides an irresistible metaphor for human behavior. Someone who blindly follows a crowd—maybe even toward catastrophe—is called a lemming. Over the past century, the myth has been invoked to express modern anxieties about how individuality could be submerged and destroyed by mass phenomena, such as political movements or consumer culture.

But the biggest reason the myth endures? Deliberate fraud. For the 1958 Disney nature film _White Wilderness_, filmmakers eager for dramatic footage staged a lemming death plunge, pushing dozens of lemmings off a cliff while cameras were rolling. The images—shocking at the time for what they seemed to show about the cruelty of nature and shocking now for what they actually show about the cruelty of humans—convinced several generations of moviegoers that these little rodents do, in fact, possess a bizarre instinct to destroy themselves.
https://www.britannica.com/story/do-lemmings-really-commit-mass-suicide#:~:text=Lemmings do not commit suicide.&text=Lemmings can swim, so if,lemming suicide so widely believed?

Shocking, no?  Glad & sad at the same time.  Sorry, Phoenix, the truth must finally be told.


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## Phoenix (Dec 24, 2020)

Pepper said:


> *Lemmings do not commit suicide.*
> So why is the myth of mass lemming suicide so widely believed? For one, it provides an irresistible metaphor for human behavior. Someone who blindly follows a crowd—maybe even toward catastrophe—is called a lemming. Over the past century, the myth has been invoked to express modern anxieties about how individuality could be submerged and destroyed by mass phenomena, such as political movements or consumer culture.
> 
> But the biggest reason the myth endures? Deliberate fraud. For the 1958 Disney nature film _White Wilderness_, filmmakers eager for dramatic footage staged a lemming death plunge, pushing dozens of lemmings off a cliff while cameras were rolling. The images—shocking at the time for what they seemed to show about the cruelty of nature and shocking now for what they actually show about the cruelty of humans—convinced several generations of moviegoers that these little rodents do, in fact, possess a bizarre instinct to destroy themselves.
> ...


I already knew that.  Sorry, it's not shocking to me.  I saw a documentary on it.  But people are being the lemmings the myths talk about.


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## CarolfromTX (Dec 26, 2020)

And You’re being snarky and unnecessarily derisive.


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## Sunny (Dec 26, 2020)

I think the word "lemmings" is established enough in our language that it's here to stay. Never mind whether it's really an accurate description of that particular animal; I think it's a useful way of describing people who mindlessly follow the behavior of others, even if the others are being suicidal.


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## john danson (Dec 26, 2020)

If they were only throwing themselves off the cliff it would be far less troubling than the possibility of them dragging you,me, and health care worker with them.


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## Pepper (Dec 26, 2020)

Sunny said:


> I think the word "lemmings" is established enough in our language that it's here to stay. Never mind whether it's really an accurate description of that particular animal; I think it's a useful way of describing people who mindlessly follow the behavior of others, even if the others are being suicidal.


I gotta disagree.  It serves no one when wrong information is passed along.  We should show how smart we all are and think of something different.  IMO.


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## Phoenix (Dec 26, 2020)

It's not okay for what someone does to kill someone else.  If someone takes out a gun and kills someone, the police track them down and put them in jail.  This is a case in point.  It's negligent homicide.


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## Nathan (Dec 26, 2020)

Phoenix said:


> I already knew that.  Sorry, it's not shocking to me.  I saw a documentary on it.  But people are being the lemmings the myths talk about.


Yep, they're out there...not too hard to spot.


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## fmdog44 (Dec 26, 2020)

They "Nay Sayers" are causing the nations where they reside great burdens on the healthcare workers, on the economies, on the populations trying to survive and on the schools. Their refusal to help by cooperating will spill over in to the vaccine months/years. Sadly, we saw some interviewed at airports saying they don't plan on getting the virus and or despite the virus they needed to be with family at Christmas time. So we have some that are belligerent and others that are naïve.


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## Murrmurr (Dec 26, 2020)

I wonder how they justify it, though. What's their logic? We're all gonna die anyway. Oh well, decrease the surplus population. Let the chips fall where they may. I gotta be me. ?? I've heard there's people out there who think it's all a plot, but I know first hand that there are people who acknowledge there's an actual pandemic but still do life as though there isn't.


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## Phoenix (Dec 26, 2020)

Murrmurr said:


> I wonder how they justify it, though. What's their logic? We're all gonna die anyway. Oh well, decrease the surplus population. Let the chips fall where they may. I gotta be me. ?? I've heard there's people out there who think it's all a plot, but I know first hand that there are people who acknowledge there's an actual pandemic but still do life as though there isn't.


My cousin (72) who is very religious "trusts" the women in her Bible study group.  They get together regularly, no masks.  Over the holidays she planned to get together with all of her family, except her one son who told her she needed to be careful.  I talked to her on the phone about a week ago, she "knows" she's safe.  I was surprised to get the call.  I thought she'd written me off.  In 2007 she had cancer and thyroid problems and her lung collapsed.  I'm half expecting to hear that she dies of Covid.  She said that she's ready to go anytime.  I think she has a death wish.  She is living miserably ever after with her jerk husband.  I dumped two jerk husbands.  She stayed with hers, and he controls her and undermines her belief in herself.  There are a number of reasons why she allows this.  They are all based in fear, fear she has refused to overcome.  Now that fear may kill her.


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## Pink Biz (Dec 26, 2020)

*Lemmings gene? Nah, more like the stupid/selfish gene.*


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## Rosemarie (Dec 26, 2020)

I share a building with other people and have taken to wearing a mask whenever I go into the communal areas. The other residents have all their relatives visiting constantly and I haven't seen any of them wearing a mask.


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## Irwin (Dec 26, 2020)

It's natural selection at work: survival of the fittest. Most of us will take precautions and get the vaccine while those less fit to survive will opt out. Of course, a lot of them don't have insurance, so we'll have to pay their hospital bills.


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