[Wilbur]

I thought Bart Watson's article was interesting.
https://www.brewersassociation.org/insights/the-on-premise-is-reopening-now-what/

It'll be interesting to see what things look like long term, hopefully off premise sale's are allowed to continue. I've enjoyed that for restaurants (nice grabbing a half gallon of margaritas for your tacos), but that could be rough for breweries long term. I'm sure can and canning machine sales are going to be up the next few years.

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[Village Taphouse]

I have worked at home for 30 years so some of this is normal.  Not being able to go out for lunch or dinner is weird but that's manageable because I like to cook too.  Not being able to get a haircut was a struggle but my wife gave me a decent trim so I'm okay there too.  I'm in Chicago and nothing is easing here.  My daughter and older son both live in Austin where things have been easing... they have been out on boats, in beer gardens, etc. for awhile now.  I have seen people on the beaches around Panama City (on a webcam) and things look normal there.  I would go to a beach and not be worried as long as I didn't get too close to anyone.  I agree that there seems to be a push to ease restrictions for no other reason but that people are bored and getting cabin fever.  That's not a reason to go sit shoulder-to-shoulder at a bar and possibly get sick.  After Texas eased up, they had 10% increases in the number of cases.  Clearly that could be because of more testing and more results coming in.  I think that what will happen is that places will open and be surprised that many people are not ready to go out yet. 

[Northern_Brewer]

One of the key things will be to take advantage of the fact that it seems quite difficult to catch this thing outside which will push things like beer gardens to the forefront even if the building itself is closed. Toilets will be a bit of a problem, you can imagine one-in-one-out rules and masks if you have to go inside.

The UK trade organisation has sketched out some ideas of what things may look like going forward : https://www.thecaterer.com/news/ukhospitality-launches-fair4hospitality-roadmap - the newspapers seem to be particularly concerned that salt and pepper will be removed from tables, which is a weird take-home from a complex 75 page document.

[KellerBrauer]

I believe the lesson here is each side has a story to tell with motives for their version.  The point is there are other points of view than what we are experiencing.

...the truth probably lies somewhere in the middle.

If we only hear an issue from one side or the other — regardless of the issue — we live in an ‘echo chamber’ (to coin a phrase from another post).


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Understood.  👍🏼  I just kind of like to understand who is providing the information to help me understand the motivation.  But, I agree - the truth lies somewhere in the middle.  Well said.

[KellerBrauer]

I won't attempt to escalate things here other than to interject that I am a Libertarian, and I DO believe in government. And though free-market economy is a lynchpin of the Libertarian economic views, we are not all anti-establishment, right-wing whackjobs.

I hope my explanation didn’t offend you as it certainly was not meant to.  If you were offended, please accept my apologies.  I was only relaying my understanding of the definition.  I have looked further into the definition and now have a better understanding.  I stand corrected.

[denny]

I won't attempt to escalate things here other than to interject that I am a Libertarian, and I DO believe in government. And though free-market economy is a lynchpin of the Libertarian economic views, we are not all anti-establishment, right-wing whackjobs.

I hope my explanation didn’t offend you as it certainly was not meant to.  If you were offended, please accept my apologies.  I was only relaying my understanding of the definition.  I have looked further into the definition and now have a better understanding.  I stand corrected.

See, this is how reasonable people act.  Thank you all.

[erockrph]

I won't attempt to escalate things here other than to interject that I am a Libertarian, and I DO believe in government. And though free-market economy is a lynchpin of the Libertarian economic views, we are not all anti-establishment, right-wing whackjobs.

I hope my explanation didn’t offend you as it certainly was not meant to.  If you were offended, please accept my apologies.  I was only relaying my understanding of the definition.  I have looked further into the definition and now have a better understanding.  I stand corrected.

All good!

I do agree with the point I think you (and others) have made, in that you need to consider the source when deciding how to interpret the information they present. There is very little unbiased media nowadays.

[pete b]

I won't attempt to escalate things here other than to interject that I am a Libertarian, and I DO believe in government. And though free-market economy is a lynchpin of the Libertarian economic views, we are not all anti-establishment, right-wing whackjobs.

I hope my explanation didn’t offend you as it certainly was not meant to.  If you were offended, please accept my apologies.  I was only relaying my understanding of the definition.  I have looked further into the definition and now have a better understanding.  I stand corrected.

All good!

I do agree with the point I think you (and others) have made, in that you need to consider the source when deciding how to interpret the information they present. There is very little unbiased media nowadays.

I think it’s a mistake to look for bias vs unbiased media. Much bias is unconscious and has always existed in the media. What is new to the last 20-30 years and especially the last ten years is the difference between heavily biased media with no basis in fact versus slightly biased media or media from a point of view from either left or right that has journalistic standards and reports factually and with appropriate context. The former is what is poisoning our society.

[tommymorris]

I won't attempt to escalate things here other than to interject that I am a Libertarian, and I DO believe in government. And though free-market economy is a lynchpin of the Libertarian economic views, we are not all anti-establishment, right-wing whackjobs.

I hope my explanation didn’t offend you as it certainly was not meant to.  If you were offended, please accept my apologies.  I was only relaying my understanding of the definition.  I have looked further into the definition and now have a better understanding.  I stand corrected.

All good!

I do agree with the point I think you (and others) have made, in that you need to consider the source when deciding how to interpret the information they present. There is very little unbiased media nowadays.

I think it’s a mistake to look for bias vs unbiased media. Much bias is unconscious and has always existed in the media. What is new to the last 20-30 years and especially the last ten years is the difference between heavily biased media with no basis in fact versus slightly biased media or media from a point of view from either left or right that has journalistic standards and reports factually and with appropriate context. The former is what is poisoning our society.

Conspiracy theories are often designed to persuade by basing them on enough facts to make them seem legitimate but then the rest is made up.  This works well because they pass the smell test and most people never go beyond the smell test.

Another common mechanism for biased media is to only tell stories that fit your world view. The selected stories are 100% true but what they leave out pushes the audience’s perspective toward that biased world view. These feel like lies, but technically aren’t.  These infuriate me. These stories are true, so people rightly believe them, but most people rarely leave their echo chamber to get the rest of the story.

Then there is the intentional decisiveness. Drive that wedge issue deep into their hearts. People are angry. It’s sad. They are whipped up into a frenzy over so many things that have no true impact on them. Their mad as hell and ready to vote for their tribe! This one makes me the most mad especially for what it does to my otherwise wonderful family members and friends.

[Village Taphouse]

See, this is how reasonable people act.  Thank you all.

Sincerely.  It's very refreshing. 

What I would like to see is people listening to those who know what's up.  Listen to doctors and scientists.  This is their area.  Don't listen to politicians... they're not trained in infectious diseases (unless they are... I suppose it's possible).  Fareed Zakaria had in interesting twist on this and the video is linked below.  Understand that I am not trying to poke any bears and I consider myself an independent... I have issues with both parties.  But his take is interesting if you're looking for reasons why people won't listen to experts even if it means putting their own health at risk.  Cheers my brewing brothers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oo9ka0DDnQk

[a10t2]

See, this is how reasonable people act.  Thank you all.

But... I already sharpened my pitchfork.

[hopfenundmalz]

See, this is how reasonable people act.  Thank you all.

But... I already sharpened my pitchfork.

How many tines? Fewer for manure, more for hay and straw bedding.

[letscook]

So I was an early adopter of COVID-19 on March 2nd, and my wife too on March 5th.  I got a mild flu, 4/10 on the sickness scale, but my wife got "The sickest she's ever been in her life."  She even ended up in the ER with breathing problems and the entire bit.  She's in her 30s.  The entire ordeal lasted 3 weeks.

People are stupid. They act like they are invincible because they haven't contracted it.  They say it's overblown, but that's good because people took proper precautions so the numbers stayed low and the curve was flatted quickly.

My advice? Keep wearing that mask. Let the stupid people contract the virus and turn their smiles to frowns. I've also lost four people I know to COVID-19.

[Northern_Brewer]

...the truth probably lies somewhere in the middle.

If we only hear an issue from one side or the other — regardless of the issue — we live in an ‘echo chamber’ (to coin a phrase from another post).

I'm all for hearing from people who make you a bit uncomfortable. The trouble comes when fringe nutters are given equal standing on grounds of "fairness"with people with evidence on their side, it can give the fringe a credibility they don't deserve. The BBC is particularly prone to this as it has an obligation to be "fair" (and on one reading caused Brexit). I like the idea that a journalist is not being fair when they give a hearing to someone who says it's raining and somebody who says it's sunny - it's their job to stick their head out the window and see if they get wet.

Obviously it's not always that easy when it comes to complex, incomplete science but the truth is not always somewhere in the middle, it can be as near as dammit right over on one side.

If one person swallows misinformation and passes it on to three others, that implies an R of 3.0 - we need to use all our tools to get R<1 and achieve what has been called "nerd immunity".

[Slowbrew]

...the truth probably lies somewhere in the middle.

If we only hear an issue from one side or the other — regardless of the issue — we live in an ‘echo chamber’ (to coin a phrase from another post).

I'm all for hearing from people who make you a bit uncomfortable. The trouble comes when fringe nutters are given equal standing on grounds of "fairness"with people with evidence on their side, it can give the fringe a credibility they don't deserve. The BBC is particularly prone to this as it has an obligation to be "fair" (and on one reading caused Brexit). I like the idea that a journalist is not being fair when they give a hearing to someone who says it's raining and somebody who says it's sunny - it's their job to stick their head out the window and see if they get wet.

Obviously it's not always that easy when it comes to complex, incomplete science but the truth is not always somewhere in the middle, it can be as near as dammit right over on one side.

If one person swallows misinformation and passes it on to three others, that implies an R of 3.0 - we need to use all our tools to get R<1 and achieve what has been called "nerd immunity".

We all need to be aware that "social media" is driven by this kind of channeling.  The companies do not intend to create wingnuts and nutters but the advertising algorithms have one job which is to keep you focused on the app.  Then they can sell you to their real customers, the advertisers. 

This naturally leads to a situation where you are offered, say 5 items to read and you like 3 of them.  The next time you come back they offer you 5 more items that all share similarities to the 3 you've already ready read and reacted to.  In a very short time you are only being offered information that falls into one category and becomes more an more focused on one or two traits.  Hence you hear stories about people going online to search for information on a new hair style for their 14 year old daughter and somehow end up on skinhead sites denying the Holocaust ever happened and the story about Anne Frank is a left-wing fiction piece (and beginning to believe it).

People can be easily manipulated and in the constant search for profit many online companies use this as part of their business plan.

I know I sound like Grandpa when I say this but I miss the days when each town had a Liberal and a Conservative Daily paper.  Subscribe to both and read for the overlap.  The overlap was closest to the truth.  Media consolidation has created the echo chambers.  They sell the company line with little regard for any truth.

We live in amazing times, in very troubled societies.
Stay safe, stay well and take care of those around you.

Paul