[covid/morbidity] I think one of the more distressing things I've seen re: the US death toll is how increasingly it gets referred to in relation to other mass deaths.

Once [x number] of 9/11s became too much, it became "more than the number of Americans lost in Vietnam" and boy, that's pretty sobering. But, then.

Last night I saw someone refer to it as "a Nagasaki" and I had to just stare off into space for awhile.

These are not barometers we should be having to use, but the fact it's so easy to is... hrm, yeah. Don't like that.

How else can we rationalize it?

It's more that the number is getting to me a lot more than it seems to be getting to large portions of the country

Putting it in these terms actually does put it in perspective, but it's more, "that we got to these numbers is a fucking nightmare"

Oh it is a nightmare for me

By large portions of the country, I don't mean people like. On my TL. I mean more like, "looking out my window and seeing a neighbor having a party a couple days ago with a dozen cars in their yard"

Or stupid assholes turning whether or not you wear a mask into a political issue, like the virus somehow cares about that