Yes, the views in the poll reflect my opinion...
They clearly do not; look at how many people are out and about. Many of us speak to a diverse range of people who take a different view.
, the views of my family, the views of my friends, and the views of any colleague I have discussed it with.
I don't think your friends and family are representative, sorry.
As for colleagues, I suspect these are people who are enjoying working from home.
And as I said before, people don't tend to admit they are against lockdowns with people who are pro-lockdown as they tend not to want to fall out with people, generally.
For me, this sub-forum is a weird reverse echo chamber where I can go to read the strange views of people who have a different understanding of the public health crisis to me. Here and also occasionally twitter.
For me, posts like yours could be described that way, and yes they are on Twitter too
I think you are probably isolated from many of the negative effects of lockdowns.
I haven't yet worked out what it is about rail enthusiasts that would make them so polar opposite to everyone else I know. I suspect there's a fair bit of self selection in terms of who is actually posting in the covid forum and the views here don't necessarily match the wider community.
I doubt many, if any of the people I quoted above on Twitter are rail enthusiasts, nor are the people I speak to through working in an educational environment (including people who are employed in a wide range of jobs), and for that matter this forum is not just frequented by rail enthusiasts either.
There is no link there.
I think if you are the kind of person who is strongly anti-lockdown you may be overthinking public enthusiasm for lockdowns though. The survey, even if accurate, isn't suggesting 75% of people want to stay locked in their homes for weeks on end voluntarily. No-one wants to be in lockdown. No-one particularly wants to be wearing masks on public transport or in supermarkets.
Ah, that old chestnut again! I don't buy it. There is an element of truth in what you say insofar as this is about restricting
others (as mentioned in posts above) and not themselves; in other words many of the people who are pro-lockdown are really trying to restrict what others can do and/or trying to avoid going into work while not actually staying at home constantly themselves. People who support lockdowns cannot hide behind the "no-one wants to be locked down" argument; it's a bogus argument. If you support it, you support it, and you share responsibility for the consequences. No excuses.
As someone else commented upthread, large numbers of people weren't doing those things until they were compelled to, even if they thought it was a good idea for everyone else to be doing it.
We're all doing it now because scientists have (correctly) informed us that there is literally no good alternative, the government have agreed, and there's now no other option but to quietly get on with it until things get better.
There clearly are alternatives, as proven by other countries.
That is one bunch of scientists, not 'scientists' universally - plenty of respected scientists with relevant expertise do not agree with the approach being taken.
Absolutely. People who are pro-lockdown are selective about which scientists they want to listen to, those are collective known as "scientists" and their beliefs are "the science".
Anyone who quotes alternative scientists are typically questioned about their own credentials. It's all so predictable!
I find that the scientists that are most worth listening to are those that take a holistic approach and consider the wider picture; those that advocate lockdowns generally have a one-track mind and typically dismiss or underestimate the downsides of lockdowns. I therefore do not trust people who have suchb one dimensional views, nor do I trust people who have been discredited such as Ferguson et al.
I will just add that all of my family and social circles with the exception of this forum are of the same view. I am much closer to this forum's opinions, but I cannot really share that elsewhere because I will get squashed.
I think this is probably because we are predominantly left of centre in political circles, and therefore are likely to have friends & family who are left leaning.
See the other thread about left v right and authoritarian v libertarian for the full analysis but in summary, a lot of groups of friends who are of a similar political view may err towards the views of others in their political circles. Many people have tried to push the narrative that left wing means supporting lockdowns; I do not agree with this but many people do go with it.
But for me and you (and many others that I know), we value freedoms greatly and are able to detach the separate authoritarianism vs libertarianism issues from left vs right issues. We are also looking at the bigger picture and are not easily led by the views of a particular political party or their supporters.
Possibly forever then, by that logic.
At what point do you and your associates decide "this isn't working, we need to get on with things" ?
People who are entrenched are unlikely to change their views, especially when subject to peer pressure from people in their circles who often have a similar political view and a loyalty towards the views of people in those circles.
Many on the left are very keen to portray lockdown support as compulsory for people on the left, and this does mean that some people who are more easily led and less able to look at the bigger picture will blindly go with that. I have spoken to many people who see themselves as left of centre who felt politically homeless and felt awkward for being against lockdowns as if it was against what they were 'supposed' to think; I believe that it has been very liberating for many people, including myself, to understand that it is not a left v right thing at all and that there are many many others who feel the same way but are often silent.
And the WHO approach is down to political pressure - prior to this they never recommended lockdowns, masks or any of the other dystopian measures we are seeing at all, in any circumstances.
Agreed; the WHO do not recommend lockdowns although they do advocate their use as a last resort.