• Viper_NZ
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      7 months ago

      He was outdoors, with a mask on.

      How does compare to being in an enclosed courtroom?

      • Brawler Yukon@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        He was mere feet away from total strangers who may or may not have been masked when he opened the door (taking the video at face value, and assuming he didn’t send the production team up there to tell the residents to mask up first). Much more dangerous than a courtoom of people with N95s on, none of whom he would need to get as close to as he did for those Deck deliveries.

        • Chobbes@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          Interacting with maybe a dozen people outside with a mask on for a few minutes at a time is almost certainly much lower risk than being in a courtroom with, likely, many more people and stale air for hours. It’s certainly helpful if everybody is masked up in the courtroom, but people are notoriously bad at wearing masks properly, they’re going to require Gabe Newell to unmask for questions, and there’s a lot more factors you don’t control in that scenario… outside delivering stuff you can always walk away if somebody isn’t giving you the space you’re comfortable with… Regardless, all risk is cumulative and you may want to limit the number of times you do higher risk things as much as possible. Even if you rarely do some riskier things, it doesn’t mean you’re okay with that level of risk all of the time. I don’t think it’s that unreasonable to want to manage and minimize your exposure if you’re high risk.

    • DarkThoughts@kbin.social
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      7 months ago

      It amazes me that covidiots still don’t understand the difference between inside and outside spaces for that matter. If people breath and cough around the outside, shit will just be swept away by the wind. If people do that in enclosed spaces, then they’ll just start to saturate the air with germs over its prolonged time. And then you even expect them to take off the mask when they’re in the witness stand? Do you think that’s like a germ free zone? lol

      • CooperHawkes@lemm.ee
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        7 months ago

        You may have an excellent argument to make but I’m afraid I stopped reading at “covidiot”.

        • Zozano@aussie.zone
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          7 months ago

          One of the most helpful mindsets I’ve adopted was accepting that I don’t want to be wrong any longer than I have to be.

          Strangers on the internet don’t care. The only person you’re hurting is yourself.

          • CooperHawkes@lemm.ee
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            7 months ago

            I wouldn’t say I’m hurt. More embarrassed that I accepted a definition without further scrutiny.

            My philosophy is to always be learning. Sometimes trauma impedes it and a wake up call is necessary. So I appreciate your time and thoughtful response and will take this lesson as an opportunity to do better for myself.

            • Zozano@aussie.zone
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              7 months ago

              I wasn’t strictly talking about the definition of covidiot, I was referring to the virus’ transmissibility; indoors vs outdoors.

              There has been a lot of misinformation during covid, from both sides, and virtually everyone needs to accept that they were wrong about certain things.

              For example, I was forced to change my mind about the safety of the vaccine. I still personally believe most people should have been vaccinated, but we need to accept that it didn’t do what was expected.

              At the end of the day, Covid is a respiratory virus, and the consensus of indoors vs outdoors transmissibility had been reached decades ago.

              I appreciated the measured response, it’s rare to see people sincerely reflect on their beliefs so quickly without feeling condescended.

    • Luna@lemmy.catgirl.biz
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      7 months ago

      Going door to door in fresh air is something else than sitting in a room with lots of other people and “you’ll be fine” is an insane argument. You’ll be fine until you aren’t. Every person should be able to make that risk assessment for themselves and courts should not be able to force someone to risk exposure to anything.

    • CTDummy@lemm.ee
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      7 months ago

      Outdoors with proximity to 1-3 other people, where he can move at will and distance himself vs indoors, courtroom full of people and he’s sitting while people move around. Probably not the same. If the guy has risk factors for developing complications with COVID, which we can see he has one which is being overweight, I don’t think it’s reasonable for the court to force him to attend when he could attend remotely.

    • Wumbologist@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Wasn’t that like, 2 years ago? Isn’t it possible that his health situation has changed since then?

    • Nibodhika@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Others have explained to you why it’s different, and that that happened 2 years ago and a lot of things health related can change in that time. But even if he had done that yesterday, even if it was the same, he should be able to choose to attend remotely, he’s not asking to be excused, he’s not asking to change anything, all he’s asking is to be able to do it from his home, and I wouldn’t deny that to anyone unless there’s a reason to be physically there, which there isn’t.

      • Carighan Maconar@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        Plus, since he’s just testifying, it sucks on a climate level to make him jet around for absolutely no reason, too.

      • Chobbes@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        Yeah, I don’t really think anybody should have to go to court in person, and I can definitely empathize with somebody wanting to avoid COVID (even if they’re not super high risk, you never know how it will affect you it seems). I kind of understand the bias towards in person things, but I really wish people would get over it. Sometimes it’s just a lot more practical to do things remotely, and while a video call isn’t quite the same as being there in person I think it’s something we can deal with. It certainly doesn’t seem like it would be that much worse for testifying tbh.

    • vivadanang@lemm.ee
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      7 months ago

      Kotick or Riccitiello

      I mean, yeah, if you drop those two as the alternative, every time, fuck those guys every day and twice on sunday. But… Gaben’s got a very different record.

      I’m of the opinion that he should have to testify like anyone else just to preclude Trump and their ilk from trying to get out of testifying in person.

    • ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml
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      7 months ago

      Actually no, I’d let the science speak for itself. Being outdoors with a mask on significantly reduces your chances of contracting COVID-19. Being in a crowded room with lots of other people significantly increases your risk. Gabe is right, just like any other CEO would be right if they said the same thing.

    • ryathal@sh.itjust.works
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      7 months ago

      Court is boring AF, he’s just using covid for an excuse to avoid having to go. I can’t really blame him for trying, but I’m not surprised it didn’t work.