1/ As long as any person is alive there will most likely be some small part of them that thinks they're smarter than other people that died, and that if the dead only had the same intelligence/wisdom/worth they would have lived too.

2/ I think this plays a part in survivor's guilt: there must be some reason you lived and someone else didn't, because surely death isn't completely arbitrary? That is why I believe we act as though living is a meritocracy when it most assuredly is not.

3/ In order to avoid facing the fact that death is random and inevitable, we shame the dead. We see an article where someone does something foolish and dies and think, "well, play stupid games, win stupid prizes" - but we all have potentially fatal lapses in judgment.

4/ That's why the sudden, inexplicable death is so jarring - because if you do things right you should be able to avoid it. We like to think of ourselves as the hawk, not the oblivious field mouse about to be snatched by it

5/ If current COVID projections are correct we're all going to have to rewire our approach and stop assuming the moralistic outlook, unless we're just going to revel in widespread death. Nobody can be safe all the time. Even the most cautious person may still get COVID.

6/ All of the people I know take COVID very seriously. All of them try to do their best to avoid it and avoid possibly giving it to others. All have had potentially fatal lapses, and none would "deserve" to die if one of those lapses did in fact lead to their death.

7/ I get it when people stubbornly refuse facts & science and find out facts & science know better - especially when they're endangering others too. But also facts and science dictate going into abandoned buildings is stupid and I hope people won't gloat if I fall through a floor

8/ Anyway, as a guy who has always tried to find sympathetic portrayals when things that are too big to fail inevitably do, I hope that we can find compassion even for the foolish and those who love them. We're going to wind up in the same ground they do in the end.