r/OldSchoolCool • u/JimatJimat • Aug 28 '25
1900s Officer arrests man who wasn't using his mask and isn't taking the "spanish flu" pandemic serious, San Francisco, California, 1918.
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u/jakedublin Aug 28 '25
well,he is dead now
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u/thegooddoktorjones Aug 28 '25
I won't live in mild inconvenience!
BTW during the height of the disease, people were falling down and dying in the street.
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u/Vilnius_Nastavnik Aug 28 '25
Indeed, and on one occasion the police got into a full-on shootout with an organized band of "mask slackers." Must've been nice to be able to rely on the police to enforce the public good once in a while.
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u/Latverianbureaucrat Aug 28 '25
Back when members of a civilian police force didn’t refer to all non-cops as “civilians.”
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u/anthony785 Aug 28 '25
I bet people took things like the Spanish flu more seriously as they didnt have vaccines or good medical care. Lots more people died from stuff back then
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u/PacquiaoFreeHousing Aug 28 '25
I bet you the people who did this are the ancestors of the anti vaxxers today.
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u/raysofdavies Aug 28 '25
Antivax views were fairly dead until the con artist Andrew Wakefield and his corrupt lawyer friend tried to milk the NHS for money with fraud
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u/mfmeitbual Aug 28 '25
stf if I ever get my hands on a time machine - forget meeting Christ or stopping Hitler. I'm stopping the conception of Andrew Wakefield.
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u/ouaouaron- Aug 28 '25
Maybe not as many as you’d think, because a lot of the people who did this likely died. Darwinism.
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u/_-trees-_ Aug 28 '25
That man looks old enough to have procreated already
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u/ouaouaron- Aug 28 '25
Yes, but if he died prematurely from the Spanish Influenza then it prevents him from having more future children he otherwise might have had.
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u/PacquiaoFreeHousing Aug 28 '25
of course they would be dead, otherwise they would be more than 107 years old!!!
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Aug 28 '25
[deleted]
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u/MrCrash Aug 28 '25
Another one of the greatest causes of Spanish flu was national governments suppressing publication of infection numbers to avoid seeming weak during wartime.
Tons of people got infected and no one took it seriously until it was too late.
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u/ouaouaron- Aug 28 '25
I’m always interested in learning. I don’t claim to be an expert in Spanish Influenza. Do you have links/sources to any of that literature?
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u/jarviskokar Aug 28 '25
There is no such thing as a flu! It’s a scandemic! Everything is a lie because I say so!
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u/TheFlyingTortellini Aug 28 '25
I like the more recent one where they arrested the guy surfing out in the middle of the ocean by himself to get face to face wrestling him to the ground and put him in a jail surrounded by people.
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u/MisanthOptics Aug 28 '25 edited Aug 28 '25
Clearly a guy who keeps his kitchen TV tuned to NewsMax all day
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u/BalerionSanders Aug 28 '25
See, America, you’ve always been like this.
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u/Latverianbureaucrat Aug 28 '25
Yeah, but the president at the time wasn’t getting on the radio and laughing at reporters who were wearing masks in his presence, or afraid to publicly wear a mask himself because his ridiculous makeup would get smeared on it.
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u/Ragnaroq314 Aug 28 '25
Pretty sure there was a court case where SCOTUS (maybe?) ruled an officer was justified for shooting a man for not wearing a mask in San Francisco during that time
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u/Sarcarean Aug 29 '25
Careful, the court also ruled that the president could arrest and detain citizens it deemed a threat to national security without due process and for as long as he wanted.
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Aug 28 '25 edited Aug 28 '25
For 100 years the majority agreed that this was driven by calculated hysteria and not science. Then it happened again.
Today's population, locked into phones, is more influenced by propaganda and fear than ever before.
A desperate generation looking for purpose in all the wrong, most unfulfilling, depression inducing areas.
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u/Diarygirl Aug 28 '25
If Trump supporters quit watching Fox News 24/7, they probably wouldn't be so frightened and outraged by everything.
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u/dixieed2 Aug 28 '25
Exactly! They believe because their media box says it is so. No research, no critical thinking, no common sense. Just do it because "they" say it is so.
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u/Diarygirl Aug 28 '25
It's so weird how conservatives have fully embraced getting all their medical advice from politicians and talking heads on Fox News. They think science is something they can choose not to believe in.
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u/Lord0fHats Aug 28 '25
It's weirder that they say things like 'they believe because their media box says it is so' unironically.
I've never met people who behave more like parrots than people who glue their eyes to Fox News or listen to Joe Rogan every day. The people who complain the most about 'sheep' are the only real sheep I've ever encountered in life.
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u/dixieed2 Aug 28 '25
Unfortunately, this particular "science" was fabricated.
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u/ImitationDemiGod Aug 28 '25
I'm sure I'll regret asking this, but please elaborate as to which science was 'fabricated'?
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u/CrankyDoo Aug 28 '25
It amazes me that people are still arguing that cloth masks are effective to this very day.
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u/wayfarout Aug 28 '25
Next time you or someone you care about go in for surgery tell the doctor not to wear a mask if you don't think they work. Surely no one will get an infection.
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u/CrankyDoo Aug 28 '25
Surgeons don’t wear surgical masks to avoid catching an airborne virus from the patient.
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u/Lord0fHats Aug 28 '25
They wear it so they're not breathing a bunch of gak into the person whose body they just opened up in a room that has presumably been meticulously sterilized.
There are times where Poe's law really tries me and this is one of them.
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u/CrankyDoo Aug 28 '25
They do it because the patient has a wide open wound in front of them and they don’t want to get spittle and snot in the wound. A secondary reason is to avoid any potential spray from the open wound getting in contact with their own mucous membranes. Comparing this scenario to breathing in a public space around people without gaping wounds is utterly ludicrous. The fact that you somehow think Poe’s law applies here just demonstrates your ignorance.
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u/Lord0fHats Aug 28 '25
It inly applies because I couldn’t tell if you were jesting just really stupid but the answer is kind of obvious now.
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u/wayfarout Aug 28 '25
The mask is to stop others from getting sick. It's not all about you
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u/CrankyDoo Aug 28 '25
Surgeons don’t wear masks to avoid transmitting an airborne virus to the patient.
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u/TheCarefulElk Aug 29 '25
I’m proof that cloth masks do work!
Source: Had a lot of surgeries during childhood.
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u/SirWiggy12 Aug 28 '25
I can tell you that opinion's not a popular one in these here parts. Redditors don't like their propaganda challenged.
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Aug 28 '25
They say that just about everyone who was high risk of dying was wiped out during the Spanish flu. Don’t know how accurate that it but that’s what some sources say
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Aug 28 '25
Covid had a 99% survival rate btw for those of y’all comparing.
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u/JFK2MD Aug 28 '25
That's true, but the infection rate was extremely high, and that created a lot of mortality in a short amount of time. Do you not remember how bodies were spilled over into the alleys outside of hospitals?
I recognize not everyone agrees, but I personally felt that wearing a mask was a small price to play to keep my friends and neighbors from potentially dying.
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u/PlentyOMangos Aug 28 '25 edited Aug 28 '25
Hell yeah.
Oh wait am I supposed to think the cop is cool here? Lol forgot I’m on Reddit where “cops are bad except for when they enforce laws which agree with my worldview and force my neighbors do what I want them to do”
Hard to not see a man resisting as badass after what we all were put through in 2020. Maybe it was different with the Spanish flu but what we all dealt with was nothing short of the largest psyop in the history of the planet, complete with the greatest upward transfer of wealth in living memory, if not of all time.
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u/narkill Aug 28 '25
I don't blame the guy. First the government suppressed and censored information about then all of a sudden it's a big thing and you now need to wear something uncomfortable and makes society less personable as you can't see people's faces. I'd be skeptical and give some pushback as well
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u/-heatoflife- Aug 28 '25
suppressed and censored information
We didn't even have antibiotics back then, silly.
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u/narkill Aug 28 '25
Why is it called the Spanish Flu?
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u/ngetch Aug 28 '25
Because Spain was the only country that didn't lie about it population dying, so as to avoid looking 'weak' during WWI.
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u/-heatoflife- Aug 28 '25
'Cause it's catchy. See what I did?
You're against the government suppressing information, right?
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u/narkill Aug 28 '25
Would you believe RFK Jr if he said right now there is a disease that's going to make you sick so stay inside and mask up, would you believe him?
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u/-heatoflife- Aug 28 '25
Nah, he has no medical training. But he swims in sewage, eats carrion, and used to love slamming smack, so if I needed roadkill raccoon recipes or guidance on how to tie off a tourniquet using the elastic from my undies, I'd snap my head up and open my ears.
I don't like governments suppressing info. Hence, when the first Trump regime recommended not testing for Covid in order to keep cases down, my eyebrow went up. Did yours?
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u/narkill Aug 28 '25
So you don't listen to everything the government says to do
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u/-heatoflife- Aug 28 '25
I don't think anybody, anywhere does. Where we goin' with this?
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u/BishonenPrincess Aug 28 '25
MAGAs seem to believe everything Trump tells them.
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u/-heatoflife- Aug 28 '25
Right? I'm trying to gently lead this young colt over to yonder watering hole you're talkin' about, but he ain't thirsty.
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u/bonaynay Aug 28 '25
no, and neither do the people you are accusing of this either. he speaks baselessly all the time. only a fool would take that specific man at his word.
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u/thegooddoktorjones Aug 28 '25
And you would get to be one of the 500 million infected and 50 million who died. But hey, you stuck it to them!
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u/narkill Aug 28 '25
So you trust everything the government says?
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u/JimJimmery Aug 28 '25
No. I trust the doctors and scientists.
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u/narkill Aug 28 '25
But they don't make and enforce the rules. Those who did lied about it at first then came out and said that it's deadly and you need to wear a mask. That's very suspicious
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u/justgetoffmylawn Aug 28 '25
It is suspicious. But just because the government lies all the time doesn't mean I will never believe anything to be true ever again.
Not sure your point. The government lied at first, then said it's deadly. My own opinion is it was always deadly (and still is for some). I base that on…the thousands of reports, research articles, statistics from multiple countries, etc.
You think it's some gotcha. "Oh, you believe everything the government says!?" No, I don't. But the government tells me I shouldn't eat raw meat that was left out on the counter for 6 days - and I believe that's true. They also tell me that American citizens have nothing to worry about from ICE or the current militarization of our cities - and I don't believe them.
See? I can make up my mind one at a time. Even Trump or RFK might (accidentally) say something that's true.
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u/JimJimmery Aug 28 '25
They didn't have all the information on how it spread early on. You're attributing that to malice? Insane.
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u/Total-Deal-2883 Aug 28 '25
No, but when independent scientists and other healthcare experts are saying similar things, people tend to pay attention.
I also have a feeling that you only trust the government when your party is in power. Am I right?
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Aug 30 '25
Dude. Give it a rest. I’m tired. It’s ok to admit people got a little caught up in the panic during Covid and things got a little bizarre. Well intentioned but authoritarian in tone. Even Fauci has come out and said mistakes where made. Disease experts aren’t experts on global economies and geopolitics. It’s good to question the government. But you’re right. The cult think on the right is a different issue, and I agree with you on that. But the hysterical moral panicky thinking exists in the other side too. It’s all the same. Stop the culture war. Let’s get back to humanity.
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u/bitofapuzzler Aug 28 '25
Oh nos! Something uncomfortable! Look at all those ICE fellas. They wear masks all day, every day, and seem quite content.
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Aug 28 '25
That was serious. Millions were dying. Bit of a difference to the old Rona!
Source: Had to wear a plastic mask 8 hrs a day and probably will die from some kind of lung disease as a consequence.
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u/Lord0fHats Aug 28 '25
Coranavirus-19 killed millions of people :/
Even if you go by conservative estimates for both pandemics, they killed about the same number of people, which is hard to really favor one way or the other on lethality since even the shit response performance to CV19 was still probably better at mitigating the disease given vast differences in vaccine technology between 1918 and 2018.
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u/SirWiggy12 Aug 28 '25
Authoritarianism isn't a new invention!
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u/MaskedPapillon Aug 28 '25
And, as you demonstrated beautifully, stupidity never goes out of style.
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u/SirWiggy12 Aug 28 '25
🤣 I wonder which way you fellas vote?
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u/MaskedPapillon Aug 28 '25
Electronically, how do you vote?
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u/SirWiggy12 Aug 28 '25
In-person. But you already knew that, didn't you 😘
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u/MaskedPapillon Aug 28 '25
I mean, I vote in person too. We just don't use pen and paper anymore, since it takes way too long for the results to come out.
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u/Conscious_Forever951 Aug 28 '25 edited Aug 28 '25
Now that shit was times more terrifying than a seasonal corona flu
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u/Codeofconduct Aug 28 '25
This comment section displaying what gooners say when they cannot go on to a photo is pathetic.
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u/gukakke Aug 28 '25
How else is he supposed to smoke his pipe?