The Future of Dating is Hybrid by Erica Pandey

The Future of Dating is Hybrid by Erica Pandey

(Link): The Future of Dating is Hybrid

Social distancing popularized video dates — and they’ll outlast the pandemic.

The big picture: Dating is expensive, and many people are deciding they’d rather meet virtually first in case it doesn’t work out.

By the numbers: The average American spends a total of about $700 annually on dates, according to a 2019 LendingTree study.

“But the pandemic was a jolt to our systems,” says Logan Ury, a behavioral scientist and the director of relationship science at Hinge.

Wife Hospitalized with Covid Comes Home to Find Husband Dead from Virus

Wife Hospitalized with Covid Comes Home to Find Husband Dead from Virus

This poor lady. Condolences to her.

One reason I am posting this is to highlight that there are no guarantees in life – getting married is not some kind of magic spell that will make you immune to heartache or loneliness.

I’ve seen marriage-pushing conservatives, both secular and Christian, promote marriage by creating podcasts or blog posts trying to “scare” single adult into getting married by saying things like “If you don’t marry, you’ll die alone!”

After Covid became a thing, marriage-idolater Brad Wilcox, of the National Marriage Project and Institute for Family Studies, began publishing anti-singles hit pieces, saying how married people were doing better in the pandemic (no, they are not. See links at the end of this post).

You can get married but still end up alone – for one, if your spouse dies from Covid.

If the virus were a sentient being, it wouldn’t pause when it comes to you and think, “Well, I’m not going to get into this person’s respiratory system, because they’re married!”

You can be married all live long day and still end up dying – or your spouse could die before you do, leaving you single once more.

Time for Christians to stop marketing marriage as some kind of cure-all for everything that could ail a person.

(Link): Wife Hospitalized with Covid Comes Home to Find Husband Dead from Virus

by Jackie Salo
August 26, 2021

A Florida woman says she returned home from battling COVID-19 in the hospital to a “nightmare” scene with her husband dead after also contracting the virus.

Lisa Steadman, 58, said she was horrified to walk in Wednesday to discover her 55-year-old husband Ron’s body in the bedroom of their home in Winter Haven, Fox13 News reported.

Secular Americans Less Likely Than Evangelicals to be Vaccinated: Poll

Secular Americans Less Likely Than Evangelicals to be Vaccinated: Poll

Well, well, well. This is sure to throw a wrench into the arguments or beliefs of liberals, leftists, certain classes of atheist, and Democrats, or anyone who hates Trump, Trump voters,  evangelicals, or anyone who is a YEC (“Young Earth Creationist,” or just “Creationist.”)

The left, liberals, and those who oppose a belief in a six day, literal creation of the world (something believed by some Christians) love to ridicule anyone who expresses vaccine hesitancy, or who may believe in Creationism – the vaccine hesitant or Creationists are said to be unscientific, barely literate, red necks.

I don’t care one way or another if others choose to get the vaccine or not. Nor do I care if people believe the earth is millions of years old or only six days old.

But if you’re one of those people who is quick to assume that any one who is Republican, evangelical, a Creationist, a global warming skeptic, or a vaccination hold-out is an idiot, anti science, or a hillbilly from the backwoods, note what this poll is showing.

If you’re measuring “getting vaccinated” to mean “someone who believes in science!,” you’re going to be disappointed by this.

(Link): Secular Americans Less Likely Than Evangelicals to be Vaccinated: Poll

August 4, 2021
By Michael Gryboski

Americans who are younger and identify as non-religious are less likely to get vaccinated than evangelical Christians, according to a recent report on polling data compiled by Ryan Burge, who says it shows the media “needs to be turning the spotlight a bit away from evangelicals and toward the … young and secular.”

Burge, assistant professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University, analyzed findings from a survey published on May 11 by Data for Progress.

Doctors Fear Huge Spike in STIs (Sexually Transmitted Infections) After Pandemic

Doctors Fear Huge Spike in STIs After Pandemic

This is not the first article I’ve seen in the last few months to raise this point.

(Link): Doctors Fear Huge Spike in STIs After Pandemic

Excerpt:

June 4, 2021
by VICTOR TANGERMANN

According to a new study, cases of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) including chlamydia and gonorrhea could soon spike as the COVID-19 pandemic winds down.

As we’re heading what the media has referred to as “hot vax summer,” experts are worried that STIs could return with a vengeance.

Researchers analyzed positivity rates based on data from over 18.6 million tests performed across the US from January 2019 through June 2020.

Families Marry off Daughters to Ease Finances Amid COVID-19

Families Marry off Daughters to Ease Finances Amid COVID-19

(Link): Families Marry off Daughters to Ease Finances Amid COVID-19

Excerpts:

by Krista Larson
December 2020

KOIDU, Sierra Leone (AP) — The man first caught a glimpse of Marie Kamara as she ran with her friends past his house near the village primary school. Soon after, he proposed to the fifth-grader.

“I’m going to school now. I don’t want to get married and stay in the house,” she told him.

But the pressures of a global pandemic on this remote corner of Sierra Leone were greater than the wishes of a schoolgirl. Nearby mining operations had slowed with the global economy. Business fell off at her stepfather’s tailoring shop, where outfits he had sewn now gathered dust. The family needed money.

The Re-Sale Market for Diamond Engagement Rings is Booming, as the Pandemic Causes Divorce Rates to Spike

The Re-Sale Market for Diamond Engagement Rings is Booming, as the Pandemic Causes Divorce Rates to Spike

Looks like people are not benefitting from marriage during the Pandemic, as (Link): marriage-worshipping Bradford Wilcox likes to argue.

(Link): The Re-Sale Market for Diamond Engagement Rings is Booming, as the Pandemic Causes Divorce Rates to Spike

by B. Biron, Sept 18, 2020

Supply and demand for engagement rings has been on the rise at luxury resale sites like The RealReal and online auction marketplaces like Worthy — a consumer-to-business service that connects high-end sellers to wholesale buyers.

According to data provided to Business Insider by The RealReal, engagement ring consignments rose by 47% in May and June compared to the prior two months, as the pandemic put couples to the test — prompting some to call it quits while others tied the knot. 

Coronavirus: Even Married People With Children Die All Alone

Coronavirus: Even Married People With Children Die All Alone

There have been several news reports over the last two or three months reporting about how so many people – especially elderly people – are dying all alone due to Covid-19 (Coronavirus), whether they are dying in hospitals or nursing homes.

Due to wanting to contain the virus, medical facilities are not permitting family (if any) of the dying Covid patient to visit their sick loved one. So, a lot of people – even married parents! – are dying alone. (Links with examples to follow.)

I bring this up because one scare tactic I’ve seen used off and on by marriage-promoters, such as Southern Baptist Al Mohler and others, is to tell single and childless adults that we will die all alone, unless we marry and have children. They tell childless, never married adults like myself to be very afraid, because unless I marry and have a child, I will be all alone on my death bed.

Well, my mother – who was married and had adult children – died all alone in the wee hours at a care facility she was staying at. Despite the fact my mother was married with kids did not guarantee that she had the “Norman Rockwell” death so many marriage-pushers suggest one will have, where one will be surrounded by loving spouse holding their hand while adult children surround the bed tenderly looking on.

People dying all alone sans children and spouse (if they are married with kids) has definitely been a thing since the start of Covid 19.

Here are links about the situation, including a link or two from marriage-pushing, conservative sites such as The Federalist:

(Link): ‘Patients dying alone’: The frightening reality of many COVID-19 patients’ final moments  (March 2020)

(Link): ‘I’m Sorry I Can’t Kiss You’—Coronavirus Victims Are Dying Alone

(Link): Coronavirus Patients Are Dying Alone, Leaving Loved Ones With Grief And Guilt

It was the last time Beaudette saw her father alive. He died two days later, and she couldn’t be there.

(Link):  Loneliness and suffering in the hospital during the coronavirus crisis

“I’m already downstairs, doctor. Can I see my mother just for five minutes?”

I told him that I would ask the nursing manager; given the fact that Mrs. A couldn’t speak or understand, perhaps that would fall under the list of reasons why an exception could be made.

But five minutes later, the nurse was on the phone trying to calm him down. “I just want to be there for five minutes to tell her why I can’t visit anymore, that she shouldn’t worry when I stop showing up!”

The nurse tears up as she says that he cannot visit. She turns to me, and I motion that I would take back the call.

No Surprise There: Bradford Wilcox Deems Married People Better Off During Pandemic Than Single Adults – Rebuttals

No Surprise There: Bradford Wilcox Deems Married People Better Off During Pandemic Than Single Adults – Rebuttals

I have made several blog posts in years past discussing some of Bradford Wilcox’s articles about marriage for various publications.

Wilcox works for, is somehow affiliated with, organizations such as the National Marriage Project and Institute For Family Studies. He is very much about promoting marriage, natalism, and the nuclear family.

In years past, he has promoted marriage and all the rest at the expense of singleness: he loves to advance marriage by stigmatizing singleness.

Wilcox (and guys like him, such as Southern Baptist Al Mohler) likes to try to “scare” single adults into getting married by publishing faulty and fear-mongering essays about how studies (which he sometimes misquotes or misunderstands) supposedly say that singles are more likely to suffer this or that calamity or problem than are married people.

Any time Wilcox comments on any issue, you can guarantee before you click on the headline that his editorial will say that married people have X better than singles have X.

It doesn’t matter if he’s talking about financial issues – like in the link that follows – or some other topic.

His pieces are all heavily agenda-driven: to make marriage look fabulous by slamming singleness, or by making singleness look “worse” than marriage, or by making singleness look unsafe, scary, or miserable.

Divorce Rate Spikes Across China After ‘Couples Spend Too Much Time Together During Coronavirus Home Quarantine’

Divorce Rate Spikes Across China After ‘Couples Spend Too Much Time Together During Coronavirus Home Quarantine’

I guess marriage is not all it’s cracked up to be, and conservative groups and Christians are wrong to keep teaching that marriage is necessary to save society or make people more loving, ethical, or responsible, LOL!

(Link): Divorce Rate Spikes Across China After ‘Couples Spend Too Much Time Together During Coronavirus Home Quarantine’

by Emilia Jiang
March 13, 2020

Divorce rates in China have risen significantly because ‘couples are spending too much time together at home’ during coronavirus self-isolation, according to register offices across the country.

Over 300 couples have scheduled appointments to get a divorce since February 24, said Lu Shijun, the manager of a marriage registry in Dazhou, Sichuan Province of south-western China.

Officials believe the sharp increase of divorce requests could be caused by the fact that partners have spent too much time in close quarters under quarantine.