Yes as we know governments LOVE to have angry electorates, economic crashes, and social instability. That’s exactly why they have engineered this crisis to play out according to this nefarious master plan. 
Guy
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No, that is not the outcome of disrupting social networks. What happens is that people rely more heavily on government officials for validation, and therefore become more likely to obey. Disconnect people from friends and family to a sufficient degree, and there’s nothing left for them except the State. Heard of North Korea?
Anyway, if you reject the hypothesis that this is being done deliberately (ie., our leaders are competent but evil) then the only alternative hypothesis is that our leaders are a bunch of halfwitted assclowns. So in either event, some public pushback is merited, wouldn’t you say? If the assclowns tell you to wear a purple propeller beanie to protect you from the evil spirits, would you accept that as being all for the best too?
Not much us foreigners can do, but I’m genuinely surprised that citizens aren’t speaking up.
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It doesn’t cover the whole table because they have to share food. It is all for show.
Lmao and our social bonds are so fragile, they cannot withstand a piece of plastic or wood on the table for one hour.
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My bond with you @marco has forever been shattered by the plastic separating us at Louisa.
I don’t know how I can carry on. 
Guy
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So the politicians and medical officers are certified idiots, then, forcing people to do things that just waste time and money and serve no useful purpose. Fair enough. Does that make you feel confident?
You make it sound like the government in Taiwan must be pretty incapable because they kept the virus away for so long when they could have been breaking social bonds all over the island much earlier…
So, they’re very competent, more competent than any other government on the planet, but not competent enough to realise that a little wooden divider on a table doesn’t protect anyone from anything, except possibly stray chicken nuggets hurled by disgruntled three-year-olds.
Got it. Carry on.
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Has anybody been to a restaurant that actually used dividers? I’ve been out to eat…more than half a dozen times in the past two weeks from local shops to finer dining and every place removed the divider from the table when we arrived and piled them on an empty seat.
I did visit a food court that had dividers that nearly came up to chest level on an adult.
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Yeah, so it must be a mind-control-thing obviously. Carry on.
My point was merely that people should call out the BS for what it is. You can believe in whatever motivations you like.
I agree with you on calling out measures like those. But I don’t agree with you always jumping to the conclusion that it’s always part of some big conspiracy…
I was not ascribing motive. I was describing the effect, which remains the same regardless of the intent. Humans are prone to a particular cognitive error that goes something like this: “if we do something with the right intentions then it will have the desired effect, even if empirical evidence tells us that the usual effect is not what we intend”.
Separating people harms human relationships. That’s why (for example) it’s not a good idea to play with your phone during mealtimes. So, you can either conclude that the leaders are doing it deliberately, or you can conclude that they’re stupid (ie., unaware of the effects). It doesn’t matter which hypothesis is correct: either one is unpalatable.
Fighting every battle is exhausting. Plastic on the table is the least of my problems.
Then go to the park and build the fragile bonds there.
I can tell ya that some divider doesn’t work on me.
And yet, you’d expect businessmen to complain about it.
Probably the least of their problems as well.
It’s the thin end of the wedge. They’re going to lose custom because of it; it ruins the dining experience. But if they don’t want to complain, I guess that’s up to them.
What would you propose then?
I’m just expressing surprise that people so readily accept the government deciding to hamstring their businesses for absolutely no good reason. OTOH Taiwanese people are very superstitious and it may be that they actually think these barriers will protect them from death.