Me too, Nate. And I'll make sure to take a train to said "concerts, baseball games, restaurants, etc." :-) (+) https://twitter.com/NateSilver538/status/1254235286483144708

It's worth noting that this quote from Nate Silver was initially written as a reply to a Tweet from a Balaji Srinavasanthat implied that the current social distancing regulations will lead people to become forever suspicious of large crowd events (+)

(hence my wisecrack about trains).

The premise of the original Tweet reminded of how historians believe that one of the causes of the Italian Renaissance was that elites who survived the Black Death decided to take advantages of life's pleasure, (+)

https://dailyhistory.org/How_did_the_Bubonic_Plague_make_the_Italian_Renaissance_possible%3F

which led to increased patronage of artists, as well as increase in secular themes of European art.

Now, I don't think that people are going to immediately go out and commission the second Sistine Chapel once the coronavirus pandemic ends, but something similar could

easily happen where people become more socially liberal, and just as willing to engage with large crowds as they had prior to the pandemic. In fact, I'd think that people are probably going to want to go out even more when it is safe to do so. (+)

Furthermore, the premise of the original Tweet immediately brings up several practical objections that I am going to point out below: (+)

First of all, will those of us who are religiously observant stop going to their places of worship given the fact that they might not know everyone else at a given service?

(In fact, data from South Korea, which reopened religious services this weekend with a number of pandemic-related restrictions, indicates that this will not be the case). https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-southkorea-churche/south-koreas-big-churches-reopen-with-designated-seats-size-limits-idUSKCN2280A4?il=0

Secondly, I realize that if professional sports are able to resume at all this year, it will most likely be on a spectator-free basis. However, does the author of the original Tweet actually believe that people will avoid stadiums once it is safe to do so?

During the lockdown, both the ESPN documentary "The Last Dance" (which focuses on the 1997-98 Chicago Bulls season) and the first two days of the NFL Draft set ratings records for comparable programming (see links below) (+)

https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/20/media/the-last-dance-espn-michael-jordan-ratings/index.html https://sports.yahoo.com/nfl-draft-smashes-television-ratings-records-on-the-second-day-too-215758662.html

If these programs that involve sports but aren't live games could do this well on television, what's to think that some of the millions of people who watched these programs on television won't actually go to an NBA or NFL game when safe? (+)

Third, if the premise of the of the original Tweet is correct, then large-scale social events will be replaced by digital events. I have to ask if he thinks that arranged and/or forced marriages would come into vogue, given that there would be fewer opportunities for (+)

potential partners to meet one another.

I should clarify that I do realize that arranged marriages are technically different from forced marriages, and that there are some cultures in the world where arranged marriage is practiced. However, I am writing this Tweet from the (+)

perspective of someone who did NOT grow up in an arranged marriage-prevalent culture, and I can't imagine that this particular practice becoming prevalent in the Western world given the emphasis that Western countries traditionally place on individual rights (+)

If you don't believe me, then just ask New York Governor Cuomo, who quipped at a recent press briefing that fathers making negative comments about their daughters' boyfriends could lead to the daughter becoming MORE attracted to the boyfriend (+)

https://www.google.com/search?q=Cuomo+daughters+boyfriend&oq=Cuomo+daughters+boyfriend+&aqs=chrome..69i57.12128j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

I assume that a corollary to this rule would be that children would be LESS tolerant of a potential romantic partner specifically pushed on them by a parent.

(For the record: I write the past few Tweets as a 26-year old single).

Fourth, the author of the original Tweet lists "dense cities" on the list of things that people might try to leave. I realize that some people who live in cities might be inclined to leave after this, but I can't imagine that all 8 million or so residents of New York City (+)

are going to pack up their lives, leave their friends and family, and move to a more rural area just to get out of the pandemic. This applies especially to people who grew up in or around New York City (or whatever metropolis you want to insert). (+)

I realize and acknowledge that the current social distancing requirements are necessary to stopping the continued flow of the pandemic (+)

At the same time this thread was about what happens AFTER the pandemic--and I must more agree on that ground with Nate Silver than Balaji Srinavasan.