Trying to make sense where there is none.
Let me just run some tangential thoughts by you…
Multi-level marketing taken to a cult level. In fact, MLMs have to be taken to a cult level or they die on the vine.
Social influencers with more money and more influence than Dr. Fauci, every teacher in the country and former president Jimmy Carter.
The Church of Latter Day Saints, founded in America, and, as a consequence, more American in nature than any other belief system based on mythical beings and fantastical events.
Legal, (un)regulated, well-armed militias. Roaming our nation’s forests. Armed to the teeth, wearing cammo, playing war games and plotting secession.
The January 6th coup attempt in Washington D.C.
A twice-impeached president inciting followers on his social media to ‘Liberate’ states. (From whom? What?)
Conspiracy theories out the yin-yang thanks to YouTube and an internet that more closely resembles the Wild West, or the Great—untrammeled—North Woods, than it does the shining city on the hill. Or the library down the street.
A culture that fetishizes the new, the different, the latest and greatest.
A blind worship of technology.
A need for instant gratification.
A lust for blood, shame, innuendo and disgrace.
A collective memory equivalent to the lifespan of a common house fly.
Too many news channels regurgitating news 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Infotainment is the most accurate new word to be coined in decades. It’s all infotainment. It has to be to survive, or so they believe.
Convenience outweighing all other values.
Truth is now relative, fungible, a moving target.
Goal posts are moved on a regular basis.
Apologies are for suckers, wimps and has-beens.
As I sit here today safely tucked away in my writer’s nook, in a neighborhood untouched by the cares, concerns and crises of the world, I read that state employees—who must identify as ‘snowflakes’ as they whine about government overreach—are suing the Washington governor over masking and vaccination mandates, conservatives are touting Christianity in favor of democracy, my native state declared war on women, my dirt-poor birth state—Mississippi—has over 38,000 school children pronounced COVID positive and, in Idaho, they’ve had to declare a crisis standard of care in hospitals—meaning Sarah Palin’s “death panels” are finally being convened. While perusing a post on sorryantivaxxers.com (formerly known as f*ckedantivaxxer.com), I admired several clever memes put forth by right-wing trolls. I also admired the pugnacious arguments of those flying the Don’t Tread On Me flags. It reminded me of the flat earth documentary I saw and how convincing sesquipedalian faux scientists can be on film. Especially playing to the fears of your average layman.
For that reason, I don’t think anything—short of death’s door in their local ICU—is going to win them over.
At least, no one argument. No one anecdotal story. No one prominent death.
Senior citizens—from both sides—with no f*cks left to give—clash following the election in Florida. This is how you know you’re up against a cult/religion.
I think buckling down with the mandates is the right way to address it as our—anti-Former Guy—president has done. I think the science and the statistics and the bean counters will gradually lead businesses, like airlines, theaters and sporting events, to do the right thing. I think insurance actuaries will, eventually, play their part. I think the Biden administration has nudged everything in the right direction.
So, now we wait. Dutifully washing our hands, wearing our masks, socially distancing, weighing the risk factors in everything we do.
It’s the best we can hope for because of all of the ludicrous tangential thoughts I listed earlier, and because a significant percentage of the thirty percent of the population that is knee-deep in their political cult’s bullshit is never going to realize they’re knee-deep in their political cult’s bullshit until they’re gasping for breath and Zoom-calling their loved ones.
Like AA’s 12 Step Program, you have to admit you’re an alcoholic before you can beat it.
I don’t know what the Met Gala is all about. But I understand Ivanka is not currently welcome, AOC wore a smashing white gown with Tax the Rich writ large in red and—apparently—costuming is popular. Which is popular these days on river trips as well.
Also, AAR Steve Laboff says Mindhunters is one of his top 10 favorite bingies (I just made that up - meaning shows to binge-watch). I have not seen it but Steve has seen almost everything.
Judging by the horrific description, and that it appears to star a face-lifted Val Kilmer and the notoriously uneven actor Christian Slater (or their doppelgangers), I must include a caveat emptor caveat.