I remember driving in America in an area where there were few radio stations. The only station I could get was a conspiracy station. Remember all the stuff on the X-files, well they were reporting it. The black helicopters of the UN being directed by the secret bar-codes on road signs were a real and present threat. This is one reason some Americans need guns (although I would argue that holding these beliefs is evidence that they are unsafe with a water pistol).
I visited Roswell and met somebody that told me about the implant he had found in his head, and how he had remembered his abduction after it was removed.
Near Area 51 there is a village called Rachel – I met somebody that made alien T-shirts there. He said that there was no work there, so he encouraged alien rumours to keep sales up. He collected stories from people that came there to see aliens.
Last time I was in hospital I met a guy who was suffering from Alzheimers who was sure he played in a support band for the Beetles. It made him happy – so why tell him he was too young – sometimes it doesn’t help to prove people wrong.
I remember one letter to Tony Blair that I had to answer that was written in a spiral – and the content was also pretty much going round in circles. People with odd ideas exist all round us, and many of the ideas make no difference to the world. Do I care if somebody in Roswell wants to tell people he was abducted by aliens? But I need to care about people preaching against vaccines – because they kill children.
It’s all pretty harmless stuff. There are also the chemtrails bunch (you know – governments are in league with airlines to spread chemicals from aircraft to control us). They tend to be linked with people that are sure vaccines damage people. Actually, vaccines do damage people, the UK has a compensation scheme which has paid out about 1000 times over about 35 years. At the same time vaccines save millions of lives. On balance vaccines save lives, but are imperfect like many medicines.
A smattering of truth helps to give the anti-vaccine story some weight, but if you look at the details you will see it is filled with factual inaccuracy. Personally I call it lies. And no matter how often you try to point out facts the faith of the anti-vaccine people is such that they continue to try to proselytize.
And now we see a whole madness movement appearing on social media, there are magic cures, there are conspiracy theories (the Russians say Trump is behind the virus). But now the potential for harm is really significant. It might be encouraging people to behave in an unsafe way, or it might just be creating fear (some people are really struggling with fear at the moment). But this virus is like a full moon – it is bringing out strange behaviour. In this case the behaviour does risk harming people – how do we deal with it?
And talking about strange behaviour and the moon – there is a really good film being offered for free at the moment which deals with the whole issue. I recommend watching it, – The Insatiable Moon – free during virus season. It deals with the balance between acceptance and rebuffing the “crazy” ideas people have.
In other news my grass is now short and the dead mouse that was inside my lawnmower fell out before it was diced. I managed to burn most of the bits of tree I had cut down during the winter, so everything smells of smoke. As predicted my nose is streaming. I did start to think about the moss in my grass – it seems to have a much lower importance these days.
Tomorrow is the planting day. I have so many seeds to plant. I have a few seeds for Sweet Banana (peppers) – sounds interesting. If anybody would like some random seeds then PM me. I’ll send some seeds with some instructions, but will avoid telling you what sort of plant it is so you can have some suspense.
Supply survey – I think I have enough ingredients for about 40 liters of soup.