Day 27: California Under Martial Law Lite (Rose Clouds Of Holocaust)

Humboldt went almost a week without a new person testing positive for Covid-19, and then we got one. While Trump is talking about forcing the states to reopen, and our governor Newsom is forming a super team with Washington and Oregon, there are some experts saying that we may have to practice physical distancing (they call it "social distancing" to prepare people for forced solitude) well into 2022! 2022! Forget those experts. Let's turn to the real experts to see what they have to say. And where can we find them?

Social media.

A lot of people on social media are experts on whatever topic is hot. Politics. The economy. Race relations. You name it, they know about it. Their jobs and grammar may not indicate it, but they are, in their minds, experts because they know.

What struck me as unusual about these experts, besides confusing opinion and fact, is that they are pridefully inconsistent. Case in point: when the number of cases in the Humboldt, the country, and the world started their predictable climb, this was the response: "They are inflating the numbers to scare people. The sheeple are easily led and duped. Don't believe it. The numbers are lower. I know it for a fact." Often they would run out of space to cite the fact, but they know it as a fact nonetheless. We are to trust them. So what happened when the numbers started to plateau or fall? What did some of these very same people say on social media?

"Don't believe the numbers. They are much higher. I don't know why they are not giving the real numbers. I know for a fact people are testing positive that they aren't counting them." Again, there was apparently not enough room to cite that fact, but again . . .  well, you get the picture.

Earlier this week, when our number of new positives in Humboldt was staying at zero, someone wrote on Facebook that she knew it was a lie because "a woman came into the bank" where her son works "yesterday" and "said she tested positive." In her mind, this meant the numbers were bullshit. A quick dissection shows how faulty this logic can be.

Expert.

First, for the sake of argument, let's agree that the three people involved in this incident (the son, the bank customer, and the Facebook poster) aren't lying. If any of them are lying, this whole thing falls apart. So, if all three are telling the truth, first you must think that this woman going to the bank must be a monster for testing positive and going out in public. That in and of itself should be more alarming than an unreported case. But that also begs the question: Was the case unreported? The lady did not state when she tested positive. It could have been two weeks ago and was reported in the numbers. It could be she tested, it was reported, and now she has recovered. None of this was mentioned by the Facebook poster. None of it was asked by the posters who came after her agreeing with her. And what if there was a delay in reporting? Maybe she was the new case?

It's time to start shutting down the idiots and practicing intellectual fascism. Other ideas and thoughts can obviously be entertained (and should be), but stuff that can't pass a simple intelligence test on either side of the spectrum should be challenged, mocked, and destroyed. Idiocy, from a personal to a presidential level has gotten us here, and it needs to go. I've been challenging people, and it often gets ugly, but if you are smart about it and clever enough, eventually they shut the fuck up. As they should. Spreading nonsense even in the best of times is an awful act. Spreading it now can be deadly.

Do your part. Shut the idiots down.