Lord, what fools these mortals be!

"Were such things here as we do speak about,
Or have we eaten on the insane root
That takes the reason prisoner?"
--- Banquo, in Act 1 of Macbeth

"O judgement thou art fled to brutish beasts, and men have lost their reason!"
--- Marc Antony, in Act 3 of Julius Caesar

Shakespeare, as usual, nails it.

I live in a world where recently a conversation about the efficacy of masks was met with a recommendation to go watch a video that would prove that the Democratic party was running a pedophilia ring from the back of a pizza parlor.

Every day I see conversations wherein the central thesis is that recommendations for masks, or distancing, or taking any care whatsoever aren't public health issues... they're mind control.

It is perfectly ordinary now to hear people talk about Bill Gates giving us all a virus so that he could sell us a vaccine and inject us with tiny tracking chips. Why Mr. Gates would want to know when we go to the bathroom or step out to buy salad fixings is never mentioned.

I recently had a conversation about the relationship between radio-waves, ionization energy, and chemistry degenerate into accusations of having been "brainwashed by the media."

Every one of these conversations has taken place in ordinary settings, without seeking out the places where one finds the less cognitively able. Every one of these conversations took place in ordinary online social-settings among friends and acquaintances.

In this new environment, I am grateful for every sane conversation I have. I'm grateful that I was able to engage in a conversation about macroeconomics today with intelligent, informed people. I'm grateful that I was able to be a part of a conversation where we compared notes about the limitations of RT-PCR and immunoassays. I'm grateful for conversations about the origins of totalitarianism, or the value of moving quietly through a forest, or a reasoned debate on the phylogentics of a virus.

I'm grateful for every rational debate and discussion and exploration, and I'm grateful for every single person who's made me laugh in the last two months.