Yesterdays post touched a nerve in a lot of my readership (by which I mean there were no views, my significant other said “Fudge you Joe Rogan,” and my best friend had that nervous silence one gets when you don’t really want to tell someone they are bat poop crazy). Obviously that means I should dive into the topic some more.
Three points to be said here:
- 1) We complain about people silencing science, but our response is….to silence everyone else?
- 2)People turn to “alternative sources” of media and science when they don’t trust the mainstream. So why is there so much distrust today?
- 3)When people are disturbed, what is really in them comes out.
Onward to my first point. Yes, I’m defending Joe Rogan. Not what he said, but his right to be able to say it. Am I saying “Don’t take vaccines”? Of coarse not. Frankly, if you’ve actually listened to more than ten minutes of his stuff, you’d know that he isn’t either. I think he would be the first to say that we need to look at the science, but he also has a very quick (well, when he isn’t high) mind. He looks at so called “alternative” mindsets. Does that make him dangerous? Does that mean he should be silenced? If we are an informed society we shouldn’t have to silence him. His ideas would win or lose in the market place of ideas based off of their own merits. Debate him? Please. Silence him? Only if you give me the power to silence you as well…..I’ve already written about the need for an informed society:
https://wordpress.com/post/tiredmidnightblogger.wordpress.com/325
Why Are People Turning to Alternative Streams of Media?
And why have so many stopped trusting the mainstream? Thorny question here, and frankly more than a tired midnight blogger can really answer. I think there are three reasons for this phenomenon. First, the real world can be harsh, so we seek a few minutes (that turns into three hours) on Facebook or Youtube just to get that chemical rush. Second, we want information that works, and we want it to work right the heck now. When science tells us that we have to be patient, we don’t wanna. Last of all, we have been lied to. My life started in the Nixon era. All of my life there have been lies all the way at the top. I’ve become so jaded, I don’t trust half of what I hear any more.
What are We Made of?
This will likely seem like a weird gear shift, but I have a point to make. When I was young, I was in the martial arts (like Joe Rogan, only not successful), and my Sensei told us a story I’ve never forgotten. There was a student in the class who asked how not to be angry in difficult times. Sensei poured a glass of water, put it on a table, and bumped so water spilled all over the table. Sensei asked “why did water spill all over the table?” The simple answer, “Water is in it.”
We find out who we are in difficult times. It’s easy to be pleasant when the sun is shining and the bank account is fat and the girl is smiling at you. But what you really are is who you are when it is snowing a deadly chill, you are overdrawn three hundred dollars, and the girl is yelling at you for not bringing home the milk. That’s when you learn what you are really made of.
“So what is your point? Joe Rogan is dangerous. We are in a pandemic, and we have to control this because people are dying.”
In no way do I mean to be disrespectful of people’s suffering. But my point is, this is where we learn who we are as a people. Is freedom not possible in hard times? Are we only responsible for our own choices during easy times? Or are we happy to be told what told what to wear, what to think, what to put in our bodies, and too stupid to know what is good for us?
Please let me know what you think! Was this helpful, or do I sound like a conspiracy theory nut? Comments wanted.
Tired Midnight Blogger (What Blogs at Midnight) 