I was actually out to a birthday party today, the first large non-family event I’ve attended in the past three years. At first I was canceled by lockdowns then later ostracism for my bad-boy vaccine status. Now, with advice and oversight by my wife, I can again circulate with humans though I’m not sure I should.
Things were going well, I got into a chat with a nonagenarian with a bolo tie and hearing aids about farming on the prairies, nothing controversial except perhaps the price of fertilizer, fuel and grain, but he couldn’t hear what I said anyways. Then the ancient ex faller regaled me with tales of crummies, undercuts, barber-chairs and getting knocked over a cliff by a falling snag. Then the canapés came to my rescue and I spent the next half hour circling the table alternately filling then emptying my plate.
Still behaving, keeping to small talk and nodding sagely at any mention of the Canucks winning streak, I got into a conversation with Bill. Now Bill is a huge, intelligent, informed guy, a once-was computer geek who has travelled the world trouble-shooting servers and networks. He started with football and I fumbled badly, then the conversation stuttered into the state of the world. He says, “Crime is unhindered and punishments are weak, the legal system in the States is corrupted and breaking down, politicians are increasingly dishonest and wars are breaking out all over …”
It was here that I made my big faux pas, “It will only get worse if the Democrats are reelected!”
He reared back, looking at me as if an alien squid had burst through my ribs, “What have you been smokin’ … the only way the US will save itself is if Trump is convicted and put away for the rest of his life. Trump is a wannabe dictator and if he gets into power he will shut down the media, take over the justice system and throw his opponents in prison. Canada will be in real trouble if the States becomes a dictatorship.”
Not one to roll over, I told him that is au verso, it is Biden’s policies that are ripping apart America, and asked him where he was getting his information. He told me he had “about 50 different sources and even FOX News”. I asked if he was aware of the Trusted News Initiative and he said he was and I told him that meant that his 50 sources might only be one parroted by many. He said that no journalist he knew would be that controlled.
[I didn’t get a chance to disagree and I should have mentioned that there seems to be a stunning reduction of older, wiser anchors and reporters, replaced with a diversity of naive youth, colour and gender.]
Bill told me that Trump had incited the J6 crowd with ‘march to the capital to protest’ and I informed him that he cut off the statement at the same place the media did, not adding the bit about ‘peacefully and patriotically’. He seemed unaware and continued that Trump had committed incitement and sedition. I told him that he had things reversed, that Biden is the one who has been taking bribes and committing sedition.
I mentioned that Trump had authorized 20-40 thousand national guard to protect the Capitol but both Nancy Pelosi and Muriel Bowser had ignored this request. Bill asked if I supported the murder of a Capitol Police officer. I told him that the four people who died that day were all protestors, one woman shot by capital security guard, one woman trampled then clubbed to death by a Capitol Policewoman, and two men thought to have been hit in the chest by tear gas grenades. He insisted that a Capitol Policeman was beaten to death and I told him that it was reported that officer Sicknick had been clubbed to death with a fire extinguisher but later it was determined that he had not been assaulted and died later that night from a stroke.
Aside: [Film from security cameras still showed Sicknick walking in the Congressional hallways long after his supposed assault.
In Jan 2021, CNN reported:
“Capitol Police Officer Brian D. Sicknick died Thursday night “due to injuries sustained while on-duty,” Capitol Police said in a statement. He was one of five people who died in the violence. Sicknick was injured while physically engaging with the rioters and collapsed after returning to his division office, the statement said.”
and this CNN report still comes up when Sicknick is googled] end aside
Bill asked again where I was getting all this whacky information. I asked him if he thought that the 2020 election could have been stolen. He said how can you fake an election, a ballot is a ballot. I mentioned Antrim county where a computer glitch had reversed the presidential vote. How about the simultaneous shutdown of ballot counting in several swing states where Trump was in the lead. The overnight counting that showed sudden jumps in votes, with Biden gaining the lead in the morning. The kicking out of Republican observers while counting continued, Plastering the windows with paper so the observers couldn’t watch, The suitcases of ballots that came out after everyone was told to go home. The emergency ballot vans that made deliveries in the dead of night. The subpoenaed ballot files that were mysteriously deleted. The ballot images that are not allowed to be scrutinized.
Bill again wondered what I had been smoking and told me that all I had mentioned was whacky saying that it was illegal not to have ballot observers. (I agreed). He then told me that Trump is dangerous because be controls the courts and controls the media. “Why on earth then would Trump be facing so many “whacky” indictments”, I told him that electing Trump will be a large part of the solution. We parted, with him telling me to get better sources and not read the whacky stuff. I told him that he should be broadening what he reads.
Why is it that when I get into these arguments I feel somewhat perplexed and bemused while the other guy seems to get angry. Why anger? Is is a defensiveness that comes from not being sure? Don’t shake my world because I am contest with my beliefs?
So here is an intelligent guy who believes that he is well informed and another intelligent guy who thinks he is well informed. How is it that two intelligent trained people cannot agree on something this important? One reason is that there is a huge amount of propaganda and misinformation and we are in a hall of mirrors looking for the exits. It is difficult for us to believe that once reliable friends, the media, the judiciary, the health authorities, the science have now betrayed us. (We always knew politicians would betray us.) How could they be in league with one another, how could they be controlled by large wealthy unseen forces? Sometimes our very intelligence betrays us, “I am the smartest guy in the room therefore I am right!”. Our own egotism blinkers us to the truth.
And just in case you haven’t worked it out, I’m the one who’s right.
Scico 
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