The Damages of Fear

May is national mental health month awareness month. Excellent, right? Always a good idea to shine a spotlight on a difficult subject, maybe perform a quick self-assessment as we head into summer. To see how we feel about how we feel, yes? 

Realistically speaking, I've got to devote a lot more than thirty days a year to my mental health. If not, the unchecked emotional toppings can pile themselves thicker than a Logger pizza at Northlake Tavern (Had to give one last prop to Seattle's best pizza. Rest in peace, my delicious friend.). 

It's a subject that makes the news on a daily basis, usually in a tragic light. Regardless of our opinions about gun laws, few are disputing that these horrific acts are being committed by mentally unwell people. Seems to me like a logical precondition. 

But where do we discern between a congenital mental disorder and a normal brain that's been so saturated with fear that it alters itself? According to Mary D. Moller, associate professor at Pacific Lutheran University School of Nursing, the potential effects of chronic fear on emotional health include dissociation from self, inability to have loving feelings, earned helplessness, phobic anxiety, mood swings, obsessive-compulsive thoughts.

Sounds exhausting. The thing is, based on the support we've seen for a tiny-pawed huckster who stokes their worst fears, 74 million people were that elevated in 2020. And even more if you count the millions of rigged votes. 

Can you imagine how you'd feel on the daily if you acknowledged the existence of a globalist cabal so powerful that it controls our government, our media and our healthcare system, meanwhile eating babies simply because they taste good with chocolate milk?

Not good, I'll tell you. One of my FB friends is a former co-worker who I'll call June. I never knew June super well, but she was nice, had a good sense of humor and was solid at her job. We'd become FB friends in the platform's early days. Eventually she moved on from the company, married and had a kid. I started noticing the anti-vax posts first, nestled between family photos and memes. Then came the videos—pseudo newscasts with dubious experts and unproven claims. Finally came exchanges like this, complete with coded messages:

June: Washington state is an udder nightmare at the moment. It's just getting worse and worse. I wish it were different.

June's Friend: I am mot s proponent of public schools period. If children feel need to wear their (furry) suit to school every day there is likely a dysfunctional issue within the home or school community that the child is trying to escape or the child does not feel safe at school.

June's Other Friend: So glad you got out of Washington. God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah for their wickedness, He can do it again in other evil places.

June: In my opinion, I don't think all this stuff belongs in school. Reading, writing, music, math, history, social studies, art and teaching kids to think for themselves. But we both know public schools are not teaching that. They have deviated far off path. They're more about social engineering the poor kiddos.

Also imho, I believe that all these changes to this demographic of children comes from the increased jab schedule. There are bits of ab0 rted feta1 d n A that has known (ancer,<irus +animal, reptile fragments etc. These jabs are basically eug€ eni( programs and our kids are the s(1ence projects. When these foreign fragments of d n A glom onto human receptor sights it alters the senses and existence of the affected person. Poor kids never even got a voice. Zero consent for them. It's a sad sick world and I've grown weary of the blinders a good part of the world has towards these products. People are literally brain wA shed by big ph ArmA. I had a friend poo poo home 0 pathics because they weren't safety tested but has a 0ncol0gist husband who left his job because the forced protocols don't work. Still the blinders?

I pray Jesus is coming!

Okay, a little to unpack there. First of all, is it a good idea to pray that JC is coming? Doesn't a bunch of terrible shit have to happen when he materializes over Mount Rainier? I can't remember how it's supposed to go, but I'm pretty sure it's not one hundred percent Mr. Pibb and Red Vines.

Secondly, I don't know what schools these people have visited, but I've spent the last six months volunteering at my wife's elementary school, and I have seen kids meow and say they're cats and bark and say they're dogs and not make any noises and say they're unicorns. That's a problem why? They're freaking kids! Did you have everything figured out when your were eight? 

Lastly, calling Washington an udder nightmare is cowist.

My intention here is not to "out" June. This could definitely lead to an un-friending, but I mean her no ill will. I understand feeling helpless in a fucked up world. Awful things happen and we're all doing our best to cope. I just wish that the fear openly expressed by her and so many others was grounded in reality.

Logic in the Time of COVID.

Who doesn't love a good conspiracy theory? I know I do.

Or did, anyway. The JFK assassination has to be one of the classics. It alone has more angles than a presidential comb-over: the CIA did it, the mob, LBJ— even Woody Harrelson's dad's been thrown into the mix.

Historically, conspiracy theories have covered the spectrum of deceit and collusion, from simple, self-serving schemes (Jim Morrison faked his death) to intricately-planned, elaborate capers encompassing the deepest corners of government and society (Lou Reed was killed by Lady Gaga).

There's Area 51, quirky and benign member of the Conspiracy All-Star Squad since the mid-20th Century. Or the Illuminati, with its ancient and über-secretive roster of influence, currently boasting such A-listers as Beyoncé, Jay Z, Madonna and Lindsay Lohan (Wait, how is Lohan still a member? Freaky Friday was her last good movie, and it was far before her Botox and Four Loko era.).

With the new millennium arose a docket of fresh, even more sinister theories. The 9-11 Truth movement claimed that the September 11 attacks were actually a controlled demolition orchestrated by the U.S. government, meant to incite war in the Middle East and seize control of the petroleum industry.

In short order, with the election of our first non-white president, came the "birther" movement, where a healthy smattering of Americans maintained that Barack Obama was born in Kenya. According to their purview, only a deviously well-oiled plot could secure his ascension to commander-in-chief, and that's precisely what went down.

Oh, and remember who really latched onto that one? A quick hint—his name rhymes with his daily activity between 2:00 and 2:17—that's right, a McDonalds Dump. Yeah, him. And he's taken the whole conspiracy playbook to a level not seen since Milli met Vanilli. The difference is, this time people are dying.

Why do we gravitate toward conspiracies? And how have some of us devolved into these people who view even the most basic truths through a lens of skepticism and distrust? Surely, a single man can't be responsible for this, right? Well, as the guy himself has been known to bark: "Wronnnng!"

In my opinion, the only way a leader can convince his followers to dispute science is to take a sharp right and go after the scientists themselves. If a mask of conspiracy can be strapped to Dr. Fauci's substantial, yet handsome, ears, then all bets are off. What if he truly is a Deep State operative who's been embedded to sabotage the president's chances for re-election?

That's exactly what's going on, according to Alex Jones, a cuddly right-wing conspiracy theorist and YouTube deity, who's also puked out that no one died at Sandy Hook and students who survived the Stoneman Douglas shooting were paid "crisis actors." Crisis actors? I wonder where that would fall on the pay scale in relation to porn acting. Bet some of the lucky ones do both porn and crises.

I just find it really arrogant for someone to claim that they and a few other enlightened souls have the goods, that all this overwhelming scientific evidence is bullshit and they're going to go ahead and opt for the opinion of the social media douchebag who talks like a pro wrestler. How miserable it must be to believe the stuff this guy's schtick, to wake up every morning convinced that faceless zombies in black SWAT gear could bust down the door at any moment.

Let's be real; have high-level conspiracies transpired throughout our history? Of course; look no further than Watergate, Iran Contra or Apollo 11 (Watch the movie Capricorn One and it'll all make sense).

This isn't one of them. We're all doing the best we can right now, and that includes our doctors, scientists, governors and mayors. It sucks when a plague becomes political.