We’ve talked in this space numerous times about how binary the world has become. If you’re up, someone else is down. If it’s dark, that means someone has light. If someone is right, that means someone else is wrong.
Let’s not get into how we got here – although that’s going to be one helluva story for future generations. Let’s just look at where we are right now at a couple of key issues that are polarizing our country. Let’s start with the radioactive topic of the day — the coronavirus. While the airborne virus doesn’t seem to care, there do seem to be two major schools of thought. The first is couched by scientists and virologists and that is that there is a virus that’s been moving around since January in the US and that it has contributed to close to 200,000 deaths in the country. This camp says that one of the best ways to not get sick is to wash your hands and wear a mask as the virus mainly travels by air. The other side says the state can’t mandate masks and they have every right to get sick. Heck, the existence of the virus itself might be a lie.
History will prove someone right and someone wrong.
If you’ve stepped outside or seen the soot resting on your car, you’re likely aware that the West Coast is burning. Dozens of wildfires fueled by months or even years, in some cases, of drought and higher than normal temperatures. Los Angeles set a record earlier in the month with a high temp of 121 degrees. Science and climatologists seem to think this is related to global climate change, erosion of the polar ice caps that might be caused by man-made emissions from fossil fuels. The opposite side, naturally, discounts “climate change” or “global warming” and simply says that stuff burns sometimes. Meanwhile, there are five tropical depressions building strength in the Carribean for the first time in 50 years. Just lucky, I suppose.
History is going to determine why the West Coast burns and why the Carribean is generating more and stronger hurricanes. Someone will be right. Someone will be wrong.
There are plenty of topics that require nuance and grey area. Heck, even the Black Lives Matter discussions and the role of police departments requires some level of gradience to where someone right cannot be wrong. Mostly. But climate change and coronavirus are pretty black and white – excuse the pun.
And furthermore, someone is advancing a narrative that is wrong. Let’s be generous and not say someone is lying. But someone is definitely going to be on the wrong end of history. Maybe they know that. Maybe they don’t. But the only way out of this is through it, and with the sides digging in, it seems that someone is going to be really upset at the end of this.
When I am making a decision about which policy to like or which camp to believe, I use the following criteria based on giving the benefit of the doubt. You say that wearing seatbelts increases your chances of surviving a car crash. That’s a pretty hard thing to see with your own eyes. But I’m going to give the benefit of the doubt and put the seatbelt on. You see a temperature of 121 and then you think back to all the crazy hurricanes in the Gulf and that massive “freak” storm that rolled through Iowa. Gosh. What if the climate scientists are right? What if the scientists are right about coronavirus? Doesn’t 200,000 people sound like a lot? Is that really the hill you want to die on? Again, pardon the pun. Doesn’t it make more sense to go with the “conservative” approach (pun intended, this time) while you’re waiting for history to pick a winner?
For some, a mask or some climate controls are a bridge too far. The line is drawn here. They’ve picked their spokesperson and will ride or die (pun!) with whatever they say–to hell with evidence to the contrary.
History is going to prove someone right and will most assuredly prove someone wrong.
(All is right in the world when you follow Chris Kamler on Twitter, where you will find him as @TheFakeNed)