I Don't do Crazy and I Don't do Stupid -- A Commentary

One of my early memories of working as an attorney in a law office over 40 years ago was of a man who came around periodically trying to get the law firm you invest money in his project to find the Lost Dutchman Mine in the Superstition Mountains east of Phoenix. I also remember another visitor to the office who was always trying to sell Navajo jewelry. The only problem with the jewelry was that I was convinced that it was probably stolen property. These were just some of the earliest of the experiences that I had that led me to adopt a simple phrase to explain my lack of enthusiasm and interest in proposed projects and attitudes: I don't do crazy and I don't do stupid. 

Very often during my long legal career, I would have potential clients approach me with a "sure-fire" winning case. They would start by telling me that I came highly recommended and then they would start to tell me about the case and I would, almost instantly, detect that their "presentation" was rehearsed. I would stop them and ask, "How many attorneys have you already talked to about this case?" Usually, I would get some run around answer but eventually, they would admit that they had talked to one or more attorneys. I would then say something about how sorry I was but they did not have a case and they were wasting their time. I would then hear a story about how someone in another state had a similar case and made a million dollars on the case. I would end the discussion by saying I did not think the case had any merits and I was not interested. Afterward, I would remember, I don't do stupid or crazy and I wasn't going to be the one who was stupid or crazy. 

Let's fast forward about a few years to the present. I am now sequestered because of a worldwide pandemic. Despite my sequestration, I am tuned in to the internet, as is usual for me. I can almost instantly see hundreds of news outlets and watch the Johns Hopkins University COVID-19 map. I can also see a real-time statistical analysis of the progress of the disease on the Worldometer COVID-19 Coronavirus Pandemic website. These two websites give me a quick reality check for any statistical claims made in any online news articles. As I have observed previously in this blog, the spectrum of the news sources I review includes those that would be considered "far-right" in the United States and others that would be labeled ultra-left-wing-liberal. What I am finding in both and fairly sprinkled across the whole spectrum is a lot that falls into my definition of either stupid or crazy. 

For an example, as of the date of this post, I am reading comments and quoted articles on Facebook where people are expressing the opinion that the pandemic is over and there is no longer any need for social distancing. Hmm. I can look at the Worlometer for today and see that Russia has over 10,800 new COVID-19 cases and over 100 deaths. Here is a screenshot of the Russian graph for daily new cases. 

That doesn't look like the end of the pandemic to me. Oh, but you say, Russia is lying about their statistics. Are they over-reporting for sympathy or under-reporting? Why would any country over-report? On the other hand, a lack of testing in the United States clearly indicates that everything they are saying about the COVID-19 virus here is under-reported. It would be easier if the stupid and crazy were somewhat limited to one end of the political spectrum but the whole pandemic issue has become so politicized that almost every news account has some degree of one or the other. 

The trick here is to not buy in to either stupid or crazy. If some self-anointed expert suddenly declares that eating raw cabbage cures the COVID-19 virus, look before you leap. Where did the information come from? Have there been any peer-reviewed studies supporting the conclusion? What does the expert expect stand to gain if you buy into his or her theory? What do you have to lose? What is missing from all of the online discussion is a measurable degree of self-preservation. Why is it that people are willing to risk their own death simply because someone puts up a video on YouTube?

What has Russia to do with you? What did China have to with anyone when all this started?

Here is one final graph. This is the daily number of cases worldwide. Granted, there are whole countries that are not reporting. But it isn't over yet and I suspect I will be able to illustrate the same conclusion in a month or two from the date of this post.

Why I Stopped Reading National Geographic and the COVID-19 Pandemic

When I was a lot younger than I am now, I was a great fan of the National Geographic Magazine and even went to Washington, D.C. to sign up personally at National Geographic Society headquarters. Some years ago, the magazine ran an article about Salt Lake City, Utah. Of all the things they could have written about, the National Geographic writer chose to talk about polygamy. There were two photos in the article; one showed a lovely polygamist family in a large beautiful home with children all dressed in matching clothes and the other showed a "typical Mormon" family sitting in their weed overgrown, and very messy backyard with very overweight people apparently overeating with a table full of food. Granted, polygamy is an issue here in Utah and in other places around the world. Historically, my own ancestral family members were polygamists. But the issue of polygamy is so low on the concerns here in Utah as to be almost non-existent. Recently, the Utah State Legislature reduced the penalty for polygamy from a criminal action to about on par with a traffic ticket. See "Polygamy bill passes the Utah State Legislature."

My opinion of National Geographic made a major shift with that one article. I suddenly began to see that the "primitive" societies and other depictions made by the magazine were just as biased and unrealistic as the article that offended me. I subsequently got rid of almost all of my huge collection of back issues and stopped regularly reading the magazine. This experience with many others has sensitized me to writing that is biased and exploitive. I have also focused on how much "propaganda" passes for news and commentary. By the way, propaganda is defined as information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view. I am not advocating cutting off reading anything you personally disagree with. If you do that, you are creating your own propaganda. But in my case, I stopped viewing the National Geographic as an unbiased source of information and put it into the same category as most of the other publications I regularly read. 

Now, what does this have to do with the virus COVID-19. Quite a bit actually. I read extensively, probably 20 to 30 or more different magazines and news reporting entities on a regular basis. I also spend a very short time reviewing a little bit of my Facebook stream. What I am seeing in this pandemic era is an extraordinary increase in propaganda much of which is just plain false. Unfortunately, the sources for this propaganda are almost universal from the heads of our national government, political parties, popular news online, magazines, and almost every other possible venue. No, I am not going to give examples of "fake news." The stream of such drivel is so constant and so pervasive as to basically create an alternative reality where everything from UFOs to flat earth theories are considered to be mainstream acceptable topics for serious consideration. 

How do we avoid being "sucked in" by propaganda and false news? The best way I know is to read an expanded and extensive variety of news sources. Next, it is important to identify and listen to those people and news sources that do not have any particular political or cultural bias. If you are listening to or reading the same online commentator or watching the same news station or company every day, you are being desensitized to fake news and propaganda. 

Of course, all this is easier said than done. But what do you do when even the statistics lie? The best decision is to examine your own best self-interest. If the world is buying toilet paper, do you actually need to fill your garage? If you are old and vulnerable, like me, do you listen to people who say that social distancing is a bad idea and counter to your "freedom," or do you take reasonable measures to protect yourself from disease and infection? Do you listen to people who say that a disease that has, at the time of this post, killed hundreds of thousands of people is really a political hoax and no worse than the flu? 

You can believe what you want to believe but you should take the time to think through the consequences of buying into an idea that will put you personally in danger or be detrimental to your family.