CRAZY FRIENDS SUCK

How do we talk to crazy people? I don't mean the ones who are clearly on a different plane of reality, or have an illness. I mean people who say stupid shit like "George Soros is behind all of this", which is what someone said to me yesterday. I know the dude who said it. He doesn't seem crazy. He has a family, a good job, tells funny- well, sort of funny- jokes. And yesterday, he walks up, asks me how I am, I mention the pandemic, and first he says "planned chaos". And he says it like I'm supposed to know what that means. I replied "weird plan". To which he replied "Soros is behind all of it". It went on from there, but you get the picture. This seemingly intelligent, reasonable man has a screw loose. He's not all there. Something is rotten in the state of Colorado. And it's his soul.

I am guessing he watched that Plandemonic thing, or whatever it's called. The one of youtube or where ever that suggests this is all some master plan to... Well, I am not sure what this plan is supposed to do, based on reality. Get millions sick? Kill hundreds of thousands of people worldwide? Tank the economy? To what end? I think, maybe, rather than facing the very likely possibility that the way things have been run of late, both here in the USA and all around the world, has been unsuccessful, that deregulating our health and safety and civil rights and on and on has been an utter and total failure is too much for those who have supported the right wing goon squad to accept, so they make up a plot by evil-doers, sort of make-shift Bond villains, bent of world destruction because they are evil, end of story. Because that's an easier pill to swallow than the one that let's them know they are part of the reason we are where we are. And where we are is fucked.

So I looked at the person I now realized was nuts and said "That's hilarious." Which is thought was a nice way of giving him an out. He could just laugh and say, "yeah, isn't that some stupid shit? And people believe it! Not me. I have children. I care about world. I get my facts first hand as much as possible, and when I can't, I go to multiple sources to make sure I'm not just parroting the agenda of corporate assholes who are taking the entire planet down." But no. He just kind of got this odd expression on his face, waited for like two hours, then came up and asked me, "so you don't think Soros is behind this?" So I asked him if he meant that he thought Soros was funding the right wing nut jobs who are trying to instigate a race war by infiltrating the protests, breaking windows and throwing bricks?", at which point I thought my now for sure crazy friend's head would explode.

If not for the fact that this dumb shit is making matters worse, that he is part of why we are here, I would feel sorry for him. I kind of do, even now. How lost do you have to be to buy what is such obvious horse shit? How desperate? And I get the feeling from him, and from lots of whackos, that behind it all, they know they are on the wrong side of history, that they are not far from wearing an armband. It's insane. Rather than admit a mistake in thinking, this guy not only sticks with his original statement, he goes further. In for a penny, in for a pound. Only it's more like in for a penny, in for an entire alternate reality of gloom and doom and "planned chaos."

I told him anyone who thinks hurting other people is okay is an asshole, that people I know have gotten sick, and so far at least one of them has died, and I take it all very seriously. I also told him that just because I'm a commie-hippie doesn't mean I can't be friends with a conservative, but it does mean I value life over commerce. He replied something about how the Founding Fathers were for free speech, and asked me if I was as well. Strange transition.

I didn't talk with him anymore that night.

I think he's lost, like the kid who sang "You Are Sixteen Going on Seventeen" in The Sound of Music.

Here's a song. It's Racist Friend by They Might Be Giants.

I hope you all go out and witness the protests, safely. I hope you all stand up for what's right. I hope you all speak your truth. I hope we all can keep moving forward. I hope, I hope, I hope.