On repeat

I am now at the stage of life where I have almost zero tolerance for malevolent stupidity. In that regard I am not a good person to encounter if you have ignorance to spout. Unfortunately we live in an era where doing our homework is completely irrelevant and people just want their inherent biases confirmed.

In the past it used to be benevolent ignorance like someone at a party telling me that they were sure Mexico shared a border with Spain with me straining to avoid a surprised look. Today it's far worse because social media has emboldened the uneducated to find an audience and they need not bother with subject matter experts. If you think the earth is flat you are guaranteed to find like-minded acolytes; all the more so if you think transgender people were only invented yesterday.

But I need to stay positive in an era that openly celebrates idiocy, and so I surround myself with kind and loving souls as I reflect on the reality that societies rise and fall precisely because we fail to draw lessons from past mistakes. There is a good reason we see history constantly repeat itself.