Am I Crazy, or Am I Being Shamed?

News has been disturbing lately. Whenever I appeal to Facebook friends or even the impersonal bots from a Google search, I’m shamed into thinking I’m crazy for thinking what I’m thinking — even for seeing what I’m seeing.

Am I the only one who thinks he’s crazy?

On a macro level, world events today are almost unbelievable. I have questions. Don’t you? But every inquiry I have is immediately labeled misinformation — even when the news story is brand new — and I’m shamed by Big Tech with labels countering my questions. Any doubt I have in the science of lockdowns or viruses (isn’t doubting itself scientific?) is swiftly countered with shaming me for “doubting the science.” And any accusation of a “deep state” profiting from my compliance is fact-checked by media editors — in some editing room, out there, perhaps outsourced to hostile countries, as they say — and declared “conspiracies.”

On a micro level, I caught The Virus. Quite literally, my family is moving through the CCP Virus (or coronavirus, Covid-19, Wuhan or China, depending on who’s in charge). Some of us in my large family have been tested, most results coming back negative, including mine. However, I’ve lost my sense of smell and I am easily exhausted, apparently two telling symptoms of The Covid. I’ve been told that there is a 40% false-negative rate on tests and that maybe I should re-test. But, at a 40% failure rate, why test at all? 

I wish I could surf social media to see what others are experiencing. I can’t even do that. The social justice warriors have been shaming me since Thanksgiving for inviting my germ-infested family members over for turkey dinner. I haven’t taught in the classroom since, my school following CDC requirements and quarantining me home to teach remotely. I missed the holiday festivities the last weeks before Christmas break. I got to Zoom in and my substitute managed the classroom well, but I’m depressed that I missed out on the fun of it all. The spirit was stolen from me, and to some (thinking of those mask nazis who think I’m a superspreader) I suppose I deserved it.

I like to think I’m informed, more than most, a paid subscriber to newspapers and journals. They tell me the president-elect has the votes, but I can’t shake from what I see: the theft of an American presidential election. Do you think I’m a nut for thinking so? Perhaps you do because of the “fact-checking” warnings from Facebook and Twitter, as if they get to call the election. Doesn’t the Constitution have a route to settle close elections, or a resistant barrier to those who want to steal it? Any question I have about it is immediately tagged with a label of shame: “The AP has declared Joe Biden president-elect,” or some other message that attempts to make me feel crazy.

I have to admit that I have been “hunkering down” to see how things settle. I’m waiting to see how the election unfolds, waiting for restaurants and churches to open back up, waiting for this strange virus to move through my body and my family’s. Election results, economic stability, and my bout with this strange virus — it seems to be the three-headed beast in my crazy life right now.

So, what’s a crazy guy to do? I put my trust in three fundamentals that, I hope, will lop each of the heads off this hydra beast:

1. ‘Merica. My hope is not in the AP declaring the election results — nor Facebook, fact-checkers, Fox News, etc. — but the Constitution. All Americans should do the same. This is why the courts — eventually the Supreme Court — should hear the arguments concerning election fraud. So far they have refused to hear anything, no matter how incriminating, going with the flow of the media that says we’re all crazies for doubting the election results. Meanwhile affidavits, eye-witness testimony, and even video footage pile up. The People have every right to challenge the election results, and the Constitution should be the deciding factor. Let it be so.
2. Freedom. There seems to be two values tugging at my crazy mind: freedom and control. Personally, I have learned to resist the latter and to allow freedom to reign in my life. This should be societally, too. Allow restaurants and localities to open up, and we should all expect them to do so responsibly. “Hold on loosely, but don’t let go,” the song lyric says. I believe people will mask up, social distance, and care for those most susceptible to the spreading virus, but when governments clamp down with draconian measures, all sorts of unwarranted side-effects will overwhelm our society. Those who believe in control over freedom will have blood on their hands.
3. Sanity. I am depressed that I missed out on the Christmas spirit at school, but I’m luckier than most. I have a houseful of children, a wife who loves me, married adult children with grandchildren who visit often. In a few days Christmas will be celebrated with more joy than most can imagine. I’m more concerned for others — perhaps you — who are walled up with marital strife, substance addiction, mental illness to face. It is no wonder that divorce, suicide and domestic abuse rates are all on the rise. Have you not heard of that? The collateral damage from the cure is horrific, and news of it is hidden in the media under the mountain of reporting of the deaths from the actual disease. 

The media tells me I’m crazy. Stay home, cover my face, and accept the outcome of their “fair and free” election. Ignore that which I see with my own eyes and experience in my waking mind. Same with my family, neighborhood, workplace, town, and country. I should be ashamed of myself, they say, as I am “crazy.”