Naught but a lament

Expect little more herein than brief, irrelevant musings after approximately two years of silence on ATS, followed by a return to self-imposed exile. I anticipate few if any will agree. I also anticipate misinterpretation, but such is the way of the internet. I will say what I have to say, and then be gone.

As I sit in my apartment alone, isolated by the fact of my underlying health conditions which make exposure to the current pandemic tantamount to a high risk of death for one such as me (regardless of what those - respectfully - in deep denial choose to believe,) watching the world go by, and hoping this does not last for the up to two years before a viable vaccine some predict it may, I can only opine once more, now more than ever, as I have before:

When semantic nomenclature cannot even be agreed upon, discourse becomes impossible. When total rejection of factual reality becomes normalized, fact-based, rational decision making becomes passe. And in the absence of discourse, only dictation remains - from any angle or perspective.

I am persuaded now more than ever that pervasive ignorance of civics at even the most fundamental level, of political science in even the most rudimentary dialectical forms (the paucity of correct terminology and the misuse of language are now so far beyond what they were even just years ago that one wonders if we have slipped into some fever dream in sanity's last death throws,) of historical context, and of reasoned social calculus, are in the process of destroying our polity, sanity, and Democracy. Perhaps they always were, silently, creepingly, at the margins, inching ever inward toward the core. Unnoticed until far, far too late.

In my youth - in my naivete and gullibility - I once was what could be termed, with pride and wonderment in the hearts of those who peopled this and similar online (and before that offline in libraries and lunch rooms) communities, "a believer." Such hopes we had. Among the "articles of faith" of many who believed, was the notion that if only the subject matter and "enlightened" discussions that once - long ago - went on in places like this (or so we believed then) could find their way to penetrating the mainstream public consciousness, the world would change for the better. The "truth would come out." "Cover-ups" would end. A new age would emerge.

What a fool I was.

What tragic irony that it has finally happened - conspiracy theories went mainstream and then some - and all it achieved was to drive our body politic mad. Conspiracy theories went mainstream alright, and the world lost its collective mind. Far from "coming out," the truth is savaged daily, policy is untethered from it in the name of a post-truth paradigm, and intellectualism and academia are scorned and rejected.

Dunning-Kruger won.

Denying "ignorance" won.

In short...

We won.

...

Yay. And, also... oops.

...

As ever, and in case some of us don't make it (some of us won't, statistically):

Peace be with you all, and I love you.

We love you too.

I remember you and so glad you are here again to visit with such honest words beyond the minds of so many (out there).

Peace be with you also.

Don't be a stranger.

a reply to: AceWombat04

Love you too Ace!