They Really Believe The BS

So last night, I was a bit bored, and went on FaceBook (tm). My Ds tell me not to, and they're right, but my attention span during the plague really doesn't allow me to watch any of the TV series friends recommend, so it's either reading, Smithsonian documentaries, or FaceBook.

I really try to avoid politics, but my friend Rob is too easy a target. He's a good hearted guy, with very simplistic, old style country club Republican politics, and like many in his party, has sworn fealty to Trump. Most of his FB friends, who tend to be Southern WASPs like him, all feel the same, and their posts are hilarious to anyone with even half a brain.

So last night Rob posted an article about packed hospitals and the Covid crisis, and remarked that he really doesn't "know what to believe, as he hears from doctor friends that many Florida hospitals are actually pretty empty."  Two of my fellow friends, Jeff and Darriel, tried to inject actual facts into the discussion.

Jeff's girl is a first year resident at JMH and is seeing first hand how awful things are. Darriel's husband Paul is a medical instrument salesman, and he see it, too. They both thought they might share actual knowledge.

Rob's folks weren't having it. "I call BS!" "Fake news!"  It was a litany of all the usual Trump/Fox News cliches about dismissing facts that don't jibe with their narrative.  So I decided to have some fun -- I joined in with the mindless set.

I started trying to out Trump the Trumpers -- saying things like the Covid wasn't real -- just a major conspiracy to try to steal the election from the greatest president in US history. No masks, I said -- and definitely send your kids back to school. Do NOT live your life according to the "drive by media."

One of the airheads said that the only problems in Florida were places where the "Dems were in charge." I agreed -- pointing out that the epicenter of problems was Miami Dade, and we had to blame the "Demorcrat mayors of the County, and two biggest cities -- Miami and Hialeah!" I went so far as to say that the mayor of Hialeah was SUCH a Dem, he had pictures of Hillary Clinton on his office wall.

All of a sudden, I was the hero of the post. I got all kinds of likes and hearts from these dimwits. Of course, mayors Gimenez, Suarez, and Hernandez are ALL solidly Republican -- the type of Cuban American Republican politicians right out of central casting.

I also said that "proper Republican counties" upstate in Florida need not fear the virus, since they had installed barriers, like the Mexican wall promised by Trump, and the virus KNEW it better stay away. I got a few likes and hearts for that one.

Oh boy. My friend Kenny is correct. The GOP is beyond discussion and repair. Even trying to discuss issues with most members is a fools' errand. I tried to be as absurd and ridiculous on the posts as I could conjure, last night, and many of Rob's FB friends were wholeheartedly in agreement.

I won't do it any more, of course. But it proved what I had feared: many "normal appearing" people these days think magically, with zero regard for facts, logic, or science.

I just hope that enough voters take the time in November to at least vote out of office their patron saint of stupidity and cruelty. If not, our country has far bigger problems than the little strand of RNA sickening and killing off a percentage of us.