Joe Rogan has covid, too

Joe Rogan is now sick with covid, joining a list of higher-profile opponents of covid vaccinations and other mitigation efforts. Lately, it seems like people who oppose masking and vaxxing are now looking up at the sky through six feet of dirt. While there's probably a delicious conspiracy theory in there, the reality more likely is that these folks mingle (even if not single) and don't really take the whole thing seriously. It's a little bit like crying wolf in reverse - say that there's no problem, then look confused when the wolf eats you.

It just is a continuation of the recent American tendency to have a knee-jerk reaction to anything that comes out of the mouth of someone you're supposed to dislike. Let's face it - the two major political poles in this nation have already seceded from each other. While it's not a physical or formal secession, it's definitely a mental one. There is no accepting the "wrong" opinion and remaining within your political circle. Saying the election was not rigged, or that maybe we need to pump the brakes on gender surgery for minors, or that global warming is real, or that it's okay to be skeptical of the safety and efficacy of covid vaccines or a dozen other things, and you're ostracized. (ironically, Trump endorsed the vaccines early this year)

Doing so makes it really hard to find common ground and sort out these issues. Are gender identity and voting integrity important issues? Sure, but the more people fight over those, the less people are willing to discuss serious issues, especially if they are "owned" by one side or the other. The left is seen as "owning" global warming and covid mitigation, so people on the right are naturally opposed to even talking rationally about those, much less changing their minds. Of course, right-leaning media has a lot to do with this - you can't gin up the red staters without talking about this evil lefties. And, to be fair, the whole "Trump was elected by Russia" worked to keep MSNBC's ratings high for a while.

At this point, conspiracies, pseudo-science and general madness takes over. People pass off opinion as fact because they're too uneducated or intellectual yet idiots to be able to take a rational look at anything. Maybe we just don't have enough adults in the room anymore, who knows. I don't even need to state the obvious outcome here - people start living in a fantasy land and reality goes out the window. Do people think it doesn't matter of the earth heats up? They'll just move to another city?

At any rate, Rogan won't have tapeworms if he manages to survive covid.