August 22nd, 2020. The Devil is in the Details.

I suck at the details. I know I’m supposed to read left to right. If someone’s trying to show me something in Herbrew I know to try to read right to left. But in reality I kind of read from top to bottom, picking up context on the edges of paragraphs and gist from the centre. It works well most of the time, but sometimes means I’m reading things twice or three times if I realize I’m distracted on some level. I suck at on-the-fly arguments because my memory is terrible, but I know how to do research and turn a phrase. Sheesh. It’s the time suck of Facebook – getting distracted by some little detail that someone flings off in passing while arguing some point or another and drilling into the math. Yeah, I lose a LOT of time doing that. I try to limit myself to just one a day, and never more than 30 minutes, but it’s hard.

And no-one will ever read all of it.

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I’m not actually thinking too much about this today, I’m just thinking about how I’m an absolute outlier. So many people don’t think twice about numbers, don’t think twice about “facts” laid out in front of them, and perhaps the worst offenders, the deeply strange conspiracy theorists, are the worst at parsing sensical information while turning around and accusing those around them of not having critical thinking skills. 

Damn. I WAS going to say I’m not actually thinking about this in the context of POLITICS today – but there’s been almost nothing-but. What got my brain rolling today was a series of poorly-researched booking emails where someone, who presumably has the JOB of securing bookings for an artist, contacted me about booking the Takoma Park Folk Festival (locals only, bookings closed, all virtual this September, 100% volunteer no pay) for their screamo / metal band from Europe who’ll be in town in January and only needs a $5000 guarantee. Like… 30 seconds of research would’ve saved both of us some time. 

I also got a really awesome email from Ashei Khan (Detroit’s Tyler Perry!!!) asking me if I’ve got any songs for his Drugz & Strippers MIXTAPE. Like… where does this level of spam COME from? Someone, somewhere, is not doing their research.

And that made me think of politics. 

Decades ago I was TOTALLY into websites like infowars and disinfo and a couple of other similar websites because they touted cool conspiracy theories… you know, UFOs, underground bases, the Loch Ness Monster… weird stuff that I’ve ALWAYS had affection for. When I’d run out of science fiction and fantasy to read in the local library the librarian (who I had a huge crush on) had turned me on (haha) to the Loch Ness Monster, Bigfoot… and I learned that the Truth Is Out There in old books in the public library, right? And probably well into my teens I was a BELIEVER. Eventually I grew out of it simply because the math didn’t add up… with the sheer number of these tales slowly balancing against the sheer number of hunts for concrete evidence… whether it was the idea that a breeding population of plesiosaurs could actually maintain invisibility (and viability) in a Scottish lake without being photographed solidly by SOMEONE over the centuries, or the way, especially once digital cameras meant EVERYONE had one with them (even before cellphones), even professional UFO hunters couldn’t return with anything more than fuzzy lights despite continued tales of truly close encounters.

I’m not at all arguing that we’ve seen all there is to see, but I think remaining Lazarus creature surprises are more apt to be Coelacanths than Megalodons,“Majorcan Midwife Toads” not Mokele Mbembe… and anything or anyone that’s managed to travel light years to see us isn’t going to settle with being kept in a dusty hanger OR with the limited interactions of surprise probings on dusty Midwest roads. Something that can GET to us will be able to maintain secrecy if that’s the desire, or be a worldwide sensation if it’s not. 

The more I became steeped in this stuff I also just started seeing repeat characters, stereotypes, stupidities – and being a sci-fi buff, stuff repeated from TV. 

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I think a real clincher was getting drawn into a conversation with a neighbour who, with absolute dead seriousness, was telling me about the CIA’s secret installation in Woodlawn, MD and proceeded to tick off ALL the plot points of Die Hard IV… (complete with descriptions of the Secret Computer Banks). So, does it really seem more likely that in an elaborate double bluff The Industrial Military Complex has allowed very exacting details of their top-secret plans to become Lovingly reproduced by Bruce Willis and Len Wiseman (and somehow my pleasant 60-somethin’ rotund neighbour John who I’ve never seen leave his house knew the truth!) – or … you know… John’s kinda gullible and will introduce random shit into his personal mythology?

On tour we’ve gone out of our way (I lie, I’VE gone out of my way and tricked Heather) to go see UFO museums and in that process I’ve gotten to see some of the original letters from famous abductees that I’ve seen reproduced in books and on web pages over the years. The realization that many of these have been cleaned up in these reproductions, and that in original form they have childlike handwriting and poor grammar and … well… it was a real eye opener to see that there’s a LOT of people just like John just ready to indiscriminately absorb misunderstood information.

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Going back to infowars and disinfo and all these bullshitters – now it’s not UFOs and lizard people in Mount Shasta, and they’ve even mostly moved past chemtrails and GMOs. Now it’s racism and qAnon. Jade Helm wasn’t enough, now it’s Operation Mockingbird (not to be confused with PROJECT Mockingbird) and the Jews are coming for YOU! 

The souls of the people haven’t changed, they’re just peddling different shit to get clicks and sales. It’s people like this that make me NOT believe in free speech – and the people that fall for it haven’t changed either. They just can’t believe bad things happen without a reason, and surely, surely there must be SOMEONE or SOMETHING behind them. And they’re probably Satanist pedophiles and they’re PROBABLY in the hidden basement of a pizza restaurant. 

Right? RIGHT?!?!?

Anywho. Fooled once, fooled twice etc. We absolutely should blame the people who’re making up stories about infernoes in crowded theatres – and better education might clear out some of the deadwood where this stuff catches genuine fire but eventually we really need to blame the people who KEEP handing them MEGAPHONES.

Ahem. Sorry. That didn’t go where I expected it to. Really the only thing I was talking about on Facebook today was that the idea that there’s more crime in cities with Democrat mayors than in ones led by Republicans would need a lot of math behind it not just a random statement on Facebook and is hardly conclusive even on its face since only only 13 out of the 50 largest cities in America have Republican mayors, and the populations of these 13 cities COMBINED barely equals the population of New York City. BAH!

Maybe I only suck at SOME details.