The crazy has always been out there. Flat earthers. Moon landing deniers. Ancient alien proponents. I know, because I was reading Chariots of the Gods as a teenager.

But yeah, the lid is off the box, and I keep looking for hope at the bottom.

We, as humans, are not evolved enough to handle this firehose of crap. Much of it generated to disrupt, to convince, to confuse. All the old John Birch Society bullshit is rising to the top again. And there is not a damn thing I can do about it.

I’m a teacher. Even though I have no class, that is what I am at heart. But I am frustrated. I’ve tried to convince friends that the stupid thing they saw on Facebook (oops, Meta) is unsourced, poorly interpreted bullshit, but to little avail.

I often wonder when it all went off the rails. And I keep coming back to when the internet really took off. Too easy to funnel crapolla to anyone and everyone now.

Did you know there is an organization that trains far right folks on how to do podcasts and Youtube videos? They teach them how to create a convincing set, the big microphone, the background, how to edit, get yourself a coffee mug with your logo, how to title your piece with catchy clickbait, keep a pen in your hand to look smart. All those crazy uncles now have a channel, followers, and ad revenue.

The Butlerian Jihad might just be a good thing about now.

I love the information at my fingertips. I can access any geologic map ever published in the US while my butt never leaves the chair. I can read books that I could only read in the special collections room of the university library while wearing cotton gloves. But for all we have gained we have lost our minds.

Sigh. Actually glad I’m old.

We tracked down the answer on Google in seconds flat.

We all have access (on our desk, or even in our pockets!)to look up any possible question we could ever possibly have. Even questions for which there is no answer, like “What is the meaning of Life?”, we can get plenty of opinions by history’s greatest thinkers and finest minds.
We all walk around with immediate access to every Britannica Article and every University bookstore in history, the whole Alexfuckingandria Library. We are the first generation in history that had the ability to do this.

But unless you already know what you’re looking for, or have a pretty good idea of what it is, you can’t find it. Its all buried under light-years of white noise. The truth is out there, but you won’t recognize it unless you’re already educated. And its all so new, I can remember distinctly a time when I couldn’t do it. In fact, I still ask questions as if there weren’t a instant answer available on a screen, just a few keystrokes away. We are now surrounded by a generation of people with instant access to all the facts, who don’t realize that. Once they get to an answer, any answer, they assume it must be right.

Shortly after learning about Emile Frandsen, I realized all this. And it terrified me. We have opened up Pandora’s box. And there is no way to shut the lid.

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