I’m so Tired of Willful Ignorance

I’m so f*cking tired of willful ignorance and leaky critical thinking skills.

My daughter asked me last minute if she could go to dinner with her father and his family. Sure I replied right away, grateful I didn’t have to cook the salmon I just pulled out of the fridge to prepare for dinner.

Of all the parental chores, cooking is my least favorite obligation.

It was one of her step-sibling’s birthdays, and they were going to dinner to celebrate last minute.

My daughter was happy I gave a rapid yes. She knows I don’t like last-minute changes in plans. I love when she’s happy.

Ten minutes later, her mood changed drastically.

We aren’t going. How come? Now we’re going Saturday.

She went back into her room sullen.

I didn’t press the issue. It was apparent she didn’t want to talk about it from the way she slammed her door.

For the second time that night, I grabbed the salmon out of the fridge and started preparing dinner.

The next day while driving her to school, she shared the reason for the previous night’s change in plans, twice. Her stepmother wanted more time to pass between seeing my daughter and my daughter receiving the COVID-19 vaccine (my daughter got the first dose the day after it was approved for 12 to 15-year-olds) because her stepmother didn’t want my daughter to “give” her the vaccine.

Yes, I know. This is not possible.

However, according to science, COVID-19 is the most contagious airborne virus, even more so than SARS-CoV, the pandemic influenza of 1918 and the pandemic influenza of 2009. Just breathing next to someone with the virus will most likely make you a host as well.

Of course, you have to believe in science for the above paragraph to matter.

When my daughter finally opened up about what had bothered her the previous night, I was driving in heavy LA traffic. I had to take a few deep breaths because I wanted to scream or drive my car off the road into a ditch.

I’m so f*cking tired of willful ignorance.

Especially when a child is involved. Any child, the elderly, any person whose immune system is compromised by poor health or genetics or age — the most vulnerable people. I’ve been taught to stick up for those more vulnerable than me, and so has my child.

The dinner out was changed because my daughter had the temerity to get vaccinated. To add insult to injury, she was then blamed for the change in plans. Pegged as the disrupter to her step-sibling’s birthday dinner. The problem child.

When really, her stepmother is a QAnon nut with severe emotional problems. A child was made to feel like a pariah by an ‘adult’ — her father’s wife — based on the ignorance that a vaccine is contagious.

More time had to pass so my daughter wouldn’t infect her stepmother with a made-up fantasy of how vaccinations can not only make you sick, but you can also ‘catch’ a vaccine. This is the same woman who refuses to wear a mask. The same woman who flew across the country to attend “the storming” of the US Capitol — the very citadel of Democracy — the day Biden was to be certified as the US President. Because Biden won the most votes.

The change of the dinner plans was blamed on a child who has the good sense to protect herself with a life-saving vaccine, thus protecting every person she comes into contact with — teachers, friends, grandparents. The act of getting vaccinated shows concern for fellow humans with whom she shares air and the planet, to help rid the world of COVID-19.

But only if enough people get the vaccine.

From The Mayo Clinic,

Herd immunity also can be reached when enough people have been vaccinated against a disease and have developed protective antibodies against future infection. Unlike the natural infection method, vaccines create immunity without causing illness or resulting complications.

We live in LA one of the most liberal cities in America, except for, perhaps, San Francisco. My ex has taken a drastic political turn because of his choice of mate — the one Trump supporter in all of LA — who has leaky reasoning and poor critical thinking skills, if any, which has cost my daughter her father in more ways than one.

Before my daughter got the vaccine (she just got it two weeks ago) each time she goes over to their house for dinner, they (her father and his wife) grill her on why she thinks the vaccine is safe. They tell her the US Government just wants to see how many toxins they can make Americans take, that it isn’t safe, and contains a chip to track Americans, that COVID-19 is made up, that masks don’t work, that the coronavirus is exaggerated and “just like the flu.” Despite the millions of Americans who’ve already died. Despite the death toll in India and Brazil today. Despite how highly contagious it is, despite bodies pilling up so fast we don’t have room for them at the morgue.

Of course, they have no actual evidence of the nonsense they spew.

They point to their ignorant circle of QAnon friends spreading lies on social media platforms that still allow QAnon nonsense. They can’t point to any actual facts because there are none.

My daughter relayed in the car how her stepmother seems joyous when talking about “save the children.” According to Q and my daughter’s stepmother, Trump is facing down a cabal of pedophiles led by Hillary Clinton, Obama, Oprah, and Tom Hanks. A conspiracy started with a made-up story called PizzaGate. The origin of much QAnon nonsense.

My child observed, “I feel like she (stepmother) doesn’t really care about the children, but the attention she gets when talking about it.”

From how her stepmother has treated me since she met my husband, my daughter’s astute observation is spot on. The woman craves any kind of attention, negative or positive, just as long as someone is sparring with her. Chaos is her normal.

From watching HBO’s docuseries Q: Into the Storm, one observation that stayed with me is that normal everyday people — not very happy in their pre-Q/pre-COVID-19 lives — are finding celebrity, attention, and money in clicks from writing and talking about the lies promoted by QAnon on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

Not as much anymore since QAnon conspiracies have been banned from Facebook and Twitter, but these enterprising ‘entrepreneurs’ find other platforms to spread falsehoods and dangerous made-up stories while making bank. Killing people in the process with dangerous and outrageous and false claims about vaccinations.

A friend of mine keeps sending me the QAnon posts my ex-husband’s wife shares on Instagram and Facebook before she gets tagged and blocked from using these sites for breaking their terms and conditions. She still thinks Trump will be president sometime soon. For the first time, she’s getting a lot of engagement and positive attention. People actually believe the made-up stuff she peddles.

Somehow my ex does as well.

QAnon conspiratorial thinking is creeping into mainstream and has been for quite sometime. It’s just that people aren’t paying attention.

• 15 percent of Americans say they think that the levers of power are controlled by a cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles, a core belief of QAnon supporters.
• 15 to 20 percent of Americans believe core QAnon beliefs.
• One in five Republicans fully rejected the premises of the QAnon conspiracy theory. For Democrats, 58 percent were flat-out QAnon rejecters.

Here are common-sense facts

• A barrier (like a mask, for instance) between your mouth and someone else’s breath will limit what you inhale from that other person.
• Joe Biden is the President of the United States.
• Here is Hillary Clinton out with friends — not “locked up” — at a posh NYC restaurant, Oh, is that Sting’s wife Trudie Styler talking to former President Clinton, lucky Bill.

• HRC will never go to jail because she has never done anything illegal, despite the far-right investigating the Clintons for 40-plus years. The right has never been able to charge Hillary Clinton with anything. She is one of the most investigated political figures. Even when Republicans are in power, they can’t pin anything on her.
• Hillary Clinton is one of the most respected politicians in the world.
• Trump lies. Here is a list of his lies.
• COVID-19 is among the 10 deadliest pandemics in history.
• A screenshot of a tweet shared more than 42,000 times on Instagram falsely claimed that the death rate for fully vaccinated people sick with COVID-19 is “significantly higher” compared to unvaccinated individuals. That’s false.
• COVID-19 vaccines are effective. However, a small percentage of people who are fully vaccinated will still get COVID-19 if they are exposed to the virus that causes it, according to the CDC. These infections are defined as “vaccine breakthrough cases.”
• Vaccine breakthrough cases only occur in a small percentage of vaccinated people. And public health officials say that these cases actually reinforce the effectiveness of the vaccines.
• As of May 4, more than 105 million people in the United States have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to the CDC. During this same time, the CDC received 9,245 reports of vaccine breakthrough infections. That’s less than .01% of fully vaccinated Americans.
• Fact check: So far, there’s no hard proof of anyone in the US — adults or children — having died as a result of getting a COVID-19 vaccine. Three people have died from a rare blood clotting issue that health officials have said could be linked to the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which hasn’t been approved for children.
• If we don’t reach a certain number of vaccinated people worldwide, we will be dealing with COVID-19 for the next 20 years.
• Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol. My daughter’s Trump-loving stepmother was at the attack. Mitch McConnell, at the time, agreed that Trump incited violence. McConnell said, the attack at the Capitol was “provoked by the president.”
• Here is a video of Trump inciting violence
• Here is a picture of people storming the Capitol on January 6. Observe the Trump flags and cheap Trump paraphernalia.

• Voter fraud isn’t a real thing. “In April 2020, a voter fraud study covering 20 years by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found the level of fraud “exceedingly rare” since it occurs only in “0.00006 percent” of instances nationally, and, in one state, “0.000004 percent — about five times less likely than getting hit by lightning in the United States.
• Here is a sampling of voter fraud. Look at the numbers for ‘Proven instances of voter fraud.’ That is a very low number. It is so low, in fact, it can’t determine an election.
• The Big Lie (the 2020 election was stolen) pushed by Trump and Bannon is working. It is sewing doubt that the 2020 election was free, fair, and legitimate. Many Republicans now question the election results. This is an effort by Republicans to win back control of the Senate in 2022 and the Presidency in 2024. It very may well work. It’s working now, IRT.
• There is voter suppression and voter intimidation. Voter suppression and voter intimidation are how Republicans plan to win in 2022 and 2024. They haven’t been able to win with actual policy agendas. Rarely do Republicans talk policy. They fear bait all the time. It works. Fear is easy to peddle.
• Texas is about to turn blue. This scares Republicans. I don’t think Republicans can win a national election without Texas.
• Republicans are doing everything they can right now to restrict voting access for people of color and young voters. Republicans don’t actually care about governing. They don’t care about the average person, like you and me. They care about power and giving tax cuts to the uber-wealthy, oil companies, and the NRA. If they cared about governing, they would allow people to cast ballots freely.
• “Republican-led Legislature in Texas pressed ahead on Thursday with its own far-reaching bill that would make it one of the most difficult states in the nation in which to cast a ballot.”
• “The Texas bill would, among other restrictions, greatly empower partisan poll watchers, prohibit election officials from mailing out absentee ballot applications and impose strict punishments for those who provide assistance outside the lines of what is permissible.”
• In the middle of the night, this past Saturday, May 29, 2021, the Texas Senate approved a restrictive new voting law over protests from Democrats. The bill, which would eliminate drive-thru voting and 24-hour polling centers, still needs House approval.
• Republicans are weaponizing legal tactics to prevent people from voting in future elections. They want to punish voters for getting help “outside the lines of what is permissible” when casting to vote. We are heading toward an autocracy.
• Trump is unable to win elections unless Russian is stealing them for him. Russia was not as able to manipulate voters’ biases on social media, as much in 2020, as they did in 2016. Trump couldn’t win. Trump doesn’t actually know what the f*ck he is doing when it comes to governing and policy. And worse, he doesn’t give a f*ck about people. If you believe he does, know that he steals money from his followers who make monetary donations to his campaign.
• Trump underhandedly changed his father’s will when his father was on his death bed.
• Trump stole money from his niece, Mary Trump, her inheritance — no problem. He is her uncle.
• Trump was elected because of several factors tipping the 2016 election in his favor. The combination of these factors robbed the US of our first female president.

Here they are below:

1. Comey’s f*ck-up. Then FBI Director James Comey violated FBI protocol and commented on an investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email 11 days before an election in which the investigated, Hillary Clinton, was running for president. The day of Comey’s press conference was the day Hillary Clinton lost the election.
2. Russian cyber warfare on our elections tilted the election to Trump, especially in MI, WI, and PA.
3. Bernie Sander’s misogyny — allowing his campaign manager to call HRC a “whore” at the beginning of the primary. This set the tone for his campaign. The “whore” comment gave approval and instigated his angry, white Bern Bro mob into full throttle attack mode of any person who dared to support Hillary Clinton, fracturing the Democratic party and playing into the hands of Russian bots and trolls. Hillary Clinton was the first female candidate on a major party ticket.
4. Bern bros’ temper tantrums over god knows what. They were militant on healthcare, yet Clinton had a comprehensive plan for healthcare and the experience to implement it.
5. Marc Burnett. Had Trump not been on The Apprentice, those Americans who usually sit out when it comes time to vote would have stayed home. Celebrities get people to the polls, think anyone with the last name Kennedy, Schwarzenegger, and Reagan. They have name recognition built-in. Except for the Kennedys, none of the above-mentioned people are qualified to hold public office, especially Trump.

(Had only one of the incidents mentioned above occurred, Hillary Clinton would be president today. No political figure could surmount the significant attacks on her character and lies spewed/false innuendoes by her opposition without impunity, fighting against her, even someone as popular as Hillary Clinton. More factors tilted the election to Trump, but I mentioned the top five. Misogyny is one hell of a drug.)

We have a huge dumb problem in America

More than half of Americans get their news from social media.

If we don’t start teaching critical thinking skills in schools at an early age, focus less on teaching to the test, teach how to sort fact from fantasy, where to find reliable news sources and how to fact check them to reach conclusions based on reality, Democracy will not survive.

It is already dying right in front of us.

The latest cut by a thousand deaths is McConnell killing the bipartisan commission that was to investigate the Capitol attack, which injured 140 police officers and killed five people.

Democracy was attacked on January 6th by white supremacists, QAnon supporters, The Proud Boys, and other Trump fanatics that don’t know anything about politics, what the word Democracy means, or how primaries and elections work — homegrown terrorists dressed in Trump swag.

We will never have a bipartisan commission record and affirm what we all know happened on January 6th — an angry, mostly white mob attacked our Democracy. We will never have an independent investigation for the history books.

Hillary Clinton has been investigated…how many times…but an attack on our Capitol which houses our elected officials to certify our votes for ‘free and fair’ elections, a riot instigated by Trump, will not be investigated.

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Jessica is a writer, an online entrepreneur, and a recovering Type A personality. She lives in Los Angeles with her extrovert daughter, two dogs, and two cats.