I woke up in a good mood as I usually do. Had my coffee. Ready to take on the day. Avoided media because there is no point at the moment. Thought about communication and conversations which have been less than satisfactory of late.
Then noticed that despite my efforts, a midge had made it into the home. Someone in my household reacts and as I learned it's actually a tropical wasp that camouflages as a fruitfly, except that it has orange eyes and warning stripes on closer inspection. It means that I have some hunting, swearing and squishing ahead of me. Welcome to global warming.
I'm an extrovert, I'll smalltalk with anyone, except that phones have turned everyone into experts who at times must share their opinion and convince me of it. Agreeing to disagree is no longer an option, there is a rise in aggression that I have never encountered before and no longer know how to deal with. This is not normal behavior.
Among the many almost daily examples was someone in the caregiving industry (the irony does not escape me), who was helping me with my father, and who had not gone to university. I don't look down on people and never have. I am well aware that life happens and there is little correlation between IQ and University. Many people are autodidactic and can gather enough science information later in life.
He called, we made arrangements and then we chatted. He initiated the topic that Bill Gates was killing African Women by making them infertile through pesticides.
I corrected him and told him that Gates was funding several projects through business philanthropy to make mozzies infertile and that this was mostly through genetic modification, which, if successful, will lead to lucrative patents. It won't affect humans in any way because the propagated myth that we share 98% of DNA with a fruitfly is a persistent myth. My personal opinion is that it won't work. Although I wouldnt mind if mozzies went extinct. Maybe I'm too influenced by Crighton's Jurassic Park in which nature always finds a way.
Rather than the expected civil discussion, he became irrational, belligerent and insulting:"You don't know what you're talking about...you idiot!...He's going to kill us all...". Yikes. One of those. We haven't spoken since and he is no longer working in that field.
People no longer know how to communicate. They no longer listen. They have forgotten how to engage in discourse. It is deeply troubling and concerning as the alternative is to no longer engage in conversation.
I went to the washroom just now. Learned that the tropical visitor, resistant to chlorine and bleach, also uses water in its lifecycle. Instead of saving it, I flushed. Sometimes problems take care of themselves.
