Every once in a great while I get a chance for what I consider to be prime people watching.
Today, it was in the waiting room at a specialist I took my mother to see. The place was crazy overbooked. We sat for almost 3 hours waiting. But in that time, I got to hear a number of interesting conversations:
- Two people who had started CPAP therapy in the past few months were worried that their doctors had some sort of spy programs running because the doctors could tell if they were using their machines or not (the machines have cellular data connectivity; I can check mine daily to see how my numbers are doing)
- There was a guy who insisted that while the doctor told him he was wrong, Morphine only impacted pain between his shoulder and his head (nothing below) because it was “specially formulated” for his shoulder.
- One person had a long discussion with 3 or 4 people across the room about how she was sure she could just bring in a cup of her urine so she didn’t have to pee there. It’s her constitutional right.
- A long conversation among many people– that it pained me to not enter into– about how much better the medical system was going to be once Trumpcare was the law instead of Obamacare
- One person applauded Dr. Phil on the TV and asked that everyone “shut up” so he could hear the rest of what was being said
Now I’ll be fair… I’m biased. But these people seemed less than enlightened to me.
And that’s why I bring it up. Almost anyone reading my blog knows:
- Cell data, as I said, or Wifi– the whole idea of a CPAP machine’s functionality is to help you AND record if it is helping you so adjustments could be made. It’s not one of Kelly Ann’s spy microwaves
- Morphine is not reformulated to target specific body parts. I’m fairly certain that’s impossible, but even if some bizarre advancement made it possible, it wouldn’t be called morphine anymore. It’d be “magic shoulder and neck pills.”
- Of course we can trust people to bring in outside urine for drug tests, because no one ever tries to fake one of those
- There is no Trumpcare. Forget whether or not it’s “better” than the AMA. It has to be a thing to have an opinion
- The single L Dr. Phil is a tool, and no one has ever managed to get 30 people to shut up in a doctor’s waiting room so they can hear the TV
There was also the chronic chain-smoker who reeked of cigarettes and/or exhaust that decided he needed to stop for a breather and take deep breaths into my face, and the guy who threatened to sue the doctor for asking him to fill out too many forms.
Here’s the wake-up call. If you don’t like Trump or the administration, if you don’t understand what happened to America…
It’s right in front of you.
Don’t be sheltered. Go out and look at the people in your community. I think among my set–academics, sorta-hip folks, game developers and Leet Dorkz, Creative Types and dreamers, it’s easy to think that how we see the world, the application of logic and compassion and critical thinking to most situations, is how the world “is.” But it’s not.
I’m not going to say that the worst of the people I saw at the doctor’s office today is a pure reflection of America, but they also aren’t unique. I didn’t have a crazy happenstance moment where I found a bunch of perfect examples of scary lack of critical thought. This happens any time you end up in a large gathering of normal people. These are the people who voted for Trump. They’re the people who we think are super-rare, who we think don’t represent our country.
We are at war with ignorance.
Know your enemy.