Which brings me to another point. Why do people like some of my friends and relatives on FB turn to conspiracy theories? In part because it's somehow more comforting to believe that someone manipulative is in control than to accept that life can be so randomly horrific.

Some people liked to believe that Bush was behind 9/11. I maintain because it's preferable to believe that one evil man was behind it than a few whackos can kill that many people and turn the world upside down on a whim. An evil man in control means you can expose him, remove him

and everything can be okay again. There's a central, identifiable controller who can be exposed and dealt with and the world made right again. That's better than some fucks with box cutters can randomly bring down buildings and murder thousands on a random Tuesday in September.

A big one going around right now is that 5G is responsible. Another is, I guess, a suggestion that some mysterious force causes pandemics every 100 years. I get it on a theoretical level. It's more comforting to think that there's an evil villain that can be defeated, or

that there's a rhyme and reason and predictably, than some "invisible" thing that spreads by human touch and interaction can suddenly infect countless millions and possibly kill millions. And that we could get past this and have the same thing start again a week later.