Today, we look back on the handling of past pandemics with a sense of pity, owing mostly to the ignorance of the time as to specifics of the virus.

While I think future generations will find us similarly afflicted, I worry they'll find us more taken by arrogance than ignorance .

A society convinced, at least in large swaths, that not only do they know more than everyone about everything, but that they in particular know more about medicine than doctors.

That their refusal to acknowledge their own relative ignorance is somehow patriotism.

That the first 30 pages of Google results have it wrong, and believing only the unsourced result from page 31 rather than all the rest is a mark of elevated intelligence.

That wearing a seatbelt is ordinary, if experts claim its efficacy, but wearing a mask can't possibly be.

All these things and more will be judged by our children, and their children, and on and on.

The pity we feel for the helpless savages who "treated" ilness with leaches will pale in comparison to the pity and outright contempt directed at us from future generations.

And before you call that statement overblown, please consider that this isn't a statement about when it safely reopen. This isn't a statement about the economy.

This is simply observing that history books will detail the hundreds of thousands dead - and also our response.

Was your response rooted in reason? In science? In concern for you your fellow man?

If so, I'm not talking about you.

I'm talking specifically about people who couldn't even pretend to have a reason other than "nobody tells me what to do/nobody is smarter than me".

And make no mistake - "nobody is smarter than me" is exactly what conspiracy theorists always think.

It's at the root of the anti-vax movement, the flat Earth movement, and all the rest, including COVID-19 being a hoax.

Have mistakes been made by powerful people throughout the course of the pandemic? Yes.

Have many of those mistakes infringed on people's rights? Yes.

Is any of that excusable? No.

But none of those facts makes the entire pandemic a hoax.

At least 100,000 people have died from COVID-19 in just under 3 months. The actual number is likely at least 150,000, as there is a drastic increase in excess deaths compared to past years.

The % chance that more Americans will die from COVID-19 than died in WW2 is non-zero.

In any case, it will easily end up being one of the deadliest events in history. Especially given the brevity of the disease compared to a protected war.

A visualization of the density of deaths per day compared to other events from history will be staggering.

And our disagreement about some of the precise steps to deal with the situation is fine. It's healthy.

What's not healthy is rooting disagreement in an elevated sense of self-importance that centers you as the source of knowledge over actual experts.

What's not healthy is spending more time arguing about edge cases than addressing recurring problems.

Nursing homes are being ravaged by the disease, and we haven't spent a comparative iota of time mourning that loss as we have arguing about what it means.

It's deeply troubling and saddening that we've lost an sense of collective purpose sufficient to at least mourn together.

It's the same sense that has us laugh together. And it's desperately needed.

Show your neighbors, friends, and family some grace today. Try to get back to where we can all laugh together.

Because if we don't, we're gonna be the classic example of what not to do for generations to come.