The Little Conundrummer Boy

I realized a conundrum the other day.  It's one I don't expect to resolve, because its foundation is based on insanity.  But that doesn't make it any less a conundrum.

One the one hand, we have this mass of people on the far right who are so outraged at China for supposedly being the cause of the deep hell that the United States (and world) have gone through for the past year, as the COVID-19 coronavirus spread and disrupted all of our lives due to the life-threatening dangers it brings from infection and has killed 588,238 Americans so far.  And this anger at China has been so pronounced and virulent that hate crimes against people from China or even against people who just look like they're probably from China or look like they may have ancestors from China.

On the other hand, we have basically this same mass of people on the far right who think that COVID-19 is a hoax and not any worse than the flu, and that face masks don't do anything and so there's no need to wear them, and that social distancing is not even remotely necessary, and that they won't take the vaccine and that businesses should be allowed to open and schools should open and that life should be totally normal since all is okay.

I just have no idea how people can hold both these diametrically polar-opposite views.  Thinking that China is supposedly so horrible for being the cause of all this infection that has disrupted our life and killed almost 600,000 Americans -- and at the same time think that everything should be normal and that no precautions are necessary at all because COVID-19 is a hoax and everything is, in fact, pretty much fine.

As I said at the beginning, I don't think there is any way to resolve this conundrum, which has a gap so wide that it makes the Grand Canyon it looks like a paper cut.  When an opinion has no foundation in reality and is untenable, yet becomes core to to a person's belief system, that alone is enough to become an unmovable object.  When it's two such opinions without foundation in reality -- and they contradict each other -- yet are both core to a person's belief system, it is more a case of the fabled unmovable object meeting the unstoppable force, but within a single person, which is likely closer to the kind of chain reaction that causes an atomic bomb going off in that person non-stop.  Which may explain a) why it is unresolvable, and b) why we now see so many on the far right acting with such insanity, manifesting itself in things like insurrection, voter suppression, defense of killing unarmed minorities and believing a totally anonymous conspiracy leader without having the slightest idea where on earth its lunatic pronouncements come from because from all those inner-explosions you have caused in yourself you are in desperate need of some direction, any direction, and are willing to accept anything that sounds like it's something you want to believe in, no matter how insane it is, since you probably can't tell.

So...no, I don't expect to resolve the conundrum.  But recognizing it at least helps know where not to step to avoid mucking up your shoes.

And hey, even if there's no resolution, happily we can always face it with a song...