A visit to the grocery store always makes for an interesting experience. The arrows on the floor, directing me which way to travel down the aisles, the big red dots placed six feet apart to remind me to “socially distance”, et cetera. But the age of the people that appear to be most deeply mired in their own paranoia is always the same: the old. I’ve seen a man in his 70’s strapped with an N95 mask, complete with Scotch tape sealing any gaps in between his skin and the mask itself, elderly couples with cloth bags that envelope their entire head, mask-wearing vigilantes in paroxysms of indignation at the sight of the unmasked young people in their vicinity. There have been others, all choking themselves on their own carbon dioxide, secure in the belief that they are risking their lives by venturing beyond their homes in order to buy groceries. This is the power of propaganda, and I believe that the age groups most susceptable to it are the ones who still watch cable TV. If CNN is playing non-stop in your home, you’ll be subjected to a constant barrage of COVID-19 fearmongering. You’ll likely be palsied by fear, and unable to function. The age group most likely to still watch that garbage is, well, the old. They’re soaked in it, and in turn demand that the world shut down, and we all suffer from this coalition of the fearful.
