Contradictions Abound — By John Reed

Contradictions Abound
When you were young, did your parents ever say “Do as I say, not as I do”? Turns out they weren’t always such great role models. I remember both my parents were heavy smokers, yet tried to convince me to never start.
Savvy kids pick up on these sorts of contradictions even today. Even my fifth grade classroom was filled with students who had seen enough silly behavior from adults to be wise beyond their years.
Outside the home, contradictions abound. Many of us remember when we were nearing the dawn of a new ice age, and now global warming is the buzzword. Statistics can make anything plausible: sure, the weather is getting warmer over the last thousand years…but over several millions, it’s been much hotter, and life carried on.
Of course then there was the population explosion. By 2100, civilization was doomed to fail thanks to too many people. Now everyone’s alarmed by falling birth rates. So which is it? And don’t even get started about Covid, vaccines, and masks.
The reality is science has become too entwined with politics. Nothing new, just read about Galileo and the Vatican. The problem now is there are fewer reasonable minds willing to discuss both sides of the issues.
The public has become too lazy to question whatever the media spoon feeds us, and those who do question the prevailing opinion get the modern version of Socrates’ treatment. However, newer online media forums like X are offering fact-checking features, allowing those users who aren’t lazy to look deeper into issues they have questions about.
Meanwhile, the silliness continues. Even locally, we’re presented with conundrums like:
-Pavement and sidewalks change or stop at city/county lines, regardless of need.
-The bridge on highway 19 north of Lumber City has different speed limits, (45 or 55 mph) depending on the direction of travel.
Readers are invited to submit their own conundrum…this could be fun.