Critical Thinking in Troubled Times, by William Bernard Butler

In a matter of about a month, the United States federal government silently and unilaterally exited from a two-year war on an illusory, and perhaps illusionary, virus, and pivoted toward fomenting and provoking a kinetic war with a nuclear-armed Russia.  While many people in the U.S. unquestioningly and dutifully removed their masks and started using the Ukrainian flag emoji on their iPhones and social media feeds, the rest of us are left with trying to discern between whether we are on the precipice of a kinetic World War III or simply witnessing a bankrupt and petrodollar-dependant Leviathan in its death throes.

Or perhaps both.

As a sign of the times, this week I witnessed a 40-something year old black cop at a gas station speaking to the 50-something white station owner when the cop said, “I am so sick of this fear bull*@$t, as soon as they put the Covid bottle of fear back on the shelf, they take the Ukraine fear bottle off and put it in front of people and yell lies at them until they are actually afraid!  Don’t people know that all this BS only benefits the people trying to control you!”  He was wearing a mask strapped absurdly far under his chin.  When asked why he was wearing a mask, he said:  “So I can ask everyone who two weeks ago was asking me to pull up my mask why they aren’t wearing theirs anymore!  I’m going to keep wearing it like this until they wake up!”