Don’t fall for the “correcting misinformation” bait.

Reaffirm the positive and true:
- vaccines prevent diseases & associated mortality
- testing helps identify cases of COVID, treat the sick and prevent spread
- cloth and paper masks are safe & potentially beneficial

There is no situation in which you can engage with or debate against misinformation and it’s peddlers.

Not a reply. Not a retweet with comment. Not a screenshot.

Any and all of these (very tempting) responses have predictably negative results:
- spreading misinformation
- broadcasting idiocy
- lending validity
- cheering of Davids against Goliaths

Many beliefs and statements are just simply too silly to warrant your response.

To respond is to step onto the mat. Knowledge and virtue do not win the match. It’s decided by the cheering of the fickle crowd.

They love the underdog.

Armed with only their wits and common sense, ready to take you and your costly books and elite lecture halls down.

John Henry’s ready to best your fancy steam drill with nothing but heart and will.

Trained fighters know this. Never accept an invitation to brawl in the street. Even if you could easily win in a fair fight, it’s too easy to get stabbed or beaten by dirty tactics outside the ring.

Don’t fight. Leave these people to scream at each other with no valid opponent to give them credibility.

They are noisy but fewer in number than you might think.

Leave them sitting at the bar telling somebody how they could have been a contender.

Don’t let them get their name on the card.
Not on the marquee in lights.

For many of these people (the ones who aren’t bots or high school miscreants), fighting with you is the biggest day of their life. Finally, going toe to toe with a real doctor! I’ll shows those nerds!!

The less we talk about the idiocy, the less there will be.

And the less I will have to see it.

Thus the happier I will become.

We want to keep my happy, right?

So ignore the temptation to join the debate about the best size and shape for the tinfoil hat.

Just leave it alone. Let it fade into obscurity.

Cloth and paper masks are safe. In the right situation, they can reduce the chances that you catch or spread COVID19.

That’s all that needs to be said.

Anyone stranger wants more of my attention than that regarding this issue will have to pay for it.

How much?

More than they can afford.