Matt, this is so beautifully written, it's been a while since I've seen such incredible wordsmithery from you... if I could upvote this more I totally would.
I have to say though, I'm friends with lots of different types of people, we've certainly got a weird melting pot of personalities and ideologies in the peeps we hang with regularly... including lots of childless, non-religious types and maybe it's just a US thing, but immortality would be terrifying to these people. They're not even sure they'll ever be able to retire.
No, in my experience the mask and vaccine freak outs are all about just trying to survive the next few months. Accounts like this are the basis for those fears... I just don't think anyone I personally know is thinking about immortality at all.
Thanks, mate. I'm not so much talking about the people who are wearing masks, getting vaccinated, social distancing etc; The ones trying to protect themselves.
I'm trying to make sense of some of the more extreme posturing; and speculate on where it's really coming from. I look at some of these people and wonder how much we can possibly have in common. It's difficult to comprehend what drives them. I'm certainly open to being wrong.
Ah! Sorry, I missed that.
Yeah, the kinder side of me thinks it might be related to the stress and anxiety of the situation, especially in the overly-tribalistic US... but the less kind side of me thinks there is always people that take things way way way too far... but now we're getting footage of these outbursts, which is new.