Don’t Waste Time Talking To Zombies

Re: “American Loneliness” by Doyle Srader (EW 9/16):

“Remember my conservative family, friends who had great slogans and bumper stickers… they were reducing an issue to a sound bite, using jokes to turn humans into caricatures. Doing that to an idea is misguided; to people, is violent.”

Rush Limbaugh and Donald Trump have been doing this for over 40 years, and they weren’t using their wit to help their minions cope. Far from it. They are, to date, using their platforms to create fearful, delusional, belligerent zombies.

Collaborate? With zombies?

I’ve tried reasoning with duped family and friends. Futile. Publicly mocking or denigrating them is also futile and, because of their mental state, dangerous. 

For the sake of the common good, I’m vaccinated. That’s what normal, caring people do for each other. We keep our distance from the unvaccinated. We’re not lonely. We’re not driving the problem (which is fear of the “other,” not loneliness); the bratty, grabby power hungry and their zombies are.

Annie Kayner

Eugene