Is Everyone Paranoid?

Or is it just Americans? I'm tired of my country and I'm tired of the people who live here. Over the past couple months, it seems more and more that the majority of Americans are selfish, self-centered, incapable of compassion, and have no critical thinking skills. Also, while they're proud of being American, they completely hate and fear the government. I know there are plenty of people who don't fit this description, but they're seeming to be fewer and farther between.

I can't even begin to tell you how weary I am of hearing all the conspiracists - and they're everywhere! They're among my friends and acquaintances and my extended family. What are all these rights that the government has been systematically taking away from us for the past two months? The right to get a haircut and acrylic nails? The right to crowd into a tiny bar and drink your sorrows away? The right to possibly infect others because you're sick and asymptomatic? I don't get it. Being told to shelter at home for a couple months so the hospitals don't get overwhelmed - like in Italy - isn't depriving anyone of their freedoms any more than not allowing them to drive drunk is depriving them of their freedoms. (And that doesn't mean hide inside 24/7 - we can buy food and medicine, take walks outside, sit on opposite ends of the front porch and visit with a friend)

There are so many people convinced the government wants to turn us into Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia and do - things - I'm not entirely sure what - that they're willing to gamble not just their own lives but those of countless others on their belief that everyone, all the healthcare workers, all the scientists, everyone in the media, and the entire government is lying to everyone so they can - I don't know. (Most of these seem to be Trump supporters, so it's not him they're afraid of, it's Them. The Shadow Government, the ones who actually run the country and the whole entire world.) It makes me exhausted just to glance over posts like these on my way to read my family Facebook page or play Candy Crush. I can't imagine how exhausting it must be to live such a fearful and distrusting life every single day.

I really do understand that there are a lot of people who are worried because they don't have an income right now and I have empathy for them. I've been there, I've lost my apartment and my car in the past and had to take a job that paid nearly half what I'd been earning. It was only last year that I finally reached the same salary I was making 15 years ago. It's scary and it's really hard to climb out of and I get that. But crowding together in the streets waving signs saying "give me covid or give me death" or walking into the capitol building in Lansing carrying firearms isn't getting their point across. It just makes them look foolish and rather frightening. A mob in the making.

Is every country so mistrustful of medical professionals and scientists, so afraid of their government, and so full of conspiracy theorists? Is this common in Canada? Great Britain? Australia, New Zealand, Iceland?

I actually began researching emigrating to Canada, England, or Ireland over 15 years ago. Unfortunately, there's not a high likelihood of us being able to do that; we just don't tick enough of the boxes. We're a middle-aged couple with a slightly lower than average income, debt, middle-age health issues, with no extraordinary talent and jobs (well, a job - mine) that no employer in any country would find difficult to fill. I think if Irish could find his father's or grandfather's birth records he might be able to claim Irish citizenship, but he doesn't have enough information. He's missing little details - like actual birthdates or names of towns. His grandfather came to the U.S. as a young man but the only actual information he has are his granddad's (very common) name and things like "I think he might've been born in this year, give or take a few, and I think his dad's name is so-and-so and it was in County Clare, but I don't know the name of the village." Not entirely helpful! I still ask from time to time if he's remembered anything I can use to look up records, though. (Irish's dad always gave him the impression that he was also born in Ireland but Irish isn't entirely positive that's true and once again, doesn't have enough information to be helpful.)

Save your vital records folks! Your grandkids might need them. :-)

Off to play some Candy Crush and also find out who else I need to unfollow for awhile.