Thursday Ramble: Not going off the deep end

A friend recently sent me an email with a list of Darwin Award nominees, I read through, laughed at the stupidity, and realized that at least one of them was not true.  It was an old story, told on and off for decades, it keeps coming back.  It has been proven wrong, and yet people keep falling into the deep end over it.  

I know someone who is convinced that Ukraine is not at war, because he looked at several webcams online and couldn't see fighting.  He is convinced that it is all a fake.  He has taken a deep dive into it if he can't confirm it, it can't be true.  

There are messages of love, respect, and sharing in religions.  Many people find comfort in this.  Some are seeking answers to unanswerable questions.  Some go off the deep end, believing that everyone must believe as they believe. A failure, that overshadows the essential message that we need to be good to others and ourselves to find happiness.   Faith is weaponized by those off the deep end. 

There are always politicians at the fringes. Ultra conservative, Ultra liberal, off the deep end on both sides.  There is a vast middle ground that sensible minds can agree on, yet the shouts (sometimes literal shouts) from the deep end tend to drown out the voices of common ground.  

The experts say, that minds are changed, when they get to know, like and trust someone who is different, and a realization strikes that they might be off the deep end.  It is possible to swim to the middle.