People are crazy

Some readers will recognize that phrase as the title of a song by Billy Currington. Written by Bobby Bradock and Troy Jones, it tells the story of a young man sitting next to an old man in a bar, having some beers and “swappin’ I don’t cares.”

Then the old man shares some wisdom: God is great, beer is good, and people are crazy.

Pretty hard to argue with that, unless you don’t think beer is good. But the other two statements qualify as “self-evident” truths.

My original title for this article was, “Why do they think that’s OK?” Instead of asking the question, I’m just going to answer it: people are crazy.

What did they do?

What did they do that made me ask “Why do they think that’s OK?”

What didn’t they do?

Last night my wife and I were stopped in a left turn lane at a light. When the light changed, the driver in front of us threw something (a wrapper?) out of his window as he drove away. Why does he think that’s OK?

Recently there was a story in The Atlantic, a magazine recently in the news because Jeffrey Goldberg, Editor-in-Chief, was mistakenly included in a federal government group chat about specific attack plans against Houthi terrorists.

He not only reported that error but, after contacting the White House and confirming there was no classified information involved, also published portions of the electronic conversation.

The biggest part of the story, from my perspective, was that the error occurred. Mike Waltz, national security adviser, took the blame for the mistake.

(Some of my friends thought the journalist should have not reported the error to the public, or at least not reported the content. I disagree. Journalists do what they do, ideally, for the benefit of the public, and this was good for the public and a good lesson for the White House. If it helped The Atlantic sell more magazines, that’s good for them as well.)

A different journalist for The Atlantic recently published a story that I feel a little different about.

Saahil Desai, Senior Associate Editor at The Atlantic, decided to rent a Tesla truck for a day and drive it around to see what kind of reactions he got from people. Perhaps because he lives there, he chose to drive it around Washington D.C.

That is, in fact, the capital of America. But I don’t think his choice yielded reactions from a political cross-section of the country. In fact he was looking for protesters.

As opposed to the reporting done by Mr. Goldberg, this was pure click bait. A “puff piece” written specifically for the primary audience of The Atlantic. and bearing the well-written title (for its purpose) “My Day Inside America’s Most Hated Car.”

This wasn’t news, just opinion, and the Tesla truck is not America’s most hated car, but it did confirm this: people are crazy.

Vitriol one finger at a time

I’ll leave it to you to imagine what kind of verbal reception he reported receiving, but this reported non-verbal reaction says enough: “Then came the next stoplight: A woman eating outside at Le Pain Quotidien gave me the middle finger for a solid 20 seconds, all without interrupting her conversation.”

All of those haters don’t really hate the Tesla truck — they hate, or think they hate, Elon Musk and anyone who supports him. And they are willing to express that using the words and actions they think will hurt the most. “Take that!”

Why do they think that’s OK?

I suppose if I asked any of the protesters directly, a common answer might be “free speech.”

One woman did say to the driver (window down at a stop light), “I hope somebody blows you up.” Why did the lady with the finger and the one with the mouth think that was OK?

On the other hand, for the last ten years or more stand up comedians have plied their craft with an underlying fear of saying something that will get them cancelled. In fact that happened to Roseanne Barr, and her show being the most popular show on ABC didn’t stop the network from caving to the financial pressure put on them to shut her up.

No free speech for her, but why does the cancel culture crowd think that’s OK?

I know the answer to this one, too. “That’s not free speech, that’s hate speech, and we’re getting rid of it.” Unless, of course, we want to say we hate Elon and his truck.

Crazy. Maybe literally.

Between 2013 and 2024, angry drivers shot 3,095 people in America. Nearly one every day. 777 of those victims died.

Why do road-ragers, whether they use a gun or their vehicle as a weapon, think that’s OK?

People are crazy. “Narcissism is characterized by an inflated sense of self-importance, superiority, and entitlement, often accompanied by a lack of empathy for others.”

That sounds like a litter-bug, a road-rager, and some random person flipping off some unknown person and his car for 20 seconds.

The truth, though, is that from time to time, every one of us thinks this:

It’s all about me.

I know because I’ve done it. I was once a callow youth who thought that anyone in my way had no business on the road. And “in my way” meant anything that inconvenienced me.

Littering? That one wasn’t me, because my mother was seriously against the practice. I once saw her stop her car and pick up something a stranger had thrown out the window. Talk about an object lesson.

Railing against someone for their political stance? Also not me. Although I do shake my head once in while at people who follow like sheep without ever thinking.

It’s not all about me. It’s not even all about you. It’s all about us, and if we are going to do good and help others do good, we need to learn and practice that.

On occasion we are all crazy. Let’s keep that temporary, and very, very rare.

Let’s do good. It’s in us.