Fruitless picking.

The title of my post three nights or so ago was “Picking fights.” I’m sitting here after a late afternoon of fiction watching (with an interesting documentary on typography thrown in) and I’m trying to have arguments with a mixture of idiots, zealots, and bots on Twitter. It’s like the 2016 campaign, but the stakes seem more…mortal.

Why (I ask myself) do I spend so much energy on such a fruitless pursuit?

I think the near real-time nature of the Twitterland gives me hope that one thing I write and push out there oh so quickly will touch a hardened heart and make them think a tiny bit more compassionately about their fellow human.

The power of ideas? I dunno.

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Let me leave you with two or three of my browser tabs as I call it a night:

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A Science magazine interview with Anthony Fauci. Somehow this quote is unsettling even as I have great respect for the guy: “I know, but what do you want me to do? I mean, seriously Jon, let’s get real, what do you want me to do?” You can imagine the question.

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Harsh Steps Are Needed to Stop the Coronavirus, Experts Say in the New York Times, again by Donald G. McNeil, Jr, wise voice in the wilderness. Consider Extreme Social Distancing: “If it were possible to wave a magic wand and make all Americans freeze in place for 14 days while sitting six feet apart, epidemiologists say, the whole epidemic would sputter to a halt.”

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One more from the NYT: Rupert Murdoch Put His Son in Charge of Fox. It Was a Dangerous Mistake. …which pretty much gives it to you in the headline.