I’ve been watching The Handmaid’s Tale, and am towards the end of Season Four. If you’re watching and don’t want any spoilers, then don’t read on.

I’ve reached the point where the Waterfords are leaving a courtroom in Canada, to the sound of cheers from a crowd, who are holding signs praising them. It reminded me that there are ‘interesting’ people everywhere. Four and a half seasons have made it very clear that these are not good people. The testimony of the main character, June, has made it clear that these people have committed heinous crimes against women and other people. Yet still, there are some praising them, and suggesting they are blessed by God – against all evidence to the contrary.

And while none of us are always going to agree with each other all the time, there are some situations where things are very clearly wrong, and things not good. Yet still there are people who will and do – in the face of all evidence to the contrary – think some bad people are good. I don’t know if they’re willingly deceived, or deceive themselves, or simply live in echo chambers, or simply just don’t want to think that maybe they got it wrong.

Now, while I’m sure I’ve got things wrong at times, and will continue to get things wrong in the future, I hope that I’d look for evidence outside my own echo chamber. It’s been disturbing to watch for example, the recent stuff coming out of the HHS in the US. A government report that cites non-existent sources, for example from the MAHA campaign, continues to be cited by the government. I mean, when the authors cited in the report state that they never authored the cited papers, and the papers are unable to be found (ie. they’re non-existent) that’s a pretty obvious issue. Also, I’d have thought it would have called into question (further question that is) those in government who let all of that slip through…

Mind you, when you’ve appointed a well known anti vaxer to head up the HHS, then I suspect that people may find out the hard way what happens when you go down a rabbit hole in the face of the best available evidence. The MAHA report (in my opinion) will be only the tip of the iceberg. Next step – blaming autism on vaccines (despite all the robust evidence to the contrary). This is what happens when you willingly close your eyes to the evidence. I’ve met many well meaning people who have gone so far down that particular rabbit hole, unfortunately.

Anyway, it’s (so far) been depicted very well in The Handmaid’s Tale. The last scene I watched (before the husband required the TV for football and I started to write this post), had Serena and Fred opening baby presents for Serena’s baby – all supplied by the (fictional) people who believe they’re wonderful.

Makes you think, doesn’t it?