Heat, Humidity, Smoke

The hottest part of the summer season is in-progress in the Northern Hemisphere. Those days are referred to as Dog Days (click the link if you wish to learn why). Temperatures the past few days have been in the upper-80s to low-90s on the Fahrenheit scale (32°C–34°C). With the high humidity that is typical in my area, it's felt quite like a sauna outdoors.

The humidity today is down to only 60% (amazingly), but yesterday it was 90% humidity. So, today's "Feels like" temperature is 98°F (37°C), with even hotter "feels like" days in the forecast. For several days now, there has been a hazy sky — not so much cloudy, as just "hazy" and mostly white from the humidity in the air. There has also been smoke in the air, which according to the reports is being transported by the jet stream from wildfires burning 2000 miles away from here.

Of course, nowadays, we must say, "according to the reports, smoke is being transported by the jet stream..." because there are many who do not believe in the jet stream, or wind, or weather, or climate change, or science, or logic. And even then, any mention of the weather at all is often a trigger to those who are opposed to any of the scientific claims of meteorology. So, we must approach the topic of "weather" with some caution these days.

There are so many triggers in today's world that one can hardly have a conversation with anyone about anything without unleashing an unexpected diatribe about something. 😞

WATER

Don't talk about water. If you do, you will unleash a long dissertation about how: The water supply of the entire world is tainted with poison to kill everyone or at least make them sick to help Big Pharma make money. All the government officials around the world have their own separate water-supply to their houses to keep them from being killed or getting sick. They never wash their hands or shower or drink tap water since it is tainted.

AIRCRAFT

Never mention aircraft of any kind, else you will be told how: There are no "commercial" flights available any more — everyone who flies on jets now is CIA, traveling the world and looking for the dissenters to the government. Every airplane that flies overhead is spewing chemicals to kill people or make them sick. Every helicopter that flies overhead is doing surveillance of the population.

EARTH

Never mention the earth or the environment because many people believe: that their god has created the earth exactly as it is today, and there is nothing that mere mankind can do to change it. Factories and automobiles do not cause pollution, deforestation with lack of forest management causes no problems, no amount of plastic we discard into the oceans or landfills will cause any issues. In short, God is in control, and if any pollution exists, it's because God has willed it and not because of anything mankind has ever done.

MOON

Don't mention the moon, or you'll be barraged with "evidence" that the moon is actually not composed of rock, but is a hollow spacecraft sent centuries ago by an advanced civilization from Jupiter. They're monitoring us and planning a hostile takeover of our planet for their own evil purposes. There are people who actually believe this.

MUSIC

Never mention music, or you will hear a lengthy rant how there's "no good music in the world any more." Seriously...?!?!? These people must have never heard of Samantha Fish, Nathan Kaye, Jon Gomm, Justin Johnson, Larkin Poe, and a veritable horde of other musicians on the scene today. Of course, no musician that is mentioned to those "no-good-music-anymore" people will likely satisfy them, as they just like to hate on everyone. It is immensely frustrating.

PHONES

Never mention phones, or one of two rants will present themselves:

How current phones are full of tracking devices. Even if you turn the phone off and remove the battery, the government can still track you and eavesdrop on in-person conversations if the phone is present in the room. Only by turning off the phone, removing the battery, and placing the phone in a stainless steel bowl can the surveillance be blocked. Stainless steel bowls are our friends. The government can also eavesdrop on you through your television, even if it is turned-off and disconnected from the cable company. Don't talk badly about the government in the same room where your TV set is located.

...or... How everyone is immersing themselves into their phones nowadays and it just isn't natural. Never mind that people have immersed themselves into other things in the past. Before cellphones, people walked around with ear buds in their ears and plugged into Walkmans, had their noses stuck in books or newspapers, or didn't hear the firetrucks outside because they were totally immersed in a football game on the television. So, our phones are merely yet-another-place for us to stick our noses, as we've already been doing for decades, or centuries, it's not a new phenomenon, so please stop talking about it like it's something new.

GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS

Do not mention any of the officials in government or you will hear that all of the government officials are actually reptile-beings from another planet, sent here to conquer earth. They landed in a spacecraft that is hidden inside a large cave in a mountain in Tennessee, USA. George W. Bush, Donald Trump, Ronald Regan, and most of the other big names in politics over the past few decades are actually reptiles (lizard-like creatures) who are disguised by a covering that looks like human flesh.

COVID, VACCINES

There are people who believe one, or more, of the following:

• there is no virus, it's all a scam by the government to control people
• COVID is the exact same thing as the influenza virus, but with a different name
• the vaccine is evil, and will modify your DNA to turn you into a robot with no free-will of your own
• the vaccine is merely a way for the government to implant tracking devices inside your body so they can monitor your every move
• the vaccine is the 'Mark of the Beast' that was mentioned in the scriptures of the Christians and the end of the world is near
• the vaccine is designed to make everyone sick so the doctors & pharmaceutical companies get rich from treating you
• people who did not get the vaccine cannot even touch someone who has received the vaccine or else the horrible death, destruction, and tracking devices in the vaccine will be transmitted to them through the sweat and body-oils of the vaccinated person
• there is a switch on the wall, which the government can flip anytime they want and everyone who's had the COVID vaccine will instantly fall over, dead

So, whatever you do, don't mention COVID or lockdowns, lest you trigger these poor people into unleashing one of their tirades on you. It's not good for them, nor you.

MASKS

Never mention face masks, as they are a trigger topic for some people. Shockingly, many of the anti-maskers also do not truly believe in freedom and are harassing people who choose to wear them. The saddest such incident I've heard recently concerns a woman battling breast cancer, who exited a cancer treatment center with a mask on because the chemotherapy had compromised her immune system. A group of anti-maskers had gathered in protest outside the cancer center in response to people wearing masks there and someone actually punched the poor woman after her chemotherapy treatment. These vile freedom-haters need to be taught lessons in "live-and-let-live" and how to mind their own business while allowing others to exercise their personal liberties in doing what is right for them. 😠

FREEDOM

Don't mention "freedom" or you will trigger a diatribe from folks who believe some, or all, of the above and how they feel that their freedoms are being violated, even if they are working against the freedoms of others (such as the anti-maskers mentioned above). Many of them chant, "Nobody's gonna tell me what to do!"  Seriously? You won't stop at traffic lights, you won't pay your bills, you won't refrain from killing others just because someone else said you should not do those things? The sentence, "Nobody's gonna tell me what to do" is what the bully on the playground says, not a mature individual. That's also not the definition of "freedom," but merely things we need to do when living in a civilized society where the lives, liberties, and pursuit of happiness is supposed to be enjoyed by everyone, equally. I think we need a reprise of basic courses such as CIVICS 101 and KINDNESS 101.

≡ DISCLAIMER ≡

I have honestly encountered individuals who believe one, or all, of the above things. I have not provided sources for the things I mentioned because I do not wish to promote sites that support such fallacies. Also, many of these are things I have heard from people in real-life, although they have been repeated in Discord and other places by many other people. You can find most of these, if not all, rather easily on the Internet with a simple search via Bing, Google, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, StartPage, or whatever your preferred search engine might be.

There's too much "heat" in the world today.
Please treat others with respect, dammit.