I'm Shedding

Upstate NY: I'm having a nice chat with a neighbor's friend... and then, out of nowhere, he goes into one of those furious Trump supporter rants, "He was trying to save Social Security by letting all the older people die from COVID. You have to understand, he was doing everything he could to save America." You probably know the spiel. You've seen it in YouTube videos, on talk show clips, and in news channel segments. Then comes the anti-vaccine screed and I know I'm in trouble. Still, if Facebook has taught me anything (other than my absolute disdain for how the platform is managed), it's that arguing with a Trumper is like arguing with a rabid pit bull: There's no reasoning and even a baseball bat to the noggin isn't gonna get them to release their grip on your leg. So, he pauses, mid-wild eyes, and asks the question I've been dreading, "You're not vaxxed, right?" and in the second it took me to respond I processed a series of outcomes (like a Vulcan on speed)... none of them good. So, I said, "Yeah, I believe in the science. I was vaccinated early on." He starts backing away from me in a panic. "You're shedding. You know it's rewriting your DNA and you're shedding." Now a good 12 feet between us and my darling neighbor comes to the rescue with, "We have to go. I totally forgot I had an appointment." So, in the most Trumpian way, the plot has been entirely rewritten: Initially we were afraid of getting COVID from infected people; now people are afraid of getting an array of DNA-busting, phantom antibody magical death vibes from the vaccinated. Seriously, this is a real thing! People believe this shit. I know we've been calling our current state of affairs "Bizarro World" for quite some time, but in a Rick and Morty kind of twist upon the twist, I think we've entered the whacked-out sphere of the bizarre "Bizarro World."