You may have noticed, if you’re an Arkansas Democrat-Gazette subscriber, that I don’t have a column in today’s edition. (Though I’m still requesting phrases you’re curious about so that I can get all nerdy and such with idioms and etymology, so if you want to contribute to that effort, email me at blooper@adgnewsroom.com with the phrase(s) you’d like to know the origin of. The Word Nerd appreciates your help, as always.)

After all the “fun” of last week’s Internet outage and the bout with the flu that followed (I’m mostly over it, though the nausea has been sticking around, dang it), I needed a rest, so was more than willing, especially in a week when I would have only three days’ pages available for guest columns, to give my spot to someone else (because, face it, there are going to be a LOT of pieces coming in as long as the Legislature is in session) writing about a bill set to go before committee today.

Yes, it’s politics, but it’s the kind I can get behind: the actual business of government (in this case, utilizing it to prevent insurers from keeping critical medications from patients). What’s practiced more often than not nowadays is gamesmanship more than anything else (with maybe a little spite thrown in there just for the heck of it). That’s why so many of us can’t get behind any party ideology and are often flabbergasted by those who fall for the party line.

Are you really convinced that everyone to the left of you is a communist, socialist or Antifa, or that those to the right of you are all Boogaloo Bois, Proud Boys and assorted other white nationalists? Most of the people I know don’t come anywhere near any of those descriptions. What they are is American. They probably live in your neighborhood, can always be counted on for a laugh, a good conversation, and some help when you’re down or down on your luck. They don’t care that you may have voted differently from them because they know you, and they know that you’re a genuinely good person who cares deeply for your family, friends and nation.

But there’s that little bit of doubt that keeps creeping in. Maybe it’s because of those social media posts you slap up that do nothing but repeat party talking points (otherwise known as propaganda), or push conspiracy theories, or further a version of history that exists only in imagination. Maybe it’s the willingness to label everyone on the left as “baby killers” or everyone on the right as “QAnon wackos.” Sure, those people exist and can be labeled as such, but are they really among the people you know? When you post things that support those ideas, or when you’re more afraid of the outlandish things you think might happen than the very real things that are happening and thus propose government solutions for problems that don’t exist, you make us wonder.

I have yet to come across anyone who advocates abortion on demand into the final month of pregnancy (full-term abortion isn’t a thing; that’s called birth). For years, about half of all people surveyed by Gallup have said abortion should be legal with limits (the most important exception after the viability window is danger to the life of mother or child). As with many things, the extremes—such as those who support outlawing abortion completely, charging abortion doctors (not just the ones like Kermit Gosnell) with murder, forcing doctors to implant ectopic pregnancies (not medically possible) in the uterus, or allowing abortion up to the moment of birth (after birth would be infanticide, which is illegal)—account for small percentages of people. But, oh, are they loud, and willing to spread their propaganda far and wide to people willing to soak it in and believe it (just don’t, trust me; research everything using nonpartisan sources). That’s why we have so many people who will then spread those beliefs, ill-informed as they may be, as long as they confirm their biases. It’s also why so many of us in the middle are often holding our heads, if just to keep us from slapping the crap out of the people who spread rumors, conspiracy theories and outright lies.

Unfortunately, I’ve run across more people lately, even among longtime friends, who seem to subscribe to QAnon (or have allowed their legitimate concerns about trafficking and/or pedophilia to be hijacked by bad actors) and/or the “stolen election” tropes, which is truly frightening because it indicates that we’re not living in the same realities.

A recent NPR/Ipsos poll found something disturbing to many of us: “The poll results add to mounting evidence that misinformation is gaining a foothold in American society and that conspiracy theories are going mainstream, especially during the coronavirus pandemic. This has raised concerns about how to get people to believe in a ‘baseline reality,’ said Chris Jackson, a pollster with Ipsos.

“‘Increasingly, people are willing to say and believe stuff that fits in with their view of how the world should be, even if it doesn’t have any basis in reality or fact,’ Jackson said.

“What this poll really illustrates to me is how willing people are to believe things that are ludicrous because it fits in with a worldview that they want to believe.”

We have to agree on the basic elements of reality, and if you believe, without proof, that George Soros, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, et al., have been directing a huge conspiracy to take over every part of our lives by faking crises, votes, whatever is needed … well, you’re not living in this reality because none of that is true. You may believe it is, have a certainty that it is, but unless you have verifiable proof, no thinking person will believe you (hell, that’s probably a conspiracy too).

There is something that’s been taking over every part of our lives, though: politics. You can’t post a cat photo or a still from a TV show you loved growing up without somebody making it political. It doesn’t help to beg people not to make it political, because they will, and then others will, in trying to correct misinformation (there’s almost always misinformation, such as that Hitler’s brown shirts were the early version of Antifa; no, they weren’t. The early European versions began by fighting Mussolini in Italy and Hitler’s brown shirts in Germany), inadvertently keep the political infighting going.

So here’s my plea. Just go outside and breathe the fresh air, enjoy the buds on trees starting to emerge, and take a walk, maybe with a camera in case you come across something unexpectedly beautiful. Or stay in and put on some headphones and fire up a favorite music recording, television show, play or movie (as long as it’s not news or opinion), or just sing or dance your heart out even if the only audience you have is a confused critter. Just enjoy the time. Don’t let anything political interfere. Try that for 30 minutes. Then try for longer.

De-stress. Unwind the cords politics have wrapped around every bit of your life and put politics back in its own corner where it belongs. Get back to a time when people aren’t afraid to say something to you because you’ll take offense or start in on a rant because that’s what you’ve been conditioned to do in allowing politics to take over your life.

Stop worrying that everyone on the left wants to force you to have an abortion or become a communist or wants to harvest your children for adrenochrome and other nasty things. Stop worrying that the right wants to make “The Handmaiden’s Tale” a real thing or that they want to arm toddlers. Sure, there are people who do seem to want those things, but they’re not everyone on the right or the left. Most people you know are in the middle, maybe leaning right or left depending on the issue. We’re the quiet ones, but our silence shouldn’t fool you because we have opinions, usually based on research and broad knowledge of news and history. Some of us are hoping those on the fringes yell themselves out, or we may just not want to make a big to-do about what we believe because we’re pretty sure that you believe the same way.

Still, we know that, sometimes, we’ll have to speak up even though we’re tired and we hate politics. Someone has to for the good of humanity.