Legend has it that, about 400 years ago, Galileo had company over to his abode, some scholars. He invited them to look through his telescope saying if they did so they would see that Jupiter had moons, contrary to what the Ancient Greeks had proclaimed. The scholars adamantly refused to do so, quoting Aristotle and Ptolemy and who knows who else. Galileo insisted but they continued to refuse and never did look. They were stupidly dogmatic.
Four hundred years later, those types of human beings remain the same. Today we have people who are equally dogmatic who absolutely refuse to view, listen or read anything that contradicts their worldview, except that now not only are they stupid and dogmatic, but are also vicious and insulting (unlike Galileo’s fellow scholars). And they are NPCs (nonplayer characters). They have a set repertoire of responses to anything or anyone that jars their beliefs.
In the case of Covid, their stand was/is that herd immunity was useless. You were a white supremacist to insist. That medication Ivermectin was not to be used to combat Covid. If you did, you were a fascist. That Covid vaccine prevented infection. Or the second. Or the third. Or the fourth. Or the fifth. And they were all safe. If you refused to take the vaccine you were a racist and a “Trumpist.” Citing scientific research in favor of Ivermectin or herd immunity, or, pointing to sudden deaths caused by the Covid vaccine was “disinformation” and “misinformation.” Which had to be suppressed. Oh, and you were also a racist. These NPCs, these stupidly dogmatic individuals, would even go so forth as to physically assault persons who did not conform in wearing useless face masks or in rejecting the toxic vaccines, as well as censoring them and removing them from their place of work—even when they were doctors and nurses.
But the dogmatic stupidity is not restricted to just Covid. We see the same in regard to transgenders, where the stupidly dogmatic NPC keep repeating that a man with a penis who dresses as a woman is, indeed, a woman. Or, that a man pretending to be a woman and participating in women’s sports has no physical advantage from a biological woman because the man who claims to be a woman is, indeed, a woman. A woman who supposedly can menstruate. And we all must conform and agree to that.
And it goes on and on. Donald Trump is a racist, they claim—without any evidence whatsoever. Donald Trump colluded with Russia—in spite of the numerous investigations that have repeatedly proved otherwise. The evidence of criminal activity in Hunter Biden’s office must not be looked at. There was no electoral fraud for the 2020 presidential election – in spite of all the evidence that there was. Communism is a beneficial ideology which has not been properly applied yet – in spite of the millions dead from Communism and the destruction of science and art and economy and social life inside those countries that had it.
And, throughout, when the NPCs encounter you and your arguments, the inevitable response is screaming that you’re a Nazi, or a racist, or a white supremacist, or Hitler, or a misogynist or a transphobic.
And all of these stupidly dogmatic NPCs are always from the same side of the political spectrum.
The funny thing is that they are so incapable of self-awareness that they read of the Galileo episode and shake their heads that those scholars were so rigid and stupid.
Armando Simón is a trilingual native of Cuba, a retired psychologist and author of “Orlando Stories.”