Avoid Normalcy Bias

Normalcy bias is when weird shit goes down but an individual chooses to deny the reality of the new situation. One may deliberately (or unconsciously) avoid evidence of otherwise incredibly, remarkably, obviously, abnormal events. It’s understandable. We all have a human desire to stay in our comfort zone. This prompts us to reject contrary information. The problem with normalcy bias is that preserving the mental illusion of “normal” has no bearing on reality. If the situation is abnormal, you must comprehend its abnormal state. Use your big expensive overclocked monkey brain to overcome your biases and recognize the changing situation. It you fail to adapt you’ll quite likely wind up fucked.

We’ve all seen it. We’ve all done it; hopefully in harmless situations. Heck, it’s the plot to most horror movies. “I’m sure that rustling in the weeds next to the spooky haunted house is just a racoon. Let’s split up.”

I joke, but the matter is serious. If the world is “not as you perceive it”, you’ll make bad decisions. The new situation might curbstomp your ass. You’ll be standing there with a stupid look on your face while the tidal wave takes you down. You might not even accept the true reality despite immense suffering. How many miserable cat ladies bitch into their mimosas as they age, alone and forlorn? How many employees stay in a formerly enjoyable job while the company around them slowly implodes? How many Americans stayed in Afghanistan because they had a job, or an apartment lease, or figured they’d get a better warning before the shit hit the fan? How many kids go straight from 13 years of public school to a $150,000 tuition bill, only to major in “advanced underemployment”?

It’s a risk we all face. Have no fear! I’m here to help!

Ready?

Listening?

Shit’s not normal.

Didja’ hear me? Are you automatically rejecting my statement because I’m some internet rando? Don’t. Forget about me and fuckin’ look around you. Open your eyes and see for yourself.

Shit. Is. Not. Normal.

Don’t take my word for it. Examine examples you’ve experienced for yourself:

1. In the middle of the night, nine months ago, vote counting stopped simultaneously in many States. Statistically improbable numbers exploded into existence and Biden had the most votes ever recorded! A record holder! Isn’t that amazing? A record, by definition, is not normal. Should you feel comfortable with this “normal election”? Is it normal to have a candidate who spends most of the campaign unwilling to leave his house? Every candidate in my life has spent months eating corndogs at state fairs and kissing babies. I’ve never seen a winning candidate incapable of filling a high school auditorium. Our 2020 record vote winner always gets less hits on a YouTube than the guy who lost. Despite his awesome record vote, he’s already polling very unpopular. Eight months to go from “record votes” to unpopular?  Normalcy bias tells us that life would be more convenient if the 2020 election was fair, or at least as fair as an “average” election. We could just shrug our shoulders and try again in 4 years. But the evidence suggests abnormality. When I say “Joe Biden won more votes than any other candidate in history” does that make you comfortable? Does it feel like I’m reporting  a fact? Shouldn’t Biden start speeches with “having won more votes than any candidate in history I have a mandate to…” When I state “Biden got the record number of votes” it makes everyone’s skin crawl. Nobody, on either side of the divide, likes hearing that statement. Go ahead, say it aloud. Say it to a Democrat. See what happens. Say it to a Republican. See what happens. Everyone is trying to digest what they don’t want to know.
2. Our modern supply chain is increasingly unreliable. This weekend there was no toilet paper at the grocery store. Before 2020, I personally had never seen a grocery store in America without toilet paper. It is said that cars aren’t getting finished because they lack certain computer chips. I’d never heard of that before. “Ammo drought” was not a word a decade ago. The supply of goods and services two or five years ago was “normal”. What’s happening now is different.
3. Planet-wide, people are doing unusual things about COVID. New Zealand is locking up the entire island. Australia is rounding up children, separating them from their parents, and administering shots. France has been in riots for weeks.
4. Borders between nations are no longer treated normally. This has been building for years. The excuse du jour is COVID but obviously that’s not the reason building a border wall made one party go ape in 2016. Also, COVID exists on both sides of every border so it’s not like sealing borders makes one side sterile. Were told COVID risk is affected by a person’s wealth and legality. If you’re poor, illegal, and desperate COVID somehow knows that and doesn’t hitch a ride. If you’re middle class and law abiding, you’re dangerous and hassled. Fifty peasants illegally swimming the Rio Grande in the middle of the night is not considered a risk for COVID. A thousand Afghanis landing in Newark is not a COVID risk. Yet if a law abiding Canadian hockey player wants to vacation in Seattle or a silly American blogger wants to fish in the Canadian wilderness that’s unacceptable COVID risk.
5. Americans are becoming suspicious of other States. Our society was fine with a couple eloping to Las Vegas in 1950, or some dude crossing state lines to buy fireworks in 2019. Now they’re trained that those assholes in that State over there are the reason for COVID in this State over here. This is very bad news. COVID is caused by a virus, not the politics of people you dislike.
6. The rule of law is not longer certain. If those in power feel like it, they can do things that aren’t written in the laws. They can control your rental house, tap your phone, arrest you for being in DC on January 6th, ban you from Twitter, deny you a car loan, or tie an experimental vaccine to your college attendance. All of the things I mentioned would have been unthinkable a decade ago.

Now the good news. The weird shit ‘aint going down easily. People are noticing. They are rejecting it. 

I recently drove by yet another “Trump Store”. Someone had rented a big building and plastered the outside with Trump flags. Big huge honkin’ flags that say “No More Bullshit” and “TRUMP WON”. People were happily buying this stuff.

This is not normal.

In the last 50 years the following presidents have lost an election; Ford, Carter, Bush Sr., and (presumably) Trump. Not a single one of was popular enough to sell memorabilia after they lost. Nobody bought “Ford’s Awesome” banner in 1977. There was no “Carter for Peanuts” flags in 1981. You didn’t see “Bush Sr. Rocks” posters in 1993.

I can buy a huge flashy Trump flag nine months after the election. His competitor won the most votes in history. I’ve never seen a store selling a pro-Biden flag after the election. I never saw one before the election.  Why not?

The press can deny Trump’s popularity, but reality shows a different story. You can see it with your own eyes.

What about the popularity of other failed candidates? Did you ever see an “Al Gore” flag sold nine months after Gore lost? How about Hillary Clinton? Mitt Romney? John McCain? Have you ever seen anyone buying any flag for a candidate that lost… nine months after the election? This is reality breaking through.

Whatever happened in the 2020 election has not been accepted, forgotten, or ignored. It’s not going away. Everyone who buys a Trump flag in 2021 is NOT considering things “normal”.

Trump gathered a huge crowd in Alabama just two days ago! I heard reports that it was 75,000 people. I don’t know the actual count. Photos of the crowd looked as big as a Metallica concert I once attended. Can you imagine Al Gore, Hillary Clinton, Mitt Romney, or John McCain racking up Metallica sized crowds?

Just try to picture Hillary Clinton with 75,000 happy fans… in 2016… after losing.

Biden, who were told won more votes than anyone else in history, is currently as popular as herpes. He’s only been in office eight months.

Trump is packing venues. His name alone is enough to sell a giant banner. This is the guy that lost… to a record winner.

“It’s nine months after Biden won more votes than any other candidate in history.” Go ahead… type that sentence into your favorite social media echo chamber…. on either side of the political divide. The normal reaction after a normal election would be “no shit Sherlock”. That’s not the reaction you will get. Because this is not a normal time.

Look around and ask yourself… “have I seen this commonly, before this election, in State and National contests?”. You haven’t. You’re not alone wondering why. Others are thinking the same thing.

It’s a messy time but things could be worse. Keep your head on a swivel, avoid crowds, don’t get on the cattle car, and whenever the press says something, go out and find out for yourself. Most of us are still OK. All is not lost. I’m rooting for ya!

Note: I’m not the only one “noticing”. House of Eratosthenes is playing to the same beat:

The 2020 Election turned into a cheat, and the cheat turned into a battle of wills. My side lost the battle of wills. And then the people who won it used the Capitol Penetration on January 6, and other things, to try to make their victory more decisive, and — let’s all just come out and admit it — accumulate for themselves a level of influence over things elevated as far as possible, above what was merited by their “victory.”

Now we know the whole thing was a mistake. So people like me are looking around and wondering…alright, is this the part where I keep my mouth shut and allow others to gradually come to the conclusion we were right all along, on their own? Or do we go with the “Nobody else will toot my horn for me, so here I go?”