Vaccine Uncertainty

Pick your poison

I’m a disagreeable fella. I know, I know! I’m sure everyone reading this is very surprised to read this but...well...there it is. I tend to disagree with folks. I had one friend recently tell me that the only time an argument ends with me is when they get tired and walk away. And, well, that stung a little bit. But he wasn’t wrong! I will argue until I’m blue in the face in a desperate quest to find an accord with just about anyone about just about any topic.

So one of the things I like about blogging is that I can have a “disagreement” with a faceless reader about a topic where the only person tired at the end of it is me and whoever is masochistic enough to read it later. And for those brave souls that actually read what I write, and I pretend that’s most of you, you might have noticed that many of my long-form stuff actually does take the form of a disagreement - it’s just me arguing with myself! It allows me to “talk” to others without being nearly as pushy about it because I am cognizant it is one of my many flaws to be overbearing.

It’s always been that way! I’m a rebellious, arrogant, pushy, snarky, and wildly stubborn person who has always been very, very angry and driven to try to get a perfect understanding of things while knowing it’s impossible. So I like to think I’ve channeled that into at least a little motivation to try to keep an open-mind and empathize with folks. Because I think lots of disagreements stem from a place of certainty. You aren’t saying “yeah, but” to the person on the other side because you want to be convinced you’re wrong. Instead you are saying that because because you want to do the convincing. You are certain that you are right, and certain that they are wrong. They, naturally, are certain you are wrong and they are right.

That’s always been really difficult for me. I’m really really bad about being certain despite some of my rhetoric. Maybe, dare I say, a little…ambivalent?

Like with vaccines! (Hey, where you going?)