I just fired off an email to my daughter. She's been pretty down because of the Covid bullshit, especially about the masking, and I've been trying to console her (dunno if it's working). Maybe "console" is the wrong word. I'm trying to help her adjust her world view. Here's what I wrote:
I was resting on the couch and asking myself why I lost interest in watching TV. I waited a long time for Stargirl to return for the the second season but I only watched half of the first episode. I also stopped watching The Flash and Lois & Clark. The thing is, these shows take place in an alternate universe of superpowers and superscience but they maintained an air of familiarity by looking and feeling like the real universe. Unfortunately, the comforting familiarity has been lost due to the insanity of the last two years. That nobody is living in fear of a mythical virus seems more fantastical than the laser eyes. The superhero masks don't help either.
Unless proven otherwise, everybody is an actor reading from a script. It's like that episode of Supernatural. You discover that nobody actually has an opinion that doesn't come from the TV or Twitter. You have to avoid conversation because you know that you're just talking to an automaton. It didn't seem that way before, did it? You thought everybody had their own opinions but it turns out that they've all been fooling you. Perhaps that is why I've avoided cultivating any long term friendship. I don't even talk to that bugger Steve anymore. He's an empty vessel like everybody else. My roommates only repeat what they see on CNN. Trump is this or Trump is that. Now that Trump is out of the picture, they have nothing to say anymore. Matt came down a week ago and started complaining about the cost of food and gas. I just stared at him as he went away mumbling about the government. What would be the point of trying to explain anything to him?
The world as we thought we knew it has ceased to exist. What will replace it, I don't know.