i have known this one guy since high school. we used to smoke weed and later do shrooms together. we live on opposite sides of the country now and went pretty different directions in life, though we both worked outdoor physical labor jobs like landscaping for a while. we still occasionally play video games together, low stakes kinda social games.

anyway, he’s really into crystals and like trying to astral oroject to talk to aliens, and has some real woo ideas about health. he doesn’t have health insurance and i can appreciate the process of how “traditional” folk ideas are a way for people shut out of conventional healthcare to have some agency and try to heal themselves.

but i loathe fear-mongering charlatans for making alarmist claims for attention at such a vulnerable time, and wish we could have some trust-worthy public institutions disseminating useful information and care unspoiled by the “entrepenurial” mind.