On the first leg of our trip to Melbourne this evening from JFK to LAX, I watched the first three episodes of the series Chernobyl based on the nuclear accident that happened in the Ukraine in 1986. It was gripping and horrible, an awful reminder of not only how much error human beings are capable of, but also how stupid and senseless people can be in the face of real data and science. Those who were in leadership at the time not only did not want to face the fact that a true explosion had happened, insisting that only a fire was all that needed to be put out. And even while people are dying in droves and being sent to hospitals, those with power refuses to admit that there is a greater problem that could potentially poise and kill their entire population. In addition, when faced with actual scientists and people who could provide credible background and data, they didn’t want to listen to them, insisting to use their own (baseless) gut instinct based on their egos and positions. It doesn’t seem to matter whether it is in the 1600s during the Salem witch trials, the 1850s when cholera was poisoning and killing people in a growing London, 1980s in the Soviet Union, or 2019 in the U.S. — over history and time, history continues to repeat itself with people aggressively insisting to deny data and science, insisting on baseless fake ideas that have no rhyme or reason, and thus resulting in the denial of humanity and ultimately the countless deaths of so many. Those who are doctors or physicists are written off as “elitists” in a derogatory way instead of being listened to. It’s so sad that this keeps happening and that human beings just never learn from past mistakes. Because is that not what the learning of history is supposed to be for?

Chernobyl just made me so angry overall, seething at how stupid people can be with their perceived “logic.”