saugoof

Or supply proof it it happens. I come across stories like this often, but it's always just hear-say.

Do you get used to the smell? I'm not a big fan of McDonald's for starters, but that smell in the restaurants is really off-putting.

I'm not American, although I did live in the US for a short while. But government shutdowns are basically unknown in the rest of the world and, if I can critique your country from a foreign perspective, really seems something that might happen in failed states, not an advanced country like the US. To me this just looks like blackmail.

In your view, what would it take to fix this so this process can't happen anymore?

Thanks for that. I have to admit that I'm not completely up to scratch with the political process that leads to a shutdown, but I think it's not just "politicians not doing their job". I mean, that's what's causing it, but surely there would be ways to prevent this, such as a guaranteed continuing of funds until the government has signed off on a budget, for example. Basically taking the politics out of the process so this can't be weaponised by either side. I'm sure there are ways to prevent a future shutdown from happening, if the will were there to do so.

I'm obviously not the OP, but I can give you an answer on your first question. My brother has gone completely bonkers with conspiracy theories over the last two or three years. He used to be someone who had a healthy mind and questioned things which I always thought was one of his best qualities. But then he discovered a few facebook conspiracy pages and became completely obsessed. One of his many conspiracies is vaccines. It's not just that (to quote him) vaccines are all just a big pharma scam, they also do an incredible amount of damage whereas getting measles is no big deal.

It's quite incredible, he has developed the "ability" to completely ignore black and white facts. If I hadn't witnessed it over and over, I wouldn't believe it. But you can present him with clear evidence that vaccinations have saved thousands of lives and he'll just dismiss it as propaganda. But if some hack writes a blog on a shady internet site about how vaccinations are really just a front for some shady organisation that wants to poison us all, he'll believe it and is unshakeable in that belief. It doesn't even matter if he read it in an article on The Onion, he'll still believe it. And yes, that has actually happened. I can point out that The Onion is satire to make fun of people like him, but that won't change his mind.

He's even now saying that he was never vaccinated (he was vaccinated as a kid) and that he had measles when he was a kid (he never did). He is completely convinced of that, even though it's a complete lie that he made himself believe. The power of self-delusion that some of those anti-vaxxers have is phenomenal (not a compliment!).

I've sort of given up and now basically just avoid him. Every few days his facebook feed is full of "truth" articles he shares, and every time you think it couldn't go any crazier than the last lot, he tops them.