Does anyone else tire of getting asked "What's your take on [insert hot topic of the day/week/month]?" Especially when it's something that one political group feels one way about, and another one feels differently about.

In the whole fallout of "science isn't real guy" I've tried to respond to many of the texts I received from people whom I haven't heard from in a long time. While I appreciate that some of those people care what I think, isn't that what we have experts for? Or do we not listen to experts anymore and just fall into our camps so that we have talking points on social media?

I only have so much bandwidth, and I generally in my life have reserved that for things that I think are on the planet changing level. I'll gladly discuss the breakdown of public health, articles about COVID or H5N1, various forms of pollution, etc. because I know about them and don't need to start fresh on research.

There's some things that I see a lot of people talk about that I just don't have a well formulated opinion on, or just don't care about. We have such large-scale problems that I just don't know how you're supposed to have well thought out opinions on other issues. I appreciate that others know more about things than I do, and I'm happy to read their thoughts and leave it at that.

I get asked here sometimes something along the lines of "You post about X, so you must care about Y. Why not post about it?" My response is always that I can care about more things than I post about. I do more things than I post about. I spent 12 hours yesterday doing two hobby-type things to get them ready for moving that I have never typed into a an electronic device in my life. I don't have to micro blog my every thought and move, and I'm not sure, in all honestly, why some people seem to think that it's weird that I don't have a pre-prepared hot take waiting for everything.

For example, the COVID lab leak theory is back in the news, apparently. I've started to dig into it a couple of times, and then realized that if the definitive answer existed, it wouldn't change anything about my life, or what I'm doing. I appreciate that there's experts who can look into it. I don't think that I have to have a half baked hot take on it.

Or, universal basic income. I have my thoughts, and I've enjoyed reading many other people's, and I've learned a lot that I didn't know, specifically because it's not my area of expertise. Am I about to sit down with a ton of case studies, scholarly journals and economics textbooks? Nope.

Am I the weirdo here? Perfectly acceptable if I am :)