Quick post: drone timelines

Recently, New York Times wrote up an article describing the timeline of the drone freakout. The article was titled “How Drone Fever Spread Across New Jersey and Beyond”. (This article may be behind paywalls.) I thought it gave a good picture of the events creating the hysteria.

There is not much more to be said about this whole event, except that it has been very quiet lately. Granted, we are in the midst of Christmas/New Years season, so everybody is taking time off to be with their families. I’m hoping the drone restrictions enacted by the FAA will keep the hysteria down.

But I do want to log in some questions that run through my mind.

• How do we apply critical thinking without falling down a rabbit hole, a la QAnon conspiracists? They have that famous, or maybe it’s infamous, mantra “Do your research”. Well, some folks did some research and fell into some wacky theories.
• The article mentioned people distrusting the government. When should one distrust the government? My stance is that the current government is honestly trying to delve into the mystery and thus I should just remain calm but aware of the situation. The government is not trying to lie; the people just don’t have answers. But there could be a time when one has to distrust the government. How do we know when? That’s the kicker. To me, it’s obvious to distrust Fox News because news reports have indicated that Fox News was rather dishonest about the whole 2020 election fraud story. They settled a defamation claim for quite a large sum of money: to the tune of $787 million. Almost a billion dollars, folks! The charges were too credible. So, I can imagine that there is a possibility of distrusting the government; it’s going to depend on who you vote in.
• I’m surrounded by people who just don’t trust the government or newspapers or doctors or some institutions. How does one navigate such environments? How do you trust sources when it appears others don’t trust? I don’t know; it’s tricky because it feels like we are venturing into some era of obfuscation and lies.

So, these are my quick thoughts about critical thinking and maintaining one’s composure in the face of wild stories.

Otherwise, in case I don’t do another post, have a good New Year’s celebration.