I agree with John Balentine’s opinion that Mainers have heard many “hair-brained” schemes and lies during the current pandemic: it’s all somebody else’s fault, it’ll all be over soon – like a miracle! – and a swig of chlorine bleach could be a cure. I agree it can be hard for some people to distinguish the truth from propaganda, listening to Donald Trump’s daily “press briefings.”

Now, the “campaign of constant grievance” that this opinion seems to take part in. It uses “Inhofe logic.” In 2015 Sen. John Inhofe, R-Oklahoma, stood on the floor of the U.S. Senate and used a melting snowball as “proof” climate change does not exist. This opinion “proves” that: since reusable shopping bags are not right for use during a pandemic, we should go back to single-use bags when the pandemic subsides; since ride sharing is not right now, we should go back to using unlimited fossil fuel; if Nancy Pelosi has $13 ice cream she cannot be for “the little guy,” despite her voting against the 2017 corporate tax cut from 35% to 21%, which will likely threaten Medicare and Social Security (that the “little guy” depends on) and her recent legislation that directed pandemic relief not go to corporations, but to states, small businesses and front-line workers. Of course the problem with Inhofe logic is it doesn’t follow. Unfortunately, propaganda has several allies: “alternative facts”; make the media the enemy; make Democrats, liberals, health care for all, Nancy Pelosi and millennials (for good measure) all demons.

A term co-opted by the constant grievers and cited in this opinion: common sense. But the definition is “a basic ability to perceive, understand and judge that is shared by nearly all people.” Let’s hope this prevails. Part II: Climate change a hoax?

Jeff Christiansen
Gorham