Skeptophilia (skep-to-fil-i-a) (n.) - the love of logical thought, skepticism, and thinking critically. Being an exploration of the applications of skeptical thinking to the world at large, with periodic excursions into linguistics, music, politics, cryptozoology, and why people keep seeing the face of Jesus on grilled cheese sandwiches.
Back in 2006, some people in Hong Kong noticed that despite its facing out over the warm waters of the South China Sea, it seldom gets hit by typhoons. In fact, sometimes the typhoons seem to go out of their way to avoid hitting Hong Kong. For example, here's the path of Typhoon Lionrock in 2010:
[Image is in the Public Domain]
If you don't know your Asian geography, Hong Kong is basically right in the middle of the loop of the question mark.
There's at least a tentative scientific explanation for this; cyclones of all sorts are moved by upper atmosphere steering currents, which are created -- like all winds -- by air pressure gradients. There is a stable-ish high pressure zone near Hong Kong, and that causes an outflow of air that acts like a repulsive force on any storms heading that way. It's not permanent; like all air masses, it moves. Hong Kong has experienced typhoons, just fewer than you might expect based on its location.
But when the pattern was noticed, a business tycoon named Li Ka-Sheng started telling everyone that he had created a repellent force field, and that was keeping Hong Kong safe. Because, after all, if there's a major typhoon it would cause businesses to close, and we can't have that. Everyone still talks about "Li's field," and it comes up every year during typhoon season. "Well, it's typhoon season again," people in Hong Kong will say. "At least we have Li's field protecting us."
Here's the thing, though. Li, and just about everyone who talks about Li's field, are joking. It's satire, and everyone knew it right from the get-go.
Over here in the United States, though, we're hearing something similar, and the sad thing is I don't think the people making the claim are trying to be funny.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, taking a break from her usual jobs of killing dogs and doing Border Patrol cosplay, attended a cabinet meeting in which the topic of this year's hurricane season came up. Despite there being thirteen named storms, four of which reached category 4, none of them hit the continental United States. (The last time this happened was 2015.) And guess who got praised for this?
"Sir, you made it through hurricane season without a hurricane," Noem gushed. "Even you kept the hurricanes away. We appreciate that."
What is astonishing about this is that no one laughed. I still maintain that the Trump presidency will end the moment an entire room bursts out laughing at something one of his sycophantic toadies -- or better yet, the Head Toad himself -- says. Trump has no problem with arguing; he loves a fight. But he can't handle being humiliated. (Which is why the constant trolling from Gavin Newsom gets under his skin.)
But amazingly, a piece of flattery so fulsome it would have embarrassed Kim Jong-Un was delivered without so much as a chuckle from anyone. And Trump? He eats that stuff up. There is no compliment so ridiculous, so over-the-top, that he won't give one of his smarmy smiles and say, "Yes, that's meeeeee."
It's why nearly everyone was cringing -- except for Trump -- when he was awarded the "FIFA Peace Prize" by FIFA president Gianni Infantino last week. Infantino burbled on about how Trump had "taken exceptional and extraordinary actions for peace and by doing so have united people across the world," so he was being awarded a "beautiful medal for you that you can wear everywhere you want to go." Most people realized immediately that the whole thing happened so that Trump will continue to support the United States's (partial) hosting of the 2026 World Cup -- and to soothe his hurt feelings over the Nobel Committee passing over him for this year's Peace Prize, which went instead to a Venezuelan activist.
And just about everybody -- again, except for Trump -- found the whole spectacle about as cringey as anything in recent memory. Isn't it the Republicans who are always screeching about the "everyone gets a trophy" approach in education? And here we have what amounts to, "I know, you have the big sads that you didn't get the Nobel Peace Prize. Look, here's a special Peace Prize we made up just for you."
Word is, Saturday Night Live didn't spoof this because there was nothing they could do that was more wince-inducing than the video footage of the real event.
Me, I can't wait to hear who wins the FIFA Prize in Physics.
Oh, and not to be outdone, Fox "News" commentator Jesse Watters thinks Trump's FIFA Prize is just ducky. "It's almost like God gave us COVID to kick Trump out so he could emerge again, and oversee this wonderful four years of birthday parties, international sporting events, and octagon," Watters said, the last-mentioned being an apparent reference to a suggestion to build a UFC octagon on the White House lawn. "If you doubted there is a God -- this is evidence there is a God."
No, he wasn't joking, either.
I mean, I can laugh about this, but it's honestly frightening that we have what amounts to a coddled, spoiled toddler at the helm of the entire country. And like many spoiled toddlers, he has a broad vindictive streak; cross him, and he will do everything in his power to destroy you. And so far, there aren't enough people in either Congress or the Supreme Court who have the backbone to put him in Time Out.
This last bit is why I am absolutely sick unto death of the taglines you see on many left-leaning social media posts. (Occupy Democrats is a good example, and one of the worst offenders.) You know the trope: "This new shocking revelation will destroy Trump" or "MAGA in disarray because..." or "GOP crumbling after announcement that..." While these probably serve their dual purpose of (1) bolstering the spirits of beleaguered liberals and (2) getting people to click the link, they're profoundly misleading. Thus far, nothing has taken away the carte blanche given to Trump by the ruling party. All the chaos, the spiking prices and slowing economy and disastrous foreign policy and human rights violations, and even the credible claims of rape and pedophilia, have really caused very little damage. Sure, his poll numbers have dropped, but by and large the party is still loyal to him. Scarier still, the Supreme Court steadfastly refuses to put the brakes on. The media, too, is for the most part still kissing his ass at every opportunity. The small fractures -- court cases not going his way, and the loss of people like Thomas Massie, Rand Paul, and (bafflingly) Marjorie Taylor Greene -- have been just that: small. Some people are saying these represent the first signs of an impending revolt, but I'll believe it when I see it.
Hopefully, though -- at least for those of us on the left -- history has shown that when these kinds of collapses happen, they can happen suddenly. Both the Roman emperors Caligula and Nero got away with excesses of the most bizarre and brutal kind, until finally the branch snapped and they were overthrown. (Caligula was murdered and Nero committed suicide to avoid his cousin's fate.) It may seem like a poor comparison -- and admittedly, I'm not a historian -- but to my eye, the lavish flattery of his followers, up to and including attributions that are somewhere in the realm of magic, and the awarding of meaningless prizes just to keep Dear Leader in a good mood, have their precedents.
Which should worry not only Trump himself, but the people who are enabling him.
In any case, that's the latest from the political circus here in the United States. The head of FIFA awards a man who is turning his American Gestapo against our own citizens, is threatening war in Venezuela, and wants to annex Greenland and Canada a "Peace Prize," and a member of the Cabinet apparently believes that this same man can create a repulsive force to ward off hurricanes.
Well, I'll agree with her this far: he's repulsive. But I don't think that's what she meant.
