Recently a man in New Westminster, British Columbia (near Vancouver) returned from a Flat Earth conference
in the United States. Also a Covid-19 denier, he bragged on social media that he was ignoring the 14 day
mandatory quarantine. He was subsequently ticketed for quarantine violation, and after repeating the
violation a few more times he was arrested. You can read about this intellectual giant here:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/bc-covid-conspiracy-theorist-charged-1.5790376
It’s easy to despair at how many people are under the influence of cult-like conspiracy theories.
However I find some solace, I guess, in a 1943 essay by Bertrand Russell that is collected in this
volume. Entitled “An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish: A Hilarious Catalogue of Organized and
Individual Stupidity”, it reminds us that fools and liars have always been with us.
Best viewed at original size.