What Happens When Every Idea Is True?

Rhett Allain
5 min readFeb 4, 2021
Photo: Rhett Allain. A view of New Orleans from across lake Pontchartrain proves the Earth isn’t flat

Scene: Two humans (A and B) meet near the water cooler at work. Or maybe they are just talking on the phone. I don’t know.

A: My parents finally got the vaccine for COVID. Too bad I can’t get it yet.

B: Oh? That’s too bad. Maybe you will get it soon.

A: Are you going to get it this month?

B: Me? Ummm….no way. I’m not putting that thing in my body. No thank you.

A: You don’t want the vaccine? Shouldn’t you get it?

B: Do you know how many people have DIED from the vaccine?

A: I’m pretty sure it’s zero. Zero deaths from the vaccine.

B: OH NO! It’s LOTS OF DEATHS. I read it online. I’m not gonna die.

A: News flash. Over 400 THOUSAND people in USA alone have died so far. I think you should be more concerned about dying from COVID than from the vaccine.

B: Well, no one knows the truth. You believe what you want, and I will believe what I want. I believe that the vaccine is more dangerous than COVID (which might not even be real).

This was not a real conversation. But it’s real. All too real. What is true, what is not true? Is EVERYTHING TRUE?

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Rhett Allain

Physics faculty, science blogger of all things geek. Technical Consultant for CBS MacGyver and MythBusters. WIRED blogger.