On the bus this morning, heading over 520 we hear an announcement. It seems there's a van on fire in the right hand, west bound lane just before the western rise. Naturally this begins a bit of flurry from a few folks, especially one or two up front who seem to be chatty but perhaps not seamlessly in tune with social customs at all times. (ahem)
in a few short minutes we cross the rise, and lo! there is a poor commuter guy with his laptop bag standing on the bridge watching his old minivan demonstrate a rather rapid exothermic chemical change. Science is Fun!
We get just off the bridge and a second announcement comes on, indicating that 520 is now closed in both directions, and buses what can should use I-90. Whew. I seem to have really good timing for this sort of thing. Up to now, both announcements have been accurate with regards to the details.
Shortly after this, a third announcement comes on, a different speaker, female, and gets it all correct save that she says "eastbound" lanes. One of the chatty folks then says "Ohhhh, *eastbound* lanes."
...really? I was stunned. it was as though someone knocked me, not too hard, but still in the chest. We *just* drove by there, not 5 minutes ago. Hell, it wasn't even 3 minutes ago. We are *in* the eastbound lanes, we clearly saw the fire, with our own eyes, facing the other direction in on the side of the road not-ours. You have *first hand, eye-witness* data, two radio reports that support your observations, and because one person on the radio got one thing wrong you've restructured your whole reality. If it's from the magic box, it must be true right?
I thought, goddamn.....no *wonder* Fox News is still on the air. If some people are willing to surrender their reason to an "official" source for an event they know, for a fact, to be otherwise, how many more out there are willing to roll over for something that doesn't sound right, but is probably true? How much bullshit are people really willing to take?
How many times have I *known* something to be true and allowed someone's opinion to override my fact because I didn't believe in myself?
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