noble savages

 Are you saying like a bunch of weirdos crashed the anti-vaxxer parade?  I think anit-vaxxers themselves are pretty weird.  Okay really weird.  I have often spoken of Trump breaking the surly bonds of truth, and once you have done that why you are free to believe whatever floats your boat.  Why these particular things float their boats I do not know.

That thing about people being naturally good, was the belief of the liberals of the day who thought that left to their own ways people would express their sweet natures like the noble savage, while conservatives tended to the believe that people are no damn good and they needed to bow down to the king and obey whatever laws he laid down for them for their own damn good.  

I am not that familiar with Rosseau and google led me to the Encyclopedia Britannica where I found this:

Rousseau was the least academic of modern philosophers and in many ways was the most influential. His thought marked the end of the European Enlightenment (the “Age of Reason”). He propelled political and ethical thinking into new channels. His reforms revolutionized taste, first in music, then in the other arts. 

I remember now, though enlightenment sounds kind of fuzzy and sweet, kind of new agey, those guys were a pretty hard-headed lot, who spoke in terms of facts and numbers.  A lot of folks didn't like that, they preferred the golden chariot circling the earth rather than the sack of hydrogen and helium that the earth circled around.  They prided themselves on being romantics as opposed to those just the facts guys.

It seems like the just the facts guys were on top for the last say two hundred years up until, oh Trump.  But I wonder maybe this, this whole thing is just the welling up of popular sentiment and Trump simply happened to be standing on top of the well when it happened.  Witness all the other populist authoritarian leaders who have bloomed across the world, and how Trump has been booed when he promoted booster shots.

I didn't mean to bad mouth the tiny rooms that go up and down.  Like I said if you are not in a mood for short casual conversation you can just put a scowl on your face or you could whip out your phone.  But most of the time I find a short conversation with my neighbors a pleasant experience.