An Entrepreneur’s Journey into Madness
A cautionary tale for folks convinced of their infallibility
(Please note: names, facts and places have been slightly altered to protect identities; you cannot research any of this. That’s intentional.)
“Well you know that there was a leak at the plant, and that all the birds and animals out there are now affected. They’re all born with deformities. So are all the children in the area.”
I winced. Again. Honestly. I had worked in that field some years back. What Jan was claiming was patently untrue.
She wasn’t done.
“Every vaccine today causes autism. It’s a government plot. It’s working, too. They’re trying to kill us all off.”
I mumbled something shy of an acknowledgement, glad that she couldn’t see the smallpox vaccine scar on my left arm.
Gah.
Jan went on about this and that and the other “proven” conspiracy theories. While far from what we would today call a Flat-Earther, she was off the rails entirely. Otherwise, incredibly smart, but just….off the rails. Enough so that I had learned to stay away most of the time. It wasn’t getting any better.
Jan and I had met back in 1997 when I’d moved to the Inland Northwest. She was a PhD, an…
