It is intuitively obvious to the casual observer that...
As medical students, so went our clever retort to those blowhards among us who were constantly auditioning, unsolicited, to come across as profound.
Though less frequent, residency sadly did not offer any refuge from those types. Thirty-eight years later, I see a few are still rearranging the deck chairs on their Titanic Groundhog Day of poor self-esteem.
Sometimes, I wonder where they ended up. Most probably, academia. My experience suggests that behavior thrives in such an environment noted for its endless supply of brown-nosers. The other 99.9999999% of the time I completely forget about them. Those moments are the best. But damn Freddy Krueger, am I right?
One of those who more frequently pays a visit to my unsuspecting mind was a Pulmonary fellow when I was an Internal Medicine resident, meaning in medical speak that he outranked me so I had to listen “respectfully.” (The most important thing in acting is honesty, and once you’ve learned to fake that, you’re in.)
Never missing an opportunity at any conference, he would orate to all of us who were there solely to hear the sweet melody of his voice declare at the recognized speaker’s unfortunate need to take a breath, “Uncommon presentations of common diseases are more common than common presentations of uncommon diseases.”
He wasn’t wrong, just insufferably full of himself. He also seemed to be the last one in on the joke as we all casually lip-synced along and passed this knowledge on to incoming interns. Or, if feeling mischievous, would suggest to an intern to ask him about developing a differential diagnosis then sit back and watch the intern suffer a lesson he would never repeat but probably foist on someone else lower on the food chain.
But as you’ve probably noticed I routinely point out, little in medicine is unique to medicine, it’s just more expensive and potentially dangerous. Many of you outside this immediate theater have probably been nodding along. Yes, you know that person too. Sorry about that. Really.
Medical Pearl: those with schizophrenia are more likely to interpret metaphors literally, and be easily distracted with analogical reasoning
And in these times of political stress, consider that defenders of democracy come in many shapes and sizes and colors, but all carry the message that government is of the people, by the people, and for the people. (Abraham Lincoln)
On the other hand, fascists are pretty monotonous and easy to identify:
Authoritarian.
Nationalist.
Dictatorial.
Militaristic.
Suppressive.
Classist.
Autocratic.
FDR, JFK, MLK, Mandel, Churchill, Clinton, Cesar Chavez and Reagan are but a few charismatic leaders. The Space Nazi is charismatic. Felon Trump is charismatic.
Joe Biden is not a felon or charismatic.
You know who else was charismatic? Fidel Castro. David Koresh. Jim Jones. Adolf Hitler.
I’m not voting for charisma.
Yawn, I’m voting for substance.
Maybe if a lot more of us will do that, we can get out of this nightmare Republican Groundhog Day that is so lucrative for the profit-driven press — democracy be damned.