Have we all really become that stupid? Has it really come to this? 

Have we all lost the ability to know the difference between reality and sarcasm? 

In 1984, when Paul Hogan told Americans he would throw ‘another shrimp on the barbie’ when they came to visit Australia, everyone knew he wasn’t serious.  

It wasn’t a case of “don’t come the raw prawn” with a lawsuit to follow. People just knew what Hogan meant.  

But in the last few decades all that human instinctiveness has been whittled away. 

If the world hasn’t worked out Donald Trump by now, it never will. 

Trump never actually suggested that people suffering COVID-19 should drink or inject disinfectant or bleach. 

He was instead having a dig at the reporters sitting alongside the podium, as he often does. 

Just in case you didn’t realise, there is a little thing called Twitter (now I’m being sarcastic) .

Twitter is the 45th President’s preferred mode of communication to talk directly to everyone and get his message out. 

He popularised the term ‘fake news’ and uses it whenever he believes mainstream media are spreading deliberate misinformation with an anti-Trump bias and rhetoric. 

He has 78.5 million followers and counting. He follows just 46 people.  

At this stage, not one of the 78.5 million has tried drinking disinfectant. 

British manufacturer RB which makes Dettol and Lysol released a statement saying that “under no circumstances should disinfectant products be administered into the human body, through injection, ingestion or other means.”  

My children have known this since kindergarten. 

The very fact a manufacturer released this statement shows how stupid some people are. 

COVID-19 is a desperate time for so many people. In desperate times, people do desperate things but when does taking some personal responsibility ever kick in? 

The Maryland Emergency Management Agency has said it received calls about disinfectant use and Covid-19. If true, this simply highlights the stupidity of some humans. 

But the latest media pile-on is merely the latest opportunistic attempt by the anti-Trump brigade to fire another shot across the bow. 

Ironic though, because according to them no one listens to Trump. If that ‘fake news’ claim is really the case, why is everyone so worked up? 

Perhaps the reality has struck them that Trump’s popularity continues to rise as he campaigns for a second term in the White House and at the moment, it looks like that will happen. 

Australia’s Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy also ‘cautioned against’ injecting disinfectant saying it could be “quite toxic”. 

What a revelation! 

I evidently give Aussies far more credit than Murphy does. 

Two words for everyone around the world, not just in Australia. 

Personal responsibility. 

And it needs to start kicking in soon, because it seems to have completely disappeared with every wrong action pathetically excused away because it was someone else’s fault. 

If you get to the edge of a cliff, you know what will happen. You cannot erect signs at every cliff around the world. 

If you walk your dog around an oval when a cricket match is being played, you run the risk of being whacked by an errant cricket ball. Yet local governments waste ratepayers’ money putting up signs warning of the blatantly obvious. 

The current push to have labels on bottles of alcohol warning that ‘pregnant women should not drink’ are cringeworthy. 

If after all these years of repeated public health campaigns people do not know this, what can you say? 

Except two very obvious points.  

The first being that all those millions of tax dollars poured into the campaigns may as well have been flushed down a toilet. 

But the second more important point is that if, after all the warnings, you care more about your drinking than about the health of your unborn child, then should you be having a baby in the first place? 

Or do you just expect the taxpayer to again pick up the tab for the lifetime of problems and issues you will pass onto your child? 

We live in the western world with information just a click away. 

Whether it is flying cricket balls, dangers of jumping off cliffs or simply knowing that a diet of fast food and soft drinks will make you obese and ruin your teeth and health. 

At some point, adults need to realise that it all comes down to your own choices. 

You cannot rely on the government to always fix everything.  

You need to be able to fix things yourself and for that to happen, taking responsibility for your own actions is the first step.  

Starting with not drinking bleach or other household cleaning products.

Illustration: eBay.

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