Misinformation. Disinformation. Partisanship. Selfishness. Shamelessness. These things run rampant in these aggravating, dysfunctional times. But, of course, not really any more or worse than they ever have before—it’s simply that social media allows us to see it all more clearly with algorithms that amplify conflict and controversy for the purposes of engagement.

As Marcus Aurelius experienced during his own plague times, people have always been crazy. Always been cruel. Always been stupid. There is no period in human history that doesn’t include a citizenry prone to behaving like a mob when sufficiently ginned up. Which is why Marcus tried to catch himself before writing off anyone or any group as irredeemable.

“Against our will, our souls are cut off from truth…” he writes in Meditations, quoting Epictetus, paraphrasing Plato’s Sophist.

But it’s more than just truth we get separated from, he notes, it’s also kindness and self-control and justice and all the virtues. It’s not that people want to be this way, but they catch something. Or, as we’ve talked about, something catches them, infects them, misleads them, radicalizes them. It’s a kind of virus, ironically.  “Important to keep this in mind,” Marcus reminds himself, “it will make you more patient with other people.”

Try to recall this: the misled, the radicalized, they didn’t ask to be infected. They don’t even know they’re sick! Against their will, against their knowledge, they were made this way. If they could see—or be made to see—that this is what has happened, they would almost certainly change. But they can’t…and they will probably never be able to.

That’s the real crime here. It’s frustrating and tragic. But there’s little we can do about it besides be empathetic and patient with them, while simultaneously avoiding infection ourselves or being made reactionary in turn.