People all across North America have noticed the appearance of these eerie purple road lights in their car-dependent hellscapes. WCCO in Minnesota ran a story on them, and some drivers theorized what they might be for, such as energy savings or a reminder to pay attention to the traffic signal, and some even thought they looked cool. It turns out the purple lights were actually the result of a defect. LED street lights actually use blue LEDs with phosphor coatings stuck to them to turn that blue light into white light. In the defective batch, the phosphors came loose and flaked off, causing the purplish blue light that would’ve otherwise been turned white to shine through. That’s all there is to it. Nothing more to see here.
That, however, hasn’t seemed to sink in with a lot of Americans. Many Americans have a profound distrust of government, not only because the United States was founded on the principle of minimal government but also because these Americans haven’t actually travelled the world and experienced life in different countries. The only central government they know is the endemically corrupt one in Washington, DC. Were they to get a passport, travel and experience other countries, that would probably change their perspective of government, but I digress.
And what do a lot of Americans think these purple lights are? Government surveillance and control, of course.
And foolish me, I thought I could talk some sense into one of them. I commented on a video by this one arrogant metalhead YouTuber where he pushed the now-typical spiel about purple street lights being some sort of government surveillance and control. All I said is that the purple lights are the result of a defect. Did he provide any evidence to back up his claims? After all, the burden of proof was on him, since he was the one making the positive assertion. Nope! He just namecalled and blocked me. Right then and there, it became obvious to me that were this guy any dumber, he’d have to be watered twice a week.
Trying to convince these dimwits just isn’t worth it. The best thing I should do, I realized, is to just ignore them and laugh at their stupidity.
