Fear & Loathing in New Jersey

The conspiritualist scene back home doesn't surprise me.

There’s a sentiment that you can never leave home, and in some sense, perhaps that’s true. Part of New Jersey will always remain with me: a penchant for sarcasm; an instinctual understanding of why a beach is not a shore; an enduring love for pork roll, egg, and cheese on a hard roll.

You can leave home, of course, and for nearly a decade, Jersey City was as far away from the small suburb that I grew up in as possible, even if I could be home in 45 minutes without traffic. Brooklyn for three years, Los Angeles for 10 now, a lifetime away from my roots though always following me everywhere.

Of course, there are people who never leave the small-minded enclave of their upbringing, and this has as much to do with mindset as geography. The darker shades of Jersey: the unyielding certainty, the racism and xenophobia, and, most pertinent to this week’s discussion, an anti-intellectual and anti-science strain so embedded that it refers back to the first reference on this list: the unyielding certainty.

Bringing us to Ian Smith.

Ian Smith @iansmithfitness

Fully [VXed] LeBron James tests positive for COOFID. I have nothing more to add. Goodnight. #clownshow

The Jersey-based gym owner received national press in May, 2020 for opening Attilis Gym despite statewide shutdown orders. Now a regular guest (and speaker) at anti-mask and conservative events around the country, in March Smith announced on Twitter that his gym would offer free memberships to anyone who refused the COVID-19 vaccine.