Few things can make life as miserable as idiot neighbors.\u00c2\u00a0 Imagine someone next door demanding you give up your cell phone and wi-fi because he’s allergic to electromagnetic radiation.<\/p>\n
If you life in Santa Fe, you don’t have to imagine it.\u00c2\u00a0 Arthur Firstenberg is demanding<\/a> his neighbors turn off everything to cater to his imaginary allergy to EMF.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s banded together with other idiots who are insisting that all wi-fi be banned in all public buildings.\u00c2\u00a0 “I get chest pain,” he says.\u00c2\u00a0 “It doesn’t go away right away. I suffer for a couple of days. If I walk into a room of a building that has Wi-Fi, my most immediate sign is that the front of my right thigh goes numb. If I don’t leave, I’ll get short of breath, chest pains and the numbness will spread.”\u00c2\u00a0 He’s banding together with other neurotics, trying to use the American’s With Disabilities Act to force everyone to cater to their nonsense.\u00c2\u00a0 (I wonder where they get together?)<\/p>\n This reaction to our wired world is somewhat popular among those claiming Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, another imaginary disease<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 (When typing this, I misspelled “sensitivity.” My spelling checker suggested the correct word was “senility.”)<\/p>\n These people are <\/em>suffering.\u00c2\u00a0 Their pain and symptoms are quite real.\u00c2\u00a0 The problem is with their self diagnosis.\u00c2\u00a0 They are not suffering from EHS, MCS, or any of the other long lists of diseases they whine about to anyone who makes the mistake of asking them, “How are you?”\u00c2\u00a0 Their real illness is severe hypochondria. There are treatments for that, but since they won’t accept a legitimate diagnosis they’ll continue to wallow in their self-imposed anguish <\/span>and demand that everyone else change their lifestyle until they’re just as miserable.<\/p>\n I’ve found the best way to deal with such people: avoid them as if they had a real and contagious disease.<\/p>\n