PA Man Needs “Emotional Support Alligator,” WaPo Thinks This Qualifies As An “Inspired Life” Story

The Washington Post has a column titled “Inspired Life.” It’s full of uplifting and empowering “stories about humanity.” It’s a great break from the pervasive pessimism of most news stories. But I don’t agree that their article titled, “His emotional support animal is an alligator. They sleep in the same bed,” belongs in an “inspired life” column.

“Inspire” means “to exert an animating, enlivening, or exalting influence on,” and “inspired” means “outstanding or brilliant in a way or to a degree suggestive of divine inspiration.” So does WaPo really think that an adult man requiring an emotional support alligator in order to function in his daily life represents an “inspired life?” I think it represents the opposite, actually. I think it represents our society lowering the bar pretty much all the way to the ground.

People are so coddled these days. A politically vocal comedian visits a campus and the school feels obligated to provide therapy for people whose feelings might have been hurt by hearing an opinion they don’t like. An incredibly successful podcaster shows up to his own company’s booth at a podcast even and the hosting organization feels obligated to issue a gushing apology for all the damage this man’s presence did to other attendees. It’s ridiculous. Life is hard and unfair, and you aren’t always going to like everything about it. But that doesn’t mean everyone has to coddle you or call your pathetic inability to function “inspiring.”

And the fact that this man feels perfectly comfortable and confident with an alligator being his emotional support animal tells you how trained our society is to accept and embrace things that are objectively ridiculous. Did no one ever say, “Dude, how about a dog? An alligator’s kind of weird.” These days, no one would dare say that for fear of being called a bigot or accused of actual violence with their words. Everyone is so conditioned to turn a blind eye to absurdities that a man with an emotional support alligator is not just socially acceptable but even gets a story as an “inspired life.” Our society is not a healthy one.