In the recent past, politicians signaled their support for gun rights by having themselves photographed out hunting pheasants or geese, dog close at hand. Now it's military style firearms, in the cultural context of school shootings and rightwing groups showing up armed at Statehouses across the country. The old imagery was compatible with the democratic ideal that guns have a legitimate purpose, but they have no place in creating an atmosphere of political intimidation. The new imagery is very much about attacking the ideal of free debate absent any hint of physical threat.
The images that seem to trigger leftists are all of those that represent a rejection of leftist ideology... which keeps growing in its extremes.
The images that seem to trigger rightists are all those that represent a rejection of American founding principles enshrined within the constitution and original founding documents.
Alright, Charlie, I made a few observations about your "Dispatches" yesterday, one of which involved the pic of Thomas Massie and his All-American family which you re-upped today. As usual, my filter was turned on. My language was PG. I was on my best behavior. That was yesterday. This is today. Consider my trigger pulled, and feel free to delete this post when I'm done. Probably wouldn't blame you.
Thomas Massie indeed is not a serious man, any more than those in the pics following his festive holiday image are serious men (or women). But he is also not a "clown". What he is, is an Asshole of the Absolute First F**king Order, the kind that stinks up our entire nation with its odor of cravenness. And you can go ahead and hang that description on Cruz, et. al., right on down the line to the common, every day, non-officeholding lay-practitioners of this reprehensible bullshit.
Considering that the son of a bitch knows exactly what he is and does not care in the least (re: his 2017 quote), I should probably amend that description to: Asshole of the Absolute First F**king Order with Oakleaf Clusters, or something. Maybe even with a cherry on top, since he holds a seat in Congress from my once beloved home state (see yesterday's comment). Hold the cherry, but ditto for the rest shown today and all their ilk, wherever they may hail from.
And the fact that this cretin doesn't live under a rock, though that is a much more suitable habitat for him than the one he currently enjoys, and was no doubt aware of the four dead students waiting to be laid to rest just a stone's throw from my neck of the woods, along with the injured survivors and ruined lives attendant to the actions of a f**ked up juvenile cretin with a pair of full grown f**ked up cretin parents, and the stench only becomes orders-of-magnitude more foul.
Full disclosure: I own firearms. A fair number of them. Each purchased, beginning with my 1st Sweet 16 more than 50 years ago, for a specific purpose. Not an AR, AK or A-anything in the lot, which says something pretty clear about what my purposes are. Not even a semi-automatic of any kind, save one small and easily concealed & carried .380 pistol. I've long held a CPL, and I do use it for its intended purpose: self-defense while away from my home. But if you met me on the street, you'd never know I was "carrying", since even though open carry is, unfortunately, legal where I live, I feel no need to "flaunt", or to intimidate. (And open carry of a sidearm by one merely wishing to protect himself from the worst of possibilities is a foolish tactical move anyway.)
I wish no one any harm in this world. Truly. But I'd like to see what this tough-guy wannabe's reaction would be if he were to hear (and feel) the angry buzz of a bullet passing him by only a few inches away. (Though not fired at me, this is something I've experienced twice.) Even more odor from soiled shorts, perhaps? But then again maybe not. After all, there's a certain Republican Congressman from La. who has personally experienced exactly what I will mention below, though not to that ultimate extreme, and as far as I know he hasn't been inclined to speak out and call BS on anything like this stinking BS. Some of these bastards really are tough, I guess.
But I'd be more interested in seeing his - and every iron packin' member of his oh-so-Norman Rockwell family - reaction to a different scenario, one much safer than the example above, since the bullet (or bullets) would have already been spent.
Stand them all around a table in a morgue and let them see up close for themselves the actual reality of what happens when a high velocity, small diameter led and copper projectile is interrupted in its travels by human flesh and bone. Especially if it's interrupted by a child's flesh and bones. The only thing that could be more exemplary of this particular law of physics is if they could observe the result immediately after it occurred, as large quantities of blood and rent flesh have a unique odor all of their own. (Used to be an EMT-paramedic in another life long ago. But if you've never experienced this - and I hope you never do - you'll never completely forget it.)
As I said, it might not make a difference. Maybe he and all of his All-American little clan really are tough as nails, right down to the littlest one seated on the couch between good ol' Mom and Dad. I'd just like to see that for myself, is all. I'd like to be standing there with them, just so I could ask them "Are you sure you're all ok with this? Because this is what, in the end, all your g'damned assholery is promoting. So, just take a real good look. Just so you're sure."
Yeah, ok, this one triggered me. Probably in no small part because of those recently murdered young folks. So, I suppose that POS grinning with his manhood in his hands can take some satisfaction in that. But I hate to tell him there's a difference between being triggered occasionally and being owned. And he and his kind don't own me and never will. Not because I'm not a Lib (I'm not), but because I'm not an asshole. I'm a pretty normal guy with a normal sense of right and wrong. And this kind of thing is just wrong. Beyond wrong. Period. And there's nothing political about that.
I can't remember where I was reading this recently, but one of the parents of a child killed in a prominent school shooting (I want to say Newtown, but I'm not 100% certain) was talking about how nobody ever sees the photos of the dead children, and his mixed feelings about that. He said that as much as he wouldn't want pictures of his dead child floating around the Internet, he's starting to think that it might ultimately be a good thing. That it might lend a more visceral stigma to the reality of gun violence. I never even thought about that; but he has a point. Not that I would ever expect it, but it would probably help if the parents could stomach it.
I still can't get that photo of the body of a migrant toddler washed up on the beach out of my head. My eyes well up every time I recall it. Not that I was ever particularly fond of being unwelcoming toward migrants and refugees. But now, even acknowledging all of the pragmatic concerns, it infuriates me to hear people disdainfully talk about keeping away refugees without an ounce of concern or sympathy. I can only hope that photo changed some hearts and minds. Maybe the same could happen here with our unhealthy gun-fetish culture.
I think the lefty brain is incapable of understanding the bigger picture of anything causing them an emotional trigger... and they have such a large inventory of things that cause them an emotional trigger that they are largely incapable of understanding the bigger picture of almost everything.
The gun display symbolizes a call for individual freedom and independence... that's all. This is the primary principle of classical liberalism that our so called liberal progressives (wrong label) have clearly fallen out of favor with and instead opine for the primacy of the collective. Also note that nobody in the photos are wearing CCP virus fear masks. That is yet another of the same display symbolizing a call for individual freedom and independence. And also triggering to the political left brain.
Why aren't you trolling at WaPo or the NYT instead of here? The POINT is that the pic is intended to trigger. That is it's only real purpose. The same with most pics of similar ilk. Which says something in and of itself.
You also avail yourself of the stereotype of the lefties being a bunch of easily triggered wimps/snowflakes. Most of the snowflakes I have met over the last several years have not been lefties (but then I live in the midst of MAGA country, hard to find a lefty around here). Snowflakes are EVERYWHERE in US culture... a larger collection of snowflakes of all persuasions I have never seen.
Hey there - While we appreciate vigorous debate, we’re a community here at The Bulwark and personal sniping is not appreciated. If this continues we’ll kindly ask you take it elsewhere and leave the comments section for a period of our choosing. Thanks.
We own all of this because we never reinstated the 2004 AWB, and since then assault weapon ownership has skyrocketed alongside political polarization. Since like 2015, regular dude-bros can buy an "AR pistol" that can bring AR/AK barrel lengths down to as low as 5.5" (see Maxim PDX/Springfield Saint PDW) for concealability without the need for a background check due to leniencies in the law. We're talking backpack-sized "pistols" that fire rifle rounds like 7.62x39mm and .300 BLK (I happen to own a few myself). The rounds these "pistols" carry will go right through the standard level iiia+ NIJ vests that cops wear, and now more and more line officers have to equip themselves with ballistic plates that can stop rifle rounds while keeping a "patrol carbine" in the car due to the new realities of the threat environment they face. The shootings in Boulder, Dallas, and even the old North Hollywood shooting from the 90's are all good examples of what officers on patrol are likely to come up against in the future as deadly firepower and political violence both proliferate. The sad part is, at this point I don't see how you put the genie back in the bottle with new gun laws without setting off another 100 or so Waco/Ruby Ridge-style incidents, especially after we've seen how amped up the Bundy Ranch crowd gets over things as light as cattle seizures, wildlife refuges, public looting, and vote certifications. Buckle up folks, it's going to be a wild decade!
In my younger days, I did my pheasant and duck hunting with a single shot shotgun. I thought it signaled a confidence in my abilities. Alas, the wildlife proved more justified in their confidence of escaping my poor aim.
Those guns are dick pics, Charlie! And as a liberal and a comedian, I want to apologize for the snowflakes at MSNBC for not taking the joke. It wasn’t even a joke tho! It’s an apt comparison!
I was talking to my son this weekend and he was 7 years old when 9/11 happened. He remembers being scared but hopeful because the USA was united in our patriotism. He told me as a 27 year old now, he doesn't want to have children because why would he bring a child into this world, especially in this country where he/she could be killed in school, or be persecuted for being gay, or be more likely to be born only a little above poverty. He isn't hopeful now and that saddens me. He votes but he has NEVER voted for a single republican or democrat. He doesn't like either party and is an independent. It is sad that he doesn't feel like there is much to be hopeful about. What a crappy legacy he is getting from mine and my parents generation.
The reality is that if he isn't voting for a Republican or a Democrat, then he might as well not vote (other than as an act of virtue signaling). We have too many people who vote as an act of virtue signaling.
Our system works a particular way and particular groups are contesting for power. You can choose one of them or you salve your conscience by voting for someone who won't win and who, if they do win, won't achieve anything substantive.
The choice is simple, either work to make the system better from within or revolution. Changing the system from within looks increasingly problematic... so I am hoping to either be dead or retired (and out of country) before the revolution comes.
We are in so deep.....it is hard to imagine how we escape the inevitable.
I will say it until I am blue in the face, this didn't start with Trump. He purified it, made it into an art form, but he didn't start it. Limbaugh and his accolades were the gasoline poiured onto the embers that were always there. (racist, xenophobes, nutjobs are not new) The Republicans were always kinda okay with the wink and nod toward their fringe. As long as their political objectives were being met, they could ignore that deeper crazy. We are paying that price now. Power is everything to the R's, no matter how it is acquired.
I still think we still fail to accept how damaging it was for many angry, ignorant, barely bipedal people who listened to that horseshit spewed across the radio for decades, then followed by the horseshit spewed across the internet, the horseshit spewed by Fox and every rightwing wannabe that followed. The crazy is deep. I fear for our future as a country......
Limbaugh destroyed our culture, and Newt Gingrich did the same with Congress. He turned our relatively boring political scene into a cultural blood-sport, starting in the late '80s with his vicious late-in-the-day diatribes given to empty rooms with the C-Span cameras rolling. When Republicans today whine about how the Democrats supposedly regarded Trump as an illegitimate president because they had the temerity to investigate him, they forget how Republicans treated Bill Clinton at the time. And Gingrich - the man who impeached Clinton "because we can", was largely responsible for the political culture that led to it all.
Mary...Have owned a horse or two in my time. Too many of 'em in one turn-out for too long, and they can make a bit of a mess of the place, requiring some serious shoveling to set things straight.
You are right. We are in it up to our eyeballs at the moment. The horseshit has been steadily getting deeper for years, and now the depth of the crazy that its fertilizing properties engenders has finally caught up and is equally deep. More than just a bit of a mess.
Gonna' need a bigger shovel, and I'm not sure we've got one. So I, like you, have similar fears. But no choice other than to keep on shovelin', if for no other reason than to land some of the stink back on those that it came from while trying clean things up enough to let something other than crazy have a crack at taking root.
The only way out of this is that the people and corporations with big money decide that the eventual chaos is bad for business. You and I have zero say.
I looked up life-expectancy numbers for the year of my mother's birth and for the year of her father's birth. For my mother, it was the mid-50's. For my grandfather, the low 40's. Surely the success of the science of public health in increasing longevity ranks as one of the greatest achievements in the history of the world.
When Senator Johnson opens his mouth to attack Dr. Fauci, I cannot escape the feeling that he is speaking for a revolt against human intelligence itself.
He is. Most people are willfully stupid to a greater or lesser degree.... and generally the less educated and exposed to a variety of viewpoints, the greater the willful stupidity.
This is not a strictly Right/Left or Liberal/Conservative issue.
People (especially Americans) tend to resent expertise. It devalues them and they do not like being devalued (because our consumer society paradoxically tells us that: 1) we are inadequate (if we do not buy and use product X) and yet 2) we are unique and valuable and important and should express all of that by buying product Y).
People do not like being devalued (which is the big problem that Liberals/Progressives have in rhetoric).
People do not like being seen as stupid (even if they usually are).
So you end up with this aggressive stupidity that is intended to overpower and intimidate and to prove (somehow) that it isn't actually stupid. It is a defiant "demonstration" of worth and (what passes for) intelligence.
In a certain sense, it is a either form of bullying as it often relies upon implications of force and threat or it is a form of appeal to the authority of the crowd (with the implicit understanding that the opinion and belief of the crowd is superior, somehow =, to that of those with knowledge and understanding).
Thomas Massie's photo, as Charlie rightly points out, was tweeted with no purpose in mind other than to trigger people. It may appeal to about 3% of Twitter users who aren't bots, but there is no substantial constituency for such an image; there is, however, a constituency for people who like that such an image will piss off the people they hate. When it comes to rather loathsome performative displays like this, or even things like goofy white supremacist rallies, which also lack a substantial constituency but are excellent triggers, the question is how to handle them, and I'm not entirely sure how, but I'm inclined toward simply ignoring them. Like completely. Trolling abhors a vacuum.
It is very tempting to send Thomas Massie a Tweet back that he'll never see. It's tempting to retweet it along with a snappy critique of the image. But I don't think doing either is helpful, especially retweeting. When we see people acting like assholes, especially on social media where personal interaction is absent, it is sorely tempting to call them out; the only problem, though, is that is exactly what they want you to do. If Massie had any shame, that image wouldn't be on his Twitter feed. Engaging these people on social media just magnifies them beyond any degree they're worth. Much of their engagement, their likes, is driven by bots. Some of us get off on others' approval of our social media feeds, and some of us are broken individuals like Massie who get off on pissing people off with our Tweets.
We need to figure out how to come to grips with the people who have always been among us, but were rightly obscure and irrelevant before the advent of social media. If Massie sent this Tweet and no one reacted, what lesson would that impart to him?
My mother's words are ingrained in my head: "If you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything at all." I would perhaps edit that to say, "If you don't have anything productive to say..." It has been amazingly effective in stopping me from replying to or sharing all manner of things on social media that don't deserve any further attention. There's something to be said for politely ignoring the daily ugliness circulating on social media and our television screens
In the recent past, politicians signaled their support for gun rights by having themselves photographed out hunting pheasants or geese, dog close at hand. Now it's military style firearms, in the cultural context of school shootings and rightwing groups showing up armed at Statehouses across the country. The old imagery was compatible with the democratic ideal that guns have a legitimate purpose, but they have no place in creating an atmosphere of political intimidation. The new imagery is very much about attacking the ideal of free debate absent any hint of physical threat.
The images that seem to trigger leftists are all of those that represent a rejection of leftist ideology... which keeps growing in its extremes.
The images that seem to trigger rightists are all those that represent a rejection of American founding principles enshrined within the constitution and original founding documents.
Alright, Charlie, I made a few observations about your "Dispatches" yesterday, one of which involved the pic of Thomas Massie and his All-American family which you re-upped today. As usual, my filter was turned on. My language was PG. I was on my best behavior. That was yesterday. This is today. Consider my trigger pulled, and feel free to delete this post when I'm done. Probably wouldn't blame you.
Thomas Massie indeed is not a serious man, any more than those in the pics following his festive holiday image are serious men (or women). But he is also not a "clown". What he is, is an Asshole of the Absolute First F**king Order, the kind that stinks up our entire nation with its odor of cravenness. And you can go ahead and hang that description on Cruz, et. al., right on down the line to the common, every day, non-officeholding lay-practitioners of this reprehensible bullshit.
Considering that the son of a bitch knows exactly what he is and does not care in the least (re: his 2017 quote), I should probably amend that description to: Asshole of the Absolute First F**king Order with Oakleaf Clusters, or something. Maybe even with a cherry on top, since he holds a seat in Congress from my once beloved home state (see yesterday's comment). Hold the cherry, but ditto for the rest shown today and all their ilk, wherever they may hail from.
And the fact that this cretin doesn't live under a rock, though that is a much more suitable habitat for him than the one he currently enjoys, and was no doubt aware of the four dead students waiting to be laid to rest just a stone's throw from my neck of the woods, along with the injured survivors and ruined lives attendant to the actions of a f**ked up juvenile cretin with a pair of full grown f**ked up cretin parents, and the stench only becomes orders-of-magnitude more foul.
Full disclosure: I own firearms. A fair number of them. Each purchased, beginning with my 1st Sweet 16 more than 50 years ago, for a specific purpose. Not an AR, AK or A-anything in the lot, which says something pretty clear about what my purposes are. Not even a semi-automatic of any kind, save one small and easily concealed & carried .380 pistol. I've long held a CPL, and I do use it for its intended purpose: self-defense while away from my home. But if you met me on the street, you'd never know I was "carrying", since even though open carry is, unfortunately, legal where I live, I feel no need to "flaunt", or to intimidate. (And open carry of a sidearm by one merely wishing to protect himself from the worst of possibilities is a foolish tactical move anyway.)
I wish no one any harm in this world. Truly. But I'd like to see what this tough-guy wannabe's reaction would be if he were to hear (and feel) the angry buzz of a bullet passing him by only a few inches away. (Though not fired at me, this is something I've experienced twice.) Even more odor from soiled shorts, perhaps? But then again maybe not. After all, there's a certain Republican Congressman from La. who has personally experienced exactly what I will mention below, though not to that ultimate extreme, and as far as I know he hasn't been inclined to speak out and call BS on anything like this stinking BS. Some of these bastards really are tough, I guess.
But I'd be more interested in seeing his - and every iron packin' member of his oh-so-Norman Rockwell family - reaction to a different scenario, one much safer than the example above, since the bullet (or bullets) would have already been spent.
Stand them all around a table in a morgue and let them see up close for themselves the actual reality of what happens when a high velocity, small diameter led and copper projectile is interrupted in its travels by human flesh and bone. Especially if it's interrupted by a child's flesh and bones. The only thing that could be more exemplary of this particular law of physics is if they could observe the result immediately after it occurred, as large quantities of blood and rent flesh have a unique odor all of their own. (Used to be an EMT-paramedic in another life long ago. But if you've never experienced this - and I hope you never do - you'll never completely forget it.)
As I said, it might not make a difference. Maybe he and all of his All-American little clan really are tough as nails, right down to the littlest one seated on the couch between good ol' Mom and Dad. I'd just like to see that for myself, is all. I'd like to be standing there with them, just so I could ask them "Are you sure you're all ok with this? Because this is what, in the end, all your g'damned assholery is promoting. So, just take a real good look. Just so you're sure."
Yeah, ok, this one triggered me. Probably in no small part because of those recently murdered young folks. So, I suppose that POS grinning with his manhood in his hands can take some satisfaction in that. But I hate to tell him there's a difference between being triggered occasionally and being owned. And he and his kind don't own me and never will. Not because I'm not a Lib (I'm not), but because I'm not an asshole. I'm a pretty normal guy with a normal sense of right and wrong. And this kind of thing is just wrong. Beyond wrong. Period. And there's nothing political about that.
I can't remember where I was reading this recently, but one of the parents of a child killed in a prominent school shooting (I want to say Newtown, but I'm not 100% certain) was talking about how nobody ever sees the photos of the dead children, and his mixed feelings about that. He said that as much as he wouldn't want pictures of his dead child floating around the Internet, he's starting to think that it might ultimately be a good thing. That it might lend a more visceral stigma to the reality of gun violence. I never even thought about that; but he has a point. Not that I would ever expect it, but it would probably help if the parents could stomach it.
I still can't get that photo of the body of a migrant toddler washed up on the beach out of my head. My eyes well up every time I recall it. Not that I was ever particularly fond of being unwelcoming toward migrants and refugees. But now, even acknowledging all of the pragmatic concerns, it infuriates me to hear people disdainfully talk about keeping away refugees without an ounce of concern or sympathy. I can only hope that photo changed some hearts and minds. Maybe the same could happen here with our unhealthy gun-fetish culture.
Hear hear.
We (unfortunately) need someone with the courage and foresight of Emmet Till's mother.
I think the lefty brain is incapable of understanding the bigger picture of anything causing them an emotional trigger... and they have such a large inventory of things that cause them an emotional trigger that they are largely incapable of understanding the bigger picture of almost everything.
The gun display symbolizes a call for individual freedom and independence... that's all. This is the primary principle of classical liberalism that our so called liberal progressives (wrong label) have clearly fallen out of favor with and instead opine for the primacy of the collective. Also note that nobody in the photos are wearing CCP virus fear masks. That is yet another of the same display symbolizing a call for individual freedom and independence. And also triggering to the political left brain.
Another possible triggering photo would be the family all sitting in a big Ford F350. I know most of my left of reason friends will have to Google to see what this vehicle looks like. So let me help save the time... https://www.motortrend.com/uploads/sites/5/2020/12/2021-Ford-F-350-Super-Duty-Limited-6-7L-Powerstroke-4x4-42.jpg
Why aren't you trolling at WaPo or the NYT instead of here? The POINT is that the pic is intended to trigger. That is it's only real purpose. The same with most pics of similar ilk. Which says something in and of itself.
You also avail yourself of the stereotype of the lefties being a bunch of easily triggered wimps/snowflakes. Most of the snowflakes I have met over the last several years have not been lefties (but then I live in the midst of MAGA country, hard to find a lefty around here). Snowflakes are EVERYWHERE in US culture... a larger collection of snowflakes of all persuasions I have never seen.
Hey there - While we appreciate vigorous debate, we’re a community here at The Bulwark and personal sniping is not appreciated. If this continues we’ll kindly ask you take it elsewhere and leave the comments section for a period of our choosing. Thanks.
Yeah, he does this at other forums too, thanks for saying something Jim
We own all of this because we never reinstated the 2004 AWB, and since then assault weapon ownership has skyrocketed alongside political polarization. Since like 2015, regular dude-bros can buy an "AR pistol" that can bring AR/AK barrel lengths down to as low as 5.5" (see Maxim PDX/Springfield Saint PDW) for concealability without the need for a background check due to leniencies in the law. We're talking backpack-sized "pistols" that fire rifle rounds like 7.62x39mm and .300 BLK (I happen to own a few myself). The rounds these "pistols" carry will go right through the standard level iiia+ NIJ vests that cops wear, and now more and more line officers have to equip themselves with ballistic plates that can stop rifle rounds while keeping a "patrol carbine" in the car due to the new realities of the threat environment they face. The shootings in Boulder, Dallas, and even the old North Hollywood shooting from the 90's are all good examples of what officers on patrol are likely to come up against in the future as deadly firepower and political violence both proliferate. The sad part is, at this point I don't see how you put the genie back in the bottle with new gun laws without setting off another 100 or so Waco/Ruby Ridge-style incidents, especially after we've seen how amped up the Bundy Ranch crowd gets over things as light as cattle seizures, wildlife refuges, public looting, and vote certifications. Buckle up folks, it's going to be a wild decade!
Gun fetishes: The one form of kink-shaming the left *does* want to demonize lol
Those were some ugly guns, btw.
Eh, at least they're not hiding their brutality.
Only guys with really average “guns” need them dressed up as fully automatic. A bow hunter, on the other hand….
In my younger days, I did my pheasant and duck hunting with a single shot shotgun. I thought it signaled a confidence in my abilities. Alas, the wildlife proved more justified in their confidence of escaping my poor aim.
Those guns are dick pics, Charlie! And as a liberal and a comedian, I want to apologize for the snowflakes at MSNBC for not taking the joke. It wasn’t even a joke tho! It’s an apt comparison!
I was talking to my son this weekend and he was 7 years old when 9/11 happened. He remembers being scared but hopeful because the USA was united in our patriotism. He told me as a 27 year old now, he doesn't want to have children because why would he bring a child into this world, especially in this country where he/she could be killed in school, or be persecuted for being gay, or be more likely to be born only a little above poverty. He isn't hopeful now and that saddens me. He votes but he has NEVER voted for a single republican or democrat. He doesn't like either party and is an independent. It is sad that he doesn't feel like there is much to be hopeful about. What a crappy legacy he is getting from mine and my parents generation.
The reality is that if he isn't voting for a Republican or a Democrat, then he might as well not vote (other than as an act of virtue signaling). We have too many people who vote as an act of virtue signaling.
Our system works a particular way and particular groups are contesting for power. You can choose one of them or you salve your conscience by voting for someone who won't win and who, if they do win, won't achieve anything substantive.
The choice is simple, either work to make the system better from within or revolution. Changing the system from within looks increasingly problematic... so I am hoping to either be dead or retired (and out of country) before the revolution comes.
We are in so deep.....it is hard to imagine how we escape the inevitable.
I will say it until I am blue in the face, this didn't start with Trump. He purified it, made it into an art form, but he didn't start it. Limbaugh and his accolades were the gasoline poiured onto the embers that were always there. (racist, xenophobes, nutjobs are not new) The Republicans were always kinda okay with the wink and nod toward their fringe. As long as their political objectives were being met, they could ignore that deeper crazy. We are paying that price now. Power is everything to the R's, no matter how it is acquired.
I still think we still fail to accept how damaging it was for many angry, ignorant, barely bipedal people who listened to that horseshit spewed across the radio for decades, then followed by the horseshit spewed across the internet, the horseshit spewed by Fox and every rightwing wannabe that followed. The crazy is deep. I fear for our future as a country......
Limbaugh destroyed our culture, and Newt Gingrich did the same with Congress. He turned our relatively boring political scene into a cultural blood-sport, starting in the late '80s with his vicious late-in-the-day diatribes given to empty rooms with the C-Span cameras rolling. When Republicans today whine about how the Democrats supposedly regarded Trump as an illegitimate president because they had the temerity to investigate him, they forget how Republicans treated Bill Clinton at the time. And Gingrich - the man who impeached Clinton "because we can", was largely responsible for the political culture that led to it all.
Mary...Have owned a horse or two in my time. Too many of 'em in one turn-out for too long, and they can make a bit of a mess of the place, requiring some serious shoveling to set things straight.
You are right. We are in it up to our eyeballs at the moment. The horseshit has been steadily getting deeper for years, and now the depth of the crazy that its fertilizing properties engenders has finally caught up and is equally deep. More than just a bit of a mess.
Gonna' need a bigger shovel, and I'm not sure we've got one. So I, like you, have similar fears. But no choice other than to keep on shovelin', if for no other reason than to land some of the stink back on those that it came from while trying clean things up enough to let something other than crazy have a crack at taking root.
Cleaned a stall or two in my day as well.....I will continue to shovel 😉
The only way out of this is that the people and corporations with big money decide that the eventual chaos is bad for business. You and I have zero say.
I looked up life-expectancy numbers for the year of my mother's birth and for the year of her father's birth. For my mother, it was the mid-50's. For my grandfather, the low 40's. Surely the success of the science of public health in increasing longevity ranks as one of the greatest achievements in the history of the world.
When Senator Johnson opens his mouth to attack Dr. Fauci, I cannot escape the feeling that he is speaking for a revolt against human intelligence itself.
He is. Most people are willfully stupid to a greater or lesser degree.... and generally the less educated and exposed to a variety of viewpoints, the greater the willful stupidity.
This is not a strictly Right/Left or Liberal/Conservative issue.
People (especially Americans) tend to resent expertise. It devalues them and they do not like being devalued (because our consumer society paradoxically tells us that: 1) we are inadequate (if we do not buy and use product X) and yet 2) we are unique and valuable and important and should express all of that by buying product Y).
People do not like being devalued (which is the big problem that Liberals/Progressives have in rhetoric).
People do not like being seen as stupid (even if they usually are).
So you end up with this aggressive stupidity that is intended to overpower and intimidate and to prove (somehow) that it isn't actually stupid. It is a defiant "demonstration" of worth and (what passes for) intelligence.
In a certain sense, it is a either form of bullying as it often relies upon implications of force and threat or it is a form of appeal to the authority of the crowd (with the implicit understanding that the opinion and belief of the crowd is superior, somehow =, to that of those with knowledge and understanding).
Charlie? How long has it been since you woke up with a lack of insane topics and went, "what should I write about today"?
Thanks, Charlie, for bringing up Arendt and tying her writing to the present.
Thomas Massie's photo, as Charlie rightly points out, was tweeted with no purpose in mind other than to trigger people. It may appeal to about 3% of Twitter users who aren't bots, but there is no substantial constituency for such an image; there is, however, a constituency for people who like that such an image will piss off the people they hate. When it comes to rather loathsome performative displays like this, or even things like goofy white supremacist rallies, which also lack a substantial constituency but are excellent triggers, the question is how to handle them, and I'm not entirely sure how, but I'm inclined toward simply ignoring them. Like completely. Trolling abhors a vacuum.
It is very tempting to send Thomas Massie a Tweet back that he'll never see. It's tempting to retweet it along with a snappy critique of the image. But I don't think doing either is helpful, especially retweeting. When we see people acting like assholes, especially on social media where personal interaction is absent, it is sorely tempting to call them out; the only problem, though, is that is exactly what they want you to do. If Massie had any shame, that image wouldn't be on his Twitter feed. Engaging these people on social media just magnifies them beyond any degree they're worth. Much of their engagement, their likes, is driven by bots. Some of us get off on others' approval of our social media feeds, and some of us are broken individuals like Massie who get off on pissing people off with our Tweets.
We need to figure out how to come to grips with the people who have always been among us, but were rightly obscure and irrelevant before the advent of social media. If Massie sent this Tweet and no one reacted, what lesson would that impart to him?
My mother's words are ingrained in my head: "If you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything at all." I would perhaps edit that to say, "If you don't have anything productive to say..." It has been amazingly effective in stopping me from replying to or sharing all manner of things on social media that don't deserve any further attention. There's something to be said for politely ignoring the daily ugliness circulating on social media and our television screens
Keep it up! Call them as you see them - d*** pics indeed - and shame on the rest of his family for joining in that repulsive photo.
Since Arendt was also invoked today, thus the banality of evil.
Mother of the Year there.
She has competition from the mother of the Oxford high school shooter.