Category: Politics

Tolerance for Intolerance

I’ll tolerate your intolerance. But there are conditions.

I’ll get to those in a shortly. But first a bit of personal context. If you know me you’d describe me as “leans to the left.” While leaning one way or the other seems to fit the way the world wants to define everyone these days it’s not a distinction that matters to me. As a few of my “lean to the right” friends have found to their dismay I actually hold a few opinions on a few things that make their views look left of Karl Marx.

The labels and the leanings don’t mean spit to me because it’s all a circle. Lean left enough and you end up on the right and vice-versa. What goes around comes around as long as you can convince enough folks in the center that you’re on the up side of the curve and not the down side. It’s enough to make one see red. A color that proves this knock-down, knee-slapping funny point. The only place we’ve seen as much red as that adorning everything on the American right these days was in the old Soviet Union in a Moscow whore house off Red Square. Matadors and bulls are having a tough time keeping up. Oh, wait. Not a popular sport these days. Sorry.

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Regardless of the ridiculous games we play with left and right, everyone (both sides?) find themselves currently playing the change the language, change the discourse game thinking or pretending they’ve come up with something new and relevant (again.) Those that think they have just haven’t been around enough to know better. Those that pretend know better. But they do it anyway.

Banning books is popular (again.) Limiting and condeming speech is popular (again.) Banning artists is popular (again-although this time around we call it “canceling”.) Banning the teaching of the full breadth of history is popular (again.) And again, and again, and again ad nauseam.

There’s nothing new under the sun and certainly the human capacity to forget or set aside the past is right up there with all of our other failings. The only innovation is the technology that allow us to observe, comment, and take advantage of our forgetfullness more quickly. I used to think that technology would help us somehow hang on to our past a bit easier, learn from our mistakes and create a better world. That was a false hope. It’s easier and more profitable to serve ads to the ignorant.

So, with the above context in mind, back to the beginning.

I’ll tolerate your intolerance. And here are my conditions.

1. If you’re intolerant of some “other” go right ahead and be so, say so, and speak what you’re going to do about it. But before you puff yourself up with righteous indignation think it through.

That “other” isn’t going to go away. The “other” was probably here before you or whomever taught you to hate them. You can pass all the laws you want, but “others” will continue to do their “othering” regardless of your existence. They always have. They always will. You be you. They will be they.

The only way you change that, and bear with me here, is if you wipe all those “others” out of existence. If that’s what you want, have the chutzpah to stand up and say so. Sure, you’ll be ostracized and maybe punched in the face or tossed into prison. And then you too can be an “other.”

2. Admit you’re afraid. You’re not standing for anything. You’re not preserving anything. You’re not advancing a cause. You’re just scared shitless, retreating and running from ideas that challenge yours like a terrified mouse into a hole. It’s scary to suspect that someone else’s ideas feel like they’re shaking the ground beneath your feet. I’ve got news. The ground isn’t shaking. It’s your knees that have gone wobbly.

3. Follow the money. You may not be making any, but folks sure are making bank off of your outrage.

4. Have a sense of humor. If you’ve lost yours I’m sorry. Go find another one. Otherwise the joke’s on you. Life is comedy. It only turns to tragedy when folks forget, that in the end, we’re all punch lines.

Don’t Trust This Post

I wish American liars and propagandists were more original. But perhaps when it comes to lies, propaganda and “fake news” there’s no real improving on what Goebbels said about the big lie:

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”

And then there’s Steve Bannon’s infamous and more contemporary marching order to “flood the zone with shit.” 

But when it comes to being able to trust, Shakespeare’s Nurse in Romeo and Juliet nailed it:”There’s no trust, No faith, no honesty in men; all perjured, All forsworn, all naught, all dissemblers.”

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Yes, this post could be just about politics, but when it comes to trust, there are not too many avenues in public life remaining when you can trust the road markings. Not when we’ve reached a point when trust apparently matters less than the ability to lie with no shame and the most shameless dissemblers seem to be the most rewarded. 

Every entity we know floods the zone: governments, the media, sports teams, financial institutions, public utilities, corporations, religious instiutions, and the list could go on and on. And the crazy thing about it: Everyone knows it. Which is terribily funny to me because it’s not like they give out awards for being good at barking bullshit to willing audiences who know that’s what you’re up to. 

I’ve often maintained that we need to stop the farce of teaching our children not to lie. That’s just another lie they find out their elders visit on them once they get out into the world. If we were honest about it (ahem) we could probably reduce some of the need for therapy bills and legal fees by teaching youngsters to be more proficient liars an early age.

I mean there’s no Blue Fairy coming to the rescue. 

 

 

 

 

Nothing New Under the Sun

Breathless. I tell ya folks are breathless and shrieking their lungs out about all the things the Republicans are doing now that they’ve organized the House of Representatives. I’m not sure why. They’ve been telling us their plans for quite some time. And lo and behold they are carrying them out. Shocker!  Evil people are doing evil things!

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We’re living in an age where we can’t find a good measuring stick to gauge against, because nothing is the same as it was pre-COVID and pre-decaying orange turd. So we need to adjust our shock guages or find new ones.

But actually we don’t. This is the way the world works, has always worked and (gasp!) will continue to work. There’s always going to be gambling in here! It may be in a new world that we haven’t begun to figure out yet, but the players are still the same. It’s just less of a game at the moment. If there’s anything remotely shocking it’s that the folks controlling the game in the House aren’t pretending to play nice anymore. They’re being bold, brazen and big-footed about what they’re up to. And though I don’t like so much of what they’re doing, I have to say it’s oddly comforting.

How so comforting? Well we know exactly what’s happening and we don’t really need to look too hard to discover their aims. Yes, that takes all the fun out of the game when you know what your opponent is going to do. But it is at least more honest. Better to be stabbed in the chest then shivved in the back while your assailant is smiling at you.

The Tennessee Lookout Issues a Call to Arms

The Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors. And they’ve come up with a pretty funny Call to Arms for those who might be tired of the crap that passes for politics these days.

Here’s an excerpt:

When in the Course of foolish human events, such as Speaker of the House of Representatives elections, it becomes necessary for we the people to dissolve the political charades which have connected those silly not yet sworn in Members of Congress and to assume the powers of the Laws of Nature, then a decent respect for humankind requires that we should declare the causes which impel us to separate from the Make America Great Again tribe and instead Make America Good Again Maybe.

Go read the whole thing. It’s spot on and pretty funny. Although I still think it’s a bit on the “too nice” side of things. I’d much prefer a little more openly calling “bullshit” on these bullshitters. Enough with the “maybe.”

Pity the Beanbags

The old saying that “politics ain’t beanbag” has long since lost its original significance. But last night/this morning’s shit-show shenanigans in the US House of Representatives proves once again that “beanbags” have suffered too much humiliation in that age-old comparison. 

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If you ask me we’d might be somewhat better off if we ripped down the decorum curtains that Congress critters like to hide their bribery, backstbbing and debauchery behind. I mean, let’s get real. Many of the folks who elected these “representatives” probably loved the near brawl on the house floor last night. 

The veneer we seem to crave hides the venal far more than we want to admit. 

Get Your Gordian Knot Cutters Out. The Insurrection Continues. 

Tomorrow is the two year anniversary of the January 6th Insurrection and we all know what that was. Well, scratch that. We still seem to disagree on what that was. My point of view is clear. It was a violent attempt to dismantle the US government by force after all the previous shenanigans failed. As would the ones that would follow it. Until now.

In my view, the current chaos in the US House of Representatives over choosing its Speaker is just an Insurrection continuation. Regardless of which shill is elected to the office it appears to me that until at least the next election one half of a branch of government will effectively rule itself ineffective and to a large degree moot. And that’s the point.

If what we’re reading about the concessions already granted and under consideration to advance the election of a Speaker are close to real then the Insurrectionists will have succeeded using parliamentary procedure in ways they couldn’t by breaking windows and brutalizing cops. That’s certainly easier and less messy and looks more legitimate. But hey, whadda ya know, the folks holding Kevin McCarthy and everyone else hostage are the same bunch that wanted to torch the place. Once an Insurrectionist, always an Insurrectionist.

Don’t get me wrong. Congress, and in this case more specifically the House, is certainly in need of some change. Yeah, that’s an understatement. But this bunch of hostage takers has tied things into such a Gordian Knot that not even Alexander the Great could cut it. Bluntly, I say again, that’s the point. Create enough chaos, gum up the works enough and you don’t have to do anything but raise your voice in outrage to raise dollars. 

Frightening AND fitting that we’re here on the eve of Jan 6. 

Things We Know But Don’t Admit

There are things we know. There are things we don’t know. And there are those damn known unknowns. 

There are also things we know but don’t want to admit we know. Some of those things keep us in quiet denial. Some of those things allow us to loudly vent outrage at forces beyond our control. (We love forces beyond our control.) Regardless, those things are things. Admit it or not.

One thing we can be grateful to the rotting orange turd blossom for is that he cracked open some of the myths we’ve all been hiding behind like an egg-sucking dog in a hen house. Although lately the current that wants to drag us swiftly back into the safe harbor of myth seems to be rapidly increasing. But I think it’s probably taking us under. Again. 

Broken beyond broken is the “no one is above the law” saw. You can also call it the “we’re a nation of laws” myth. Yeah, we have them. Yeah, for most of us they mean something. But hey, get real. There’s a Department of Justice memo that basically says that whomever we elect as president is above the law. If you aren’t paying attention, that pretty much de-myths the myths. At least until someone decides the principle of the unitary executuive that spawned that memo gets tossed into the shredder. (Hint: That’s not going to happen. Hint 2: We apparently love to be governed by memos.)

So indictments may come for the rotting orange turd blossom and his blossomettes. Headlines will scream. Lower thirds will find new shades of red to burn our retinas. But folks I’m sorry. We’ve been playing a game with rules we thought we knew until recently. And the house always wins.

Admitting we know that would open up a can of worms nobody wants to fish with.