I commend to your attention this essay by Hunter (somewhat lengthy in the context of today's short attention spans) and this by Lili Loofbourow (equally lengthy).
They make somewhat similar points, with different framing, so pick the one you like. The version in a pistachio shell is that it's pointless to accuse Republicans of hypocrisy, or lying, because they aren't even pretending to actually believe anything they say. It's all bullshit, 100%. That also means it's pointless to try to have a discussion based on facts and logic, because neither of those words means anything to them and their followers. This is true but they don't make the underlying dynamic explicit so I will do it for them.
The obscenely wealthy plutocrats who bankroll the conservative movement care about only two things: that rich people should not pay taxes; and that rich people should not be restricted from doing whatever damage to humanity they want to do in pursuit of their bottomless greed, be it pollute the air and water, exploit workers, or cheat consumers. Obviously none of that makes for a winning political platform, so Republican politicians don't actually say that. Instead they stir up white racism, fear of social and cultural change, and the sexual hangups of Bible thumpers. However, they don't really care about any of those things themselves. Just think how many have turned out to be closeted homosexuals or to have paid for abortions. Hell, Strom Thurmond had a Black daughter. I mean, Donald J. Trump? Give me a break. And by the way, white evangelical protestants didn't care about abortion until the latter part of the 20th Century, when they needed an issue to replace segregation.
But these tactics by themselves won't get them a majority nowadays, and all they care about is staying in power. So they just lie, all the time, about everything. And whenever its convenient they forget all about the last lie and make up a new one. Hunter gives a few examples:
McConnell and his allies lied their way through the impeachment of a president, simply insisting that the evidence was not evidence and the testimony not testimony. The movement has lied its way through a pandemic, turning even the most rote of pandemic safety precautions—masks, even—into conspiracies and partisan litmus tests.
When Michael Caputo and his aides insisted that children were nearly immune to the virus and could not spread it, it was not ideology. It was a lie meant to keep more of the "economy" open even if the more pertinent metric—deaths—was multiplied.
When the movement claims "antifa"—a group that does not actually exist—is behind police reform protests, it is a lie. It is propaganda intended purely to discredit protestors, and better facilitate state and militia violence against them.
When Sen. Ron Johnson pipelines the work of known Russian operatives into his committee to declare that he has discovered very serious doings, doings that suggest his opponents are secretly corrupt in ways no American law enforcement has ever been able to find, he is fully aware of his own actions. He is not stupid.
When Attorney General William Barr releases a document that grossly undermines a report on Russian election interference that benefited his party, and follows up by launching conspiracy after conspiracy all premised on the notion that it is American law enforcement that is corrupt for going after Republican targets, he is lying to the public for the sake of the party.
I know that their cultists are simply impervious to this. None so blind . . . Since there is absolutely no point in trying to have a rational argument with some people, I will not publish their comments. It's not because you got me, or I don't have an answer. It's because it is pointless to answer some people.
6 comments:
The owner of the company I work for stood in front of me bragging about how he bought a state legislator to make a STATE LAW for their rich enclave in the north woods that said that the rich enclave could make the rules about the water levels in the lake instead of the state DNR.
I would really like to get away from that company, not only because of that kind of attitude but because of the anti-maskers and the ones that indicate that the lives of people like my parents are nothing compared to the value of their own 401ks.
However, I am finding that job hunting for a 60-year-old during a pandemic is (so far) fruitless. I don't have enough connections to become a consultant.
I try to ignore the ignorance, and keep my cool so that I avoid becoming ill.
Rather than engage, I make sure they know I can hear what they say and see my cold stare.
I've been finding lots of freelance work on Upwork--they need web designers, editors, consultants of all stripes, voice over artists, paralegals, proofreaders, and more. Just sayin' ...
It's a good time not to have to work for a boss.
Also, schools need teaching assistants, even if it is virtual for now ...
I agree with Donny. Self-employement is empowering, but it's not for everyone.
No bennies. No tickie, no eatie. On the other hand, your income is limited only by your imagination how how you can serve others better.
As I may have mentioned here before I started a consulting business and worked my through grad school. But I had been working for United Way before that so I had lots of contacts. It's hard if you don't have a base of potential customers who know you or know somebody who does. I probably wouldn't be able to do the same thing now, unless I could come up with a marketing plan. It's tough out there . . .
All basically true.
But because we live in a Republican-dominated society that wants to take health care away from people (despite their obvious lies about providing it), I have to keep my 35-hour-a-week job with the school district so I can have health insurance. So with the voice over, and the editing and proofreading, and the blog I edit, I kind of have four jobs.
However, it's a myth that my income is only limited by my imagination; the gig economy dictates that my freelance income varies, from $13/hour to $50/hour, with most in between--and all that income will be taxed for FICA and federal/state taxes. Everywhere I've worked, from the hospital to catering kitchens and trucks, the people I know have two, three jobs, and they're running just to stay in place financially.
It used to be you could earn a good living, in my parents' time. Now the middle class is being squeezed out of existence, and at least half of us, myself included, have no retirement and damn little pension. This is a direct consequence of a Republican juggernaut that seeks to sweep up all available money for its billionaires, and to hell with everyone else, what GHW Bush called "OFU"s--each of us is nothing but "one fodder unit," or as Shitler calls people who have to fight, "suckers" and "losers."
It's a hard rain a-gonna fall for that motherfucker and his fellow criminals. Real soon, oh yeah.
I can't help thinking that the soulless, utterly corrupt and lust-for-power-filled Republicans, will stop at NOTHING to achieve their monopoly on the federal government's power--not even stopping at Russian infiltration of voting machines, or whatever it takes. They are crazy--as in "completely-blind-out-of-their-fucking-minds-having-completely-surrendered-to-cognitive-dissonance-in-order-to-achieve-Stepford-Wife-lockstep-mindless-insanity-around-all-things-Caucasian-and-Christian-ish."
Fewer than 100 people holding 330,000,000 hostage: Senate Republicans and conservative Supreme Court bastards. And Shitler and his white-haired president-wannabe.
To hell with all of them. Somehow, somehow, they will not prevail. But I don't know what that will look like. I pray that we 330,000,000 do not allow them to sink all of us into the year's biggest sequel, "Civil War II." Americans always seem to prefer war to peaceful solutions--probably born of Caucasian racism and economic dreams.
So many Caucasians still blame those African-Americans who haven't "made it" financially for their shortcomings.
Yet it all the years I've been to dog parks, I never hear anyone saying, "We don't play with the BLACK or BROWN dogs." But if you put that into effect for 400 years, you can bet your ass you'd have a whole shitload of fucked-up black and brown dogs. And would it be their own fault? Of course not.
Either we agree that All Men Are Created Equal ... and start practicing it ... or we let Shitler and his Nazi cohort of criminals finish destroying the ideals of the document that we call the United States Constitution. In which case, it's a race to ruin.
Post a Comment