For me the nadir of the week was the Jonathan Turley comment, about how anyone cracking down on the Canadian truckers would also have committed the unthinkable outrage of arresting MLK.
It isn't called Letter from the Birmingham Visitor's Center, morons.
I remember being appalled back in the early 1990s when the Moral Majority types started claiming that being criticized for their public statements was EXACTLY like the Jews being hauled off to death camps. I guess it's an essential of fascism that you have control over everything but no power over anything.
Many genre fiction magazines limit their submissions to unrepresented minorities (BIPOC for example). I could blame my inability to get published on their "woke" attitude, but I won't because it's cowardly, weak, and wrong. Writing has always been miserably tough. Any effort to level the playing field is OK in my book. Moreover, I think it's contemptible to deem yourself a "victim," especially when you aren't at all.
"But now victim-claiming has become absolutely central to the conservative identity[.]"
JFC, Maestro, this assumption of a factually-unsupported victimhood has been one of their primary driving forces for decades. IIRC, it was one of foundations of the early golden age of talk radio back in the 90s.
But what tickles one of my unmentionable parts is that no one picks up the irony of these nut jobs and cretins' obsession with mandates turning the US into a Nazi state: That is exactly enough what they're turning the nation into. Subverting elections, empowering racists, enabling parasites running an extractive, impoverishing economy, the highest court in the land deciding cases based on what's good for the party, black letter law and precedents notwithstanding, blocking efforts to respond reasonably and properly to a global pandemic -- that's the shit they're willingly making possible. Each and every one of them can fuck off wither Nazi comparisons.
And to think: That's the only block of citizens are elected officials serve regularly.
I think we're now in the advanced stage of Fox and talk radio malignancy. The bombastic hyperbole of Limbaugh and his local market imitators (who were even worse) attacked the liberal enemy of America (e.g.) in language that had to rapidly evolve into extreme exaggeration. So it didn't take long to go from "liberals want to raise your taxes" to "liberals are out to destroy America" -- whatever "the Left" was doing to you/America was right out of Gingrich's insane agitprop word list. Trump con man's patter ("It's disgraceful what they're doing to this country") mainstreamed it into the White House. The shameless Holocaust comparisons now are almost a logical outgrowth of this awful, stupid shit, and I can't imagine where they take it from here. Coupled with the right-wing's unshakeable state of being permanently aggrieved -- with all the examples you point out -- we've reached a point of sheer hallucination, i.e. those "What the fuck are they talking about?" moments you wrote about a while back, where Joe Biden is going to put them into vaccine camps.
Jade Helm, of course, was all true. I had gun-loving relatives who were disappeared by Obama's henchmen into a Wal-Mart somewhere, I'm sure of it.
"Why bother then with policy? It only distracts from their grievance."
If you define "policy" as "Government doing things in response to real problems" there's an obvious reason why Conservatives can't do policy.
Yes, there was a time when, for them, "policy" meant "Undoing things that others put in place to respond to real problems." And they had a good run with that, when the targets of the undoing were the "Urban" poor - and they had the cooperation of the Democrats in the undoing.
But then they turned their undoing attention to Obamacare, and it was a complete fucking disaster for them. So they're kinda boxed in now. Conservatism prohibits them from proposing new polices, public opinion prohibits them from repealing the old ones.
My uncle is a perfect example of this. He’s always getting the short end of the stick in everything. Like the time when my grandmother gave him and my dad 10 acres of farmland to divide between them (hoo boy, bad idea). Dad said, “You divide it in half, and I’ll pick first.” Well, no way was he going to do that! So dad said, “Okay, I’ll divide it in half, and *you* pick first.” Oh no you don’t! That’s no good either!
In short, there’s no reasoning with people who are fundamentally curdled and sour.
<i>“If you’re a white guy, tough luck,” wept Ted Cruz.</i>
"You needed that Supreme Court position, and you were the most qualified, but they had to give it to a minority." Okay. How is it that anyone takes this seriously, and how is it that millions and millions of Americans think that constant, non-stop squalling like a tiny baby is an attractive trait that they want in their leaders?
Remember that they consider all the people we consider to be at least somewhat victimised to just be faking it, and basically fake 'people' fundamentally, so why shouldn't real people with real problems get into the act? (… now that, as I commented recently, it's become less acceptable generally simply to despise victims—a win for decency, but unfortunately Chapter N's solutions turn into Chapter N+1's problems.)
See also: Wilson's principle of national self-determination used by the Nazis as pretext for seizing the Sudentenland and then western Poland (which really was already a part of Minehead), with the aid in the latter case of actual false-flag operations so they didn't violate the Non-aggression Principle, just as some would do in Libertopia.….
Trump never loses. His rickety selfworth would collapse like a house of cards if he ever admitted he lost anything. Michael Cohen predicted months before the election that Trump would never admit he lost. That supposedly mentally balanced Republicans have signed onto this delusional ship of fools is one of the most disheartening things about America since the conflation of body counts with victory in Vietnam. BTW, there was and is plenty of conservative whining about losing that unwinnable war.
Can't help but think of poor Howard Roarke (the guy in the movie, I never read the book). Again and again, Roarke is wronged, his career is destroyed and he's forced to do the most menial (and sweaty, and HOT) labor, but he never complains, he cares nothing for public opinion, he needs nothing and no one, not even the Zeppelin-breasted Patricia O'Neal. All he wants is his work (well, that and the right to blow up public housing projects when he's really really angry.)
Generations of American men were raised on such archetypes, and what our culture and country have been doing since at least the 60's is the overthrowing of this particular archetype. It's just that conservative men are a little late to the game, because they had to wait for Donald Trump to come along. There is no more perfect anti-Roarke that Donald Trump, he has no discernible talents or interest in work, he desperately obsesses over the opinions of others, he grabs at women, even women who are disgusted by him.
But for an American man - and especially a Conservative American man - which role model is easier or more pleasurable to live up to? Maybe you're angry and frustrated from a lifetime of trying to be Howard Roarke, and now you want to have some fun and be Donald Trump instead? Who can blame you?
For me the nadir of the week was the Jonathan Turley comment, about how anyone cracking down on the Canadian truckers would also have committed the unthinkable outrage of arresting MLK.
It isn't called Letter from the Birmingham Visitor's Center, morons.
I remember being appalled back in the early 1990s when the Moral Majority types started claiming that being criticized for their public statements was EXACTLY like the Jews being hauled off to death camps. I guess it's an essential of fascism that you have control over everything but no power over anything.
Maybe it was a mistake to put Doug and Wendy Whiner in the White House.
Giant bundles of grievances. Surrounded by vaguely defined enemies (within and without). Seeking to "purge" and "purify" the nation. Clean. White.
IOW, fascism.
Many genre fiction magazines limit their submissions to unrepresented minorities (BIPOC for example). I could blame my inability to get published on their "woke" attitude, but I won't because it's cowardly, weak, and wrong. Writing has always been miserably tough. Any effort to level the playing field is OK in my book. Moreover, I think it's contemptible to deem yourself a "victim," especially when you aren't at all.
"But now victim-claiming has become absolutely central to the conservative identity[.]"
JFC, Maestro, this assumption of a factually-unsupported victimhood has been one of their primary driving forces for decades. IIRC, it was one of foundations of the early golden age of talk radio back in the 90s.
But what tickles one of my unmentionable parts is that no one picks up the irony of these nut jobs and cretins' obsession with mandates turning the US into a Nazi state: That is exactly enough what they're turning the nation into. Subverting elections, empowering racists, enabling parasites running an extractive, impoverishing economy, the highest court in the land deciding cases based on what's good for the party, black letter law and precedents notwithstanding, blocking efforts to respond reasonably and properly to a global pandemic -- that's the shit they're willingly making possible. Each and every one of them can fuck off wither Nazi comparisons.
And to think: That's the only block of citizens are elected officials serve regularly.
I think we're now in the advanced stage of Fox and talk radio malignancy. The bombastic hyperbole of Limbaugh and his local market imitators (who were even worse) attacked the liberal enemy of America (e.g.) in language that had to rapidly evolve into extreme exaggeration. So it didn't take long to go from "liberals want to raise your taxes" to "liberals are out to destroy America" -- whatever "the Left" was doing to you/America was right out of Gingrich's insane agitprop word list. Trump con man's patter ("It's disgraceful what they're doing to this country") mainstreamed it into the White House. The shameless Holocaust comparisons now are almost a logical outgrowth of this awful, stupid shit, and I can't imagine where they take it from here. Coupled with the right-wing's unshakeable state of being permanently aggrieved -- with all the examples you point out -- we've reached a point of sheer hallucination, i.e. those "What the fuck are they talking about?" moments you wrote about a while back, where Joe Biden is going to put them into vaccine camps.
Jade Helm, of course, was all true. I had gun-loving relatives who were disappeared by Obama's henchmen into a Wal-Mart somewhere, I'm sure of it.
" Piss and moan" is the best phrase, isn't it? It seems to be Kirk's only real talent. Sure ain't picking out clothes.
I'll be honest- I feel kind of white genocided because I can't just come out and call Kirk a "whiney little bitch"
"Why bother then with policy? It only distracts from their grievance."
If you define "policy" as "Government doing things in response to real problems" there's an obvious reason why Conservatives can't do policy.
Yes, there was a time when, for them, "policy" meant "Undoing things that others put in place to respond to real problems." And they had a good run with that, when the targets of the undoing were the "Urban" poor - and they had the cooperation of the Democrats in the undoing.
But then they turned their undoing attention to Obamacare, and it was a complete fucking disaster for them. So they're kinda boxed in now. Conservatism prohibits them from proposing new polices, public opinion prohibits them from repealing the old ones.
My uncle is a perfect example of this. He’s always getting the short end of the stick in everything. Like the time when my grandmother gave him and my dad 10 acres of farmland to divide between them (hoo boy, bad idea). Dad said, “You divide it in half, and I’ll pick first.” Well, no way was he going to do that! So dad said, “Okay, I’ll divide it in half, and *you* pick first.” Oh no you don’t! That’s no good either!
In short, there’s no reasoning with people who are fundamentally curdled and sour.
The thing that gets to me is that I was brought up to believe that crybabies are losers. These guys seem so pathetic, but when does the losing start?
<i>“If you’re a white guy, tough luck,” wept Ted Cruz.</i>
"You needed that Supreme Court position, and you were the most qualified, but they had to give it to a minority." Okay. How is it that anyone takes this seriously, and how is it that millions and millions of Americans think that constant, non-stop squalling like a tiny baby is an attractive trait that they want in their leaders?
Sublime
Remember that they consider all the people we consider to be at least somewhat victimised to just be faking it, and basically fake 'people' fundamentally, so why shouldn't real people with real problems get into the act? (… now that, as I commented recently, it's become less acceptable generally simply to despise victims—a win for decency, but unfortunately Chapter N's solutions turn into Chapter N+1's problems.)
See also: Wilson's principle of national self-determination used by the Nazis as pretext for seizing the Sudentenland and then western Poland (which really was already a part of Minehead), with the aid in the latter case of actual false-flag operations so they didn't violate the Non-aggression Principle, just as some would do in Libertopia.….
Trump never loses. His rickety selfworth would collapse like a house of cards if he ever admitted he lost anything. Michael Cohen predicted months before the election that Trump would never admit he lost. That supposedly mentally balanced Republicans have signed onto this delusional ship of fools is one of the most disheartening things about America since the conflation of body counts with victory in Vietnam. BTW, there was and is plenty of conservative whining about losing that unwinnable war.
Can't help but think of poor Howard Roarke (the guy in the movie, I never read the book). Again and again, Roarke is wronged, his career is destroyed and he's forced to do the most menial (and sweaty, and HOT) labor, but he never complains, he cares nothing for public opinion, he needs nothing and no one, not even the Zeppelin-breasted Patricia O'Neal. All he wants is his work (well, that and the right to blow up public housing projects when he's really really angry.)
Generations of American men were raised on such archetypes, and what our culture and country have been doing since at least the 60's is the overthrowing of this particular archetype. It's just that conservative men are a little late to the game, because they had to wait for Donald Trump to come along. There is no more perfect anti-Roarke that Donald Trump, he has no discernible talents or interest in work, he desperately obsesses over the opinions of others, he grabs at women, even women who are disgusted by him.
But for an American man - and especially a Conservative American man - which role model is easier or more pleasurable to live up to? Maybe you're angry and frustrated from a lifetime of trying to be Howard Roarke, and now you want to have some fun and be Donald Trump instead? Who can blame you?