The Choice Between Which Incompetent Will Lead Our Dying Empire

 

President Trump could not exist without the Democratic Party. The vast majority of those who have voted for Trump in the past voted not FOR him but against the establishment parties. The reasoning behind it I’ve heard a hundred times: “I figured I’d vote for something different.” Without the Democratic Party and the reprehensible establishment failures in which they’ve played a crucial role, Donald Trump would be getting roughly the same amount of votes David Duke did decades ago. The people want something different. They’ve given up on establishment politics. And with good reason, although Trump might not be the solution they were hoping for.

The same can be said, I guess, about Kamala Harris. Nobody is voting for her policies because she DOESN’T EVEN HAVE A PLATFORM! Any justification for her bid to become president is nothing more than a string of vapid reasons as to why she is the best person for the job. Or, most succinctly, that she is not Donald Trump.

Let me throw out a few historical figures who were also not Trump. Adolf Eichmann wasn’t Trump. Pol Pot wasn’t Trump. Idi Amin was not Trump. Not being Trump does not automatically qualify one to be the leader of The United States. If that were the case, were he still alive, we might have people shouting for President Manson.

Kamala Harris is no Charles Manson, I’ll give her that. What she is, though, is a nincompoop. An utterly unserious candidate who has already been promoted WAY beyond her competency level. The media is forced to lower itself still further in its reporting by lobbing her the softest of softball questions. It’s like watching a parent throwing a ball to a child and letting the child run the bases when she never even hit the ball. Why she has been chosen by the powers that be in the Democratic Party is anybody’s guess, but it’s most likely because she was the closest thing at hand to plug into the position. It’s not like they give a lot of thought into who they choose any more.

The last person they chose as their answer to Trump was an elderly man with clear signs of age-related cognitive decline. He had already been forced to drop out of a prior presidential campaign due to his plagiarism and lying. He was fortunate enough to squeak out a win over Trump because the people had seen what four years of Trump looked like. Unfortunately for Biden, they have now had a chance to see what four years of Biden looks like. In that time he has failed to do anything for women seeking abortions and failed to raise the minimum wage. He has, however, managed to plunge our country into a proxy war with a nuclear power, abetted a genocide in Gaza, and has been busy working on a second proxy war, with China.

Joe Biden was that old, dust-covered fuse sitting in your basement that you screw into the fuse box because there’s nothing else at hand. Kamala Harris is like a penny that you put into the fuse box because you’re tired of blowing fuses. Harris is a conduit that offers no resistance to the flow of power.

Here is the real disconnect for me, the reason I can only watch the cheerleading of Harris/Walz with bemusement and disbelief: The United States is a dying empire. But unlike any other dying empire that has come before, it has a nuclear arsenal, and there is no indication it is going to decline gracefully. In fact, there is no indication it even has clue #1 it is a dying empire. It is behaving like Gloria Swanson’s character in Hollywood Boulevard, like an aged actress living in a fantasy that the world is clamoring for her comeback.

That’s what I see when I look at Kamala, someone so detached from reality that she fully believes she is not merely going to get a chance to run the world but that she has the tools required to succeed. I see the same deluded thinking when I look at her supporters, as well. They truly believe that Donald Trump is the only thing standing in their way from resurrecting the former (alleged) glories of empire. They have this nostalgic vision of what America’s past really was before Trump. Nothing that happened before Trump came along was bad. They are incapable of seeing Trump as being an inevitable result of the actions of an empire in decline. They believe him to be the cause and not the result of our decline.

Trump supporters are no less deluded, except that they see the past clearly enough. They’re aware of the racism and the sexism and the class disparities that have always existed but they are okay with it. There is no need for them to deny it, they embrace it.

The United States is a dying empire in complete denial and I find it impossible to engage in any debates between two sides that are unwilling to contemplate that reality. Anyone willing to point this out is banned from the media and hence from the discussion. The delusional thinking of those who are tied to the machinery, who are placed comfortably atop it, constricts the conversation to a tiny window between two candidates who are entirely unequal to the task of negotiating the U.S. into a new world of multi-polarity.

That the U.S. is an imploding empire is not merely my opinion. It is the opinion of Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, former Chief Of Staff to Secretary Of State Colin Powell. It is the conviction of Dr. Mohammad Marandi, a professor at the University of Iran. It is clear as day to Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Chris Hedges. This is not just a conservative or a liberal perspective. It is not the ill-informed opinion of deplorables nor is it the propaganda of Putin puppets. It is the consensus of those intelligent and principled people who are no longer permitted to speak the truth through establishment channels. A dying empire, apparently, has no interest in self-reflection. Those who are seated comfortably on a sinking ship are the last to notice the ship is sinking.

Were Trump to be confronted with the assertion that the U.S. is a dying empire, we could expect the same sort of bluster used when he was forced to declare the bankruptcy of his business. But unlike U.S. bankruptcy laws, which are very forgiving for people of wealth, the world will be less kind when the U.S. defaults on its debts. What Trump’s actions will be when the fantasy world we are living collides with reality is anybody’s guess. We would be right to be terrified at the thought.

No less frightening is having Kamala Harris at the helm. As I stated before, she is a penny shoved into the spot where a president should go. She is inherently incapable of disrupting the power that flows through Washington. It is a mindless power, directed only by greed, capable of any sort of violence or oppression. And there is NOTHING in Kamala Harris’ history to suggest that she is capable of standing up to power. Her career has been as a handmaiden to power, subservient and obedient to those who might forward her career. When she was tough, she was tough on relatively powerless criminals and the parents of truants. Kamala Harris is not what we need right now. Neither is Trump. Both will fail our nation in the time of crisis that is already upon us.

When given the choice between two unacceptable options, the only smart choice is to demand something better. Those who have convinced you otherwise are your enemy and the enemy of our nation. It is the reasoning of those who have the comfiest seats on a sinking ship.

Not Even A Mushroom Cloud Will Make Them Doubt The Narrative

 

It is hard to admit that you were wrong. It is harder to admit you were wrong on a very serious subject. Even harder to admit you were wrong when the group you belong to was wrong, because it means you will have to go against the crowd. It is harder still to admit you were wrong when doing so makes it obvious that a group you felt superior to was right. That is the kind of blow to the ego very few of us are willing to endure.

For the reasons stated above, people who fell in line with the Russiagate narrative are never going to admit they were wrong, not even to themselves. They will never permit themselves to consider that all their emotional energies were diverted from opposing Trump on any issues of substance into being unwitting dupes to the unelected deep state that has a self-admitted goal of complete global hegemony. Russia was the next nation on their list, and so the propaganda campaign had to be kicked into high gear. Democrats, this time, proved to be the subjects most useful for this purpose.

Hillary Clinton embraced the by-now debunked lie that Russia hacked her e-mails in order to save face and have someone to blame for her failure. Blame and Hillary do not coexist very well, so she was an easy sell. The Democratic Party cottoned to the Russiagate narrative because it meant they didn’t have to do a post-loss post-mortem to see what they had done wrong. A party every bit as beholden to moneyed interests as the Republican Party has no interest in contemplating what it might need to do for voters other than virtue-signaling. The media, perhaps, found it easiest of all to go along with the story of Russia interfering in the U.S. elections. For one thing, it absolved them from doing any actual journalism on their own: they just had to repeat the assertions from anonymous sources they were being flooded with on a daily basis. For another thing, they never had to take accountability for what they reported: They could take an accusation — say Putin having video of prostitutes peeing on Trump — speculate on what Putin might be making Trump do to keep the video hidden, and then move on to the next “bombshell” when the previous one had proven to be a dud. Lastly, Russiagate was a HUGE moneymaker for the establishment media. As Executive Chairman for CBS News said about Donald Trump — and which was doubly true for all establishment news outlets regarding Russiagate: “It may not be good for America, but it’s damn good for CBS.” For a while, Rachel Maddow was flying high doing nothing more than quoting from the Steele Dossier the way Joel Osteen quotes The Bible.

And of course, all the neo-cons went along with Russiagate because it advanced the agenda that they first put into practice with the invasion of Iraq. All those ghoulish demons from the pits of the Republican Party slithered over to join with the Democrats to blame Russia for what the American people and both their corrupted parties did to themselves. And the Democrats welcomed them with open arms like some prodigal son. This unification with what they once considered all that was evil they now called “bipartisanship”. “How could we be wrong when even our worst enemies agree with us?” In this way, George W. Bush was no longer a villain but became one of the good guys, like something out of a poorly written professional wrestling script.

People in an emotional state are easily manipulated. That is why those who were crushed by Hillary’s loss fell for Russiagate like a hungry trout for a well-tied fly. That’s why anyone who wasn’t emotionally invested didn’t. Anyone who was able to go to bed the night before the election because they didn’t think the survival of Western culture relied upon Hillary’s victory saw the Russiagate narrative for what it was: a lie, an excuse, a call for increased tensions against yet another country, a joke, pathetic.

Biden has had time to give us a good idea of what a Hillary Presidency would have looked like. Both being obedient servants to corporate power and the military, there is little difference one’s influence could have made. Hillary might have been more full-throatedly supportive of the military industrial complex, but without the 4-year buildup that was Russiagate, it would not have been as effective. Indeed, tying Trump to Russia was a stroke of (evil) genius on the part of those who dictate our international politics.

But like I said, it is hard to admit you’re wrong when you have so much emotionally invested in a narrative. I know I am not going to convince anybody to change their mind, let alone admit their complicity in a lie that quite possibly could be more damaging than any other lie told in human history. The only people who will read and relate to this are those who already know the truth. But that does not mean I can’t make the lie sit a little less easily in some people’s minds. I can still remind them that people other than Trump supporters, paid Russian trolls, and useful idiots can hold a position contrary to their own. I can still make self-delusion hurt a little bit.

*Dearest reader: I admit I am guilty of using what Professor S.I. Hayakawa referred to as “snarl words” in this article. Snarl words are “highly connotative language that often serves as a substitute for serious thought and well-reasoned argument.” I further admit I have done so in order to provoke an emotional response rather than a substantive debate. If I felt substantive debate were possible on this issue I would have refrained from such behavior. I honestly believe there is no way of arguing this subject with believers without provoking an emotional response. Please note that I am at least upfront about this and that it is a form of arguing that I normally find offensive.

Beneath The Surface (An Allegory)

There was once a large pier from which, in the before time, sail boats used to sail to all parts of the world. But now the giant metal behemoths rule the waves and the sail boats are seen there no longer. Bereft of its former purpose, families now use it to launch their personal water craft, fish from, and picnic on. On a warm summer day, water craft roil the waters as children play upon the still sturdy beams of the dock. But early in the morning, before the visitors and vacationers arrived, an old sailor could often be seen sitting at the end of the pier. He had no fishing pole nor water craft: he was content to look out upon and listen to the waves. For the sea was in his veins, and though he was no longer a sailor, he still heard the sea’s call. He visited her to watch the sun rise and stayed with her until the crowds began to arrive. Often, he would simply gaze for long periods of time deep into her depths, communing with some spirit that only those intimate with the sea would know. For the same unknown longing called to him even now as it once called to him as a young man. Where once he traveled the world in hopes that he might find an answer to this longing, as an old man he became content to experience the mystery without the need for answers. One day, as he stared into the depths that the waves were always trying to conceal and distort, he saw a motion deep within. It was but the briefest of glimpses but it set the hair on the back of his neck at end. It was one of those mysteries of the deep that sometimes rise from the dark and give hints of all that was submerged. It was big. Of that there was no doubt. He had seen enough in his days to not be mistaken. A glimpse of white that would terrify him if he were in a boat. Would have terrified if he had been a younger man. Terrified him now. He thought he knew what it was but stared transfixed at the water, looking for confirmation. Again he saw something — just a hint, but it turned the blood within his veins cold. He scanned the waters, his trained eyes fixed to look beneath the surface and the dancing waves that reflected the sky rather than reveal what was within. And then he saw it again. This time, there was no doubt in his mind. It confirmed the fear that filled his body. A shark. A great shark, its body larger than a life raft, and just as white. He was safe where he crouched as he peered over the edge of the wooden dock, but still fear gripped him. There are some fears men do not outgrow, some fears that reason cannot tame. It swam about, and the old sailor believed he could feel an aura of malevolence around it. Superstition clings tight to those who have long looked into the depths of the sea. He stared for a while, waiting for the beast to appear once more. He knew it was lurking, knew it was a hunter that sensed prey. He could almost feel its hunger. And while such a thing frightened him, it was this sort of peril which perhaps urged people such as himself to the sea in the first place. Life lived fully is spent in defiance of the jaws of predators. He would not have noticed the arrival of others were it not for the fact that his every sense was strained in anticipation of spotting the thing again. They were at a distance yet, not on the pier, but they were readying their toys and their tackle, and would soon be headed his way. Another vehicle pulled up as he looked, and another turned around to back a trailer full of water craft into the water. The old sailor walked toward them, waving to them in warning of what he had seen. The people were familiar with the old sailor who kept mainly to himself and to the water. They thought him odd but harmless. But as he approached them on this day, he looked — as they may have thought to themselves — off his meds. His behavior was wild and in his eyes was a look of danger. “Do not go in the water!” he cried. “There is a shark in it.” “Show me,” cried a father, entrusting the children to their mother while he walked toward the end of the pier with the old man. The old man, hesitant to lead him too far out, nevertheless did as he was asked. But when they got to the end of the pier, the father said, “Is that what you see? Why, it’s only a duck.” And sure enough, there was a duck bobbing gently upon gentle waves, quite unconcerned with the people on the pier and quite unaware of the danger that lurked beneath. “Not the duck!” said the old sailor, exasperated and angered. “I have lived my life on the sea, surely I know a shark from a duck. Look.” And he pointed down into the depths, because for a brief moment the shark again raised close enough to the surface to be seen by one who knew where to look and what to look for. “I only see a duck,” said the father, the patronizing tone in his voice thinly veiled. “You have to look deeper,” cried the old tar. “Anyone can see a duck!” “And yet I only see a duck,” said the younger man self-assuredly as he slowly turned away from the older man. He waved his wife and children forward. One who has lived his life successfully without ever encountering a shark may grow foolishly confident that he knows best, and feel he need not worry about what has never bothered him before. As the man walked towards his family, the old sailor observed that the man with the water craft had released them from the trailer into the water. He stood thigh deep in the water, still close enough to shore to be safe but assuredly headed toward danger. Still more people came, heading toward a day of carefree enjoyment. The old sailor went from one party to another, trying to find someone who might heed his warning. Some seemed concerned initially, but with a nod from the father he had first talked to, they seemed to take the warning less seriously. And so they went about their business, heedless of the old man who seemed increasingly emotional and irrational as he went from one person to another. At last, he despaired of warning anyone at all. He thought of the duck who bobbed among the waves and thought that at the very least he might be able to save him. And so he grabbed a rock and walked back toward the edge of the pier. People had already fired up their water craft and were speeding off from shore towards deeper regions. As they accelerated, they created huge waves behind them which roiled waters, making it impossible for the old sailor — or anyone else — to see what lay within the depths. The old man neared the edge of the pier and saw the duck bobbing quite comfortably. He changed his grip upon the rock, getting ready to throw it in the duck’s direction, hoping to scare it away from the danger that awaited it. But even as he loosed the rock a violent eruption happened beneath the duck, and in an instant huge white teeth closed over the duck as it was dragged forever more into the darkness of the water and the darkness of the shark’s belly. The father who the old sailor had spoken to had seen him throw the rock and came forward to see what had happened. Looking out at the water and seeing the duck was gone, the younger man asked, “What did you do to the duck?” “It was the shark!” the sailor cried. “It wasn’t a shark,” said the father, disgust in his voice. “It was just a duck. A poor, innocent duck. And you killed it.” “I didn’t,” cried the old man. But the younger man was done listening. He walked back to his family and the others who were with them, and soon he pulled out his cell phone and could be seen talking to someone. The people on the shore — the crowd continuing to grow — stared out at the old man, who tried to tell whoever might listen of the danger he had seen. Soon, a squad car arrived. Two police officers walked out onto the pier, spoke briefly with the old sailor, placed handcuffs on his wrists and led him to their car, where they placed him in the back and drove away. “Is the bad man gone, mommy?” a young boy asked “Yes, son,” said his loving mom. “It’s safe to go in the water now.”

Corporate Media Uses Hyperlinks To Confuse, Not To Clarify

 

If anyone wishes to argue with me that establishment media is NOT beyond abysmal and that many independent journalists are NOT doing vastly superior work, I offer this example, one of many, as exhibit A: https://www.forbes.com/sites/oliviaenos/2022/04/04/ms-bachelet---dont-go-to-xinjiang/?sh=a4e993c14d3e

There is no reason to subject yourself to the painfully obvious propaganda that is the article, I ask you only to focus on the first sentence of the fourth paragraph: “These horrific realities are very well-documented, yet the High Commissioner will see none of it on her visit to Xinjiang.” The words “well-documented” are underlined and in blue, meaning it is a hyperlink. One would think it would be a hyperlink to what it actually suggests, well-documented evidence of HORRIFIC REALITIES! Click on it. Go ahead, click on it.

It takes you to a blog post from the Heritage Foundation website. Look them up if you don’t know who they are. Suffice it for me to say they are not a source you should consider when you want reliable, unbiased information. But forget the source, even that doesn’t matter. The link takes you to a blog post titled “China Transparency Report”.

I thought the issue was a genocide of an ethnic minority. The Forbes article mentions “ongoing crimes against the Uyghurs”, talks about “China’s mounting atrocity crimes against Uyghurs” and “ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity”. “Today, an estimated 1.8 million to 3 million Uyghurs are held in political reeducation camps.” Imagine having that kind of build-up, and clicking on a link promising that “These horrific realities are very well-documented”, only to see the title “China Transparency Report”.

Yeah, I read it. Not many people read the links provided by mainstream media. You should, because even if you trust mainstream corporate media (you shouldn’t), you should trust but verify. But I read the China Transparency Report and it didn’t mention Uyghurs once. Nor the Xinjiang province. Nor crimes against humanity. Nor genocide. It is at this point where a rational person begins to believe that something irrational is unfolding.

There was, however, this hyperlink at the bottom of the blog post:

This is one step further than anyone would expect an honest source to ask of readers in search of truth. Any earnest and experienced searcher of truth would start thinking their chain was being yanked. But someone trying to prove a point, such as myself, would be willing to push that button and waste his time in order to prove exactly how useless establishment journalism is in providing people with useful information.

So I clicked it, confident at this point that I would not find any supporting evidence. I clicked it, knowing that I would have to concentrate very hard on a stream of nonsense in order to prove to others just how vapid the reporting of mainstream media really was.

Click.

You’ll have to concentrate on the upper right hand part of the screen. I tried to use the Snip And Sketch program in order to show you the warning I received, but the warnings disappeared when I tried it. It says “File Not Downloaded, Potential Security Risk”.

You’ll forgive me if I do not investigate further, I believe I’ve made my point to those willing to consider it, whereas no matter how far down I dig I will never make my point to those set in their beliefs. If anyone would care to do the download despite the warning, please let me know if you have found any “well documented” “horrific realities”. I do not hold out any great hope that such evidence is forthcoming. One does not light a lamp only to put it under a blanket.

Keep in mind that this is not my first rodeo and this if not the first time I have followed link after link without finding any substance to what is presented me. Rather, I find only obfuscation and — pardon the term — bullshit. Here is my attempt to dig down and find sources using the provided hyperlinks on the Uyghur Muslim assertions in the Guardian. Here is another article that not only has hyperlinks that do not mention what the headline promises, the article itself does not even mention Russia or Russians. Although it is a lot of work on my part, I promise to bring you more evidence on this subject in the future. I come across it all the time and you will too once you stop making the assumptions that their hyperlinks will always lead you to actual evidence.

This isn’t an accident. This is not an anomaly or a “whoopsie”. This is happening all the time at the most respected journalistic institutions. This is the media showing their contempt for their readers by asserting or promising what it does not deliver. And, might I emphasize, getting away with it. You are letting them get away with it because you trust them even though they are time and again proving themselves untrustworthy. This, my friend, is on you, as it is on me, as it is on all of us. We need to hold the media up to basic standards and we need to hold people accountable when they fail to meet basic journalistic standards. This will not be a small task.

This is journalism in the 21st Century. Don’t ask me to explain it — it is not rational — but please allow me to point out its many failings. This is simply me, a metal fabricator, pointing out what is wrong with establishment media. I welcome any contrary views from those who have a better understanding than myself. I only ask of you not to yank my chain, as establishment media has time and again done. Be honest, be open, be critical, but do not provide me links to evidence that does not reinforce your claims.

 

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A Dream Of A Ridiculous Man (With Apologies To Dostoyevski)

 

This may sound crazy to you, but I believe we are ripe for a paradigm shift the likes of which the human race has scarcely ever seen. A paradigm shift the likes of which, after it has taken hold, will completely alter our priorities, rendering worthless most of what we now hold dear.

I say this because the Earth can no longer sustain a warlike species capable of creating planet-destroying weapons. I say it because our planet cannot much longer continue to supply a species that is unceasingly ravenous, gluttonous, and wasteful. I say we are about to make what seems like a once in a millennium paradigm shift because that is what appears to be necessary, and I am optimistic enough to say it is going to happen. Don’t get me wrong, I believe the odds are stacked against us, but I am an optimistic person. Why be optimistic when being realistic is much more, well, realistic? It is because I think we need a little optimism to get us started. When you’re facing great odds in a struggle for survival, being realistic is merely weighing the odds in order to be right, rather than victorious. Truth be told, when it comes down to it, I don’t think there is such a thing as being realistic. Deep down you’re either an optimist or a pessimist, and you approach life from one position or the other.

I say that we are about to undergo a radical paradigm shift because Leo Tolstoy already envisioned it and explained how it would take place well over a century ago (see excerpt in comments).

I say it because the way has been pointed out by visionaries and prophets for over three thousand years. The fingers of Jesus Christ, Lao Tzu, Plato, and many others have been pointing the way. Though they may have been considered radical in their day, it is pointless to believe them radical today.

I say it because the 1960’s were an early tremor indicating what is to come, a warning tremor so intense in itself that it nearly toppled existing paradigms. As it was, the ‘60’s created unseen cracks in the foundations of the existing structures and showed just how vulnerable they are.

I say it because it is so obvious that change is coming that only those capable of living a life of delusion are able to deny it. People want it, which is understandable. People fear it, which is also understandable. It is frightening, just as the prospect of walking is frightening to a toddler and riding a bike is frightening to a kindergartner. But change that cannot be avoided must be embraced, and change in this instance cannot be avoided.

I say a radical paradigm shift is happening because I feel the switch has already been flipped on in me. I really don’t feel it is my obligation to support endless war and exploitation against other nations or endless war and exploitation against the earth itself. I say it because I’ve seen it switch on in so many others, and because I see so many others awakening. We are quite willing to stand alone if need be, but we are not alone.

I see the change. They say “buy this” and we say “no”. They say “believe this” and it induces laughter in us. Not a cruel laughter, but a pure and rejuvenating laughter. They say “obey us”, and we use the entirety of our humanity to resist or sidestep their alleged authority. They have the law on their side, but there is a greater weapon we can draw upon, the sympathy of the masses who yet recognize timeless values such as justice and fairness, despite all of their indoctrination. We know they fear us as we once feared them.

“Madness”, you might say. “The mutterings of conspiracy theorists who live within their deranged fantasies. Who or what is this cabal, this star chamber, this alleged but secret group of lizard people or illuminati that controls the world behind an impenetrable curtain?” It is no deep mystery, they are not hidden, nor do they even bother to hide their plans or their motivations. They are simply those who believe the world should be run through domination and subjugation of others, all those who cling to primitive beliefs and attitudes and practices that even 3,000 years ago were seen through by the wise. They belong to no one race, or culture, or gender, or nation, or religion. They are those who use race, culture, gender, nationality, and religion to divide us and thus subjugate us.

We are a dangerous group to those who wish to continue to rule through power and propaganda, because we realize the importance of our cause. There is nothing more worth living for. We cannot live for our progeny, for they are bound up in this. We cannot help but know what we are damning them too should we forsake this transition for the sake of giving them a better position aboard a sinking ship. Nor can we live for our own creature comforts, knowing that the truth will eat into our subconscious minds, allowing us to derive no pleasure from our attempts of escape through denial. Our generation will not pass without witnessing a world of robot dogs and climate breakdown. Our delusions, we feel if not admit, will not endure.

Is it too late? Perhaps. No individual can know his own future, let alone can he predict humanity’s. It is merely our job to awaken, to cease to support that which is killing our planet, our species, and everything we hold dear, and to begin to act according to a higher law, a law of conscience rather than obedience, of faith instead of fear, of mutual assistance rather than competition.

Capitalistic Endeavors Always Start Out Promising, Then They Give You Honey Boo Boo

 

Capitalism always starts off good. Just like that incident in the Garden Of Eden started with the serpent offering a tasty treat. Seriously, though, I can’t count the many times I’ve encountered a new idea that has hit the market and I’ve thought to myself: “Man, I am lucky to be living in the era and country that I am”. I believe capitalism may just well be the best system for generating innovation.

The problem is, the honeymoon always ends and you realize she was only in it for the money the whole time. What am I talking about? I’m talking about MTV, which started out as a way for unknown musicians to make a cheap but innovative video and have it connect with fans. Then Michael Jackson put out the first million dollar video and changed the whole scene from small-time bands finding an audience to a bigtime star investing money to make money. Was Thriller a good video and a good song. Yeah, but the price paid by all the small-time artists who could not compete wasn’t worth it. And that was just the start. Take a look at MTV today. It still exists, right? Hear any good new artists lately?

Or look at the music industry as a whole. From 1964 to 1967, rock and roll went from I Want To Hold Your Hand to Tomorrow Never Knows, Sunshine Of Your Love, Are You Experienced?, and See Emily Play. An amazing leap of innovation and exploration by an industry that wasn’t yet sure what it was doing. But then the suits took over and maximized profit by replacing risk-taking with marketing. The result was more superstars and less good music. Correct me if I’m wrong.

MTV wasn’t the only TV station that went down the toilet. Once upon a time the History Channel had interesting and informative history programs on it. Once upon a time A&E actually had real arts programming on it. Hell, before striking it rich with Honey Boo Boo, TLC was known as The Learning Channel.

This life-cycle can be seen everywhere you have a good idea reach a certain measure of success. YouTube, which was once watchable, now has a commercial (or two) before and within most every video you watch. But much worse than that, they have manipulated their algorithms so that you no longer find what you want to see so much as what they want to show you. And like everything else from Netflix to Hulu, they constantly feed you their preferred next choice rather than waiting for you to choose what you want to watch. What once was the servant soon becomes the master.

The problem is that innovation which leads to success soon becomes business. And I’m not against people who are successful making a buck, don’t get me wrong. The problem begins when those who are not successful in anything other than turning a profit notice the success of artists and entrepreneurs, see an opportunity to make a buck, and soon have the people who have created something that resonates with others working for them.

Small capitalists are, to a large degree, people who want to do what they enjoy and hope others will appreciate what they do. Or else they are people who are willing to work hard in order to meet the needs of others. Not all of them succeed, and they pay the price for their failures. But those who do succeed, to a large degree encounter the profiteers who have no interest in their vision or in serving others but simply see a way of maximizing short term profit. I’m often shocked that those who call themselves small businessmen do not see the difference between the two.

I do not propose to you any clear-cut solution to the problem of corporate capitalists, but perhaps pointing out the difference between those with genuine creativity and willingness to work hard and those who only wish to spend a buck to make seven might prove useful. There is a life cycle to capitalism, one phase being where innovation is allowed to prosper, and another where rot sets in. If I can help you to realize the difference, I feel I have done something useful, just as the lady at the grocery the other day helped me to pick out the best peaches. But really, the best advice is universal: give it the smell test and watch out for maggots.

Our Newfound Love For Censorship

 Written a year ago today and sadly even more appropriate:

A bit of advice: If you pull out a weapon to beat your enemy with, a weapon you are unfamiliar with that feels awkward in your hands, don’t be surprised if your enemy takes if from you and beats your ass with it.

 

Another piece of advice: If you’re starting a fight with the people to the right of you, don’t start clubbing people on your left, too. It puts you in a very exposed position.

 

This is advice the Democratic Party would do well to heed. The weapon in this case is censorship, and they are using it to bash those both on their right and their left. They may think they have control over the weapon, but I can’t help feeling they have a surprise in store.

 

Of course, the Democrats aren’t actually wielding the weapon themselves, they’ve called upon thugs (AKA the intelligence agencies and NATO-related think tanks) to deliver the beatings, thugs already inclined to do what the Democrats are asking them to do. 

 

What the hell are the Democrats thinking? That’s like making a deal with the mafia in order to get rid of some local street punk (AKA Donald Trump). It’s like being a black man calling the police to settle an argument with his white neighbor. In the South. In the 50’s. Do they really think the people providing arms to ISIS and Al Qaeda are on their side? Do they think the United Arab Emirates, a million dollar donor to the Atlantic Council (the ones who get to decide who gets censored) cares about women’s rights? Do they think Burisma, the Ukranian energy company that hired Hunter Biden and another major contributor to the Atlantic Council, is interested in open and honest government? Do they think BP and Chevron (also major AC donors) are interested in protecting legitimate climate change science? Do they think the CIA is interested in protecting transgendered people from being bullied online? Democrats have unsheathed a weapon that is too heavy for them to control. And they just haven’t gotten it through their thick skulls yet.

 

But the time will come when their thick skulls will be bludgeoned by the same weapon they foolishly imagined would protect them. And though I and many others on the left will speak up in their defense when that day comes, we will by that time have no platform upon which we can voice our support for those who are being censored. On that day they will learn in earnest the lesson Martin Niemöller sought to teach the world not all that long ago.

 

But for the moment voices are daily being suppressed while many who once wore F*CK CENSORSHIP T-shirts embrace and excuse it. As long as they can still listen to NWA, they still feel like they’re standing for something. Because only censorship can save us from being corrupted by the sight of Bernie Sanders in a speedo. Only censorship can save us from a hillbilly uprising. Only censorship can save us from the anti-vaxxers and the anti-maskers. Only censorship can save us from bad-faith actors and those who just don’t know enough to not argue with the benevolent individuals who sit above us and whose goal it is to make life better for all of us. 

 

I remember a decade ago—how very long ago it does seem and how very different a world—when the most immediate concern for a Wisconsinite such as myself was our Republican Governor who was dismantling the political environment as we knew it. At one point, a certain section of the University of Wisconsin’s “The Wisconsin Idea” was omitted, the Walker administration would say accidentally. The words read “In all lines of academic investigation it is of the utmost importance that the investigator should be absolutely free to follow the indications of truth wherever they may lead. Whatever may be the limitations which trammel inquiry elsewhere we believe the great state University of Wisconsin should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found.” A decade ago I feared that idea’s greatest threat was from the right. 

 

Funny how we could tolerate nearly 60 years of JFK conspiracy theories and 20 years of 9/11 theories, only to come undone over some anti-vaxxers, some puppy pictures on Facebook, and some accusations of a rigged election. You’ll recall that JFK conspiracy theorists were not merely claiming that the election was rigged but that a president was murdered. And yet nobody attempted to silence them. What is different now? Perhaps it is that the lies have become too big and too many to be propped up in any other way than by shutting down open communication.

 

Or maybe censorship and unelected government agencies are just what our democracy needs.