Some comedy blog this is turning out to be, eh? National tragedies have a way of fucking up our plans sometimes.
Instead of producing comics as I'd initially planned, my friends and I have been developing a cartoon. Unfortunately, we're still in the writing stage, so I have little to post here in the way of humor, again. Haven't been in a very funny mood as of late.
Just a few points of clarification:
1) In case you were wondering about the landslide of links in my last post, that was my method of backing up my points. Hypertext is the internet's alternative to citations, because as we all know, citations suck. If only people on TV bothered to name their sources as well, maybe they'd actually make cogent arguments from time to time. Haha! Okay, okay, but seriously.
2) Regarding the URL of this blog, I'm not thrilled about it, but all the good ones were taken! At least "RIP reverie" kind of rhymes.
3) It seems that I forgot something when I wrote my last post. The Columbine shooting, that was Marilyn Manson's fault; Virginia Tech was due to violent video games; but it is utterly wrong of me to blame conservatives even a little for the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords and a baker's dozen of other folks.
In case it wasn't clear last time: I blame all of us Americans for allowing our country to become overrun with psychosis. We let yellow journalism become the norm, and we stopped thinking for ourselves. We ignore our country's real problems and care more about voting for American Idol than for actual state representatives. By neglecting our political process, we've let it flood with venom. I would argue that fostering insanity makes the crazy people in a country even crazier.
Yes, Loughner is a nutjob, and either he or, depending on how you look at it, his affliction is directly to blame for his actions. Of course, someone gave this nutjob a gun... Nevertheless I still feel an inexplicable personal guilt over this shooting, and maybe that doesn't make any sense; but if I'm going to blame myself, I'm also going to blame those who devote their lives to throwing lit matches at powder kegs, and I will never apologize for accurately reporting my own feelings and perception of the truth.
So, do you think that last post was in poor taste? Was it hypocritical? Vitriolic, maybe insensitive and overly aggressive? Maybe it was. First Amendment, motherfucker. That's how I felt, that's how I wrote. And since conservatives seldom hesitate to blame rock and metal music, homosexuality, liberalism, "muslin," socialism, and video games for our country's problems, I don't see anything wrong with my blaming them back once in a while.
4) I also implied at the end of the last post that the American dream was dead. Well, that's what happens when you wake up: your dreams die and you face reality. We've spent enough time dreaming. It's time to deal with the American reality.
5) Lastly, so as to remind you all that this blog is supposedly funny sometimes: [insert your favorite flatulence joke.]
Monday, March 14, 2011
Sunday, January 9, 2011
It's Morning in America
Wake up, America, you've finally done it. You've made great strides in the cause of freedom by killing a child, a federal judge, and four others, as well as maiming a woman, all in broad daylight outside of a grocery store. Good job, modern American political climate, that's what I call democracy in action.
I'm going to assume that we can all agree that murder is bad, yes? Can we also understand why killing elected representatives runs completely contrary to the democratic process? Our fellow citizens voted for this woman and elected her because they shared in her beliefs. By trying to kill her, one is simultaneously trying to silence every one of his fellows who voted for her. One is using an act of remarkable violence and fear to control the political process. How is that any different from terrorism? Obviously, the perpetrator of this act is to be abhorred.
Now I must confess, I'm quite torn here. On the one hand, outrage seems a completely justifiable response to such heinous crimes; on the other, there are already a good number of blogs out there expressing horror and fury against conservatives, and doing the same thing here would accomplish nothing. So, I've decided on a different approach: rather than merely express my disgust with, say, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, the right-wing, the GOP, the Tea Party, and so on, I'm going to explain why I blame them for tragedies like this.
Let me start off by saying that I believe strongly in freedom of speech and expression. If Rush Limbaugh wants to go on the air and make himself plain as a bigot and misogynist, that's his right as an American. If Glenn Beck wants to exercise his freedom by spouting misleading, religiously and racially inflammatory diatribes, again, he has that right. And if Sarah Palin wants it publicized that she's completely unfit to govern, I would never stand in her way. That's what freedom of speech means: that we all have the right to say whatever we want. The downside to this is that some people will preach hatred, some people will tell lies, and some people will even incite violence. To be honest, I didn't think that last one was covered by freedom of speech, but apparently it is.
The problem here is that it becomes difficult to separate the truth from the lies when so many national figures are willing to claim the latter as the former. If you honestly believe, for instance, that Barack Obama wants to murder the handicapped, then you would be right to avidly, even violently oppose him. Of course, even the slightest research will reveal that so-called "Obamacare" contains no such stipulation. And America's current political atmosphere is rife with such examples: the GOP intends to repeal Obamacare because they claim it is unaffordable, while most evidence actually indicates the reverse.
In fact, most common arguments against Obamacare fall under the same dubious category. It is frequently cited as a socialist enterprise, just as were Medicare and social security at their geneses, yet no Republican seems to oppose these systems. Likewise, they do not hesitate to call it unconstitutional, despite apparent coverage by the Commerce Clause; this was also historically said about establishing a First National Bank and issuing a national currency, which are now seen as instrumental in the formation of our country as it is today. In short, these arguments tend to be at best impotent, historically ignorant obfuscations and smokescreens, and at worst invective falsities.
To be fair, the methods cannot be called ineffective. They prey on our basic fears. Who would not want to protect their loved ones, be they elderly or disabled? What American citizen does not revere the Constitution and dread its breach? And obviously, since the Red Scare, we've learned to tremble at the mere thought of Communism or Socialism. Still, none of these threats can actually be shown to be valid regarding Obamacare; they merely elicit a Pavlovian response from us: fear. And as anyone who's ever read Dune can tell you, fear does not produce the proper conditions for rational thought. Quite the opposite, it drives us into a frenzy and inspires knee-jerk reactions.
But why do the Republicans, then, depend on our fears to convince us of their agenda? The simple answer is that no argument dependent upon reason would support their positions. Therefore they do not want us thinking logically about their arguments, so they ascribe to that method which will lead us away from logical conclusions. Truly, this seems their only option, as but a modicum of thought will lead us to conclude a number of things: first, that they decry Obama for his supposed violations of the Constitution, yet advocate a repeal of the 14th Amendment therefrom, and widely supported the PATRIOT Act, which many consider to violate the 1st and 4th Amendments; second, that under Bush they called it unpatriotic to criticize the POTUS during wartime, but now, still during a war, they actively aspire for Obama's failure; third, they frequently extol the merits of a small government that does not interfere in our personal lives, yet simultaneously want the government to intervene in matters of marriage and childbirth, and to tap our phone lines to "protect" us; fourth, the Tea Party supposedly opposes taxation without representation, yet those Americans who reside in the nation's capital are literally taxed without any representation whatsoever, and I have never heard a member of the Tea Party so much as complain about it... Are you noticing a pattern here?
I'd like to take this time to point out that I don't exactly love Democrats, either, and that in any sane society I would be considered a moderate. Here, however, we do not have a sane society, and the conservatives have forced me into the liberal camp. The majority of right-wing positions are contradictory in nature, and the only way to get us to ascribe to them is by subverting rational thought via fear.
Unfortunately, when you start telling people that the liberals are planning to kill their grandparents, and to give free health care to illegal immigrants; when you compare their president to a tyrant and claim he is truly a Muslim terrorist infiltrating from abroad; when you claim Democrats are radical Communists who want to upturn our entire way of life, then yeah, people are going to become afraid. They're going to stop listening to rational arguments, and they're going to start reaching for their guns.
So, yes. I think the right-wing of this country bears most of the responsibility for creating an environment that could foster such grotesque acts of mindless violence. But there is someone else to blame:
Us. All of us in the American public, who listen but do not think for ourselves. All of us who let the faces on TV tell us what to believe without question. All of us who let ourselves be ruled by fear and hatred but never reason. All of us who deny the existence of racism because it does not affect us directly. All of us who sat idly by and let Amadou Diallo die and silently denied the rights of Yaser Esam Hamdi. All of us who preach about the sanctity of life and kill for it. We did this. We let ourselves be manipulated into demonizing one another, rather than constructively contributing to the political process.
Wake up, America.
We have spent over 200 years in the pursuit of the American dream of equality, justice, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, transparent and honest government. And on the precipice of its coming to life, here we stood, holding the egg from which our fledgling dreams could finally take flight. Here we were, waiting for the eagle to emerge.
And when the hatchling finally wrested away from its shell, we were afraid, so we killed it.
Wake up, America. It's morning, and your dreams are dead.
I'm going to assume that we can all agree that murder is bad, yes? Can we also understand why killing elected representatives runs completely contrary to the democratic process? Our fellow citizens voted for this woman and elected her because they shared in her beliefs. By trying to kill her, one is simultaneously trying to silence every one of his fellows who voted for her. One is using an act of remarkable violence and fear to control the political process. How is that any different from terrorism? Obviously, the perpetrator of this act is to be abhorred.
Now I must confess, I'm quite torn here. On the one hand, outrage seems a completely justifiable response to such heinous crimes; on the other, there are already a good number of blogs out there expressing horror and fury against conservatives, and doing the same thing here would accomplish nothing. So, I've decided on a different approach: rather than merely express my disgust with, say, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, the right-wing, the GOP, the Tea Party, and so on, I'm going to explain why I blame them for tragedies like this.
Let me start off by saying that I believe strongly in freedom of speech and expression. If Rush Limbaugh wants to go on the air and make himself plain as a bigot and misogynist, that's his right as an American. If Glenn Beck wants to exercise his freedom by spouting misleading, religiously and racially inflammatory diatribes, again, he has that right. And if Sarah Palin wants it publicized that she's completely unfit to govern, I would never stand in her way. That's what freedom of speech means: that we all have the right to say whatever we want. The downside to this is that some people will preach hatred, some people will tell lies, and some people will even incite violence. To be honest, I didn't think that last one was covered by freedom of speech, but apparently it is.
The problem here is that it becomes difficult to separate the truth from the lies when so many national figures are willing to claim the latter as the former. If you honestly believe, for instance, that Barack Obama wants to murder the handicapped, then you would be right to avidly, even violently oppose him. Of course, even the slightest research will reveal that so-called "Obamacare" contains no such stipulation. And America's current political atmosphere is rife with such examples: the GOP intends to repeal Obamacare because they claim it is unaffordable, while most evidence actually indicates the reverse.
In fact, most common arguments against Obamacare fall under the same dubious category. It is frequently cited as a socialist enterprise, just as were Medicare and social security at their geneses, yet no Republican seems to oppose these systems. Likewise, they do not hesitate to call it unconstitutional, despite apparent coverage by the Commerce Clause; this was also historically said about establishing a First National Bank and issuing a national currency, which are now seen as instrumental in the formation of our country as it is today. In short, these arguments tend to be at best impotent, historically ignorant obfuscations and smokescreens, and at worst invective falsities.
To be fair, the methods cannot be called ineffective. They prey on our basic fears. Who would not want to protect their loved ones, be they elderly or disabled? What American citizen does not revere the Constitution and dread its breach? And obviously, since the Red Scare, we've learned to tremble at the mere thought of Communism or Socialism. Still, none of these threats can actually be shown to be valid regarding Obamacare; they merely elicit a Pavlovian response from us: fear. And as anyone who's ever read Dune can tell you, fear does not produce the proper conditions for rational thought. Quite the opposite, it drives us into a frenzy and inspires knee-jerk reactions.
But why do the Republicans, then, depend on our fears to convince us of their agenda? The simple answer is that no argument dependent upon reason would support their positions. Therefore they do not want us thinking logically about their arguments, so they ascribe to that method which will lead us away from logical conclusions. Truly, this seems their only option, as but a modicum of thought will lead us to conclude a number of things: first, that they decry Obama for his supposed violations of the Constitution, yet advocate a repeal of the 14th Amendment therefrom, and widely supported the PATRIOT Act, which many consider to violate the 1st and 4th Amendments; second, that under Bush they called it unpatriotic to criticize the POTUS during wartime, but now, still during a war, they actively aspire for Obama's failure; third, they frequently extol the merits of a small government that does not interfere in our personal lives, yet simultaneously want the government to intervene in matters of marriage and childbirth, and to tap our phone lines to "protect" us; fourth, the Tea Party supposedly opposes taxation without representation, yet those Americans who reside in the nation's capital are literally taxed without any representation whatsoever, and I have never heard a member of the Tea Party so much as complain about it... Are you noticing a pattern here?
I'd like to take this time to point out that I don't exactly love Democrats, either, and that in any sane society I would be considered a moderate. Here, however, we do not have a sane society, and the conservatives have forced me into the liberal camp. The majority of right-wing positions are contradictory in nature, and the only way to get us to ascribe to them is by subverting rational thought via fear.
Unfortunately, when you start telling people that the liberals are planning to kill their grandparents, and to give free health care to illegal immigrants; when you compare their president to a tyrant and claim he is truly a Muslim terrorist infiltrating from abroad; when you claim Democrats are radical Communists who want to upturn our entire way of life, then yeah, people are going to become afraid. They're going to stop listening to rational arguments, and they're going to start reaching for their guns.
So, yes. I think the right-wing of this country bears most of the responsibility for creating an environment that could foster such grotesque acts of mindless violence. But there is someone else to blame:
Us. All of us in the American public, who listen but do not think for ourselves. All of us who let the faces on TV tell us what to believe without question. All of us who let ourselves be ruled by fear and hatred but never reason. All of us who deny the existence of racism because it does not affect us directly. All of us who sat idly by and let Amadou Diallo die and silently denied the rights of Yaser Esam Hamdi. All of us who preach about the sanctity of life and kill for it. We did this. We let ourselves be manipulated into demonizing one another, rather than constructively contributing to the political process.
Wake up, America.
We have spent over 200 years in the pursuit of the American dream of equality, justice, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, transparent and honest government. And on the precipice of its coming to life, here we stood, holding the egg from which our fledgling dreams could finally take flight. Here we were, waiting for the eagle to emerge.
And when the hatchling finally wrested away from its shell, we were afraid, so we killed it.
Wake up, America. It's morning, and your dreams are dead.
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