forsetti

[forsetti]

On Consequences: What About Fuck Around And Find Out Don't You Get?

As anyone with two functioning brain cells could have predicted, people who voted for Trump and those who sat out the last election because “both sides are equally bad,” are experiencing the “Find Out” portion of “Fuck Around, Find Out.”

From MAGA farmers in the Heartland whining about losing their livelihoods, to “Latinos For Trump” voters crying about their abuela being deported, to people who voted for Trump who are finding out they are losing their government jobs due to DOGE, the Find Out Portion of Trump’s second administration is just getting started.

Am I surprised? Fuck no! What would happen if he won again was blatantly obvious to anyone with a brain, moral compass, and basic understanding of…well…just about anything.

Do I care? Fuck no! It isn’t the fault of those of us who threw up warning flags, shot off flares, and screamed until we were hoarse that the things we said were going to happen if he got reelected, happened. That burden of responsibility is not on us, no matter how hard some try to make it so.

Should I care? According to those “Finding Out,” the media, and the moral scolds on the left, I’m supposed to care. Their arguments for caring come in three different forms: Compassion, Sympathy, and Non-Alienation.

I’m supposed to be compassionate towards those who are suffering, regardless of the reasons for their pain.

Really? The people who have spent the past twenty years bitching about participation trophies want one now because they are on the losing end of their play and want me to comfort them with orange slices, a big trophy that has “We Are Not Losers,” engraved on it, and a hug? Hell, even if I believed in a participation trophy culture, I wouldn’t extend it to those who voted for Trump or didn’t vote in 2024.

A soccer team of kids who get beat 20-0 at least tried their best. They put in the work at practices, played the best game they could, and lost. MAGA voters didn’t’ do jack. They didn’t put forth any effort to understand any issues. They walked onto the field of play, handed in their lineup, and didn’t do another damn thing. The people who sat out the election did even less.

What do I mean by, “they didn’t do another damn thing”? All the information about the Democratic Party’s agenda, Kamala Harris’ record, and policies were readily available for anyone to see. So too, were Trump’s. All the things Trump is doing were things he, or those close to him, said they were going to do. EVERY SINGLE FUCKING THING!

Why in the fuck would I be compassionate to anyone who willfully denied and/or ignored this?

Fuck them! My compassion goes to the people who are going to suffer from Trump’s policies who did the right things, made the right choices, and actually put forth an effort. That’s who deserves my compassion. Not some farmer in Iowa who put a fifty-foot billboard of “Trump 2024” on his land who is now scrambling to save the farm that has been in his family for generations. Actions, choices, and elections have consequences. Hence the “Find Out” part of FOFA.

Along the same lines, I don’t have sympathy for these people for what they are going through.

Do I wish these terrible things to happen to people who made bad choices? Not really. But, that is the only way they might (very heavy emphasis on “might,”) learn. Until the consequences of their actions are severe enough, and maybe not even then, people are not going to learn. If they keep getting bailed out, financially, emotionally, culturally… there is no incentive for them to learn.

How many times do Republican policies have to fuck over rural America before they learn a lesson? It’s been almost all of my sixty-four years and they not only haven’t learned a lesson, they’ve doubled, tripled, and quadrupled down on their loyalty to the GOP.

How many times do Democratic policies have to bail out these same people before they get any credit for it? Obama and Biden not only saved the US auto and energy sectors but helped make them better. Their reward for this? Having areas dominated by these industries vote Republican. This is just one of hundreds of examples like this I could give.

Am I supposed to have compassion and sympathy for these people? Fuck that!

I’m pretty sure the people pushing the “compassion and sympathy” arguments know they are pushing garbage which is why many of them have shifted to the more nuanced, though equally garbage, “let’s not alienate the Find Out crowd because that won’t get them on your side.”

This argument might sound reasonable except those touting it never can give examples of it working. Obama bent over backward to accommodate Republicans. The Affordable Care Act was more Republican-based than Democratic. What was his reward for this? Being called a Marxist socialist who was creating death panels that would end Pappy’s and Memaw’s lives, to provide on-demand abortion to drug-using moochers from San Francisco.

I have yet to see anyone provide a real example of a Democratic statement, position, or policy that actually changed a MAGA’s mind. The argument being made is basically:

1-Bad things are happening to Republicans because of their choices. 2-Dems should not point this out because it will alienate Republicans. 3-If Democrats don’t point this out, then Republicans will learn the error of their ways.

The faulty logic is in believing what Dems do or not do has any influence over Republicans. There is no causation here.

It is understandable, on some level, why people might believe this argument. Hundreds, if not thousands, of articles and even more media hot takes have been put forth pushing the causation between what Dems say/do and Republicans’ choices.

It’s not the Republicans’ fault they support a racist, misogynist, criminal. The Dems made them by (fill in the blank.)

The paradigm of this causation argument is whenever a Republican comes out and says something blatantly racist the justification they give for doing so and the excuse given for them by the media is, “If Dems hadn’t called them “racist,” they wouldn’t have said/done something racist.”

No ownership of their actions. No personal responsibility from The Party Of Personal Responsibility. They flip the causation completely around to justify their actions. It wasn’t what they said or did that led to someone calling them a “racist,” it was someone calling them a “racist,” that did it. It is Bizarro World Logic.

Today’s Republicans don’t want compromise. That concept has been beaten out of them through years of Newt Gingrich tactics, Rush Limbaugh talking points, and FOX News. As long as this is the mindset of conservatives, there is NOTHING Democrats can do or say that will not alienate them.

Everything the Democratic Party stands for would have to be abandoned, to partially satisfy MAGA. As the Democratic Party, whose rights are we willing to sacrifice, to win the vote of the farmer in Iowa who is upset Trump’s policies are going to cost him his farm?

I don’t fucking negotiate with terrorists. I especially don’t negotiate with white supremacist domestic terrorists. Once you do this, they will ALWAYS demand more. Roe v Wade WAS the compromise when it comes to abortion. How did that turn out? Were the right satisfied? Did they accept it and move the fuck on? Nope. Now that SCOTUS has said that abortion is up to the states, do you think the right is happy? Nope. Until they get 100% of what they want, they will never satiated.

If you understand the nature of modern-day American conservatism and its ties to Evangelical Christianity, then you know, without a doubt, they cannot be reasoned with, no amount of evidence, compassion, or sympathy, is going to get them to change their minds, at least not on any meaningful level.

This is why there are no fucks left in my basket to hand out to anyone, no matter how much they are suffering, for the choices they made on November 5th, 2024.

All my fucks are reserved for those who made the right choices but are going to suffer anyway.

The pragmatist, realist, and ethicist in me are fine with this. As my mom used to tell me, “You can’t change people who don’t want to change and until they hit bottom, they will never change.” Applying this to anyone, especially people who care about isn’t easy. Applying it to a good chunk of your fellow citizens is perhaps more difficult, but more important.

[forsetti]

On American Exceptionalism: Stupid Is As Stupid Does

“We are drowning in information but starved for knowledge.” -John Naisbitt

Right after the 2016 election, the dominant hot take from pundits was Hillary lost because Democrats failed to understand Rural America. This explanation was complete nonsense. Liberals who grew up or lived/live in Rural America very much understand them. That wasn’t the problem. As I wrote about at the time, the problem with Rural America was/is the racism and misogyny that are deeply embedded in their culture and religion and their willingness to all these to dictate their choices, even at their own expense.

Here we are eight years later and with Kamala Harris’ loss to Trump, the stupid hot takes are again flying off the shelves. This time around, the reason for Trump winning was Democrats didn’t care about the working class. As with “Dems don’t understand Rural America,” the reasons behind why Trump won were racism, misogyny, and stupidity. “Dems don’t care about the working class,” is a flat-out lie, no matter who says it, (I’m looking at you Bernie Sanders.) All the evidence shows America has done better than every other major country responding to the pandemic and EVERY economic indicator is better now than just about any time in the past fifty years regarding unemployment, job creation, DOW, wage growth… Trump’s reelection showed how much facts and evidence don’t matter in America.

As long as people “feel” a certain way, that is all that matters. Any argument that hinges on “feelings,” or “vibes,” is intellectual laziness at its finest. Why do people feel a certain way? Are these feelings justified? These questions are completely ignored or quickly glossed over because no one wants to know or discuss the answers to these questions.

No one wants to discuss why a large number of Americans are willing to believe a Five-Star, chronic liar. No one wants to know why these same people are willing to vote for a self-serving billionaire who has a long record of fucking over working-class people who have done work for him. No one wants to know why “good Christians,” happily support an adulterer who paid off a porn star not to divulge he had sex with her four months after his wife gave birth to their youngest child. No one wants to ask why these same, “good Christians,” are gleeful about fucking over immigrants and asylum seekers. No one really wants to know why Republicans are hell-bent on stripping women of rights and economic opportunities. No one really wants to admit that “The Greatest Nation On Earth,” “The Shining Beacon On The Hill,” and “God’s Country,” is very much racist, misogynist, and really stupid.

"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals and you know it." -Agent K

People are generally stupid. Stupid people are easy to manipulate, especially when it comes to their feelings. Most of the “feelings” about “economic anxiety,” are rooted in racism, bigotry, and misogyny.

In America, truth and evidence have been replaced with feelings and vibes because it takes no effort to feel something, to believe something. It takes a lot of work to understand and know something. There are too many Americans who are intellectually lazy and poorly educated and are either convinced they are smart or know they aren’t and overcompensate by gish galloping and talking very loudly. The only thing more dangerous than a stupid person is a stupid person who is convinced they are smart.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve had little to no tolerance for stupidity. As a kid, I would often come home from school or church and complain vociferously to my mom about the stupidity I’d encountered. Her advice to me was always, “You can’t fight every battle against stupid people, there are too many of them. Even if you “win” against one, there will always be another to take their place.”

Whenever she would tell me this, it would remind me of something I once heard the population of China was so large and growing so rapidly, that they could walk ten-abreast into the ocean and the line would NEVER end.

That is how I few stupid people. Never ending.

Instead of constantly battling against stupidity, I tried to carve out niches of smartness and sanity wherever I could. It is why I felt the need to leave America and go to Japan for a couple of years. It is why I studied philosophy. It is why I ended up in grad school at a Big 10 school in a very progressive town. It is why I’ve always surrounded myself with a very small but incredibly smart group of friends.

For a long time, this way of dealing with stupidity worked. Then social media brought the stupidity I’d fought so hard to avoid to my door with a vengeance.

Nobody was more excited for the internet than me. I’m an information junkie. My “hobby” as a kid was reading the Encyclopedia Britannica every night until the wee hours of the morning. Having all the information readily available was amazing. At least it was amazing until the Libertarian Tech Bros decided to create social media platforms to “democratize” information and bad-faith actors realized how easily they could manipulate a poorly educated population.

Thomas Jefferson knew that democracy could only truly function and succeed with an educated citizenry. Poorly educated people cannot make truly informed decisions. This is why mentally incompetent people and children cannot enter contracts. It is why people on certain drugs in hospitals are not allowed to make decisions about their health care. A democracy of idiots isn’t a real democracy (and if you tell me America is a Republic, not a democracy, I’ll send a civics teacher to your house to beat you about the head and neck with the largest textbook in their library.)

You can’t have a functioning democratic government with un/misinformed people. The exact thing is true when it comes to “democratizing,” information. It might sound like a good idea to open up information to any and all because good/sound ideas will rise to the top and win out in the end. To quote from, “A Stress Analysis Of A Strapless Evening Gown: Essays For A Scientific Age,” “There goes another wonderful theory about to be murdered by a brutal gang of facts.”

When you “democratize” information you automatically give everything equal weight of legitimacy and truth value. Then, somehow, the right/true things become apparent and win out. This treats facts as opinions. The answer to, “Which is better, Coke or Pepsi?” is not a factual statement. It contains no truth (even though anyone with any taste buds knows the correct answer is, “Coke.”) When scientific theories and data are treated the same as opinions and opinions are treated as facts, we are beyond fucked.

The other thing “democratizing” information either takes for granted, completely ignores, or willfully denies is, in order for their notion of a “free marketplace of ideas,” to work, people need to have the skill sets necessary to properly understand and process the information, in order to make informed decisions.

The tech bros don’t have these skill sets. Libertarians, by nature, are idiots. The best description of Libertarians is from Tom Morrow - “"Libertarians are like house cats: absolutely convinced of their fierce independence while utterly dependent on a system they don't appreciate or understand.” Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg don’t give one fuck about the well-being of people. They care about their egos. They care about how much data about you they can extract to sell to other amoral dicks. They care about how many toys they can buy and how many expensive, unique experiences they can have to brag about to their other equally amoral dick friends.

Truth isn’t contingent on popularity or who has the most followers or poll numbers. To treat truth this way obliterates any and all standards of evidence, validity, and soundness. It does away with the need for truth. To pretend otherwise is to either not understand a functioning view of truth or to understand it and use the destruction of truth to your advantage.

When you combine a completely misguided idea like democratizing information with a poorly educated population, the result is the stupid become proudly and arrogantly stupid. It becomes the perfect breeding ground for conspiracy theories.

Social media sites always kind of were this way but two events really showed just how problematic and dangerous they were: The election of Barack Obama and the pandemic.

The amount of sheer bullshit spread on social media about Obama’s birth certificate and the Affordable Care Act was staggering in volume and stupidity. Stupidity that is still believed as absolute gospel by a good chunk of the right. This really isn’t surprising since many of these same people deeply believe Jesus was white and apparently a vindictive, gun-toting he-man.

However, as stupid and awful as the lies about Obama and the ACA were, they paled in comparison to those spread about the pandemic. The propaganda about the pandemic was unbelievably widespread and very dangerous. Literally, hundreds of thousands of people died from the lies spread, mostly on social media, about COVID-19 and the vaccines.

I have people I know very well and some I love deeply who adamantly believe the stupidest nonsense about the virus and vaccines for no other reason than the propaganda they read/heard on social media, pundits, and their social groups… The more people passed along something they’d heard/read, the more it turned into a very dangerous Purple Monkey Dishwasher situation:

Once people believe untrue things, especially if those things are closely tied to their self-identity, it is almost impossible to unscrew that pooch because it would mean they have to admit they were not just misled and wrong but adamantly so. It takes humility to admit you are wrong. This is why, no matter how many times we are promised that the “Republican Fever,” of Trumpism will break, it will never happen because it isn’t Trumpism, it is Republicanism, and because the right will NEVER FUCKING EVER admit they were wrong about anything, especially if the liberals were right. It just isn’t in their fundamentalist, white supremacist, misogynist, Manifest Destiny DNA.

The past few election cycles have been nothing but a constant barrage of well-designed, well-placed propaganda from bad-faith actors here and abroad. Fear, hatred, lies...all get more attention and traction with people, especially stupid people, than facts and the truth. Anyone who has a basic understanding of human psychology has to know this. The entire field of advertising hinges and relies on people being easily manipulated.

The culmination of decades of underfunding, undercutting, lying about, and demonizing education by the right and the proliferation of social media outlets resulted in the election of the most unqualified, uncaring, self-absorbed, chronic liar to run the world’s largest economy and military not once but twice.

I keep hearing people blame Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris for losing to Trump because, based on who Trump is, “the race should never have been close.” This is a stupid take. It absolutely shouldn’t have been close, either time. The problem wasn’t Hillary or Clinton or anything they did/didn’t do. The problem is Americans are fucking stupid and since America is a representative government, their votes are a direct reflection of who/what they are.

The day right before this year’s election, all the left-wing pod bros and Never Trumpers, to a person, talked about how Kamala ran the most perfect campaign they’d ever seen. The day after the election, every single one of them rushed to get on the “Dems don’t care about the working class” bandwagon like they were trying to get front-row tickets to Taylor Swift.

In my lifetime, ALL of the evidence from jobs created, unemployment, wages, and the DOW… shows Democratic administrations greatly outperform Republican ones. Yet, the narrative has always been that Republicans are better at handling the economy.

Why is there such a gap between facts and feelings when it comes to the economy?

One answer is propaganda. The right has a massive media advantage when it comes to pushing whatever narrative they want. AM radio, FOX NEWS, and Sinclair Corp… do nothing but pump out right-wing talking points all day, every day. If you hear/read nonstop that the economy is in crisis, no matter what the facts are, you will start to believe it. This is why, when Republicans were polled about the economy pre-election, the majority said they were in a good economic situation but the country was not. This also explains why, right after the election, when the “bad economy” propaganda was no longer being pushed, the very same people who claimed the US economy was in shambles a week prior, now think the economy is doing fine.

The same thing is true about crime rates, welfare, immigration… You name it and there has been/is a massive propaganda effort from the right that has made a whole lot of Americans “reprogrammable meatbags” (hat tip Driftglass.)

Let’s just put aside the fact the Biden administration did more for workers than any administration since LBJ and possibly all the way back to FDR. When it comes to Democrats “ignoring the working class,” every single economic crisis in my lifetime happened while a Republican was in the White House. And, every single one of the times this happened, it was a Democratic president who fixed the mess only to be replaced by another Republican who once again fucked up the economy.

The reasons why Trump won in 2016 and again in 2024 had nothing to do with Dem messaging or policies. The reasons are racism, misogyny, widespread propaganda, and Americans are unbelievably stupid. Full stop.

I’m not surprised Trump won again because I understand the American electorate. I’ve also been warning for at least the past three decades that as white, male Americans become less culturally and demographically significant, they are going to do and rationalize whatever it takes to hold onto their artificially created sense of importance and self-worth. They will not just fight like hell to protect what they deem their God-given place in society, they will burn it all to the ground and salt the earth behind them rather than see anyone they deem unworthy get a damn thing.

In one of my undergraduate philosophy classes, I can’t remember which one or the context, one of my professors brought up a hypothetical scenario where a wise king had a difficult choice to make. The public well in the village he ruled over had been tainted and anyone who drank from it went mad. The choice the king had to make was to either not drink from the well and rule over a bunch of raving lunatics or drink and become one of them.

The general consensus among the students was the right choice was for the king to drink the tainted water because, no matter how wise you are, you can’t rule idiots.

I completely disagreed with this and thought the entire thing was a false dilemma (an either/or fallacy.) The smart/right thing for the king to do would be to find another village to rule over or head to the wilderness. Trying to rule idiots is a waste of time and talent. However, idiots aren’t going to be any more easy to rule if you are also an idiot. Find a new place for your talents and/or get the fuck out of Dodge.

I’m certainly not a wise king. I’m just a lowly villager but I have the same choice to make because the public well of information has been tainted and those who drink from it are getting stupider by the day.

What does this all mean?

It means I’m out. I’m getting the fuck out of Dodge, not in the physical sense but intellectually and emotionally. I can no longer be a part of the public square of information because it has been overrun by idiots and bad-faith actors.

I’ve been out of fucks to give for some time and barely running on fumes. Watching 70+ million of my fellow Americans vote for chaos, white supremacy, lies, misogyny, and sheer stupidity and a whole lot of other Americans not even be bothered to vote for whatever reasons they tell themselves to feel better about themselves has completely exhausted whatever was in my public engagement tank.

I am going to completely stop using social media and pretty much avoid as much other media as possible. I know a lot of people who are leaving Facebook and Twitter and setting up shop at sites like Bluesky. I have a Bluesky account but won’t be using it. When I say I’m taking myself out of the public square, I mean all of it. If the public has access to something, the well of information that hasn’t been poisoned eventually will be.

There is a part of me that wants nothing more than to hang around and watch people who voted for the Face Eating Leopard Party get their faces eaten by leopards. Nobody loves the Find Out portion of Fuck Around And Find Out as much as I do. However, I can’t enjoy the Schadenfreude of people who voted for or enabled Trump to get exactly what they deserve because a lot of people who did the right thing for the right reasons are going to suffer as much, if not much more.

I also can’t watch people who keep telling me they are allies continue to make horrible choices, bitch about the consequences of their choices, and then make the same choices again. Every single person on the left who says things like, “Both parties are the same,” or “Dems have ignored the working class,” needs to go back and take a remedial civics class.

There is ONE AND ONLY ONE principle progressives need to come to terms with. If you want FDR-like policies, you HAVE TO HAVE FDR-like majorities in Congress. There is no fucking third or fourth or fifth option. The surefire way to not get these kinds of majorities is to sit out elections, vote third-party, and spend more time and energy attacking would-be allies than opponents.

I can no longer watch people be more concerned about coming across as “independent thinkers,” than being intellectually honest.

I can no longer watch people monetize anger, grief, racism, misogyny, bigotry, and stupidity.

I can no longer watch people care more about how many followers they have than facts.

I can no longer listen to people talk about “Christian values,” when their actions and words would make Jesus weep.

I can no longer hear people complain about “elites,” but continue to cater to billionaires and be fine with tax cuts for the wealthy.

I can no longer listen to people who do not understand basic economics, basic civics, and basic logic. I can no longer deal with people saying, "It's no big deal, it's just politics."

I can no longer watch people “punch down” on people/groups that are the most vulnerable in our society.

I can no longer watch women and minorities be treated as second-class citizens.

I can no longer tolerate the left being a shining example of “the perfect is the enemy of the good.”

I can no longer watch people who claim that women and minorities are high priorities to them but who constantly don’t do what is necessary to protect them.

I can no longer watch the hypocrisy of people who claim to be “Christian,” exude so much hate and anger towards people their Jesus would have taken in and washed their feet.

I can no longer watch people with little to no critical thinking skills carry more influence and weight than experts in their field. Sorry Uncle Freedom, but you don’t know Jack about virology or tariffs or Ukraine or gas production or (fill in the blank.) You don’t have the critical thinking skill set to even know why you don’t know what you don’t know and neither do the idiots you listen to on AM radio, FOX NEWS, Rumble, or OAN.

All of this probably comes across as “sour grapes,” and/or “arrogance.” I don’t fucking care. I haven’t been wrong about this stuff yet and I don’t believe I am now. I really want to be wrong. However, over the past few years, Americans generally haven’t done anything to prove me wrong.

Someone might think I’m, “just another elite liberal talking down to “Real Americans©.” First, despite all my scholastic training, I’m very much blue-collar. Second, I’m not being judgmental, I’m being purely descriptive. Finally, the Fuck Your Feelings Crowd don’t get to complain about what people think/say about them. If you are a liberal and think I’m being too harsh, get a backbone and stop pretending Republicans are something they are not, and stop wasting your time trying to convince them. No amount of evidence or arguments is going to make a meaningful dent. The ONLY thing that has a chance of making them change their beliefs is if they personally suffer from their choices, and even then that isn't a guarantee.

I saw a very popular Tweet from someone lecturing the left for “mocking people who are concerned about the price of eggs and bacon.” I’m not mocking them for their concerns. I’m mocking them for not understanding the very easily understandable reasons why certain things cost what they do at any given moment in time. Don’t wrap yourself in a flag of capitalism if you don’t understand the basics of supply and demand. Don’t be fucking stupid and certainly don’t let your stupidity lead to even stupider consequences.

It isn’t the fault of Joe Biden or Kamala Harris or liberals that a lot of Americans don’t understand the consequences of a worldwide pandemic, deregulations, supply-side issues, how the need to maximize stock dividends led to a shortage of warehouses or dozens of other economic factors. They tried. A FUCKING LOT. Somehow, it just seemed easier for a lot of people to believe the person who lies about his wealth, lies about his crowd sizes, has a long list of failed businesses, including two casinos (BANKRUPTED... TWO... FUCKING... CASINOS something that no one thought was even possible,) than the President and VP who oversaw the largest growth in US manufacturing, wage growth, jobs, and saved pensions in the past 60+ years.

To call what happened on Nov 5th stupid is an insult to stupid. What it sure the fuck wasn’t, just like in 2016, was a result of “economic anxiety.”

I have to take myself out of the public square because I see no end to the stupidity. I only see it getting worse. It is going to get worse because too many billionaires are more concerned with their placement on the Top 100 Biggest Pricks List than making things better for anyone other than themselves. It’s going to get worse because white men and their enablers are going to fight even harder to hold on to the bullshit worldview of their stature and importance. It’s going to get worse because AI is going to further dumb down an already poorly educated population. It’s going to get worse because people running social media platforms are more concerned with algorithms that will generate profits than what those algorithms contain or their consequences. It’s going to get worse because young people don’t have the skill sets necessary to process the amount of misinformation and disinformation they are exposed to on a daily basis.

It is going to get worse because there is no more fragile substance in the known universe than the male ego.

It is going to get a lot worse because when fundamentalists think they have the upper hand, they ALWAYS make things worse.

It is going to get worse right away because the worst person and president in my lifetime, and possibly American history, isn’t going to have the people or guardrails around him like he did the first time. The upcoming administration is going to be a clown show. Not a Bozo or Krusty The Clown show but Pennywise and John Wayne Gacy clown show because every single person being singled out for top positions is not just grossly unqualified but a rabid nut job.

Germany turned to fascism largely because of economic factors. Between a decimated manufacturing sector, severe reparations due to Great Britain and France, hyperinflation, and the effects of The Great Depression, Germany was an economic disaster post-WWI. Hitler capitalized on this economic strife by telling Germans he’d make Germany Great Again.

America has the world’s greatest, most stable economy. The lives of everyday Americans are infinitely better now than they were a generation ago. Many of the problems we do have can easily be corrected with some basic regulations on our poorly regulated capitalism. Yet, despite this, Americans are turning towards fascism because they can’t buy whatever they want whenever they want for as little as possible, and, most importantly, white men see their self-appointed place at the top of the social/cultural pyramid, threatened. American White Christian Male Exceptionalism and Hitler’s Aryan Master Race are both based on pseudoscientific bullshit. They aren’t the exactly same but the Venn Diagram of the two overlaps a lot more than Americans care to admit.

Other than exiting from the public square, I really don’t know what I’m going to do. The last time I felt this way, to a much lesser degree, I moved out of the country. This is certainly something I’ve thought about and a serious option but due to personal responsibilities, it wouldn’t be for a few years.

When I lived in Japan, they might have been as stupid and conspiratorial as Americans (I don’t believe they were) but I didn’t know the language well enough to find out. There is something sadly true about the quote from “Bull Durham,”-“The world is made for people who aren't cursed with self-awareness.”

I’d really like to get back into writing but I haven’t figured out what to write about if I’m self-exiled. Writing about the Village Gone Stupid would defeat the reasons I’ve decided to leave the village. No matter how little you expose yourself to poison, it is still poisonous.

Whatever happens, I want to thank everyone who has read, tolerated and appreciated what I have posted and written.

I initially thought about ending with a quote from Douglas Adams- ”So long and thanks for all the fish,” but that doesn’t really capture how I feel. A better ending would be to post the entire lyrics to “Amused To Death,” by Roger Waters. However, that is too long and I’ve gone on enough. Instead, I’ll end with the lyrics from another song by Roger Waters from the same album.

Muslim or Christian, Mullah or Pope Preacher or poet who was it wrote Give any one species too much rope And they'll fuck it up -Roger Waters “Too Much Rope”

[forsetti]

Read your article On Rural America: Understanding Isn’t The Problem and it really resonated with me. I am originally from Grand Rapids, now live in Chicago and before that Orlando. It seems that your views on the world evolved much in the same way that they have for me. I have gathered that you are from Michigan yourself and was curious to know what town. It is refreshing to know that there are those with same life experiences. I also wanted to thank you for expressing those views so eloquently.

I'm glad you liked what I wrote. I moved to East Lansing in '85 to attend grad school at MSU. I am originally from Salt Lake City and Southern Idaho.

[forsetti]

I’m curious about your take on the war being raged against Palestine. Any chance you’ll ever post about it? Thanks for your time and for sharing your beautiful mind through your post. ✌🏻

The entire Palestine issue is so complex with so many bad actors on all sides. Unfortunately, the Palestinian people are the ones who suffer the most. I have thought about writing on the topic but it is to broad a subject and I always get lost in the weeds whenever I try.

[forsetti]

On Pres. Biden: Sadness, Anger, Counterfactuals, And Motivation

Right up front, I want to say that Kamala Harris was my first choice to be the presidential nominee in 2020. Joe Biden was way down my list of preferred candidates. It wasn’t that I didn’t like Joe or respect him, I just didn’t think he had it in him to be the candidate for change the country needed. Boy, I was wrong. He outperformed every expectation, and then some. His record over the past three and a half years is something any president would be thrilled to have as their legacy.

It is this legacy that makes me both sad and angry he decided not to continue to run for reelection.

I am sad because I cannot imagine how difficult this decision was for him to make. He has dedicated a half-century of his life to serving his country and was responsible for the greatest economic boom in America over the past fifty years.

I’m angry because he deserved better.

He deserved better from the media that opted not to discuss his accomplishments but instead focus on bullshit claims from the right about Hunter, the border, the economy, his mental state…

He absolutely deserved better from the left who, at the first sign of negative press, turned on him like a pack of rabid dogs. Whatever happens in Nov., I will NEVER forgive the Dems who dog-piled on Pres. Biden because a bunch of donors panicked and some well-funded, right-wing pushed polls showed Biden in trouble in some key states. (I can tell you as a matter of fact there is no way in hell he was trailing Trump in Michigan.)

As someone who has gone through what he has in his life, who was the proud Vice President to the first black president in history, who put the first black woman on his winning ticket, who appointed the most minorities to high-ranking posts and judgeships, who had his only surviving son publicly dragged and attacked by the right, who transformed the country’s economic model away from top down to middle out, he absolutely fucking deserved better.

While it is true Pres. Biden deserved better, it is also true, that he really had no choice but to step down from running for reelection. There were just too many forces outside his control pushing the narrative and it was affecting voter enthusiasm. He might have weathered the storm of bullshit had every Dem rallied to his defense but they didn’t for a multitude of spineless reasons.

No matter what happens in Nov., I am pretty sure the wrong lessons will be learned by the ones who helped push him out. Whether VP Harris wins or loses, the media will pat themselves on their backs because they were losing money on the Biden v Trump matchup. The chaos of Biden stepping down and the opportunity to come up with whole new lines of attacks against VP Harris is going to boost ratings, regardless of the election’s outcome.

The far-left, mostly white dudebro talking heads, pundits, and podcasters who pushed the hardest for Biden to step down won’t learn a lesson because if VP Harris wins, they will claim it was because of their efforts to get Biden off the ticket. If she loses, they will claim it was because Biden didn’t step down soon enough or because she really wasn’t who they wanted to replace Biden (Hint-she absolutely is not who they want to run.)

The media and the far-left are also the ones pushing for the Democratic Party to not go with VP Harris but instead have an open convention. There is no good reason to do this. The Biden/Harris ticket not only beat Trump in 2020 but 14 million people voted for this ticket in the 2024 primaries. The student body president at Bugtussle High got more votes cast for them than the second-place person in the Democratic Primaries. Dems wanted Biden/Harris. Not that the top of that ticket has stepped down, but that doesn’t mean Dean Phillips, RFK Jr., Marianne Williamson or the fifth-place finisher at the Nathan’s Hot Dog eating contest should be given a second look.

A contested convention would serve only two purposes: 1-created chaos which the media would gobble up like the attention whores they are; 2-allow the misogynist dudebros on the left to bypass VP Harris because that has always been their real purpose of getting Biden to step down.

Here’s the thing, no one knows what would have happened had Pres. Biden stayed in the race. No one. Not the pollsters. Not the pundits. Not the media. No-fucking-one.

Three weeks before the 2012 Presidential Election, Mitt Romney was polling 2 points ahead of Pres. Obama in the nationwide polls. How’d that turn out? Polls used to be fairly accurate but once people figured out they can manipulate and rig polls to suppress voter enthusiasm, they really aren’t that reliable.

The real problem is, any hot take about what would have/wouldn’t have happened if Biden had stayed in the race or stepped down sooner or whether there was an open contest at the Democratic convention relies on a counterfactual.

Counterfactuals are conditional sentences that discuss what would have been true under different circumstances. For example, “If Draymond Green had not been suspended for game five of the 2016 NBA Finals, the Golden State Warriors would have won the title.” Or, to stay with politics, “If Bernie Sanders had been the nominee in 2016, he would have beaten Trump.” Maybe. Maybe not. Just because you believe a counterfactual does not make it true.

The problem with counterfactuals is NOTHING counts against them. There is no way to swap out the conditions and replay the scenario. Counterfactuals are nothing more than guesses disguised as factual statements.

The Media and Left-Wing Dudebros LOVE counterfactuals because they allow them to NEVER be wrong. No matter what they proclaim would have happened, there is no way to prove them wrong. What they don’t say is, there is no way they can prove their claim(s) would have turned out true.

With this being said, through all the sadness and all the anger, I’m politically motivated more than I’ve been in years. I want Kamala Harris to be the next president not only because I believe she will do a tremendous job but I want her, and everything she is and what she stands for, to be a daily reminder of what America is supposed to be. I want her ethnicity to be a thorn in the side of every racist and bigot. I want her gender to annoy every misogynist. I want her example to be a ray of hope for everyone who feels marginalized. I want a Black/Asian woman to be the one defending America against the fascism, totalitarianism, and authoritarianism of the right.

The key to everything is if Democrats can maintain the enthusiasm, unity, and motivation they currently enjoy. These are going to be put to the test because the right-wing propaganda machine is going to be working overtime to discredit VP Harris and tear Dems apart. After all, that is the only way they can win.

[forsetti]

On Voting: Read A Civics Book And Do The Right Thing

Once again, like the swallows returning to Capistrano or the sun rising in the east, Democrats are in full panic mode about the upcoming Presidential election. They go through this ritual every four years because, as a group, they are really, really bad at political strategy and basic civics.

Of course, they will never admit this because they think they are intellectually superior to their right-wing counterparts. In many ways, this is absolutely true. However, when it comes to elections and voting, their political opponents are much, much better.

The phrase, “The perfect is the enemy of the good,” was most likely coined by someone who has watched the left’s political strategies and voting histories.

Voting isn’t American Idol. It isn’t about who performs best on a stage at any given moment.

Voting isn’t a reality show.

Voting isn’t about who looks the best on television. I know the OpticsPolice™ love nothing better than to over-analyze body language, voice modulation, and speech patterns… over content and context. However, it is easy and intellectually lazy.

Voting isn’t about who looks the most energetic. We all have known bosses or colleagues who talk loudly and quickly and almost to a person, they are full of shit. Being verbally active doesn’t signal anything positive. This should be especially true when it comes to governing. I don’t want a used car salesperson running the country. I want someone who is thoughtful and deliberate.

Voting isn’t who you’d like to have a drink with at a bar. You aren’t voting for who would be a good hang. You are voting for who will do a good job. If my kid needs their brain operated on, I really don’t give a damn if the neurosurgeon has a great bedside manner. I care about if they can do the job.

Voting is about who, of the options available, will do the most good. Even if you believe in the idiotic view that a particular election is between “the lesser of two evils,” less evil is ALWAYS better than more evil. There is no moral calculus where letting more evil win is the ethical choice. I can’t even believe this is a thing but it is remarkable how many on the left use this “argument,” to justify their bad choices and strategies.

Voting for president in America, like it or not, is a binary choice. It doesn’t matter if you disagree with the fact America has become a two-party system or want it to be something different. It is. Any political strategy that doesn’t accept this and act accordingly is about wish casting, not reality.

Voting for president is about the agendas, policies, and people they surround themselves with, as much or more than the candidate, themselves. The makeup of administrations matters. The right/wrong Cabinet member or department head can make a world of difference.

Voting is often not getting a chance to vote for your favorite candidate. Democracy does not guarantee you get the opportunity to vote for someone you really love. Sometimes your favorite candidate isn’t a good candidate runs a bad campaign or isn’t as popular with others the way they are to you. Just because your pet candidate doesn’t make the cut doesn’t absolve you from your responsibilities, as a voter.

The first rule of voting is the same as the Hippocratic Oath -First, do no harm. If your vote or lack of vote brings about terrible consequences, you’ve failed to do your job as a voter. If voting for someone won’t benefit you directly but will benefit others, especially the most vulnerable in society, that is the right choice EVERY SINGLE TIME.

The second rule of voting is a corollary to the first: “Vote the way the most vulnerable in coalition votes. The most vulnerable in your coalition have the most to lose in any election. They know who and what is best for their situations. If you aren’t a member of this group, you don’t and should act like you know what is best for them. Listen to them. Follow their lead, even if it means voting for someone not at the top of your list.

Voting isn’t just a right, it is a civic, moral responsibility. What you do/don’t do has consequences. Voting for Jill Stein, Gary Johnson, or Hammurabi in 2016 is directly related to a 6-3 conservative Supreme Court and all they have done to roll back progressive laws and polices in the past few years. No amount of linguistic or logical gymnastics makes this not true.

Voting isn’t about the individual candidates as much as it is about their worldviews. Even if you vote for the right candidate and they win, sometimes they are unable to do what they want to do and what you want them to do. Presidents are not all-powerful. They can’t just do whatever they want. It’s a complex, complicated system of government, intentionally so. The Framers didn’t want wild fluctuations in laws and how the government operates. They opted for consistency over the ability to change course quickly. This limits what a president can/can’t do. Sometimes all the political stars align and a lot can get done in a short period of time. If/when that happens, you want the person most willing to make those changes.

I don’t care who runs against Trump in November. If that person loses, they will be blamed for fascism taking over America when the ugly truth is those responsible are every single person who voted for him and those who didn’t vote for his opponent. That is how American politics works. It doesn’t matter if you agree with or like it, that doesn’t change the reality. If you don’t cast a vote for the Biden/Harris ticket in November, you are directly responsible for whatever consequences follow. There is no moral horse high enough for you to straddle to avoid the consequences and culpability.

[forsetti]

On Calls For Pres. Biden To Step Aside: Know The Players And Motives Tossing aside one of the most progressive presidents in fifty years because you are afraid they might not win an election is just plain stupid without a really, really, really solid backup plan. It is even stupider if you look at who is pushing for him to step aside and their motives. Here are the main groups calling for Pres. Biden to step away from running against Trump in November and why:

1-Republicans. Republicans know Biden is the biggest threat to them getting back the White House and enacting their batshit crazy policy agenda. They want nothing more than to not run against Pres. Biden because not only does he have the track record of beating Trump before but has an amazing economic record to run on. If you ever want to understand who Republicans view as their political threat, all you have to do is look at who they are attacking. They were going after Hillary for three years prior to 2016. The entire Benghazi witch hunt had no other purpose than to damage her electorally. Every single hearing about Hunter Biden, the border, the Biden Crime Family,… is nothing more than dog and pony hearings to dampen Democratic and Independent voter enthusiasm.

2-The Media. Trump’s non-stop crazy train administration was a goldmine for media outlets. Every day there was a new outrage, wild-ass rant, something that brought eyes to screens which translates to selling ad time/space. The Biden administration is efficient and boring. No scandals, except the ones Republicans gin up that turn up nothing. No rants. No chaos. No real controversy. Just plain old boring governance which is great for the country but bad for a business model that relies on shock, drama, and negativity. “Dems in disarray,” has been a media cottage industry since Bill Clinton was in office. If you don’t understand the financial motivation for why the media constantly derides Democrats for the slightest misstep while ignoring Republican malfeasance, you are probably likely to fall for their own brand of political propaganda.

It should tell you something that major news outlets have come out demanding Pres. Biden step aside for not looking good on camera during one ninety-minute debate but not a single one has asked the same of the candidate who was found guilty of sexual assault, found guilty of thirty-four felony charges, misspeaks dozens of times at every rally, and goes off on wild, illogical, batshit crazy tangents, and is tied to child sexual abuse via Jeffery Epstein. That they are not treating Trump with the same non-stop demands to step aside as they are Pres. Biden should tell you something about their motives.

3-Bad Foreign Actors. Russia wants nothing more than for Biden to lose the election. He is their biggest threat to taking over Ukraine and pushing their influence farther into Western Europe. NATO is stronger now and has more members than at any time in its history. This is the last thing Putin wants. Russia has been actively pushing propaganda online to influence U.S. elections for some time but really have ramped it up the past few election cycles.

Russia targets Republicans by fueling rage over culture war topics like abortion, immigration, racial violence, and the decline of Western, Christian norms. They also target liberals by trying to divide them over issues they care about Israel/Palestine, LGBTQI rights, Bernie vs Clinton, Bernie v Biden, DNC v “real progressives,”… They want liberals at each other’s throats because, if unified, the left is the largest voting bloc in America. Conservatives are electoral dinosaurs but they maintain power through gerrymandering, voter suppression, and liberals being more invested in their petty arguments than voting Republicans out of office.

4-Sandernistas. There is still a good-sized faction of people on the left who are still upset about Bernie Sanders not being the nominee in 2016 or in 2020. They are especially mad at what they deem as “establishment Dems,” screwing over Sanders in 2020 starting with the South Carolina primary. What they really are upset about is black voters, predominately female black voters, denying their White Progressive Savior his rightful spot at the head of the ticket. Because Pres. Biden was the one who benefited from this minority voting bloc in 2020, tearing him down and taking him out is a passion project for a lot of so-called “progressives.”

These “progressives,” are under the disillusion that if the Democratic Party fails far enough, hard enough, they will be able rebuild it in their own, perfectly progressive image. They never explain how this magical transformation will happen, they just take it as a matter of faith. Of course, anyone who understands American history and basic civics knows if/when conservatives have ultimate power, they will make sure they never lose another election.

These “progressives,” are the worst kind of progressive. They are often white, middle to upper-class liberals who view politics as a game because they are usually shielded from the consequences of the electoral decisions. If you are a middle/upper-class white, male progressive, very few, if any of Trump’s actions when he was in office affected you directly. The same cannot be said about the progressive voters who overwhelmingly supported Hillary in 2016 and Joe in 2020. They have the most skin in the game, have the most to lose and they vote accordingly. For white dudebros to step in and demand Pres. Biden step aside is a direct “fuck you” to the most loyal part of the base which has the most to lose if Trump is reelected.

Never mind this group has NEVER accomplished a damn thing politically other than cost many good Democrats to lose and decades and decades of progressive policy and law wiped out. They are as adamant about their political skills as they are it is always someone else’s fault when the find-out portion of their fuck around actions comes to fruition.

5-Progressives suffering from 2016 PTSD. This is the one group I can actually relate to and sympathize with. Hillary's loss in 2016 was a major shock to a lot of people. This shock was compounded because not only were we denied the first female president, but we got a lying, narcissistic, misogynist man-child in her place who went about rolling back decades of hard-earned progressive policies and turning the Supreme Court into a right-wing arm of the Federalist Society.

For those of us who lived through 2016, there is no election data that will make us feel good or at ease. It also makes us hyper-vigilant about anything and everything that can be seen as a negative towards the nominee. The second anything bad happens, whether factual or not, a lot of people in this group take the flight instead of the fight option which is associated with PTSD.

Being overly anxious and hyper-vigilant are not necessarily bad unless they lead to bad decisions.

There is only one sure way to make sure Trump is not reelected. Vote for the candidate running against him. Period. Full fucking stop.

If you aren’t willing to do this, for whatever reason you tell yourself, then you will be directly responsible for the very thing you claim is a politically existential moment. Stop listening and parroting Republican talking points. Stop allowing the media to determine who you should vote for. Stop listening to butt-hurt progressives who have no record of political success about what those who do should/shouldn’t do. Stop acting like frightened little bunnies whenever someone says something negative about successful Democratic leaders. Stop automatically going into flight mode when something goes wrong or something negative is said. Fight.

If you aren’t willing to fight, and I’m not talking about inter-party fighting (that time came and went,) for women’s rights, minority rights, safe air/water/food, climate policies, democracy… then you really aren’t as progressive as you tell yourself and others. You are a big reason why we are even in this situation. Whether you like Pres. Biden or think he is too old really isn’t the pertinent issue if you really care about the things you say you do. As long as Pres. Biden is willing to fight like hell for progressive policies and prevent Republicans from turning the country into a white supremacist, misogynist, oligarchy, you should be doing the same.

I don’t know what is going to happen between now and election day. Neither does anyone else. The one thing I am 100% positive about is if Trump does win, the people on the left who have spent the majority of their time and energy railing against the Democratic Party and Pres. Biden will blame anyone and everyone other than themselves. If Pres. Biden wins reelection, these same people will claim their childish hissy fits are what led him to “change course,” enabling him to win. Their view of personal responsibility for election outcomes is some fucked up “No True Scotsman,” bullshit. Nothing, and I mean NOTHING ever counts against their political beliefs and views.

I know some people reading this will wonder why I spend so much time and energy railing against the left. The answer is really simple-I fully expect the people on the right to be bad-faith actors who are hell-bent on destroying any and all progressive policies and candidates. I don’t, and shouldn’t expect the same from people who claim to be political allies. You can't claim to be a member of Team Good™ if your behaviors and actions help Team Bad™.

[forsetti]

I wrote this ahead of the 2016 election. Nothing has changed except the Roberts-led Supreme Court rolling back voting rights, and women's rights which makes my point even more salient.

On Progressive Politics: Wants, Needs, Racism, and Social Justice

For a good portion of my life, I believed racism was overt actions like the KKK burning down black churches and lynching people.  It was someone saying, “nigger” with animosity and disdain.  It was separate drinking fountains and signs that declared, “Whites Only.” Sure there were still racists in America, but they were a small and dying group.  I was wrong.  Very, very, wrong.  There are lots of reasons why I was wrong.  I was wrong because I grew up in the bubble of a small town in Southeastern Idaho and was never exposed to the full spectrum of racism.  I was wrong because the real history of racism in America has been intentionally hidden and denied.  However, the main reason I was wrong is that as a white male, I have benefited the most America’s long history of racism and willingly or not, I had been part of the problem. As someone who has prided himself on being a staunch progressive and defender of equality and justice, the realization of my own ignorance and culpability in America’s racism has been a very humbling and painful process.  The depth and breadth of the problem are also very overwhelming and depressing.  My attitude about the problem constantly fluctuates from white-hot anger to existential nihilism.  I either want to take to the streets in protest or drink myself numb.  There are times when I think something can and should be done.  At other times, I think the problem is too ingrained in our culture for anything to change because there are too many ignorant and apathetic white people who keep breeding and passing their idiot traits down to a new generation of would-be racists. Adding to my feelings of hopelessness, there are too many “well-meaning” white people who don’t want to rock the white supremacist boat because deep down they enjoy the benefits of racism.

Because of how entrenched racism is in America, because of how long it has been going on, because of how reluctant even the most well-meaning whites are to real change, I have no suggestions on how to adequately address the problem and can’t even begin to comprehend how to make amends for the three-plus centuries of damage done by racism.  While I might not know what to do to correct the problem, I sure as fuck know what not to do to aggravate it.  The lessons I’ve learned the past few years may be few in number, but they have completely altered how I, a fifty-eight-year-old white man, views the world.

This new view as made me hypersensitive to anything that caters to the status quo.  Conservative politics has been built on catering to the notion of white supremacy since the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964.  I expect nothing less from them and am never surprised by anything they do or say, even Donald Trump who is just being more open and honest about the conservative strategy than most.  Since I am not a conservative and do not give a rat’s ass about what they do/don’t do because I have zero expectations they’ll ever change or listen to reason, I won’t address them, their attitudes or policies. It is progressives who I (reluctantly) rest my hopes on.

There is a very disturbing trend among some progressives when it comes to how people of color vote.  In 2008 progressives who supported Hillary often denigrated anyone of color who voted/supported Barack Obama. Their support was written off as not being thoughtful.  I hear a lot of progressives claim that POC voted for Obama not because they thought he was a good candidate or the best choice, but merely for the fact he is black.  Eight years later, that same attitude flipped from Hillary supporters to her opponents but with regard to gender not race.  It was complete bullshit in 2008 and it was complete bullshit in 2016.

In 2016 Hillary has won a large majority of black and Hispanic votes. Bernie did much better with white men.  These facts don’t mean anything by themselves.  They do, however, have significant meaning when you look at the strategies and words of the candidates and, more importantly, the beliefs of the minority voters.  I believe the latter is a direct reflection of the former.

If your spoken strategy is to “bring white working-class voters back to the Democratic Party,” you are not only on a fool’s errand, but you are also going to alienate minority voters.  When your supporters are condescending to minorities when they vote for your opponent, you are on the wrong side of this issue. I see a lot of the white, male, Democratic candidates this time around making this same mistake.  It really doesn’t matter if this is being done on purpose or out of ignorance.  The only things that really matters are how it is perceived and what will it do to address the problem of this strategy’s underlying racism.

Going after the white working class vote is a really bad strategy for a number of reasons.  This group has largely already been voting for Republicans who have fed their fears and white supremacy for decades.  In fact, no Democratic presidential candidate has won the white vote since the passage of the Civil Rights Act. This isn’t a coincidence.  White voters are not going to suddenly listen to reason or be willing to admit their economic decline is a direct result of their own voting patterns.  However, the real problem with this approach is it continues the long history of being concerned more about the situation of whites than minorities.  Even with many white working class people stagnating economically, they are still infinitely in a better economic state than minorities.  Putting your main focus on the group that needs the least help is politically tone deaf if you are progressive.   Another reason this strategy is a really bad idea is it completely ignores the demographic trends of the Democratic Party.  White voters are becoming a smaller and smaller portion of the voting pie.  Putting them as your main emphasis on winning an election is just plain stupid.  Even if you do win, you’ve sown negative seeds with the largest growing part of your base which will have repercussions down the road.  Demographically, progressives have the advantage against conservatives,  why on earth would you do anything to damage this and give conservatives an opening to gain traction with minorities or alienate them to where they don’t vote?  This doesn’t mean you should ignore white voters.  It means you don’t make them the focal point of your campaign.  It also means you don’t sell your ideas to minorities as “they’ll also benefit,” but you sell your ideas to whites that “everyone benefits.”  

One of the main things I have learned the past few years is to really listen to the people who need the most help, who will suffer the most if the right policies are not enacted, who has the most to lose if the right people aren’t elected.  There are a lot of groups this applies to, but one really stands out; black women.  It was black women who helped elect President Obama in 2008.  They definitely were the major force behind his reelection in 2012 when a lot of white progressives stayed home.  While a President Romney and a GOP controlled Congress might have had negative consequences for white progressives, it would have decimated black households who are holding on by a thread.  Every positive thing President Obama did was a direct result of black women voting for him en masse.

Blacks and other minorities are focused on the bottom two levels of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.  Whites progressives are focused on the top two. White progressives, as a group, are not worried about whether they’ll have food to eat, shelter, security…  They are focused on feeling good about their job, their self-esteem, being respected for who they believe they are (superior)…  Morally and from a progressive political point-of-view, one of these takes priority over the other.  What I see far too often from white progressive politicians is a supply-side approach to justice, equality, opportunities.  If whites are helped, the benefits will trickle down to minorities.  Supply-side economics is complete bullshit.  Supply-side anything is complete bullshit.  If you are pushing a top-down political agenda, you are not progressive. It doesn’t matter what your intentions, how deeply you believe it, how long you’ve been advocating it…  You are either helping those who need the most help first and foremost or you are not.  There are no linguistic or argumentative gymnastics that can change this reality.  The people at the bottom of the hierarchy know this and can see through bullshit because they deal with it each and every day.  

I’m not saying certain aspects of Bernie’s or any of the other white, male candidate’s agenda would not help those at the bottom of the hierarchy a lot, they would.  What I am saying is making your focus bringing back white working-class voters to the Democratic Party and trying to sell it as “it will help minorities too” is completely misguided.   I’ve listened intently to Bernie since he decided to run.  This is exactly what he says and how he tries to sell it.  It is why almost all of his events are in college towns that are predominately white.  It is why he has focused his campaign heavily in states that have a high percentage of whites. Whether intentional or not, the attitudes behind are picked up by his supporters.  When I see and hear his supporters and spokespeople say derogatory things about minority voters who supported Hillary, I see it as a reflection of the campaign’s attitudes and strategies.  When Hillary won Southern states because of the black vote and they talk about her “winning the Confederacy” and “winning red states that won’t matter in the general election,” I hear the dog whistles of progressives.   It isn’t KKK racism, but it is racism nevertheless.   When Joe Biden or Mayor Pete constantly talk about the pain and suffering of white, rural Americans, I hear these same dog whistles. It doesn’t matter if they are intentional or not. Their impact is the same. What they are signaling to minorities is their vote isn’t a priority. What they are signaling to white voters is their votes are. This is both strategically and morally wrong. The more and harder white Democratic candidates chase after white votes, the more it sends a message to their staunchest, most loyal, most in need of their help the base they are second-class voters.

In 2016 I heard a lot of Bernie supporters say, “black voters just don’t know what they are doing,” or “if black voters REALLY understood Bernie’s policies, they’d vote for him.”  The white supremacist condescension of this is thick and telling.  I’m pretty sure black voters know exactly what they want from a candidate and who will best help them.  They were pretty clear, it isn’t Bernie Sanders.  White progressives don’t need to agree with this, but they have to respect it.  When they don’t, they are nothing but racist-lite whether they realize it or not, whether they admit it or not.  White progressives need to stop telling minorities what is best for them. I’m not saying minorities didn’t have issues with Hillary and her campaign.  They did.  However, when it came time to pull the lever in the voting booth, they overwhelmingly choose her over Bernie by a considerable margin.  Minority voters saw the candidates and to Bernie they said, to quote from “A Knight’s Tale,” “You have been weighed, you have been measured, and you have been found absolutely wanting.”  

My view in 2016 of the Democratic Party and the two major candidates for president was formed over a lot of time and thought.  It has been helped along by a couple of different sources as well as the most influential work on social ethics I’ve ever read.  The two outside sources that had the greatest influence in pushing me to a better understanding of the issues could not be more different.  One is a black woman on Twitter, Propane Jane, the other is a reformed white conservative blogger, John Cole.   Propane Jane is a psychiatrist from Houston Texas who, when she isn’t writing books goes on twitter rants that are so precise, brutally honest, and insightful about racism in America, I’m often stunned how 140 characters can have so much impact.  She has no time for bullshit or sugarcoating.  Every once in a while she will say something that at first blush seems completely wrong and my defenses go up.  But, if I put my defense mechanism away and am honest about the tweet, she’s completely right.  Her tweet storms are so legendary, they are often storified by others.  Here is one from January that gets to the heart of the problem with the Democratic Party and Bernie Sanders’ campaign with regard to their base: John Cole at “Balloon Juice,” started blogging in 2002 shortly after 9/11.  He was a die-hard conservative.  The actions of the Bush administration in Iraq, Abu Gharib, and the Terri Schiavo case pushed him to take a hard look at his belief in conservatism.  His blog went from being a go-to site for staunch conservatives to a mainstay for progressives.  Earlier this month he wrote an article titled: “I’ve Kind of Made My Decision,” that addresses his take on the Democratic primary and why he is supporting Hillary.  When I read it, I said to myself, “This is exactly how I feel and why.”  He lays out a number of reasons he is supporting Hillary over Bernie, but the one that stood out to me was the one where he admits that since the 2008 campaign, he has been exposed to more voices of women and POC and it has made him reevaluate how he views politics. “In my opinion as a white single male with a degree of financial stability, beyond agita and heartburn, I have very little at stake in this election. I’m not going to be drafted, my insurance won’t be lost if ACA is repealed, I won’t have to worry about losing my ability to get pap smears or mammograms or basic health services if PP is closed down, I won’t have to worry about feeding my children, I won’t have to worry about the right to control my body, I won’t have to worry about getting shot in the street for walking while white or be found dead in a jail cell after failing to signal a lane change. These are not and will not be a concern for me, ever. “ In other words, his concerns for himself fall in the top levels of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and the concerns of many women and POC fall in the bottom levels.  To put it another way, his problems are first world, white people problems that, when looked at in comparison to others seem trivial and shallow.  This is where he and Propane Jane intersect.  While John is pointed out how the outcome of the election really won’t impact him because of his station in life, Jane laid bare the lives of those who don’t enjoy that station.    Many white progressives are not as self-reflective as John.  They don’t see they are arguing for and from their own privilege.  Pointing out their lack of self-awareness and politics of privileged self-interest is Jane’s specialty.  While privileged white progressives are pissed bankers weren’t jailed because of the financial crisis, black families are worried about whether or not their child will be shot by the police, whether their unarmed teenager will be gunned down in the street, whether the rigged justice system will take their father away, whether or not their state government will give its wealthiest citizens more tax cuts while cutting social safety net programs, how to avoid being arrested or fined by a police force that uses the poor and disadvantaged to fund their department…

All of this is a perfect example of philosopher John Rawls’ “Difference Principle.”  Rawls in his seminal work, “A Theory of Justice” laid out an ethical framework for social justice.  One of the main tenets is his “Difference Principle.”  In a nutshell, the Difference Principle  says, “a law/rule/policy in society is only justified if it helps those disadvantaged as much or more than those advantaged.”  For example, a tax cut would be just and fair if those at the bottom of the economic ladder are helped by it as much or more than those at the top.  Any law/rule/policy that improved the position of the advantaged more than or at the expense of the disadvantaged would be unfair, unjust.  

When it comes to ethics, I am a devout Rawlsian.  “A Theory of Justice” is my ethical bible.  When I apply it to the ideas and policy proposals of the current Democratic candidates for president, Hillary’s lined up more with Rawls than Bernie.  It isn’t that Bernie’s or Joe’s or Mayor Pete’s ideas are not good or don’t have merit.  Many do.  However, their views operate from a top-down approach and this is the direct opposite of Rawls.  I’m not saying Hillary’s ideas were perfect Rawlsian, they were not.  However, more of her ideas operate from a bottom-up approach.  This is what John Cole was getting at in his article.  This is what Propane Jane gets at constantly with her tweets. Like it or not, there are two and only two major political parties in America.  Currently, one of these two is batshit crazy.  It appeals to and actively recruits angry, white, racist, misogynist, ignorant males.  The other party, faults and all, has a very large base of the most disadvantaged in society.  The reason I am a proud liberal and vote for Democratic candidates is that it is in the best position to help those who need it the most.  As a fifty-eight-year-old white man, I have enjoyed many benefits for the mere facts I am white and male.  Often, these benefits have come at the expense of people not like me.  I can’t change what has happened, but I can change what does happen.  I can and will push and vote for people and policies that improve the situations, opportunities, and lives of those who were not born with this privilege.  In so doing, I have two choices: I can either take an approach that I know what’s best for those less fortunate; Or, I can listen to the people who have the most to lose, the most skin in the political game.  If I opt for the first choice, I am perpetuating my white privilege.  I am no better than any white progressive who tells POC voters they don’t know what they are doing.  If I choose the second option, the consequence is not supporting Democratic candidates who are hell-bent on chasing the elusive white voter. I listened to every possible argument for Bernie and against Hillary in 2016, I am currently listening to every argument for Bernie/Joe/Pete versus Elizabeth/Kamala/Amy…  When push comes to shove, every single one of these arguments takes a backseat to the social justice and ethical argument I’ve discussed.  The future of the Democratic Party is with minorities.  The social justice argument belongs to them, not white middle-aged men or white college students.  The latter are important and their needs should be taken into consideration, but not in front or at the expense of the former.  I believe in equality, justice, and fairness with no qualifications, no asterisks that somewhere in really small fine print says, “people of color, women, gays, etc. need not apply” or “are separate but equal” or any other bullshit.  I can’t support any party or candidate whose main focus is white working class men, especially those who have voted against their own self-interest for decades because they don’t want “those people” to get something they don’t believe they deserve.  Fuck them.  They made their choices based largely on racism and bigotry.  They had choices and options and fucked them up.  Minorities and women, for the most part, have had neither.  It’s about damn time they did.  It’s about damn time we start listening to them.

[forsetti]

On Political Responsibilities: Put Up Or Shut The Fuck Up

As easily predictable as “The sun will set in the West,” a whole lot of Democrats are ONCE AGAIN falling for Republican propaganda and scurrying around like frightened little bunnies. This time it is about “Biden’s age.”

They should realize this is nothing more than a Republican ploy to sow discord among Dems and tamp down voter enthusiasm. This means either they are not very bright and their political hot takes should be completely ignored or they do realize but play along and parrot right-wing talking points either for attention or money, which really means they should be completely ignored.

Is President Biden old? Yes. Does it matter? As long as he has been and continues to do a good job pushing progressive policies it shouldn’t. When my maternal grandfather passed away at 91, he was still physically active, mentally sound, and able to do intricate, complex tasks. Because Pres. Biden had one bad debate (which is, no pun intended, debatable,) that doesn’t/shouldn’t mean a damn thing unless you are a frightened little bunny.

The right has been pushing, “Biden is too old,” since the 2020 election. They’ve also been pushing, “Biden is the head of a complex, international crime family who uses the Deep State and Dept. of Justice to do his bidding.” If you don’t see the logical problems between these two views, you are part of the problem and really shouldn’t be throwing out your political opinions like they are pearls of wisdom from on high.

Of course, it hasn’t only been the right pushing the “Biden is too old,” claim. The Far Left, especially the white far left, have been doing the same because they are still upset about Biden, with the help of black voters, kicking Bernie Sanders’ ass in the South Carolina primary and going on to curb stomp him on Super Tuesday. It doesn’t matter that Sanders is a year older than Pres. Biden to the far left. All that matters is doing damage to the person who beat their candidate of choice.* (*see also Hillary Clinton and the 2016 election.)

The media loves the “Biden is too old,” nonsense because it allows them to attack the president while hiding behind, “many people from both parties say….” However, the real reason they love it and push it nonstop is because it generates views/clicks which sells ads which generates profits. Any political race, especially one with national implications that is one-sided doesn’t get eyeballs on screens. If Pres. Biden was leading by 10 points, which in any sane country he would be, the race is all but over and no one is going to tune into media outlets for their “analysis” of the race. Any for-profit enterprise that relies on viewers HAS TO HAVE a horse race. The owners of these companies know this. The programmers know this. The hosts know this. The guests know this. It seems the only people who don’t know this are the frightened little bunnies on the left who flee to their holes any time someone in the media says something they don’t like or fear might be true.

All you have to do is look at the number of media outlets and talking heads who have pushed the idea that Biden needs to step aside because he “looked bad on television one time,” but not a single one of them has demanded the same of Trump for any of the legitimate bullshit he’s done. Just his role on Jan 6th should make him a toxic candidate, let alone his being found guilty of sexual assault, 34 felony convictions of fraud, and taking, lying about, and refusing to return highly classified documents after leaving the White House. Any one of these actions should be a reason to question and demand he step down as a candidate. Yet, NOT ONCE, has this happened in the media. That’s because they NEED Trump for horse races because it brings in money.

Just look at the post-debate analysis from the media who were intently focused on Biden’s speech patterns, how he looked, and how he sounded (all optics,) while completely ignoring what he said and the massive totality of Trump’s lies (all factual things.)

All of this “Optics Police” analysis has given rise to the whole “Biden needs to step aside,” idiot hot take.

When someone in the media says something like, “Pres. Biden needs to step aside,” a whole lot of Dems clutch their pearls with both hands and run to their fainting couch as fast as they can while screaming, “Pres. Biden needs to step aside!” because they are frightened little bunnies who have a compulsive need to parrot anything negative about their party and candidates, regardless of the source.

They are so afraid of losing elections that they do everything in their power to make sure elections are lost.

Let’s talk about the idea of Pres. Biden stepping aside. It is a remarkably stupid idea from remarkably stupid people. There is a reason the right has been pushing “Biden is too old,” “Biden is a criminal,” and “Biden cheated to win in 2016.” It is the very same reason Trump asked Zelensky to just lie about Biden being under investigation in Ukraine in 2016. Biden is the NUMBER ONE THREAT to Trump getting reelected. If the right believes Pres. Biden is the biggest threat to Trump, why in the fuck would replacing him on the ticket be the smart move? It wouldn’t.

I’ve read all the reasons for why Biden should step aside. They are all devoid of any logic, a basic understanding of U.S. elections, or American political history.

The latest reason for him to step aside is by comparing him to Ruth Bader Ginsburg and using her death and subsequent appointment of a right-wing hack, Amy Coney Barrett, to the Supreme Court. The same people on the left demanding Pres. Biden step aside are the same ones who blamed RBG for allowing Trump to appoint another conservative justice to SCOTUS.

It wasn’t RBG’s responsibility to prevent Trump from appointing a conservative justice. That responsibility was on Democratic voters in 2016 and they failed to live up to it. Don’t blame RBG for Amy Coney Barrett. Blame everyone on the left who decided to sit out the 2016 election or who voted third-party. They are the reason Trump was in a position to appoint three Supreme Court justices. While RBG was working hard to protect progressive ideals and rights, the people bitching about her not retiring were not doing a damn thing to help her.

It’s not like the far left wasn’t warned about the potential damage a Trump presidency would have, especially with regard to SCOTUS. They were, vehemently. Their response to being warned about what could/would happen to the Supreme Court if Trump won was, “Go fuck yourself. How dare you use the threat of years of progressive policies and rights being taken away to get my vote.”

These were the same people who now are screaming about how horrible the Supreme Court is hurting years of progressive policies and rights being taken away and blaming anybody and everybody other than themselves. They are the ones blaming Pres. Biden for not protecting Roe (something he has/had no way of doing.) They are the ones blaming RBG for not retiring (something that would not have made a difference because, even if she was replaced with another liberal justice, the Court would still be 5-4 in favor of conservatives and there was a good chance her replacement would not have been given a hearing and her seat left open ala Merrick Garland.)

The reason we have a 6-3 conservative Supreme Court is too many people on the left thought it was a good idea to not vote for Hillary Clinton in 2016. That’s it. Full...fucking...stop.

Many of the same people on the left who didn’t take the makeup of the Supreme Court seriously in 2016 are the very same people now demanding Pres. Biden step aside. Sorry, we are in this mess largely because of the horrible ideas and actions of these people. Why on earth should they be taken seriously now? They shouldn’t.

There is no “magic bullet,” to prevent Trump from being reelected. There isn’t some magical candidate out there, waiting in the wings for Pres. Biden to step aside so they can swoop in and save the day. There is Pres. Biden and VP Harris. That is it. It doesn’t matter if that is who you want. It doesn’t matter if you are upset about this or that policy or action. It doesn’t matter if Pres. Biden is 81, 61, or 91. What matters is winning the 2024 presidential election. That’s it. If/when that happens, then you can bitch and whine about not getting your dragon-unicorn hybrid in the exact color you want.

Do your fucking civic duty and vote for the candidate who will do the most good, the least harm to the people and policies you love. In the upcoming election, that choice will be, whether you like it or not, and you don’t fucking have to like it, is between Pres. Biden and Donald Trump. Either put up and do the right thing or shut the fuck up, now and forever about the state of politics in America.

A couple of days ago, Charlie Pierce from “Esquire,” tweeted this gem from Tbogg (one of my favorite old-timey bloggers.) It perfectly sums up exactly how a lot of people on the left view voting and my response to them.

"Every year in Happy Gumdrop Fairy-Tale Land all of the sprites and elves and woodland creatures gather together to pick the Rainbow Sunshine Queen. Everyone is there: the Lollipop Guild... ...the Star-Twinkle Toddlers, the Sparkly Unicorns, the Cookie Baking Apple-cheeked Grandmothers, the Fluffy Bunny Bund, the Rumbly-Tumbly Pupperoos, the Snowflake Princesses, the Baby Duckies All-In-A-Row, the Laughing Babies, and the Dykes on Bikes. Afterward, they spend the rest of the night dancing and singing and waving glow sticks until dawn when they tumble sleepy-eyed into beds made of the purest and whitest goose down where they dream of angels and clouds of spun sugar. You don’t live there. Grow the fuck up.” -TBogg

[forsetti]

On Bullshit Arguments: Everyone Has Their Own Beliefs/Opinions

The influx of social media has resulted in a lot of horrible consequences. One of the most nefarious is the proliferation and acceptance of “everyone has their own beliefs/opinions,” as a legitimate response to… well, to anything.

Saying, “Everyone has their own beliefs/opinions,” is intellectually laziness at its peak. It states an obvious fact. It doesn’t add anything of value to an argument. And, most importantly, it gives cover to beliefs, and opinions, that are just flat-out bullshit.

Whether or not the person using, “Everyone has their own beliefs/opinions,” is doing it intentionally to give cover for bullshit, really doesn’t matter. The outcome is the same-the eradication of any semblance of evidence and truth.

“Everyone has their own beliefs/opinions,” is a “Get Out Of Bullshit Jail Card,” when people don’t want to be honest about what is being said for fear of upsetting someone else or by taking a moral/intellectual stand.

I’ve noticed, that, “Everyone has their own beliefs/opinions,” being used much more frequently in the past few years as evidence against the user’s beliefs/opinions has been piling up.

Whenever the data for something starts to amass against someone’s beliefs/claims, they almost always turn to “Everyone has their own beliefs/opinions,” as a way to deny the data and deflect from the fact their view is nonsense.

I’ve also noticed a subset of, “Everyone has their own beliefs/opinions,” users doing so because they are afraid to stand up against family, friends, and colleagues… whenever they spout bullshit. This is understandable on some level but it would be better to shut the fuck up and stay out of the fray rather than add to the dumbing down of America.

In the past few weeks, two members of my own family who I’ve considered smart, reasonable people have used “Everyone has their own beliefs/opinions,” as a way to rationalize the bullshit others in the family have posted/said.

FACTS FUCKING MATTER! If they don’t, then scientific, intellectual progress made since the dawn of time has been a complete waste of time and humans can’t ultimately know a damn thing.

If you have ever said, “Everyone has their own beliefs/opinions,” then you don’t ever get to lecture me about moral relativity because you’ve made truth/evidence/facts, relative to a degree that would make a compulsive liar blush.

Besides wanting to avoid confronting someone on their bullshit, (I know what this is like because I have a sibling who is a compulsive liar who no one, other than me confronted on their lies,) the main reason people use, “Everyone has their own beliefs/opinions,” is intellectual laziness.

This intellectual laziness is sometimes driven by personal priorities. If you have a demanding job, a family, kids… staying on top of the most up-to-date articles, research, and information about a topic is virtually impossible. I can forgive this kind of “intellectual laziness,” because first and foremost, I’m pragmatic. How world trade and supply chains impact inflation or how new advances in DNA science impact vaccinations SHOULD take a backseat to figuring out how to pay for your kid’s braces and repair a broken water heater.

However, if you are in a group of people who don’t have the time or resources to properly research and understand certain issues, then you need to STFU about what is/isn’t the truth on those issues. And you certainly shouldn’t be using, “Everyone has their own beliefs/opinions,” as a cover to yourself or anyone else in your position.

As bad as people who don’t have the time/energy to research topics using, “Everyone has their own beliefs/opinions,” are, it isn’t nearly as bad as those who do. Knowing the facts and using, “Everyone has their own beliefs/opinions,” as a way to deny or muddy those facts is beyond reprehensible.

If you want an example of this, you have to look no further than any Republican member of Congress who supports or enables the Big Lie that the 2020 Presidential election results were in any way questionable. No, they weren’t. In EVERY SINGLE court case brought by Republicans questioning the 2020 election results at EVERY SINGLE level of government, NOT ONE SINGLE CASE presented A SINGLE PIECE OF EVIDENCE to support their claims. Republicans weren’t 80/20 in winning their cases 50/50 or even 5/95. They were 0 FOR A FUCKING HUNDRED.

Yet, to this day, you can’t swing a dead cat without some Republican Senator, Representative, Governor, Secretary Of State, Drain Commission, Dog Catcher… adamantly claiming the 2020 election was either “stolen,” or the results were “very questionable.”

News media knows the facts and knows these claims about the 2020 election are not true. Still, they all too often give cover to those making these claims with, “Everyone has their own beliefs/opinions,” because calling out Republicans for lying would negatively impact ad revenues and that is the greatest sin any “reporter,” can make.

Republicans who know the truth about the election results use, “Everyone has their own beliefs/opinions,” as a way to deny the truth and protect themselves from their base who they’ve lied to for years.

“Everyone has their own beliefs/opinions,” has become such an integral part of Republican talking points, that they’ve weaponized it by adding “deeply-held.”

“Deeply-held beliefs,” have become the go-to move Republicans use whenever they don’t want to abide by a law or common sense. They’ve been successful in getting laws passed based on nothing more than this, “deeply-held beliefs,” bullshit.

Pharmacists don’t have to fill prescriptions for patients if they don’t agree with why the patient needs them. Doctors can deny care to patients if they feel like it. Anyone who works for the public can refuse to help someone if for whatever reason they disagree with that person’s life choices because based on, “deeply-held,’ beliefs.

Denying a woman access to birth control because you have a “deeply-held” belief against contraceptives, is the logical consequence of, “Everyone has their own beliefs/opinions.”

Refusing to provide medical care for someone who is trans or gay or is HIV positive...is the logical consequence of, “Everyone has their own beliefs/opinions.”

None of this is new. These types of “arguments” and claims about beliefs/opinions to justify and rationalize bullshit have been around forever.

“Everyone has their own beliefs/opinions,” was the driving force behind the Failure of Reconstruction. The Confederates who seceded and fought against their own country, in order to maintain the right to enslave black people weren’t “bad people.” They had their own beliefs/opinions, and we have to respect that.

No, we fucking don’t. Yes, the Confederates believed what they did was right. Yes, their beliefs were “deeply held,” that black people were inferior and had no more rights than chattel. However, no matter how strongly or deeply held their beliefs were, they were 100% wrong, 100% immoral, and 100% bullshit. No amount of rationalization or linguistic manipulation changes this.

Whenever someone says, “Everyone has their own beliefs/opinions,” ask them for clarification. Make them flesh out what they really mean, what they are trying to get at by making this statement. Ask them if they believe that truth is relative and subjective. That the truth of something is dependent on the person claiming it and not something supported by facts and evidence.

My guess is if you do this, they will come back with another level of bullshit about facts and evidence. No matter how many questions you ask for them to explain themselves, they will end up going down a rabbit hole of bullshit explanations and justifications that are as nonsensical as what they claimed in the first place.

The dirty little secret is for a whole lot of people, especially conservatives who have any kind of religious upbringing, “truth,” is something they claim is set in stone but when the rubber hits the road, they really don’t give a fuck about truth or evidence. Truth is whatever the fuck they want it to be because their entire belief systems are constructed with this as a feature. This is because their belief systems cannot stand up to even the most broad definition of “truth.”

The problem when dealing with people who claim to be the purveyors of truths who also decide what counts/doesn’t count as truth is they cannot be argued or reasoned with. NOTHING that doesn’t support their worldview will ever count as truth.

This is why propaganda is so nefarious. It intentionally destroys any notions and any standards of truth. Social media, as useful as it can be, is only as good as the people using it and the ones in charge of monitoring it. The idea that truth can be arrived at through public discourse is a douchebag libertarian’s wet dream that has NEVER FUCKING EVER worked out, even in the vaguest of senses.

The phrase, “Shit in, shit out,” is an apt description of what anyone with two working neurons should expect of allowing anyone’s opinion to count as the same as anyone else’s when it comes to public discourse and social media.

A great example of this just took place in the U.S. House Of Representatives when Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Dumbfuckistan) attacked Dr. Anthony Fauci in a hearing meeting. A person with zero scientific background or experience was telling someone who is one of the most qualified, experienced medical scientists in his field, she knows better than he does about his specialty. On face value, it is easy to look at her attack and write it off as just another dumb fucking wingnut rant. However, there is a significant portion of the country who agree with her and hold the same arrogantly stupid view that they know more about something than people who have spent decades working to understand.

Yet, whenever this is pointed out online, in conversation, in the media… inevitably, someone will circle the idiot wagons and defend the people who are 100% wrong on every level possible, by saying, “Everyone has their own beliefs/opinions.”

Yes, they do. However, that doesn’t make them right.

It reminds me of the quote from, “A Fish Called Wanda”-

OTTO. Apes don't read philosophy.

WANDA. Yes, they do, Otto. They just don't understand it.

“Everyone has their own beliefs/opinions.”

Yes, they do. That just doesn’t make them true.

[forsetti]

Tumblr Anniversary

Today marks the twelfth anniversary of my posting on this site. I started writing here as an outlet for the emotions I was going through after the death of my six-year-old son, Max, a divorce, and the loss of a business. I am sincerely grateful to anyone and everyone who has ever read anything I've posted. At the same time, I apologize for the lack of posts over the past few years. Between the constant barrage of complete bullshit during the Trump years and some personal issues, I found it difficult to find the time and energy to write. In the coming year, I am hoping this will change and I will get back to writing and posting more often. Again, thanks to everyone who follows this obscure blog.

[forsetti]

On Personal Identity: It's Complex And Personal

Once gay marriage was upheld by SCOTUS, the right needed a new, under-represented group to attack in order to placate their base’s lust to make themselves feel superior and punish those they deem inferior.

It took a few years for conservatives to really hone in on who to attack. Finally, their broken moral compass led them right to the transgender community. To the right, transgender individuals have the ick factor of gay people on steroids, and since there are a lot fewer of them, the pushback would be minimal. Many people know someone in their family, someone they love, a close friend, or who is gay. This isn’t true of the trans community. If you are a morally vacuous bully, the farther down you can punch, the better.

Think about this strategy for a moment. The right tried desperately to make gay people their scapegoats for all that was wrong with America, and they lost. They lost big. They got bitch-slapped by Will and Grace, Ellen, and thousands of other examples that gay Americans are as normal, if not more so, than their Bible-thumping neighbors. Instead of learning even the most basic lesson from their loss, the right decided the best thing to do was punch down even farther on the social and cultural ladder. This right here should tell you everything you need to know about modern-day conservatism. As Adam Sewer poignantly stated in The Atlantic about the right, “cruelty is the point.” When it comes to people who identify as transgender, the only question that really matters is, “So fucking what?” Here is where I want to acknowledge that I am not completely aware of the terminology when it comes to people who identify as transgender. I’m trying to learn. If I misidentify or make a mistake in verbiage, I apologize in advance.

What difference does it make to Aunt Freedom and Uncle Tight Ass if anyone, especially people they don’t know and will never encounter, identify as transgender? The answer is, “Not a God damn thing!” There are side arguments about how respecting which pronouns someone wants to be referred to by is an affront to God, the Founding Fathers, and Strunk & White, but they are 100% bullshit. The argument, “Boys/men competing against girls/women is unfair" is specious and nonsensical as “it goes against nature." Especially since almost all of these arguments come from people who haven’t given a damn about women’s sports and/or who have spent years speaking about them derisively. The only time they’ve given a single thought to women’s sports is when they can use them to prop up their bullshit worldview and punch down.

Personal identity isn’t black-and-white. It isn’t something that is defined by others. If it was, then it wouldn’t be called “personal identity."

I have no idea what it is like to identify as part of the LBBTQIA community. I do have an understanding of what it is like to not feel comfortable in your own skin and not be accepted, and this understanding alone makes my heart break for the way the LGBTQIA community is viewed and treated for either being comfortable with who they are or for trying to be. I grew up in a very small town in a very sparsely populated county in rural Idaho. Anyone on the outside looking in would assume I fit in perfectly. I was a white, Christian, straight male in a society that was 99.999% run and dominated by white, Christian, straight males. Hell, I came from an upper-middle-class family, and my father held a prominent position in the community and the local church. You couldn’t script a more perfect character to play the lead part in “Fits Right The Fuck In.” However, never, not once, did I ever feel like I fit in. Who I am, how I feel about myself, and who I know I was (not wanted to be but was) never fit the role I was “born to" and “written for me.” I wanted to fit in. I tried to fit in. I did everything I possibly could to fit in. All of this led to anger and frustration. When I was growing up, this anger and frustration were mostly directed at the community in which I lived because I blamed them for not fitting in. While they were a big part of the problem, I was just as culpable. I was trying to be someone I wasn’t.

It took a number of years for me to truly realize not only that I was part of the problem of trying to fit into something or somewhere to which I didn’t belong, but also that I needed to begin to discover who I was or am. While I was going to college at Utah State University, I got glimpses of this, but that was even closer to being realized because Logan, Utah, was only an hour away from my hometown and only slightly less regressive and repressive.

It wasn’t until I attended graduate school at Michigan State University that I really started to be me. I’m pretty sure this is why I feel such a strong bond to East Lansing, where I still live, going on year thirty-eight of a five-year plan. Even through all of this, I still don’t really feel comfortable in my own skin. I never really feel like I belong in just about any social situation. I’m not sure if these feelings are remnants of past experiences and conditioning; there are still parts of me that haven’t been realized, or something else. What I do know is that these sixty-plus years of feeling lost, not fitting in, and not being myself have not been kind to my psyche. I cannot even begin to imagine how someone in the LGBTQIA community must feel because they have all the things I’ve felt at much higher levels and so many more pressures, abuses, and ridicule to the nth degree. Whenever I’m in a group situation where they ask everybody to identify themselves and say a little bit about themselves when it is my turn, I give the boilerplate answer but finish with, “Something most people don’t know about me is that on the weekends, I dance under the name “Raven.”” I say this as a joke, but there is an underlying, not true, but possible truth to it. I’ve always leaned more toward the cultural definition of “feminine.” Almost all of my friends throughout my life have been women. I feel at home around women. I’ve always preferred to have longer hair. In a group of men, I have absolutely never felt I fit in. There is a rooster inside of me. It took me a while to understand this, but it is absolutely true.

Not being who you truly feel you are and are supposed to be is a horrible feeling. Why on earth would anyone deny this to someone else? Why would anyone go out of their way to punish and/or ridicule people, either trying to discover this for themselves or for fully realizing it? All the answers I’ve seen given to justify these behaviors are specious at best and batshit crazy at worst. Don’t give me some bullshit argument and try and substitute it for an argument against the transgender community - What if someone identifies as a serial killer or child molester? Are we supposed to be okay with that?” Sell crazy somewhere else.  The transgender community harms society. No one is being harmed by someone from the LGBTQIA community being true to how they feel about themselves. No one is being harmed by honoring which pronouns someone wants to be referred to by. NO ONE. Every single argument or example you can make that tries to say otherwise is 100% rectally extracted. The vast majority of pedophiles who are grooming children are Christian youth pastors, the clergy, and members of your local police force, not the LGBTQIA community.

Pronouns: We're having a hissy-fit over pronouns? How dumb is that? A lot of people I know don’t use their given names. My maternal grandfather went by his middle name his whole life. One of my brothers has gone by three different names over the years. How did this affect my life? I’m sure I probably referred to my brother by an outdated name once or twice, only to be corrected, and then I moved the fuck along. In other words, it didn’t affect my life one scintilla. If it did, then the only reason would have been that I was the problem. Pronouns: Part II: This isn’t about proper names. This is about “men” wanting to be referred to as “she/her/they.” This is social and linguistic chaos.” Is it? Is it, really? Do you need the world to be so black and white and so perfectly defined that any ambiguity or things that go against your preconceived norms are automatically labeled “bad” or "dangerous"? The world is a very, very, very complex place. I understand the desire to have it make sense on every single level, every time, all the time. However, that isn’t reality. That is, you want to force reality to fit your worldview. The world is always going to win that battle. You're not accepting its complexity doesn’t impact it at all. The only one who suffers in this situation is you. The world doesn’t give a fuck about your feelings, your beliefs, your preconceptions, what your mom and dad taught you, or what your preacher said last Sunday.

Attire: Does it matter what someone else wears? How does Bob, who now goes by Sarah, wearing makeup, a dress, and pumps impact your life? I'm pretty sure it doesn't, and if it does, you are the problem. Does this make you feel uncomfortable? So? I have a deep, visceral reaction to people eating cheesecake, cauliflower, and dozens of other foods. As repulsive as these things are to me, I’m not advocating for any laws against them. Their personal preference doesn’t really affect me in any meaningful way. Also, why is it so damn important to be able to perfectly identify someone by how they dress? Are men’s egos so fragile they can’t stand the thought of someone thinking they are a woman or being wrong when they hit on or catcall someone? (This is a rhetorical question because we all know the answer is a resounding "yes.") However, this isn’t the fault of the person wearing the clothes, no more than it is when a woman in a “skimpy” dress is raped. They aren’t the problem. They aren’t the cause of or responsible for the actions of others. Bathrooms: Since when do you see someone’s genitals in a bathroom unless you intentionally look at them? If a transgender woman walks into a women’s bathroom, there aren’t any urinals (because there are none). You aren’t seeing their plumbing unless you bust down a door and start poking around. If this happens, who is the “weirdo” here? I’m pretty sure it is you. I’m really not sure I understand the fear here. The Children—the go-to when all your other arguments have epically failed. “I don’t want some guy in a public restroom when my daughter is in there.” The question has to be asked again: “How do you know it is a “guy””? Do you feel up to everyone who goes into a women’s restroom whenever your daughter is in there? If you do, you should be arrested because you are a pervert. Transgender women aren’t using the ladies' room to hit on your daughters. They are using the ladies' room because, wait for it, they need to use the ladies' room. Why is it that there are no bathroom sexual assaults in countries where same-sex bathrooms are normal? I find it very odd that the people who worry the most about their daughters being molested in bathrooms by the LGBTQIA community have no worries in the world about them being around church leaders, the police, male family members, or neighbors—the people who are absolutely most likely to assault them. I’d happily have my daughter babysat by anyone I know in the LGBTQIA community over a youth pastor, scoutmaster, or self-professed Christian. The Children: Part II: How am I supposed to explain to my children about transgenders?” Easily. Be honest. Be straightforward. Answer whatever questions you can, and whenever you can’t, be honest about them too. Kids have an amazing ability to grasp complexity and be okay with ambiguity. What they can always sniff out are bullshit and hypocrisy.

Cultural conditioning is a big part of how/why we identify the way we do, but other things are at play. Genetics, experiences, and sometimes just an innate sense—you don’t belong to the group others have placed you in. I often ask myself, “What would my life be like if I felt more like Raven if that was the dominant side of who I am?” I honestly don’t know what the answer to this question will be. What I do know is the very existence of this question gives me a small understanding of the LGBTQIA community. It is quite possible that I will never really know who I am or feel comfortable in my own skin. If that is the outcome, so be it. No matter what happens, I never want someone else to feel this way, to any degree, and I will never know why anyone would not only not understand this but go out of their way to make the situation worse.

Being comfortable in your own skin isn't something an outsider can really understand or judge. Why is someone else's happiness anyone else's concern if it doesn't directly affect them? It doesn’t unless you stretch and bend the definition of 'directly' in ways that defy linguistics, logic, and ethics.

[forsetti]

On Sinead O’Connor: The Lioness And The Orchid

At the young age of 56, Irish singer Sinead O’Connor passed away today. I’ve loved her music since the first time I was introduced to it in 1987, when I was in grad school, by my close friend, Terry Johnson. There was something about her voice that struck something deep in my heart. I don’t know if it was the power behind it, the raw emotion, or something else. All I knew was that this twenty-one-year-old singer was unfuckingbelievable.

A few years later, when she covered Prince’s "Nothing Compares to U," her place among the top singers was etched in stone. If you listen to this song, you FEEL her longing, her pain. If you watch the video with the sound off, these same feelings come across. By the early 1990s, she had positioned herself as one of, if not the top, female musical artists. Her rise to prominence came to a screeching halt on October 3, 1992. During her live performance on Saturday Night Live, she pulled out a picture of Pope John Paul II and ripped it in half as a protest against the Catholic Church’s cover-up of sexual assaults. The aftermath of her performance was a tidal wave of condemnation, outrage, anger, banishment… In that one picture-ripping-moment, Sinead went from one of, if not the top, female artists to a cultural pariah. If you weren’t alive or culturally aware of how this all played out in 1992, all of this sounds unbelievable, knowing what we now know about the breadth and depth of the sexual abuse by Catholic priests around the world and to what extent the Vatican went to cover it up. What Sinead did in 1992 wasn’t just a protest. It was an act of sacrifice. She willingly sacrificed her fame, status, and career to protest the injustice and immorality that had been going on for decades in the Catholic Church. I have a real soft spot for and admiration for people who know exactly their position in life but are willing to sacrifice this for the truth. Malcolm X did this. Wittgenstein did this. Sinead O’Connor absolutely did this.  This sacrifice for the truth cost Malcolm X his life. It cost Sinead her mental health. The abuse heaped on her took a serious toll. She openly and bravely spoke about her mental issues, in the hopes that it would help others.  In January 2022, her seventeen-year-old son, Shane, committed suicide. I can’t speak to exactly what this did to Sinead, but I know what it is like to lose a child. I know the stress, depression, anger, loneliness, sadness... this brings. I can’t imagine what kind of toll this took on someone with an empathetic soul. All I do know is that the pressures, abuses, and losses Sinead suffered were unimaginable, and they would have destroyed most people. Sinead had a pure voice, a pure heart, and a pure moral compass.  If I were Pope Francis, I’d fast-track Sinead for sainthood, and when I made the announcement, I’d rip up a picture of John Paul II.

[forsetti]

On Overcompensation: Josh Hawley’s “Manhood”

Sen. Josh Hawley has come out with a new book about manhood. Why?  Because there is nothing more misogynist than patriarch-enabling dimwits, they like to do more than spend time rationalizing and justifying why they are "special" and why their whims and desires need to be catered to. This way, Hawley can have his political PACs buy up thousands of copies as a way of laundering money and pumping up his wingnut cred by being able to claim, "New York Times best-selling author." In an essay, "The Antidote to Dependence Is Building," an adaptation from his book, Hawley pulls out all the typical bullshit to make his case that conservatives, and only conservatives, are and defend "real men." Using their hands, creating things, and building things are how men are of value to society and how they earn their mythical "man points" until they get enough to be called a "real man" at the "Real Man Ceremony" at their local Cracker Barrel.

Let’s put aside the fact that Hawley went to a private Jesuit prep school, went to Stanford as a legacy, graduated from Yale Law School, and spent his adult life as a lawyer, Missouri Attorney General, and U.S. Senator. These are hardly the tracks to manhood Hawley argues for and claims to defend. Instead, let’s focus on how he sets up the problem and his arguments.

Hawley starts defining "manhood" with a description of his uncle, Bruce, who ran a concrete company:

"The truth is that manual work of the kind Bruce does has become less and less valued in our society, not least because the elites who set the cultural tone largely disdain those who work with their hands." The media regularly admonish schoolchildren to go to college precisely to avoid the kind of labor Bruce has been doing for 40 years. "The tech start-up wizard and the Wall Street maven are liberal culture’s beau ideals."

Manual labor has become less and less valued in our society. However, not because of left-leaning disdain but because economies around the world have shifted and a big chunk of those doing the type of work Hawley ties to manhood are minorities, Democrats have been trying to get better wages and working conditions for the people in this country doing manual labor forever. Republicans have been demonizing them. Hawley doesn’t go down this road because it exposes the bigotry and racism built into today’s GOP. Hawley wants to use the example of his white uncle and cousin as a stand-in for all manual laborers, even though they represent the minority of this group.

Next, Hawley claims the media admonishes kids to attend college to "avoid the kind of labor Bruce has been doing for 40 years." Without providing even a single example of the "media" doing this, Hawley throws all media under the bus. Why?  because it is a lazy trope. When all else fails, blame the "media," because the GOP base has been conditioned for decades to believe that the media is run by elite leftists. Hawley knows this and is readily willing to use it to support his bullshit position. 

The media hasn’t been the one pushing for kids to get a college education. Parents who want their kids to have a better life than they do are behind this push. Businesses run by GOP owners, CEOs, and managers have been demanding college degrees from their workers. The world economy has been behind this push. What Hawley is mad about is the fact that women have been earning bachelor’s degrees at a much higher rate than men since 1981.

Having more educated women and minorities defeats the "men are superior" bullshit. If women and minorities excel scholastically, financially, and culturally, then the entire "men are superior" house of cards comes tumbling down. Women and minorities earning college degrees, especially at a rate higher than men, is just another reason for Republicans to denigrate a college education. 

You don’t get to bitch and moan about how American kids are falling behind kids from Japan, India, South Korea, etc. when it comes to test scores while undermining college educations. If you want American kids to be able to compete with kids from around the world, then they need to be as well or better educated. These won't happen through thoughts and prayers.

You don’t get to bitch about having to see medical personnel and specialists with names you can’t pronounce while complaining that American kids are being "admonished" to be better educated. 

You don’t get to bitch about people from India, Indonesia, China, etc. taking over tech jobs in Silicon Valley while berating those pushing for more STEM programs and education for American kids.

Wanting kids to attend college isn’t about avoiding the "kind of labor Bruce has been doing for 40 years." It is about wanting kids to have the necessary skills in an ever-more technical world. If you want to be nostalgic, there used to be a time when stories about a manual-laboring father making sacrifices so his kids could go to college and not have to do the hard work he’d endured were seen as the epitome of the American Dream. I guess if "dad" in this story is "mom" and/or the child going to college isn’t a white male, it doesn’t count.

Hawley claims being a tech start-up wizard and Wall Street maven are "liberal culture’s best ideals." What the actual fuck? A lot of tech start-up wizards are not liberals. They are libertarians. If you don’t understand the differences between liberals and libertarians, you probably think Hawley’s claim has merit. It doesn’t.  Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Ellison, Jack Dorsey, etc. might have some liberal views when it comes to social issues, but they are ultra-conservative when it comes to things like tax cuts, regulations, government oversight, etc.

As ridiculous as claiming liberals are fans of the start-up tech bros is, stating liberals love Wall Street mavens is not just outlandish; it is an outright lie.

Vulture capitalists and hedge fund managers are reviled by the left. Democrats, from FDR to Joe Biden, have tried to regulate Wall Street mavens, sometimes successfully, often not. When the housing market collapsed in 2008–09, it was on the left, not the right, behind Occupy Wall Street. Since Reagan, Republicans have catered to, fawned over, and lionized Wall Street mavens. If there was a Wall Street ball gargling contest, the top 100 ranked garglers would all be Republicans. 

After lying about who caters to Wall Street and why college educations are encouraged, Hawley does what any Republican trying to make their argument unassailable does—tie it to the Bible.

"The antidote to dependence is building." The antidote to passivity is work. And work is, according to the Bible and the Western tradition it defines, an invitation that speaks to every man. "It is an invitation to do what every man wants to do: matter in the most lasting way possible."

This is the Yale Law School reframing of "Give a man a fish, he eats for a day." "Teach a man to fish; he eats for life." It might sound smart to the rubes, but it is overly simplistic and ignores all economic progress over the past three thousand years. 

In an agrarian society where it was necessary to work hard in order to survive, this kind of pithy view might have made sense. In the high-tech world economy, it doesn’t. Humanity has intentionally created things to make their lives easier. Whining about this and/or demanding some allegiance to the past is moronic. There are good reasons why humans live longer, have lower poverty rates, and are better educated than their ancestors. It isn’t because we still churn our own butter or work the back forty from dawn to dusk. It is because science and innovations have created a world where more and more of us don’t have to do things that shorten our lives and make them more difficult.

Hawley’s view that men get value from work is very similar to the view that slaves were lucky to have work and be of value to their owners. Work is only valuable if it gives value to the person doing it. Hawley seems to believe that work has some intrinsic property and that merely by doing it, a man gets value.

Working = value is useful for Hawley and the right because if this is true, then there is no reason to increase the minimum wage, have workers place safety measures, provide healthcare, or have some sort of pension plan. If you are a good Christian American, you should work for the sake of work because it has some magical property that gives you value.

All this bullshit about work, for Hawley, is limited to men (and by his examples, white men) because "being a man," in these very specific ways, is necessary to protect the white Christian American male world Hawley grew up in and needs to keep him in office. 

He could easily use the same work = value argument for women, but he doesn’t because it is necessary for him to have a world where men are the ones who need to have value. I’m sure if pressed, he’d say women do have value, but as wives and mothers, because that too protects the world where he and his ilk are special, they need to be reminded they are special, and their specialness must be protected at all costs.

Hawley and his ilk are hothouse orchids. They grew up in a world where they were the default members of every social pyramid. They didn’t have to really compete in an open job market because women and minorities weren’t allowed or given equal consideration. Television, movies, magazines—they told them they were special. What these mediums didn’t tell them is that they were told this because they were the largest consumer group. They were told they were special for so long and in so many different ways that they believed it. Why are white Christian men special? because white Christian men wrote the book on who gets to be considered special.

Instead of recognizing this and doing the bare minimum to change, people like Hawley make up new and uninteresting arguments as to why they are special. Their entire self-worth is tied to this notion of being special. As America becomes more diverse and cultural norms change to be more accepting of women, minorities, and the LGBTQI community, it becomes more difficult for people like Hawley to claim and defend their archaic worldview. The more examples of non-male, non-Christian, non-white people succeeding and doing as well or better than their white Christian male counterparts, the more obvious it becomes that the Josh Hawleys of the world are overcompensating because, whether they will ever admit it or not, they know they are full of shit.

[forsetti]

On Another Day In America: Part Infinity

In 1985, I moved to Michigan to attend graduate school at Michigan State University. I was on a five-year plan. Thirty-three years later, it is still my home. This is why, today, I feel like Michael Corleone in “The Godfather Part II,” “IN MY HOME!?” This was an attack on my home. And, just like mass shootings in other communities, in other people’s “homes,” the recent mass shooting at MSU wasn’t just another tragedy. It was a tragedy that was as predictable as it was avoidable. I honestly don't know what it will take for America, as a nation, to take gun violence seriously, to address any of the complex symptoms underlying mass shootings. Twenty small kids gunned down in Sandy Hook? Nothing. Nineteen in Uvalde? Didn't even move the needle. The more mass shootings, especially at schools, the more the people who willfully ignore the issues and are responsible for many of the situations leading to mass shootings dig in their jack-booted heels to ensure nothing ever gets done. A decade ago, I wrote “Another Day In America,” about the causes, hypocrisy, gas lighting, lying...about mass shootings. It is as true today as it was ten years ago. Just once, I'd like to be wrong about this but after watching half the country fight against and ignore basic public health recommendations during a pandemic, I don't see any significant progress in my lifetime. Another day in America, another mass shooting.  Another speech by the president asking for the most basic gun controls, another day conservatives scream about the coming tyranny of gun confiscations. Another plea or common sense, another day of gun and ammo sales going through the roof.  Another set of families trying to cope with the sudden loss of loved ones, another call from the NRA to make guns more readily available.  Another shooter who in a civilized world would not have been allowed to purchase guns, another day mental health services are cut.  Another day our citizens are killed by a tool whose entire purpose is to kill, another day of people rolling out the intellectually lazy argument of “guns don’t kill people, people kill people.”  Another list of names to add to the hundreds of thousands of others who’ve been killed by guns the past few decades, another day people go out of their way to pretend the deaths are isolated, unrelated and unpreventable.  Another day someone shoots people due to some perceived grievance, another day people feed the fear, anger, hatred behind the killings and act like there is no connection.  Another day where children are killed in cold blood, another opportunity for “false flag” conspiracies and deniers to minimize the loss.  Another day politicians will talk about “sending our prayers to the victims’ families,” another day they don’t do anything meaningful to address the problem.  Another stunned community dealing with overwhelming grief, another very profitable quarter for gun and ammo manufacturers.  Another set of chalk outlines on a school room floor, another day where nothing is done to prevent it from happening again.  Another day when the media pretends to care about killings, another day they feed a constant red meat diet of misogyny, racism, xenophobia, religious persecution…to their audience.  Another police officer holding a press conference to describe a shooting, another day an unarmed person is killed by another law enforcement officer.  Another day a child finds a loaded gun and kills themselves or someone else, another day physicians around the country are not allowed to ask if there is a gun in the home.  Another day of eighty people dying from gun-related causes, another day the CDC isn’t allowed to research and study gun deaths. Another day a couple has a heated argument, another day a woman is shot and killed because there was a gun in the house.  Another day a woman is shot and killed by an estranged boyfriend or husband, another day a state legislature refuses to pass a law preventing people with a history of domestic violence and restraining orders against them from purchasing and possessing a gun.  Another emotional teenager in a moment of lax judgment takes their own life, another day the gun lobby talks about the need for guns in the home.  Another day a person walks into a movie theater with multiple weapons and hundreds of rounds of ammo and opens fire, another day someone is arguing high capacity magazines are necessary for hunting.  Another day a “good guy” who legally purchased gun shoots and kills a half-dozen people, another day someone rolls out the trope, “the only thing that can stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”  Another day  of eighty Americans killed by guns, another five years goes by in other industrial countries before they reach that number.  Another day someone who does own a gun doesn’t shoot someone, another day they think because they don’t use their gun improperly guns shouldn’t be regulated.  Another day of people say, “if people want to get a gun they will because criminals don’t follow the law,” another day they’ll argue for drug laws, drunk driving laws, speed limits, etc. with no sense of irony.  Another day where someone else’s children are killed by guns, another day people will call for nothing to done because it didn’t happen to them. Another day someone calls for universal background checks, another day of opposition by people who have Red Dawn fantasies of protecting the homeland with AR-15s against a military with jets, tanks, and cruise missiles.  Another day someone suggests we close the gun show loophole for gun purchases, another day someone will say, “You know who else took away guns?  Hitler.”  Another mass shooting in America, another day every single person who defends and argues for our current approach to guns is morally culpable for the deaths.  Another mass shooting in America and no one is surprised anymore because it’s treated as just another day.  It’s just another day in America because eighty people die from guns every single day and we not only don’t do anything to reduce this number, we are allowing laws to be passed that are making this number bigger.  It’s just another day in America because Americas love guns more than they love civility.  It’s just another day in America because Americans have delusional fantasies of Cowboys and Indians, John Wayne, John McClane, Wolverines, Dirty Harry, and Bryan Mills.  It’s just another day in America because America is too arrogant to admit it does something wrong.  It’s just another day in America because it more important to hold on to a centuries-old idea than evolve ethically, socially and culturally.  Tomorrow more people will be killed with guns in America and no one will think twice about it because it will be just another day.

[forsetti]

On Good Guys With Guns: “Not All Men,” But With Guns

"The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun."

We've all heard this phrase about good guys and bad guys and guns. It is a go-to mantra for the NRA and Republicans, especially after any mass shooting. Their argument is that if there were more "good guys" with guns roaming around out and about in society, there would be fewer "bad guys," with guns and fewer casualties if/when a shooting occurs for reasons-very vague, non-specific, never fleshed out, magical reasons.

Putting aside the whole, "here is where the magic happens," when it comes to good guys with guns part of the argument, let's look at the first part of the argument about "good guys." The way Republicans define, "good guy," is anyone who owns a gun and doesn't use it in any improper way. On the surface, this sounds reasonable, but the way they use it is in a No True Scotsman way. If you are not familiar with the No True Scotsman fallacy, it is where a generalization is made and nothing is allowed to contradict the purity of it. Any evidence or counterexamples provided that disproves the generalization, is met with, "That really isn't X."

"No true Scotsman would put sugar on their porridge."

"My friend Angus is Scottish and puts sugar on his porridge."

"Angus isn't a true Scotsman."

"Conservatives care about the deficit."

"Ronald Reagan, G.H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, Donald Trump...exploded the deficit."

"They weren't true conservatives."

In this last example, it is used to show that conservatism can NEVER fail, it can only be failed. Conservatism is the generalization that is pure and nothing can count against it.

No amount of evidence contradicts the generalization. This allows those making the generalization to avoid any real criticism. It also protects those in the group being generalized from any evidence or counterargument to their positions. For example, a gun owner who leaves a loaded weapon around that is found by a child who uses it to harm or kill someone or themselves is often given a pass because they are just a "good guy" who made a mistake. No, they are a bad guy who were negligent and are directly responsible for the damage their negligence caused. On the other hand, people who use weapons they obtained legally, who use these weapons to shoot up a church full of people, or a mall, or a school, are instantly labeled as "bad guys" because their actions bring bad attention to the NRA and Republicans. Guns are never the problem. People are the problem. Mental health is the problem. Too many doors are the problem. Critical Race Theory, wokeness, the decline in traditional families... are the problems with mass shootings. Guns don't kill people. People kill people. Yes, they do, and they do it efficiently, quickly, and in large numbers with FUCKING GUNS!

However, the real problem with the whole, "good guy with a gun," argument is how do we know who is a good guy and who is a bad guy in any meaningful way, in order to prevent or minimize the damage and carnage done by bad guys? The way it is defined, every single gun owner is a "good guy," right up to the moment they aren't. This is true, definitionally, but is meaningless in any useful way. If we can't identify the bad guys before they become bad guys, then they have free reign to cause harm. If we don't take steps to prevent bad guys from causing carnage, we are failing as a society. Of course, we can't prevent all the bad things done by bad guys. We can, however, easily prevent a lot of bad things, especially when it comes to gun violence.

Not being able to identify who is a "good guy" and who is a "bad guy," is exacerbated by open-carry laws and eliminating gun-free zones. If open-carry was illegal, someone walking down the street with a long gun or with a holstered pistol would automatically, and rightfully, be viewed as a threat. The very fact that they are doing this moves them into the "bad guy" status and society can take preventative measures. They might still be able to cause harm and death, but having the opportunity to address this as a potential problem instead of after-the-fact, is the smart and ethical thing to do.

With open-carry and other policies that make gun ownership and when/where they can be carried, it is impossible to identify who is a bad guy until after they've started shooting, until it is too late. This is why it is so infuriating when people like Gov. Abbott from Texas say, "It could have been worse," when talking about the killing of twenty children and two teachers. The ONLY reason it could have been worse is because the problem wasn't identified and addressed before it happened. It is like never going to a doctor, never being allowed an examination, never having any tests run, finding out you have a horrible strain of cancer, and someone saying, "It could have been worse." Yes, it could have been worse, but it could have easily been a lot better.

"We can't identify who is a bad person until they do something bad." Sure, we can. We do it all the time. The entire TSA is designed specifically to identify potentially bad people. Bars/restaurants are liable for identifying people who have had too much alcohol before they get in a car and potentially hurt/kill themselves and/or others.

The inability to potentially identify threats that could prevent or limit harm and death and the excuses and "reasoning" of "a good guy with a gun," is similar to "Not All Men." This comparison is even stronger and more meaningful when you take into consideration that almost all mass shootings in America are done by men.

Before I get into this comparison, I want to fully acknowledge that sexual assaults and rapes happen to people other than women. However, for the sake of brevity and the reality that women are the victims of these crimes at a higher rate and number than other groups, I'm using them exclusively for this analogy.

As Me Too took off on social media and gained national attention, a counter-position quickly arose, "Not All Men." Not All Men, regardless of the intention of the person using it, diminished and minimized the real, life-changing experiences many women have gone through. Whenever a woman would come out and describe the very painful, very personal experience of their sexual assault or rape, without fail, a horde of guys would come out of the woodwork to interject, "Not all men."

The MeToo Movement wasn't about "all men." It was never claimed that all men sexually assaulted or raped women. It was entirely about exposing the reality that many men are these things, and that these attacks happen to women at a much higher frequency than most of us know or want to admit. Saying, "Not all men," minimizes this reality, often intentionally so. "Not all men," was a Strawman Argument responding to a claim that was never made by anyone.

The real issue with, "Not all men," is similar to the issue of open-carry-there is no meaningful way to identify who is a threat, who is a bad guy, and who is a good guy. For women, every single man is a potential bad guy because there is absolutely nothing to distinguish between good guys and bad guys. Every guy is a good guy right up to the moment they are not. This means that every single guy is a potential threat.

Saying, "Not all men," doesn't reduce the potential and real threats women must deal with and navigate every single day. "Not all men," is nothing more than a defensive reaction to a situation that needs understanding and support, not fragile egos. It can also be very harmful because it gives a false sense of security in a situation where being on high alert all the time is necessary. I can be the nicest, safest, non-threatening man on the planet, but to a woman who doesn't know me personally, I am, and should be, viewed as a potential threat. My saying, "Not all men," is not evidence. It is a true but meaningless statement. Much in the same way, "not all gun owners," is true but meaningless.

These threats can only be addressed by men changing their behaviors and by the legal and political systems taking these threats and the harm done by them, seriously. When it comes to sexual assaults and rapes, as a man, I can be aware of my own actions, how they can be viewed by women, and change them, in order to reduce the stress women must endure each and every day. As a society, we can take women's experiences seriously. We can make investigating and prosecuting sexual assaults and rapes a top priority. We can identify potential threats and take measures to reduce the damage they might do.

We can do the very same thing when it comes to gun violence. As individuals, we start by not carrying guns in public, whether it is legal or not. We can make it easier for potential victims and law enforcement to take steps to address a potentially dangerous and harmful situation before it happens. We can pass laws that make it easier to identify who is a bad guy. We can and should call out anyone who uses the "good guy with a gun," bullshit argument.

What the NRA and Republicans know but will never admit is that they want people to not know who is a good guy and who is a bad guy because, like sexual assaults and rapes, it is about intimidation and power. There is no reason for anyone not part of a security team hired to protect state legislatures to be carrying a weapon on statehouse grounds or in legislative buildings. This is done and allowed for one reason only-intimidation. It is a show of power to intimidate anyone who does not agree with and support the beliefs of those with the guns. Sexual assault and rape is used for the very same reasons.

The idea that guns are a phallic symbol used as an outward expression of anger and aggression is pretty spot-on when you consider how men talk about their guns and their dicks. While we can't take away one, though it wouldn't be the worst idea, we can and should take away the other because the damage they do isn't just horrible and immoral, it is completely avoidable. Major, democratic countries around the world have successfully been able to have reasonable gun control. They listen to the same music as Americans. They play the same video games. They have poverty, mental health problems, divorces, everything America has. What they don't have, what they chose to control to protect their citizens, are guns. America has the most guns not because it is the "freest" country in the world but because it is the most arrogant, most stupid, and, if you understand the history of guns in America, one of the most racist.

America loves guns because guns are what allowed white people to take land from Native Americans. America loved guns because they allowed white people to control slaves. America loved guns because they helped enforce Jim Crow. America loves guns because too many white Americans believe they are the rightful owners, protectors, and leaders of America, and the only way they can ensure this is true is through threat and intimidation. You can't separate America's love of guns from its racism. You can't separate America's love of guns from white supremacy. You can't separate America's love of guns from misogyny.

The only thing that can stop a bad guy with a gun is a society that puts the lives of their children, the lives of their neighbors, the lives of their parish/church, or synagogue... over an object whose design and function is to kill. Having watched half of America refuse to take a world-wide pandemic seriously and not give a flying fuck about how this led to the deaths of over one million of their fellow citizens, I don't have much hope they will do a damn thing about what is now, the number one cause of deaths among young people. The desire to protect the mythology they've bought into and perpetrated about their supremacy, is more important than the lives of even the children in this country.

Mass shootings in America are as American as apple pie and baseball. We built this. We own it. We could easily change it if we wanted, but too many of us don't want to because we benefit from the fear and intimidation guns bring to the table. Too many of us are afraid that those we've mistreated for so many years will treat us the same if they get power. Too many of us are willing to sacrifice others to protect a mythology that, if you dig just below the surface, is complete bullshit. Too many of us, especially when it comes to guns and how we treat women, are not good guys. Not all men but too many many of us. If you support the NRA, the Republican’s stand on guns, are okay with open-carry, owning assault-style weapons, large capacity magazines, owning body armor... no matter what anyone tells you, especially yourself, you are not a good guy. 

[forsetti]

On Republican Political Strategy: Using Kids As Human Shields

We've all seen movies where a bad guy finds himself in a situation where he really doesn't have a way to escape so he grabs some innocent bystander and uses them as a human shield, putting them directly in the line of fire, in order to save their own miserable hide. Bad guys grab another guy. Really bad guys grab a woman. Really, really bad guys grab an elderly woman. However, the worst of the worst are those that grab a small child. Whenever this happens in a movie, the visceral, correct response is, “Fuck that guy!”

Putting someone who is the most vulnerable between you and the consequences you brought upon yourself is pure cowardice. Using a child as a human shield is as cowardly as one can get. This is EXACTLY what Republicans are currently doing when it comes to their strategy to attack Democrats regarding abortion, Critical Race Theory, crime prevention, transgender issues, etc. All the arguments Republicans are using rest almost entirely on, “Think of the children.” Abortion-”Dems want unlimited abortion, on-demand, to kill as many babies as possible. Think of the kids.” (This belongs in a special, “Think of the children,” place because it isn't really about thinking of the children but thinking about the possibility of a child. It is a meta-bullshit argument.)

Critical Race Theory-”Dems want to teach your precious little white children they are racists. You don't want that, do you? Think of the children.” Crime Prevention-”Dems are defunding the police and crime is out of control. It isn't safe for your precious young ones to ride their bikes, walk to school, play in the part. Think of the children.”

Transgender Issues-”Dems want men to share the bathroom with your precious daughters. They want men to humiliate them in sporting events. They want men to be able to prey on them. Think of the children.”

“Think of the children,” is the go-to move right now when it comes to just about every Republican political attack. There are two main reasons why this is the case: 1-It works; And, 2-They are moral cowards.

“Think of the children,” works because it is a natural inclination to want to protect children, whether they are our own or others. Children are vulnerable and dependent on adults to keep them safe. Risking your well-being and possibly your life to protect and save a child from harm is socially viewed as an act of heroism. Rightfully so. This line of attack also works because just about every single parent wants to believe they are a good parent, whether this is true or not. Buying into a “Think of the children,” attack allows someone to do the very minimum possible and feel they are being a good parent/person.

“Think of the children,” is the “thoughts and prayers,” of political involvement. It takes no real effort, no real commitment, no real anything other than voting for the people who use it as a political cudgel. Like offering up thoughts and prayers when there is a tragedy, buying into the “Think of the children,” arguments and voting for the candidates pushing them is literally doing nothing other than trying to make you feel better about yourself. It's as useless as it is intellectually lazy.

Even though, “Think of the children,” works, that is only part of the reason Republicans are using it with such intensity and frequency right now. The other part is they are moral cowards. They know they can't go to the American public and say what they really believe, what they really want to do because they'd be politically exiled for the next fifty years. They know they can't go out on the campaign trail or on Tucker Carlson's show and say, “We want to undo the Civil Rights Act. We want to put women back in the home where we believe they belong. We want minorities to be second-class citizens. We want Christianity to be the national religion. We want fewer people voting and those who do must meet our criteria. We want the LGBTQI community to be viewed and treated as degenerates and cast from society. We want fewer nonwhites in the country and we really don't care how we achieve this goal because we believe whites are naturally superior to other races and it is our God-given right to have this view. We want private businesses to be in charge of everything because making a buck is more important than things like rights, public good, democracy. In fact, we really don't believe in democracy at all.”

This is what they really want. This is what they hint at all the time. This is what the laws they propose at state and federal levels imply. This is what they've been talking about in articles, conferences, blog posts, online for decades. To anyone who has paid the slightest bit of attention the past fifty years, none of this should be surprising. It should be self-evident. That they don't come out and be honest about what they really want but instead hint around the edges is cowardice. That they hide their true intentions behind, “Think of the children,” is cowardice combines with immorality with a poison cherry on top.

No one with any sense of politics or history of modern-day conservatism can possibly believe Republicans give a single fuck about kids, in general. Sure, Ted Cruz cares about his kids. That's why he sent them to Cancun when Texas was hit with a cold spell that resulted in some Texans freezing to death. His kids needed protection. His kids needed to be safe. However, Ted didn't give a flying fuck about the children of Texans who weren't part of his social network. He didn't give a fuck about them so much, he fled the country to “protect” his own kids at the posh resort where they were staying instead of lifting a single finger to help those people and children in Texas who really need it. He offered “thoughts and prayers.” Meanwhile, Beto O'Rourke and other Democratic politicians, many who don't even come from or represent Texas, were organizing shelters, food, medical care...for those affected by the cold.

Republicans don't give a fuck about children, in general. They have time and time again cut or denied funding for programs that actually help children. They have time and time again pushed to roll back or outright get rid of healthcare for children, especially those who need it the most. They have time and time again refused to do anything about paid maternity leave or pre-K schooling or daycare...things that really matter to and benefit children. They've refused to do anything about environmental issues that negatively impact children like lead pipes, contaminated drinking water, lax food inspection, etc. They've refused to do anything to address the real problem of child sexual abuse and/or the cover up by churches. They have done everything possible to damage public education, especially in areas that need it the most.

Don't talk about how important it is to, “Think about the children,” if you aren't willing to do things that actually help them. Don't grab a child and use them as a human shield when everybody knows full well, you don't give a damn about that child. Don't use, “Think of the children,” when doing so is intended to protect yourself from people really knowing what you are up to. If you really care about children, then support people and policies that are designed to promote their health, education, well-being, safety. If you think a law school graduate-level topic like Critical Race Theory is more important for the safety and well-being of children than clean water or well-funded schools, you are delusional and a huge part of the problem. If you think transgender women are preying on your daughters/grand daughters and this is a bigger concern than kids having access to good, quality healthcare, you have serious problems and no real capacity to understand issues and risk assessment. “Republicans DO care about kids!” No. Republicans care about select groups of kids and by coincidence, their kids always end up belonging to these groups. They do not care about children in general. There is no history of this in any meaningful sense from the GOP for the past half century.

I live in Michigan. I watched the Republican governor and Republican-led legislature watch the children of Flint suffer for a long, long time with high levels of lead in their water. Lead in the bloodstream of a child causes long-term, permanent physical and cognitive damage. What Republicans did was offer up thoughts and prayers and didn't really lift a finger to help the children of Flint. Meanwhile, if a white kid from Bloomfield or East Grand Rapids claimed they were psychologically harmed by a teacher who showed them “12 Years A Slave,” the entire Michigan GOP would have written, passed, and signed a bill in twenty-four hours not only condemning what happened but making it punishable under law. They would have passed this bill under the guise of “Think of the children,” but the fact is they passed it to prevent their precious white kids from learning anything that might pop the bullshit bubble that is their belief in white superiority. This is what the entire Critical Race Theory is all about-making sure white kids don't learn the history of white people's beliefs and behaviors towards nonwhites in America. It isn't about protecting little Barron and Tiara from being called “racist.” It is about them learning their parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents sometimes believed, did, and said racist things. The attack on CRT is holding kids hostage to protect white people from talking about and owning up to their histories.

Whenever a Republican pulls out the, “Think of the children,” line, you should have the same reaction as when a bad guy in a movie snatches up some child and uses them as a human shield to protect themselves-”Fuck that guy!”