Qu'on me donne six lignes écrites de la main du plus honnête homme, j'y trouverai de quoi le faire pendre.
At the moment we are in a space where being straight and white is enough for be to be called a list of 'isms'. And for no other reason. We have gender politics that takes anyone that doesn't take their insane logic as holy writ deemed to be out of that rhyme 'What are little boys made of ?'.
I think Freedom of Speech is something way too important to cede to the rightwing. I think Trump is a downright nasty bit of work, but I don't for one instant think the arguments from the Left about those that voted for him are in fact racist. Indeed the sheer lack of sane analysis from the Dems on why Clinton lost coupled with the pointless screechy righteousness is why Trump has gotten away with so darn much. HOW can it be that we have a situation where it's the Reps saying ohh hold on there, that's too far.
I have that French phrase attributed to Cardinal Richelieu under my username on twitter. I doubt many bother to translate it, but perhaps a few do. I put it on to highlight my profound concern about what's going on in the West.
It could be written by any first minister of that era for he was a generation before Oliver Cromwell and more or less a fellow traveller with Elizabeth I, James VI&I and Charles I. And could be written by any first minister until the middle of the 19th century in western Europe. In Russia far later.
We are now back in that space where thoughts, opinions and speech is deemed anathema and we have laws in place to protect against offence. The weird Google Space of no nipples has become Law.
At the moment we are in a space where being straight and white is enough for be to be called a list of 'isms'. And for no other reason. We have gender politics that takes anyone that doesn't take their insane logic as holy writ deemed to be out of that rhyme 'What are little boys made of ?'.
I think Freedom of Speech is something way too important to cede to the rightwing. I think Trump is a downright nasty bit of work, but I don't for one instant think the arguments from the Left about those that voted for him are in fact racist. Indeed the sheer lack of sane analysis from the Dems on why Clinton lost coupled with the pointless screechy righteousness is why Trump has gotten away with so darn much. HOW can it be that we have a situation where it's the Reps saying ohh hold on there, that's too far.
I have that French phrase attributed to Cardinal Richelieu under my username on twitter. I doubt many bother to translate it, but perhaps a few do. I put it on to highlight my profound concern about what's going on in the West.
It could be written by any first minister of that era for he was a generation before Oliver Cromwell and more or less a fellow traveller with Elizabeth I, James VI&I and Charles I. And could be written by any first minister until the middle of the 19th century in western Europe. In Russia far later.
We are now back in that space where thoughts, opinions and speech is deemed anathema and we have laws in place to protect against offence. The weird Google Space of no nipples has become Law.
So much to say about what is going on and yet you can't say anything at all without being called a snowflake or a deplorable.
ReplyDeleteThe thing that makes me shake my head is that one "side" says awful things and that is ok, but then as soon as the other "side" says awful things back, the first side takes offense. It's a never-ending cycle. There's no actual discourse happening and things, important things, aren't being discussed because of all the stupid, nasty rhetoric and name calling. Everything is a talking point, or a tweet with a character limit.
As for the "straight white man" concern, if we are being honest the old, rich white guys have been the reason why people are in the places they are in whether good or bad. They make and have made the rules on who has what rights. The fact that others are pushing back on that status quo, doesn't mean they're anti-white man. But when those in power are AGAINST others having the same rights as they have, well then I understand that feeling. The "old rich white guy" in power who actively fights against others trying to gain rights because to them its not a problem, well then I take issue. Generalizing that to "all white men" is not pro active, nor do I think that is what is happening outside of what you hear on the "news".
My biggest concern over the state of things is that so many are getting their information from the quick sound bites, social media (tweets, posts, memes, what have you) and its creating low information citizens. THAT is going to be our downfall. Wasn't it Khrushchev who said we were going to destroy ourselves from within...I feel like that's exactly what is happening.
What I'm saying about the 'straight white man thing' is it's used in debate on virtually anything as a means of shutting down a debate. It's the equivalent to women who have babies making out no one can know anything about babies since they didn't carry them and give birth to them so everyone else has no input. You can't say that the women's pay differential has many causes not only the bad one. You can't say the only thing that should be included to stats is the data, not the 'missing, if only's'. For instance, attacks on females reported to police is say 1000 per 100,000. But then you always hear in news reports that only about 5% of such crime is reported. So you half the 100k to 50k, the 1000 stays the same so you get to the number of 20,000 attacks that year. You try questioning the methodology of any of that as a man and you will be attacked from all quarters.
DeleteAnd it's from stupid shit like that we have the 'fake news'. Why, because it's so darn simple to pull the thing apart.
I do agree with you and it goes back to degrees of things. Not one of the issues is black and white, and when you make it so it loses people. There’s no longer a debate. But that’s all we’re seeing now in EVERYTHING - the extremes.
DeleteIn Trumps case, only one line is probably needed.
ReplyDeleteI will first start out by saying I didn't vote for Trump and don't like the guy. HOWEVER, I live among a poor rural population in the middle of our coasts, the majority of whom speaks and thinks almost exactly like Trump. So while you and others may label his as a "nasty bit of work", I see him as someone who was elected by a class of people who for so long have been overlooked by both parties. I have friends who think Trump is the greatest president in decades. While I would prefer a more sophisticated president who is more articulate, the people I am among are just as crude and inarticulate as he is. I voted for someone else but was out voted, fair and square.
I think electing someone like Trump is great for our country. If it doesn't serve as a wakeup call to both our major political parties, it should. I think going forth, more emphasis will need to be placed on the wants/needs of those out here in rural America who could care less about many of the hot button political issues that have dominated our government over the several decades.
Regardless of my or others views on Trump, I think the real blame lays with the people who create/fail to create laws, our Congress. They are the ones that have stopped even considering compromise which has created this political extremism. The ones who seem willing to buck the trend are the incoming freshmen or the outgoing ones. Therefore, I think we really need to consider term limits for our Congress so that we have a plentiful crop of incoming and outgoing legislatures and I think that will solve a lot of our problems.
My $0.02 worth anyway.
Not to blow a horn, but I think I called Trump well out too. :-D
DeleteFrankly I saw and still see the utterly idiotic disconnect that the two parties in the US still deploy where a very important segment of the population is concerned. And then you have the take a knee issue about the police killings of blacks, where rather than attempt to see the men that are at the top of their communities might have a point there was an outright attack. This seems to me little more than that existed in the 60s about Vietnam.
Like Ed, I pray that Trump will be a wake-up call to both parties! However, I am not so sure term limits would be helpful unless they are fairly liberal. Michigan had term limits and it created a field day for lobbyist who were able to run junior legislators around as if they all had nose rings.
ReplyDeleteYes, I hope so too. But I rather fear he won't. And it won't be Trump now or then that will be the problem but when his base discovers his fiddling isn't addressing a darn thing. And that most of his moves are intended to put money into a cohort of those like himself. It will be about 2023 things could get real hairy indeed if pretty basic problems aren't moved on.
DeletePut it this way. A job is only a real job if you can actively live on the proceeds. Minimum wage is slavery on the cheap.
On the representatives. A party machine places a person but it becomes almost private property. So on the whole I agree with limiting. But I also thing the terms are way too short in the US. It means they are on permanent election posture, and this allows the party machine and the money people more control than is good.
So much I could say but will only say this. There are policies from the Trump administration that are helpful to me and the business I’m in. But I don’t know that it’s worth the cost of a nation that might be in danger of losing its collective soul under his leadership.
ReplyDelete