It's just weird when famous people die. Prince died today. I mean,
fucking PRINCE. Like, "saw Purple Rain with my mom when I was like 13.
Still remember the theater, and the discomfort of the sexy-time scenes,
because, well, I was with my mom, so..." Prince! THAT guy!!
When I recall Prince,
the person, there are so many odd little memories that come along with
him. Summer camp, with the warm sun and smell of pine needles and the
chemicals used to develop film. Little Red Corvette, that I listened to
at Julie Briden's house. Purple Rain, that I saw with my mom, or that
brought back somewhat unpleasant memories of my own childhood. Heather,
the girl I used to work with who absolutely LOVED Prince, and was my
absolute BFF, but to whom I'm no longer in contact with now. Raspberry
Beret, playing on a radio or something at Dave Anderson's house one of
the many times his parents were away, and we had the run of the house,
Dave, my boyfriend, me and Dave's girlfriend at the time.
I was at
LaGuardia, headed for my puddle-jumper to Providence, years ago.
Straight off the tarmac and through a set of metal doors came this man,
with his cane and high heels and gargantuan body guards. He was really,
really short - like, shorter than me and I'm pretty short. But my god,
the presence, the aura around him; it was palpable. I realized soon
enough that this was Prince - the man, the myth, the absolute legend, in
all of his bad-assed glory. I doubt many people around me knew it was
him - the terminal was rather empty, and he wasn't doing anything to
draw attention to himself.
But I knew. And, as usual, because I just
don't like Star-Fuckers(tm), I just watched and enjoyed that moment,
versus running up to him, gushing, and risking a tangle with that
MASSIVE man with him. I will freely admit though that despite most
certainly NOT being a fighter (physically, at least), I had this
fleeting moment of, "Oh my god - that's PRINCE! I could SO take him in a
fight!!". If you knew me, you'd know that's both a ridiculous thing
for me to say (I don't fight with ANYTHING but words) and a completely
"me" thing to say. I think strange thoughts, what can you do?
When
I put together all of the legends who have died this year, I have to
believe that somehow, somewhere, Prince has joined David Bowie, Lemmy,
and all those other folks whose names I can't readily recall (and, in
the interest of being genuine, I won't cheat by Googling) and they're
all having quite a jam session.
It's hard to believe Prince is
gone. What an insanely talented, iconic, sexy motherfucker he was. Rest
In Peace, Prince Rogers Nelson. You magnificent bastard.
Thursday, April 21, 2016
Big, Fat Liars: The Media
People across the board have their collective panties in a wad over
this race for POTUS. I'm not sure that I've ever seen this level of
vitriol, disgust, straight up hate being flung around between the
various factions. Perhaps I never paid as much attention to this
process as I am now.
This election, the actions of the media and the social and political implications of all of it have consumed my mind since Summer 2015. At first it was a bit of a lark. Donald Trump was running for POTUS? WTF? I'm almost positive that, despite being a fan of his (not a crazy super-fan, but, as someone who lived in NYC and has known the Trump persona for decades), I may well have laughed at first. I know that I could never have seen coming what has transpired since last summer.
This isn't an article about Trump though. There are plenty of those, both pro and con. This is a rumination on lots of stuff (because my train of thought is strong and beautiful and don't need no rails), including what Trump now represents, to me, in the broad scheme of things. He's a key - one of those big, old-timey iron keys with the ring on one end, and the metal flanges or whatever on the other end, the kind that you find in your yard when you buy a "This Old House" because you're fucking bored and you need something to do with yourself - which, in itself, is definitely a story for another time.
Trump's candidacy has evolved into a key that unlocks the door standing between perceptions of our electoral process and the reality of it. I've watched this election cycle more closely than any other election in my lifetime thus far and because I've been so singularly fixated on it, I've experienced the discomfort and frustration of having many illusions and preconceived notions utterly shattered, which is a drag, but I've also watched some of the bullshit mud-huts that have been constructed over the last 15 years or so (pretty much the insanely oppressive, current version of "political correctness") start to crack, start to crumble; and that elicits a strangely hopeful feeling. More on the mud huts some other time. You probably already know what they are - the "triggery" words that have become the molotov cocktails of the far left, when faced with facts or beliefs that don't match their own.
For me, the shattered illusions have been of the sort where, despite a belief that the "game is rigged", going into this, I suppose I still believed that somehow, some way, that the electoral process, the media, etc. couldn't be as bad some would have us believe it to be, right? I mean, those of us who can't contain our intellectual wanderlust in the "normie" box frequently contemplate what the reality behind the veil might actually look like. We're pretty sure that shenanigans of some sort transpire behind the scenes (and honestly, how could they not - with big money, Super PACs, strategists, dirty deals done dirt cheap, etc. in the mix), but surely our elections - the sacred underpinnings of our nation, are not actually as bad as those wacky conspiracy theorists make it out to be, right?
Wrong. So, so wrong. I'm not going to lie, I feel as if I've been unwittingly strapped to a roller coaster throughout this election cycle; sometimes it's a wild, thrilling, adrenaline-eliciting ride, other times it is a frustrating, depressing, soulless, vitriolic shit pile dumpster-fire.
This is already too long, and for that I apologize. I find brevity to be something frequently beyond my grasp. That being said, having my 1970s-vintage perception of the media completely and totally shattered recently has been a very difficult pill to swallow. I didn't even start out with a blind faith in the media - I've always known that there are agendas, that it's all about ratings and money, and that if it's not cold, hard FACTUAL information, it is opinion and nothing more than that. But now the last vestiges of nostalgia that lingered, for me, for a journalistic era long since departed, have been demolished and I can't unsee what I've seen. I wish I could. I wish I didn't know that a handful of uber-rich folks control the entirety of the US media; that those same uber-rich folks also buy elections and candidates and fuck the rest of us. Don't get me wrong, I'm not mad at rich folks at all! Money's awesome! Not being poor is fucking GREAT! My issue lies with the corporate overlords who use their wealth, their influence, their power for EVIL instead of good.
The question that absolutely burns in my thoughts is, "Once you've destroyed everything and inculcated everyone to think the way you demand they think, do what you want them to do, what are you going to do with a planet full of broken, angry, frustrated, lost, controlled psuedo-humans?".
What is the end game here? What is the goal? You've bought the politicians, the lobbyists, the policy makers; you've vilified the poor, the disabled, various races, religions - ALL of it - you've found insidious ways to turn us all against one another for any number of reasons. But what now? What's next?
Careful what you wish for, puppeteers. You probably don't give any kind of a fuck when it comes down to it, but as you gain more control, more say, more influence over the lives of all of us minions, you also become responsible for us. Unless maybe you just wanted us all to hate each other - and in that case, yay you. I guess I'm just not quite diabolical enough to fathom why the fuck you want this kind of discord, division, hatred, vitriol across the globe. What is your prize when you "win" this game?
This election, the actions of the media and the social and political implications of all of it have consumed my mind since Summer 2015. At first it was a bit of a lark. Donald Trump was running for POTUS? WTF? I'm almost positive that, despite being a fan of his (not a crazy super-fan, but, as someone who lived in NYC and has known the Trump persona for decades), I may well have laughed at first. I know that I could never have seen coming what has transpired since last summer.
This isn't an article about Trump though. There are plenty of those, both pro and con. This is a rumination on lots of stuff (because my train of thought is strong and beautiful and don't need no rails), including what Trump now represents, to me, in the broad scheme of things. He's a key - one of those big, old-timey iron keys with the ring on one end, and the metal flanges or whatever on the other end, the kind that you find in your yard when you buy a "This Old House" because you're fucking bored and you need something to do with yourself - which, in itself, is definitely a story for another time.
Trump's candidacy has evolved into a key that unlocks the door standing between perceptions of our electoral process and the reality of it. I've watched this election cycle more closely than any other election in my lifetime thus far and because I've been so singularly fixated on it, I've experienced the discomfort and frustration of having many illusions and preconceived notions utterly shattered, which is a drag, but I've also watched some of the bullshit mud-huts that have been constructed over the last 15 years or so (pretty much the insanely oppressive, current version of "political correctness") start to crack, start to crumble; and that elicits a strangely hopeful feeling. More on the mud huts some other time. You probably already know what they are - the "triggery" words that have become the molotov cocktails of the far left, when faced with facts or beliefs that don't match their own.
For me, the shattered illusions have been of the sort where, despite a belief that the "game is rigged", going into this, I suppose I still believed that somehow, some way, that the electoral process, the media, etc. couldn't be as bad some would have us believe it to be, right? I mean, those of us who can't contain our intellectual wanderlust in the "normie" box frequently contemplate what the reality behind the veil might actually look like. We're pretty sure that shenanigans of some sort transpire behind the scenes (and honestly, how could they not - with big money, Super PACs, strategists, dirty deals done dirt cheap, etc. in the mix), but surely our elections - the sacred underpinnings of our nation, are not actually as bad as those wacky conspiracy theorists make it out to be, right?
Wrong. So, so wrong. I'm not going to lie, I feel as if I've been unwittingly strapped to a roller coaster throughout this election cycle; sometimes it's a wild, thrilling, adrenaline-eliciting ride, other times it is a frustrating, depressing, soulless, vitriolic shit pile dumpster-fire.
This is already too long, and for that I apologize. I find brevity to be something frequently beyond my grasp. That being said, having my 1970s-vintage perception of the media completely and totally shattered recently has been a very difficult pill to swallow. I didn't even start out with a blind faith in the media - I've always known that there are agendas, that it's all about ratings and money, and that if it's not cold, hard FACTUAL information, it is opinion and nothing more than that. But now the last vestiges of nostalgia that lingered, for me, for a journalistic era long since departed, have been demolished and I can't unsee what I've seen. I wish I could. I wish I didn't know that a handful of uber-rich folks control the entirety of the US media; that those same uber-rich folks also buy elections and candidates and fuck the rest of us. Don't get me wrong, I'm not mad at rich folks at all! Money's awesome! Not being poor is fucking GREAT! My issue lies with the corporate overlords who use their wealth, their influence, their power for EVIL instead of good.
The question that absolutely burns in my thoughts is, "Once you've destroyed everything and inculcated everyone to think the way you demand they think, do what you want them to do, what are you going to do with a planet full of broken, angry, frustrated, lost, controlled psuedo-humans?".
What is the end game here? What is the goal? You've bought the politicians, the lobbyists, the policy makers; you've vilified the poor, the disabled, various races, religions - ALL of it - you've found insidious ways to turn us all against one another for any number of reasons. But what now? What's next?
Careful what you wish for, puppeteers. You probably don't give any kind of a fuck when it comes down to it, but as you gain more control, more say, more influence over the lives of all of us minions, you also become responsible for us. Unless maybe you just wanted us all to hate each other - and in that case, yay you. I guess I'm just not quite diabolical enough to fathom why the fuck you want this kind of discord, division, hatred, vitriol across the globe. What is your prize when you "win" this game?
Hillary and her server.
There's the emotional side (that probably 98% of the people rely upon
as a foundation for their opinions and actions) - perhaps you didn't
like Hillary to begin with, maybe because of the stains (ha ha) from the
"Clinton Era", maybe because of more recent events.
Your dislike of HRC does not equate to HRC being guilty of a felony or deserving of a lengthy prison sentence, no matter how strongly you might FEEL that they do. What really matters here is the stark, dry, concrete letter of the law. Did Hillary perpetrate actions that constitute violations of the national security protocols in place at the time by any of the following:
THAT BEING SAID: My rudimentary knowledge of SCI (you young folks call it SAP now, whatever) leads me to believe that her actions ARE quite problematic. I don't have a horse in the race, but people have been skewered for FAR less egregious violations of security protocols. Just sayin'...
Your dislike of HRC does not equate to HRC being guilty of a felony or deserving of a lengthy prison sentence, no matter how strongly you might FEEL that they do. What really matters here is the stark, dry, concrete letter of the law. Did Hillary perpetrate actions that constitute violations of the national security protocols in place at the time by any of the following:
- Setting up a personal, external server
- Instructing a subordinate to remove, tamper with, subvert, circumvent or otherwise alter any classification-related markings, ratings, protocols?
- Display a clear intent to circumvent FOIA regulations (w/r/t deletion, overwriting, otherwise obscuring any of the emails that crossed her server)
- Unsecured IT, vulnerability to hackers / intrusion,
- Obscuring or hiding any kind of communication, negotiations, dealings with inappropriate or anti-American agents, whether domestic or foreign
THAT BEING SAID: My rudimentary knowledge of SCI (you young folks call it SAP now, whatever) leads me to believe that her actions ARE quite problematic. I don't have a horse in the race, but people have been skewered for FAR less egregious violations of security protocols. Just sayin'...
The JOOOOZE!!!!
The internet has an absolutely fanatical obsession with The Jews!(™).
Across every social media platform from the -chans to Facebook to
Twitter to anything with a functioning comment section including news,
politics, foreign relations, television, movie studios - everything -
someone is mashing the “The Jews(™)” button. Some use it as an
accusation, most use it as a dog-whistle, others use it as a pejorative,
but there is absolutely no shortage of “The Jews!"(™) being bandied
about in cyberspace.
I have never understood the negative sentiment that exists out there where Jews are concerned.
Maybe it was the formative-years parental foray into being Born Again Christians and the accompanying teachings that the Jews were the chosen people and that the Abrahamic God totally, absolutely loved them, maybe just a tiny bit more than the Goyim? That didn’t faze me at all, frankly and I’ve always been rather keen on Jews in general and have had nothing but positive experiences with every Jewish person I’ve met, associated with, worked for or with. I’ve never, not once, had an unpleasant experience with a Jew, nor anything even remotely resembling any of the seriously offensive, disgusting stereotypes so frequently and seemingly easily lobbed at Jews.
Okay, maybe there was that one time when my straight-outta-Cedarhurst (Lawng Eyeland, natch), very Jewish roommate and I, living in Boston at the time, went to a deli for a bite to eat and to my more reserved, Bostonian horror, she quite brazenly and loudly made a request for service or something along those lines. I looked at her, wide-eyed, with a countenance of the sort one might have towards someone who just cut the line or belched loudly in church or something. We just didn’t do that sort of thing in Boston! At the time, I had not yet truly experienced the singularly amazing and truly life-changing experience of life in New York City, having only been there once when I was 12. My most vivid memory of New York, oddly enough, was of the Bowery (which, at the time of my visit in the early 1980s, was a run-down fucking mess bordering on the sort you’d find in many third-world countries), and of that super bitchen polka-dotted, New Wave-y dress my mom let me get.
It was very “early MTV / Cyndi Lauper”, but then again, in 1982, what wasn’t? But I digress.
Back to the lecture at hand, The Jews!(™) and all the things Jewy, Jewish, Jewtacular, Jewlicious and so forth. My go-to narrator voice is a strange amalgamation of the Jewish Bubby I never had, but felt like I did, and the chain-smoking, whisky-drinking, raspy voiced Aunt I did have (God rest her soul).
There is a strange familiarity, nee a comfort for me in the Jews, and particularly of the New York variety. I have had almost no exposure to Israeli Jews, as far as I know. While I’m sure I’ve met some, I can’t recall ever having a particularly close nor lengthy relationship with someone actually from Israel. Maybe there are different kinds of Jews? Who knew? (Read that in Mel Brooks’ voice, it plays better).
I have never understood the negative sentiment that exists out there where Jews are concerned.
Maybe it was the formative-years parental foray into being Born Again Christians and the accompanying teachings that the Jews were the chosen people and that the Abrahamic God totally, absolutely loved them, maybe just a tiny bit more than the Goyim? That didn’t faze me at all, frankly and I’ve always been rather keen on Jews in general and have had nothing but positive experiences with every Jewish person I’ve met, associated with, worked for or with. I’ve never, not once, had an unpleasant experience with a Jew, nor anything even remotely resembling any of the seriously offensive, disgusting stereotypes so frequently and seemingly easily lobbed at Jews.
Okay, maybe there was that one time when my straight-outta-Cedarhurst (Lawng Eyeland, natch), very Jewish roommate and I, living in Boston at the time, went to a deli for a bite to eat and to my more reserved, Bostonian horror, she quite brazenly and loudly made a request for service or something along those lines. I looked at her, wide-eyed, with a countenance of the sort one might have towards someone who just cut the line or belched loudly in church or something. We just didn’t do that sort of thing in Boston! At the time, I had not yet truly experienced the singularly amazing and truly life-changing experience of life in New York City, having only been there once when I was 12. My most vivid memory of New York, oddly enough, was of the Bowery (which, at the time of my visit in the early 1980s, was a run-down fucking mess bordering on the sort you’d find in many third-world countries), and of that super bitchen polka-dotted, New Wave-y dress my mom let me get.
It was very “early MTV / Cyndi Lauper”, but then again, in 1982, what wasn’t? But I digress.
Back to the lecture at hand, The Jews!(™) and all the things Jewy, Jewish, Jewtacular, Jewlicious and so forth. My go-to narrator voice is a strange amalgamation of the Jewish Bubby I never had, but felt like I did, and the chain-smoking, whisky-drinking, raspy voiced Aunt I did have (God rest her soul).
There is a strange familiarity, nee a comfort for me in the Jews, and particularly of the New York variety. I have had almost no exposure to Israeli Jews, as far as I know. While I’m sure I’ve met some, I can’t recall ever having a particularly close nor lengthy relationship with someone actually from Israel. Maybe there are different kinds of Jews? Who knew? (Read that in Mel Brooks’ voice, it plays better).
Stupor Tuesday II: Apoplectic Boogaloo
(3/15/16)
At last, the sequel to 'Super Tuesday I' has come, and I feel like a bookie on Superbowl day. The press has been doing a round-robin of seizure-like apoplexy, circle-jerking, pandering and painfully transparent narrative-weaving (the intensity of which has gone supercritical). I can’t even begin to fathom what the next 8 or 10 hours will be like, as poll results start rolling in and things either go the way most of us expect them to go, or spiral even further out of control Who even knows anymore?
Up is down, left is right, Fox is sometimes too fucking LIBERAL for me to stomach - you get all that? FOX, a network only a few months ago I could hardly stand to look at, let alone actually watch for any length of time, has become my shameful go-to network at this point, because with a few exceptions (including the Silver Fox himself, A-Coops), CNN has marked its territory squarely in the Hillary camp, with the occasional smattering of “oh yeah, and that Bernie whatever-his-face is guy, yeah, him too, I guess he’s running for something too, right?” Now, increasingly, “That madman MUST be stopped!!" is emerging as well. If I had a fucking dollar for every mention of Trump and every utterance of “How do we / they stop Trump?”, I would be rich like a mother-fucker. Trump rich, if you will.
Watching debates and elections requires imbibing alcohol, and lots of it. I keep trying to concoct some sort of awesome drinking game (for my super cool, imaginary, internet-based friends and fans) to play during one of these political WWE matches - I mean- primary voting days. I contemplate the words, phrases, ideas and sentiments that have come into being and that have gone viral across the zeitgeist. Each time I think I’ve come up with a winning combination of words, speaker, sentiment, frequency or deployment, I quickly realize that were I to actually base a drinking game on any one of the aforementioned things, I would be fucking dead in about an hour, and so would you, and that would be bad. Bad!
Perhaps a list of the words one shouldn’t use in alcohol-fueled politically-minded antics would be more sensible. Right off the bat, “win”, “stop”, “establishment” and “Trump” are out of the running, as downing shots of booze at the frequency these words are being used is a recipe for certain death, or at very least, an instant and scorching case of Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome.
At last, the sequel to 'Super Tuesday I' has come, and I feel like a bookie on Superbowl day. The press has been doing a round-robin of seizure-like apoplexy, circle-jerking, pandering and painfully transparent narrative-weaving (the intensity of which has gone supercritical). I can’t even begin to fathom what the next 8 or 10 hours will be like, as poll results start rolling in and things either go the way most of us expect them to go, or spiral even further out of control Who even knows anymore?
Up is down, left is right, Fox is sometimes too fucking LIBERAL for me to stomach - you get all that? FOX, a network only a few months ago I could hardly stand to look at, let alone actually watch for any length of time, has become my shameful go-to network at this point, because with a few exceptions (including the Silver Fox himself, A-Coops), CNN has marked its territory squarely in the Hillary camp, with the occasional smattering of “oh yeah, and that Bernie whatever-his-face is guy, yeah, him too, I guess he’s running for something too, right?” Now, increasingly, “That madman MUST be stopped!!" is emerging as well. If I had a fucking dollar for every mention of Trump and every utterance of “How do we / they stop Trump?”, I would be rich like a mother-fucker. Trump rich, if you will.
Watching debates and elections requires imbibing alcohol, and lots of it. I keep trying to concoct some sort of awesome drinking game (for my super cool, imaginary, internet-based friends and fans) to play during one of these political WWE matches - I mean- primary voting days. I contemplate the words, phrases, ideas and sentiments that have come into being and that have gone viral across the zeitgeist. Each time I think I’ve come up with a winning combination of words, speaker, sentiment, frequency or deployment, I quickly realize that were I to actually base a drinking game on any one of the aforementioned things, I would be fucking dead in about an hour, and so would you, and that would be bad. Bad!
Perhaps a list of the words one shouldn’t use in alcohol-fueled politically-minded antics would be more sensible. Right off the bat, “win”, “stop”, “establishment” and “Trump” are out of the running, as downing shots of booze at the frequency these words are being used is a recipe for certain death, or at very least, an instant and scorching case of Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome.
Scorching Case of VD (Feb 14th)
Ah, yes, Valentine’s Day - the day women everywhere remind their
menfolk how incredibly lucky they are to have such strong, beautiful
princesses, and what awful, ungrateful, Neanderthal monsters (read:
ATMs) they are. Viewed through the distorting lens of post-modern,
“third wave feminism”, V-Day is the Special Olympics of relationships;
it is a treacherous mine-field through which menfolk are commanded to
run, the ultimate goal being the tangible and public declaration or
reaffirmation of their love and commitment to their “Goddesses”.
For men, theirs is the Herculean task of attempting to triumph over years of social conditioning, subliminal manipulation and inculcation spoon-fed to and internalized by their Goddesses. The Goddesses have been fed a steady diet of “Disney Princess” fantasies since early childhood, a diet hand-crafted by those with an almost always financial interest in the Message. All of the elements of the message - consistency, efficacy, ubiquity - have been thoughtfully selected by the creators and purveyors of visual, literary, electronic and entertainment-related consumables, for the singular purposes of control and manipulation.
Behavioral modification and conditioning are not novel concepts. Feed children a steady stream of “you’re a perfect, special snowflake”, treat them as if they were geese being tube-fed and fattened for their unctuous, future foie gras livers, and you create a consumer for life. More importantly, perhaps, you have elicited a desired pattern of thought or behavior or both, patterns that will invariably serve to fulfill your desired agenda or objectives. “You’re a special, perfect princess and you don’t have to anything at all but be a pretty, pretty princess! And someday, your dreamy, dashingly 9.5, tailored suit-wearing, 7-figure earning, respectable job-having, only slightly-but-not-irretrievably damaged prince will come for you!"
Yes, ladies, that handsome prince, man of your dreams, when not working his lucrative yet still flexible and respectable job, will lavish you with all of the love and attention and (squee!!) gifts you’ve always been told you not only want, but deserve!! The Message™ woven through the fabric of just about everything tailored and broadcast to little girls repeatedly reminded you that “You are a Goddess! A Princess!”, and that you absolutely, unquestionably, simply because you’re a girl, definitely deserve all of that, and more! Together you and your Prince Charming will live happily ever after! That is, at least until the divorce, brought about when that terrible, awful man cheated on you with his younger, more attractive secretary. Men are such pigs, am I right?!!
Fear not, Goddess or Princess, or whatever moniker of faux-empowerment you’ve assigned yourself. You totally are a strong, beautiful, curvy woman who don’t need no man! Know why? Because you’ve been told that’s how you should parse your failures, your insecurities, your foibles in order to remain comfortably ensconced in childish immaturity. You’ve been programmed to buy into the fucked-up, multiple personality disorder-riddled Message, sold a bill of goods so fucking hollow and insidious that you’ve likely never imagined for a moment it could all be a lie.
For men, theirs is the Herculean task of attempting to triumph over years of social conditioning, subliminal manipulation and inculcation spoon-fed to and internalized by their Goddesses. The Goddesses have been fed a steady diet of “Disney Princess” fantasies since early childhood, a diet hand-crafted by those with an almost always financial interest in the Message. All of the elements of the message - consistency, efficacy, ubiquity - have been thoughtfully selected by the creators and purveyors of visual, literary, electronic and entertainment-related consumables, for the singular purposes of control and manipulation.
Behavioral modification and conditioning are not novel concepts. Feed children a steady stream of “you’re a perfect, special snowflake”, treat them as if they were geese being tube-fed and fattened for their unctuous, future foie gras livers, and you create a consumer for life. More importantly, perhaps, you have elicited a desired pattern of thought or behavior or both, patterns that will invariably serve to fulfill your desired agenda or objectives. “You’re a special, perfect princess and you don’t have to anything at all but be a pretty, pretty princess! And someday, your dreamy, dashingly 9.5, tailored suit-wearing, 7-figure earning, respectable job-having, only slightly-but-not-irretrievably damaged prince will come for you!"
Yes, ladies, that handsome prince, man of your dreams, when not working his lucrative yet still flexible and respectable job, will lavish you with all of the love and attention and (squee!!) gifts you’ve always been told you not only want, but deserve!! The Message™ woven through the fabric of just about everything tailored and broadcast to little girls repeatedly reminded you that “You are a Goddess! A Princess!”, and that you absolutely, unquestionably, simply because you’re a girl, definitely deserve all of that, and more! Together you and your Prince Charming will live happily ever after! That is, at least until the divorce, brought about when that terrible, awful man cheated on you with his younger, more attractive secretary. Men are such pigs, am I right?!!
Fear not, Goddess or Princess, or whatever moniker of faux-empowerment you’ve assigned yourself. You totally are a strong, beautiful, curvy woman who don’t need no man! Know why? Because you’ve been told that’s how you should parse your failures, your insecurities, your foibles in order to remain comfortably ensconced in childish immaturity. You’ve been programmed to buy into the fucked-up, multiple personality disorder-riddled Message, sold a bill of goods so fucking hollow and insidious that you’ve likely never imagined for a moment it could all be a lie.
Baby Got Back (HA HA "HAES")
Let’s talk about Fat Shaming and the Health At Every Size (“HAES”)
fucking farce. Right off the bat, let’s get out of the way the critical
distinction to be drawn between [razzing someone b/c they’re chubby, or
different or whatever / satire / unintentional notation of some
physical feature that deviates from the generally-agreed-upon norm] and
[bullying / intentional verbal, emotional abuse].
America is a relatively young country, in the grand scheme of things. Sure, there are younger countries that exist today, but they’re about as relevant as expansion teams and no one gives a shit about those, except the Houston Oil- er, Texans; they’re pretty cool. If we use America’s relative youth as a metaphor and go back a few decades, we can parse things as babies growing into toddlers, then teenager (demons!) then young adult to actual adult. Using the human biological / chronological scale as a construct, and applying it to society as a whole, we have evolved in the last 50 or 60 years.
Things that were once completely normal and acceptable socially have been revisited and revised to better align with our ongoing implied, unspoken [epic? Tome? Primer? Guidebook?] “Generally Held Tenets of Decent Society in the Modern Age”.
As the nation of America has evolved as a whole, so too has American society evolved. The predecessor to the polarizing, angry “Fat Shaming / HAES” movement of today was body acceptance. Before that, “self-love”; earlier still was the contemplation then conceptualization of “self” as a thing unto itself. For most of recorded history, the singular goal was simply survival; the existence and concept of “self” was, by necessity, irrelevant and unimportant. Who the fuck had time for such seemingly narcissistic introspection? There were meals to hunt, fires to stoke, fields to plow.
As we evolved technologically and transitioned from an agrarian existence to an industrial one, we began to enjoy a marked upswing in the availability of free time. Time during which we weren’t hunting our next meal, gathering wood for the life-sustaining fire, plowing the fields, dying in childbirth, fighting off invading marauders was now freed up for other pursuits - reading, writing, contemplation of theories on how the universe worked, figuring out the human body - those sorts of lofty pursuits. Along with this dearth of extra time (idle hands are the devil’s tools, yo!) came the ability to contemplate, on a deeper level than ever before, our conceptualization of “the self”.
Skipping ahead a number of decades, we find ourselves in post-post-Great Depression, post-WWII America. Manufacturing was roaring, suburbs were burgeoning, tasks and processes were being automated with lightning speed. Once again, we found ourselves with what bordered on “too much damned time on our hands”. In reality? Not entirely true. But conceptually and when viewed on the broader timescale of modern history? Absolutely. Farming the land, weaving your own cloth, sewing your own clothes, stitching up your own wounds - none of these things were mandatory any longer. Need food? Grocery store! Need to get somewhere? Yay, cars, trains, airplanes! Needed to convey a message quickly? Sorry, guy on a horse, we have telephones now! It was truly a brave new world in America.
We now had all this free time to fill, but the question became “with what?”. The answer was television, radio, leisurely pursuits, sporting leagues, college, scientific research, TV dinners - we couldn’t invent things fast enough, we had so many ideas! The challenge was transitioning from an existence comprised of the singular directive to merely survive to an existence in which our goals became improvement, greater efficiency and/or the reinvention of the how and what of everything we do, use, eat, watch, drive, fly…” - you get the point. And that’s exactly what we did, as a nation, in the post-WWII era. We literally (allegedly? Ha ha) put a man on the moon. We developed technologies that, to this day, some six decades later, remain incomprehensible to the population at large. We made everything work better, smarter, faster, more efficiently! It was a glorious time. We were really on to something!!
The natural by-product of an ever-growing ratio of available leisure time to “shit I have to do to survive” time is ennui. Find yourself with enough free time on your hands and you’re going to either develop new areas of interest, more productive pursuits or, like me, you’re going to chew up the furniture, piss on the carpet and become a general fucking nuisance to everyone around you. Humans suck at boredom. We’re not wired for it, we’ve never been good at it. Humans with too much leisure time on their hands quickly grow bored, and the available options for excitement become pretty much fucking, fighting, thinking and dying. Not a particularly variegated menu there.
When afforded previously unimaginable blocks of leisure time, what happens to society? How does the landscape change? When we’re given the chance to look in the mirror and engage in introspection, we don’t just contemplate our own existence - that gets pretty boring, pretty quickly, if it isn’t not something you’re accustomed to. Naturally, when we predictably grow tired of thinking about who we are, where do we go from there? The answer? Yep, other people!
Other People are a fucking fantastic carnival of randomness, hidden dangers, unexplored gems. We aren’t privy to what they literally think and feel at any given moment, so we’re relegated to drawing our own conclusions from their words, mannerisms, gestures, actions. Similar to the blank-canvas space freed up by not being able to hear every thought and experience every feeling by others, we have (yet more) space to fill. So, we do what our brains have evolved to do and we fill in the blanks; we engage in mano y mano “Mad Libs” of sorts. We see another person and we have only those details available to our 5 senses; the ambiguous things we either have to make up in our own heads, or just forget about completely. Pretty sure we usually go with the Mad Libs method - sure beats gaping holes or boredom, right?
Now we’re getting somewhere. Together we’ve walked the path from cave-people to wherever / whatever we are now, and thus we can get to the meaty bits -The Archetypes, or stereotypes, not quite sure which word really fits there.
Decades ago, being different in any way was usually noted, and as a matter of course, routinely mocked, often stigmatized. If you weren’t an ably-bodied, white anglo-saxon, cis-gendered “normie”, the immaturity of our collective conscious reacted to anomalies much in the way that children do when they encounter something novel or out of the realm of their limited experience. Well into the 20th century and beyond, you could get away with making fun of the ‘retarded’ kid, the fat kid, the weak kid, the short kid, the kid with glasses or a limp. Sure, it was mean and everyone knew it, but it was, if not sanctioned, per se, certainly subtly condoned and perhaps even encouraged it. See: movies like Animal House, Back to the Future, Revenge of the Nerds, 16 Candles, Weird Science and absolutely any coming-of-age themed plot in any movie made in the last 40+ years.
Archetypical characters like the high school football star, masculine tough guys a la the “Greasers”, James Dean - the list goes on and on; history is replete with it’s David vs. Goliath / Nerds vs. Jocks / Strong vs. Weak archetypes.
America is a relatively young country, in the grand scheme of things. Sure, there are younger countries that exist today, but they’re about as relevant as expansion teams and no one gives a shit about those, except the Houston Oil- er, Texans; they’re pretty cool. If we use America’s relative youth as a metaphor and go back a few decades, we can parse things as babies growing into toddlers, then teenager (demons!) then young adult to actual adult. Using the human biological / chronological scale as a construct, and applying it to society as a whole, we have evolved in the last 50 or 60 years.
Things that were once completely normal and acceptable socially have been revisited and revised to better align with our ongoing implied, unspoken [epic? Tome? Primer? Guidebook?] “Generally Held Tenets of Decent Society in the Modern Age”.
As the nation of America has evolved as a whole, so too has American society evolved. The predecessor to the polarizing, angry “Fat Shaming / HAES” movement of today was body acceptance. Before that, “self-love”; earlier still was the contemplation then conceptualization of “self” as a thing unto itself. For most of recorded history, the singular goal was simply survival; the existence and concept of “self” was, by necessity, irrelevant and unimportant. Who the fuck had time for such seemingly narcissistic introspection? There were meals to hunt, fires to stoke, fields to plow.
As we evolved technologically and transitioned from an agrarian existence to an industrial one, we began to enjoy a marked upswing in the availability of free time. Time during which we weren’t hunting our next meal, gathering wood for the life-sustaining fire, plowing the fields, dying in childbirth, fighting off invading marauders was now freed up for other pursuits - reading, writing, contemplation of theories on how the universe worked, figuring out the human body - those sorts of lofty pursuits. Along with this dearth of extra time (idle hands are the devil’s tools, yo!) came the ability to contemplate, on a deeper level than ever before, our conceptualization of “the self”.
Skipping ahead a number of decades, we find ourselves in post-post-Great Depression, post-WWII America. Manufacturing was roaring, suburbs were burgeoning, tasks and processes were being automated with lightning speed. Once again, we found ourselves with what bordered on “too much damned time on our hands”. In reality? Not entirely true. But conceptually and when viewed on the broader timescale of modern history? Absolutely. Farming the land, weaving your own cloth, sewing your own clothes, stitching up your own wounds - none of these things were mandatory any longer. Need food? Grocery store! Need to get somewhere? Yay, cars, trains, airplanes! Needed to convey a message quickly? Sorry, guy on a horse, we have telephones now! It was truly a brave new world in America.
We now had all this free time to fill, but the question became “with what?”. The answer was television, radio, leisurely pursuits, sporting leagues, college, scientific research, TV dinners - we couldn’t invent things fast enough, we had so many ideas! The challenge was transitioning from an existence comprised of the singular directive to merely survive to an existence in which our goals became improvement, greater efficiency and/or the reinvention of the how and what of everything we do, use, eat, watch, drive, fly…” - you get the point. And that’s exactly what we did, as a nation, in the post-WWII era. We literally (allegedly? Ha ha) put a man on the moon. We developed technologies that, to this day, some six decades later, remain incomprehensible to the population at large. We made everything work better, smarter, faster, more efficiently! It was a glorious time. We were really on to something!!
The natural by-product of an ever-growing ratio of available leisure time to “shit I have to do to survive” time is ennui. Find yourself with enough free time on your hands and you’re going to either develop new areas of interest, more productive pursuits or, like me, you’re going to chew up the furniture, piss on the carpet and become a general fucking nuisance to everyone around you. Humans suck at boredom. We’re not wired for it, we’ve never been good at it. Humans with too much leisure time on their hands quickly grow bored, and the available options for excitement become pretty much fucking, fighting, thinking and dying. Not a particularly variegated menu there.
When afforded previously unimaginable blocks of leisure time, what happens to society? How does the landscape change? When we’re given the chance to look in the mirror and engage in introspection, we don’t just contemplate our own existence - that gets pretty boring, pretty quickly, if it isn’t not something you’re accustomed to. Naturally, when we predictably grow tired of thinking about who we are, where do we go from there? The answer? Yep, other people!
Other People are a fucking fantastic carnival of randomness, hidden dangers, unexplored gems. We aren’t privy to what they literally think and feel at any given moment, so we’re relegated to drawing our own conclusions from their words, mannerisms, gestures, actions. Similar to the blank-canvas space freed up by not being able to hear every thought and experience every feeling by others, we have (yet more) space to fill. So, we do what our brains have evolved to do and we fill in the blanks; we engage in mano y mano “Mad Libs” of sorts. We see another person and we have only those details available to our 5 senses; the ambiguous things we either have to make up in our own heads, or just forget about completely. Pretty sure we usually go with the Mad Libs method - sure beats gaping holes or boredom, right?
Now we’re getting somewhere. Together we’ve walked the path from cave-people to wherever / whatever we are now, and thus we can get to the meaty bits -The Archetypes, or stereotypes, not quite sure which word really fits there.
Decades ago, being different in any way was usually noted, and as a matter of course, routinely mocked, often stigmatized. If you weren’t an ably-bodied, white anglo-saxon, cis-gendered “normie”, the immaturity of our collective conscious reacted to anomalies much in the way that children do when they encounter something novel or out of the realm of their limited experience. Well into the 20th century and beyond, you could get away with making fun of the ‘retarded’ kid, the fat kid, the weak kid, the short kid, the kid with glasses or a limp. Sure, it was mean and everyone knew it, but it was, if not sanctioned, per se, certainly subtly condoned and perhaps even encouraged it. See: movies like Animal House, Back to the Future, Revenge of the Nerds, 16 Candles, Weird Science and absolutely any coming-of-age themed plot in any movie made in the last 40+ years.
Archetypical characters like the high school football star, masculine tough guys a la the “Greasers”, James Dean - the list goes on and on; history is replete with it’s David vs. Goliath / Nerds vs. Jocks / Strong vs. Weak archetypes.
WarXies(tm) [Current Year] Storm Troopers
From the seedlings of the once bullied, historically marginalized
folks have grown a legion of moral Storm Troopers, capable of a singular
emotion: rage. The emotional locks and controls necessary to emotional
intelligence have been stripped from the operating system code. At the
moment these “warriors” achieved a glimmer of sentience, they burst
forth from their previous frightfully vulnerable, unacceptably
infallible host-bodies and ordained themselves the new arbiters of
morality.
Irony is an oft-misused trope, the concept and definition of which were not written into the programming of these anti-oppression warriors. Warlords? Warladies? WarXies? Let’s go with WarXies - I fucking like that one! All of the descriptive goodness with none of the oppressive gender-specific inference! WarXies lack the capabilities of self-reflection, introspection, ability to engage in honest dialog within themselves, preferring instead to focus all of their energies and more accurately, their post-modernist ire on everyone and everything but themselves. Theirs is a busy job, a daunting and perpetual vigilance against any hint of aberrant thought, arbitrarily-defined hate-speech, ubiquitous and rampant micro-aggressions. The infiltrative abilities of the WarXie are insidious; they assemble, maraud and conquer.
As with any invasive species, the WarXie wrest control from and unassailably alter the environs of their host . The WarXie are the Japanese Carp of the Great Lakes, the European Conquerors of the Native / Indigenous people of early America, a true cancer of society. Their initial intentions were honorable enough - history is replete with true warriors, men and women who fought for actual social justice, equitable treatment of humans, animals, races, religions. These were the brave souls who didn’t just preach tolerance and acceptance, they lived it; walking the walk instead of just talking the talk, as today’s WarXies do. MLK, Ghandi, the people and the movements - Lincoln, the abolition of slavery, child labor reforms; the scientists and miraculous medical advances that have been made and have given us a standard of living and life expectancy unheard of even 25 or 50 years ago. What was once a certain death sentence as recently as the 1980s, is now not not just survivable, but increasingly manageable - case in point, HIV / AIDS.
Even after all of that, even in the face of advances made over things that were once unfathomably insurmountable, despite the truly great strides made in medicine, science, technology, manufacturing etc., WarXies are still unable to be appreciative of and appropriately grateful for any of it. Nothing is ever good enough for the insatiable WarXie pariah. [A founding father / important historical figure] dedicated [his - PATRIARCHY!] life to bringing about major societal reforms that indelibly altered and improved ed the trajectory of [race], but once owned slaves? Erase the entirety of his hateful legacy from the lexicon! Billionaire benefactor donates $100K to a school system in need? Selfish shitlord should have given even more! Someone fully supports the premise of equality of races, but has further questions into the realities of said race’s crime or incarceration statistics, perhaps regarding the types, frequency or nature of said crimes? You aren’t [that race], so you are a racist, hateful bigot who doesn’t understand [race’s] experience, never will and are forbidden from speaking of it or holding any kind of opinion whatsoever! Furthermore, because you are [your race] and not [that race], you instantly go on the [race]-Devil, Shitlord Oppressor, Sworn Enemies list! And, no matter how hard you work for the case of [that race], no matter how genuine and altruistic your motivations or convictions, you, as a [that race] person, are permanently staying on the Enemy List, to be eternally and thoroughly evaluated solely on the basis of…[your race]. Ironic?
In this moment, it is normal to feel a deep disturbance in ‘the force’; an unabiding, blinding desire to scream, “WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK??! Don’t you see the blatant hypocrisy in that?”. What you’re feeling is the irony of reacting to the oppression of racism by, in turn, discriminating or damning entire segments of the population simply because of their [race]. Insert exploding head here and fear not, you’re not insane or wrong, you are actually seeing what you think you do.
Fear not, you’re in good company here; you're among friends. As we already learned, it’s a “safe space”. I thought you’d like that. Have a cookie. Ha ha, just kidding, have a Scotch; cookies are for wusses. OH GOD, I’ve touched THE POOP! Quick, Bolt the doors and windows, I hear pitchforks and torches being taken up by the WarXies, after hearing my egregious and hate-filled use of a (insert WarXie trigger words here)!!!!!
Irony is an oft-misused trope, the concept and definition of which were not written into the programming of these anti-oppression warriors. Warlords? Warladies? WarXies? Let’s go with WarXies - I fucking like that one! All of the descriptive goodness with none of the oppressive gender-specific inference! WarXies lack the capabilities of self-reflection, introspection, ability to engage in honest dialog within themselves, preferring instead to focus all of their energies and more accurately, their post-modernist ire on everyone and everything but themselves. Theirs is a busy job, a daunting and perpetual vigilance against any hint of aberrant thought, arbitrarily-defined hate-speech, ubiquitous and rampant micro-aggressions. The infiltrative abilities of the WarXie are insidious; they assemble, maraud and conquer.
As with any invasive species, the WarXie wrest control from and unassailably alter the environs of their host . The WarXie are the Japanese Carp of the Great Lakes, the European Conquerors of the Native / Indigenous people of early America, a true cancer of society. Their initial intentions were honorable enough - history is replete with true warriors, men and women who fought for actual social justice, equitable treatment of humans, animals, races, religions. These were the brave souls who didn’t just preach tolerance and acceptance, they lived it; walking the walk instead of just talking the talk, as today’s WarXies do. MLK, Ghandi, the people and the movements - Lincoln, the abolition of slavery, child labor reforms; the scientists and miraculous medical advances that have been made and have given us a standard of living and life expectancy unheard of even 25 or 50 years ago. What was once a certain death sentence as recently as the 1980s, is now not not just survivable, but increasingly manageable - case in point, HIV / AIDS.
Even after all of that, even in the face of advances made over things that were once unfathomably insurmountable, despite the truly great strides made in medicine, science, technology, manufacturing etc., WarXies are still unable to be appreciative of and appropriately grateful for any of it. Nothing is ever good enough for the insatiable WarXie pariah. [A founding father / important historical figure] dedicated [his - PATRIARCHY!] life to bringing about major societal reforms that indelibly altered and improved ed the trajectory of [race], but once owned slaves? Erase the entirety of his hateful legacy from the lexicon! Billionaire benefactor donates $100K to a school system in need? Selfish shitlord should have given even more! Someone fully supports the premise of equality of races, but has further questions into the realities of said race’s crime or incarceration statistics, perhaps regarding the types, frequency or nature of said crimes? You aren’t [that race], so you are a racist, hateful bigot who doesn’t understand [race’s] experience, never will and are forbidden from speaking of it or holding any kind of opinion whatsoever! Furthermore, because you are [your race] and not [that race], you instantly go on the [race]-Devil, Shitlord Oppressor, Sworn Enemies list! And, no matter how hard you work for the case of [that race], no matter how genuine and altruistic your motivations or convictions, you, as a [that race] person, are permanently staying on the Enemy List, to be eternally and thoroughly evaluated solely on the basis of…[your race]. Ironic?
In this moment, it is normal to feel a deep disturbance in ‘the force’; an unabiding, blinding desire to scream, “WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK??! Don’t you see the blatant hypocrisy in that?”. What you’re feeling is the irony of reacting to the oppression of racism by, in turn, discriminating or damning entire segments of the population simply because of their [race]. Insert exploding head here and fear not, you’re not insane or wrong, you are actually seeing what you think you do.
Fear not, you’re in good company here; you're among friends. As we already learned, it’s a “safe space”. I thought you’d like that. Have a cookie. Ha ha, just kidding, have a Scotch; cookies are for wusses. OH GOD, I’ve touched THE POOP! Quick, Bolt the doors and windows, I hear pitchforks and torches being taken up by the WarXies, after hearing my egregious and hate-filled use of a (insert WarXie trigger words here)!!!!!
Trump Star Date: 19 March 2016
Current mishugas? The Trump-Kelly slap-fight fiesta; the ongoing
battle royale between Trump and Fox journalist Megyn Kelly. Trump has
been rapid-fire tweeting his disgust and loathing for Megyn Kelly, a
journalist with whom he butted heads in an early GOP debate (where the
“blood coming from her eyes, whatever…” thing came from.
Honestly, in context, while less than kosher, this wasn’t the menses-related jab it’s been hyperbolically made out to be.). At every opportunity, with every appearance, Kelly’s singular purpose has been to take something Trump said or did, twist it just enough and present it in the ugliest, most unsavory and negative way she possibly can and she is doing so overtly and unashamedly. Her palpable ire towards Trump has truly made me question whether or not she is a journalist in the stricter sense of the word, or if she is a “journalist” of the modern ilk - all about clicks, page views, and the attention of the easily-led populace.
It’s been no secret over the last decade or so that Fox News is completely and totally in the tank for the GOP. Recent events have served to expose their wavering allegiance to what we now call the GOP Establishment (GOPe). I say wavering because really, at the end of the day, the ultimate motivator is not journalistic integrity, factual reporting, in-depth stories of significance or duty to the public, but rather, is about two things and two things only: money and manipulation. The money comes from ratings, page views, advertising sales. The manipulation is the towing of the Fox-specific party line, a line that someone much smarter than I artfully conceptualized and implemented somewhere around the time of Bush II’s election. I think.
It may have been earlier, but I can’t readily recall when it was that I began to loathe Fox News. I am only able to remember when I stopped experiencing complete and total revulsion for it, and that’s a very recent development.
I’ve grown to really hate the fucking Lefties and that hate has manifested itself to the point where I have little desire left to even try to hide it. Don’t get me wrong, I still harbor many positions that would easily fall under “democrat / dirty leftie commie”. But the Left, taken in totality, is an outrageously hypocritical, violent, petulant, intolerant hoard of rage-filled fascists, which is fucking ironic as FUCK because for years now, they’ve done absolutely nothing but fucking wail and gnash their teeth and rend their robes over how very, very victimized they are. How horribly marginalized they’ve become. How intolerant “the rest of us” (and of course, the Literally Hitlers(™) have been to them. The reality is drastically different.
At this very moment, gangs of angry thugs are, yet again, causing violent and dangerous conditions outside of a Trump campaign even because they (of course) feel completely entitled to and, I’m guessing, because they have fuck-all of nothing better to do. Yep, I called them thugs, and while I understand the implied connotation to mean blacks only, I absolutely use “thugs” inclusively and ubiquitously to describe these “protesters”. Why? Because they fucking ARE; they’re violent, lawless, obnoxious, obtuse pieces of shit who crow about racism and bigotry and free speech. Free speech my ASS; 1A doesn’t even fucking APPLY here (Congress shall make no law…), but they’re so fucking willfully ignorant, so easily manipulated and swayed and so busy venting their pent-up rage, that they can’t be arsed to educate themselves beyond their existing inculcation into the tenets of the Hive Mind Directive.
These people are serving a very valuable purpose though, truth be told. I waded into this insanity as a Democrat. Eight months later, I’m leaning hard right in many ways and with each passing day and every incidence of mob-inflicted criminality, grow more and more angry at and deeply resentful of what we colloquially identify as the Left. I am disgusted by their actions, their utter inability to see that what they are doing is absolutely everything they have accused the evil, right-wing, neo-nazi hate machine of doing, and I can’t come up with excuses for it any more at this point. Blocking traffic, harassment, assault, destruction of property, intimidation by force of other people simply because they like someone you don’t like or believe things you don’t believe is fucking abhorrent, and frankly, should be met with force pretty much now. They are (once again) burning their OWN house down -- their actions are driving away all but the most ardent Lefties, and rightfully so. They show up in packs, wreak havoc and have the fucking audacity to claim moral superiority and a monopoly on victimhood. If Ferguson, MO, LA, Detroit and Chicago are anything to go by, this whole “let’s fucking burn OUR PLACES to the ground! Let’s destroy the lives of people just like us! Let’s act like the animals “they” “say” we are! We’ll show those racist whiteys! Oh, and “Kill Whitey!”. Yeah, they should be beyond reproach. We should give them cookies and juice and feel even more of that delicious White Guilt (like we’re constantly instructed to) because of their misfortune to have been black. Or native american. Or Poor. Oops, I’m not supposed to include “poor” without qualifying it with some sort of racial overtone, because only people of some race other than “white” have the right to claim oppression (and use that “oppression” as an excuse for fucking god-awful behavior).
I’m so disgusted I can’t even go on with this right now. I literally (literally!) “Can’t Even” right now.
This is a sick, twisted, faux-facade narrative and I’m not entirely sure how or when or even if we’re going to be able to counteract the damage that has been allowed and encouraged to happen in our society. The divisive trenches between races, socioeconomic classes, gender, religion have been so deeply dug at this point that I’m not even sure it’s salvageable.
Trump’s Greatest Hits. The time has probably come to compile a “greatest hits” album of sorts for The Donald. The bodies continue to pile up in his wake and it’s truly awe-inspiring to watch.
Jeb! Bush: “Low-Energy / Guac-Bowl Merchant” memes from one of the debates [which debate was this from?] lobbed the “low energy” napalm grenade and, as Napalm will, it stuck. Couldn’t have become more indelible if Trump had written it across Jeb’s face with a Sharpie.
Marco Rubio: “Little Marco”, outsourced the actual hit (it was televised, yo!) to Chris Christie. Was it a hit job ordered by the Godfather and carried out by an underboss, or was Christie deputized a la minute (given a higher rank for the duration of a highly important or dangerous task -- is there a word for that?). Trump never once mentioned the swirling allegations around which direction Rubio’s sexual preference needle points, nor even alluded to Marco’s (alleged) foam-party revelries or his assigned parking space in the (name of the park), a notorious spot for gay cruising in the 90s. But the internet sure as hell did. I know more about Marco’s (alleged) past, dirty dealings, unsavory associations than I ever thought I’d want or need to.
Michelle Fields / Ben Shapiro / CoreyGate / PlaidShirtGate etc.: Like Superman flying against the direction of the rotation of the earth to stop / reverse time, so does Trump gain control of and forge, not unlike a blacksmith, hard steel into whataver shape or direction he wants.
Megyn Kelly / FOX: This battle began in earnest after one of the first debates for which FOX did the moderating. It was an unabashed hit job, with many of the questions directed at or otherwise concerning Trump. Things like, “Mr. Cruz, how terrible would Mr. Trump be for America and why is he Literally Hitler?”. “Mr. Rubio, your position on X is Y, tell us how Trump would start WWIII and is he the anti-Christ?”. Trump responded predictably, in a manner that only he can, lobbing insults as to her worth as a journalist and calling her a bimbo. Trump does adore his juvenile fightin’ words! Kelly responded by devoting every single moment of air time to hit pieces, twisted and presented in the most negative ways possible; night after night, story after story, it was a non-stop Trump Hate Clusterfuck. Trump, again, responded in kind, further verbally undermining Kelly’s credibility and going a step further, calling for a boycott of her show.
News stories as Fishing Nets metaphor: cast the net (the story, either spun to the point of near unrecognizability from origin point), hook the easier, smaller fish almost immediately by building in a hot-button issue guaranteed to instantly trigger some desired segment of the audience - typically a familiar archetype of villain vs. hero, ogre vs. damsel, anything at all able to be repackaged and sold as “Misogyny!!” by Neo-feminists to their soft, delicate adherents. In this scuffle, Trump calling Kelly a “bimbo” was an instantaneous trigger and effective dog whistle to the Perpetually Offended, the “Beta-Cuck” White Knighters, the “Third Wave” Feminists, who are known for the full and immediate shutdown of all logic, reasoning and critical thinking abilities at the moment of “triggering”, and are thus morphed into a nearly unstoppable drone force, impervious to the slings and arrows of truth, facts, context, mitigating factors. These Outrage Warriors (WarXies) replicate and propagate with stunning speed and efficiency. The only way to thwart or defeat them is to present inarguable facts, debunk their more broad complaints (don’t bother trying to achieve a full victory -- this is a war of attrition, on its best day), and to keep repeating the fee fee-trumping facts until they tire, give up or go off to find their next fresh kill.
As of this writing (3-24-16), Trump has not gone after Kasich in any meaningful way, similar to how he did not eviscerate Ben Carson in any memorable ways prior to Carson dropping out...and then subsequently coming to endorse Trump. The Master!
Honestly, in context, while less than kosher, this wasn’t the menses-related jab it’s been hyperbolically made out to be.). At every opportunity, with every appearance, Kelly’s singular purpose has been to take something Trump said or did, twist it just enough and present it in the ugliest, most unsavory and negative way she possibly can and she is doing so overtly and unashamedly. Her palpable ire towards Trump has truly made me question whether or not she is a journalist in the stricter sense of the word, or if she is a “journalist” of the modern ilk - all about clicks, page views, and the attention of the easily-led populace.
It’s been no secret over the last decade or so that Fox News is completely and totally in the tank for the GOP. Recent events have served to expose their wavering allegiance to what we now call the GOP Establishment (GOPe). I say wavering because really, at the end of the day, the ultimate motivator is not journalistic integrity, factual reporting, in-depth stories of significance or duty to the public, but rather, is about two things and two things only: money and manipulation. The money comes from ratings, page views, advertising sales. The manipulation is the towing of the Fox-specific party line, a line that someone much smarter than I artfully conceptualized and implemented somewhere around the time of Bush II’s election. I think.
It may have been earlier, but I can’t readily recall when it was that I began to loathe Fox News. I am only able to remember when I stopped experiencing complete and total revulsion for it, and that’s a very recent development.
I’ve grown to really hate the fucking Lefties and that hate has manifested itself to the point where I have little desire left to even try to hide it. Don’t get me wrong, I still harbor many positions that would easily fall under “democrat / dirty leftie commie”. But the Left, taken in totality, is an outrageously hypocritical, violent, petulant, intolerant hoard of rage-filled fascists, which is fucking ironic as FUCK because for years now, they’ve done absolutely nothing but fucking wail and gnash their teeth and rend their robes over how very, very victimized they are. How horribly marginalized they’ve become. How intolerant “the rest of us” (and of course, the Literally Hitlers(™) have been to them. The reality is drastically different.
At this very moment, gangs of angry thugs are, yet again, causing violent and dangerous conditions outside of a Trump campaign even because they (of course) feel completely entitled to and, I’m guessing, because they have fuck-all of nothing better to do. Yep, I called them thugs, and while I understand the implied connotation to mean blacks only, I absolutely use “thugs” inclusively and ubiquitously to describe these “protesters”. Why? Because they fucking ARE; they’re violent, lawless, obnoxious, obtuse pieces of shit who crow about racism and bigotry and free speech. Free speech my ASS; 1A doesn’t even fucking APPLY here (Congress shall make no law…), but they’re so fucking willfully ignorant, so easily manipulated and swayed and so busy venting their pent-up rage, that they can’t be arsed to educate themselves beyond their existing inculcation into the tenets of the Hive Mind Directive.
These people are serving a very valuable purpose though, truth be told. I waded into this insanity as a Democrat. Eight months later, I’m leaning hard right in many ways and with each passing day and every incidence of mob-inflicted criminality, grow more and more angry at and deeply resentful of what we colloquially identify as the Left. I am disgusted by their actions, their utter inability to see that what they are doing is absolutely everything they have accused the evil, right-wing, neo-nazi hate machine of doing, and I can’t come up with excuses for it any more at this point. Blocking traffic, harassment, assault, destruction of property, intimidation by force of other people simply because they like someone you don’t like or believe things you don’t believe is fucking abhorrent, and frankly, should be met with force pretty much now. They are (once again) burning their OWN house down -- their actions are driving away all but the most ardent Lefties, and rightfully so. They show up in packs, wreak havoc and have the fucking audacity to claim moral superiority and a monopoly on victimhood. If Ferguson, MO, LA, Detroit and Chicago are anything to go by, this whole “let’s fucking burn OUR PLACES to the ground! Let’s destroy the lives of people just like us! Let’s act like the animals “they” “say” we are! We’ll show those racist whiteys! Oh, and “Kill Whitey!”. Yeah, they should be beyond reproach. We should give them cookies and juice and feel even more of that delicious White Guilt (like we’re constantly instructed to) because of their misfortune to have been black. Or native american. Or Poor. Oops, I’m not supposed to include “poor” without qualifying it with some sort of racial overtone, because only people of some race other than “white” have the right to claim oppression (and use that “oppression” as an excuse for fucking god-awful behavior).
I’m so disgusted I can’t even go on with this right now. I literally (literally!) “Can’t Even” right now.
This is a sick, twisted, faux-facade narrative and I’m not entirely sure how or when or even if we’re going to be able to counteract the damage that has been allowed and encouraged to happen in our society. The divisive trenches between races, socioeconomic classes, gender, religion have been so deeply dug at this point that I’m not even sure it’s salvageable.
Trump’s Greatest Hits. The time has probably come to compile a “greatest hits” album of sorts for The Donald. The bodies continue to pile up in his wake and it’s truly awe-inspiring to watch.
Jeb! Bush: “Low-Energy / Guac-Bowl Merchant” memes from one of the debates [which debate was this from?] lobbed the “low energy” napalm grenade and, as Napalm will, it stuck. Couldn’t have become more indelible if Trump had written it across Jeb’s face with a Sharpie.
Marco Rubio: “Little Marco”, outsourced the actual hit (it was televised, yo!) to Chris Christie. Was it a hit job ordered by the Godfather and carried out by an underboss, or was Christie deputized a la minute (given a higher rank for the duration of a highly important or dangerous task -- is there a word for that?). Trump never once mentioned the swirling allegations around which direction Rubio’s sexual preference needle points, nor even alluded to Marco’s (alleged) foam-party revelries or his assigned parking space in the (name of the park), a notorious spot for gay cruising in the 90s. But the internet sure as hell did. I know more about Marco’s (alleged) past, dirty dealings, unsavory associations than I ever thought I’d want or need to.
Michelle Fields / Ben Shapiro / CoreyGate / PlaidShirtGate etc.: Like Superman flying against the direction of the rotation of the earth to stop / reverse time, so does Trump gain control of and forge, not unlike a blacksmith, hard steel into whataver shape or direction he wants.
Megyn Kelly / FOX: This battle began in earnest after one of the first debates for which FOX did the moderating. It was an unabashed hit job, with many of the questions directed at or otherwise concerning Trump. Things like, “Mr. Cruz, how terrible would Mr. Trump be for America and why is he Literally Hitler?”. “Mr. Rubio, your position on X is Y, tell us how Trump would start WWIII and is he the anti-Christ?”. Trump responded predictably, in a manner that only he can, lobbing insults as to her worth as a journalist and calling her a bimbo. Trump does adore his juvenile fightin’ words! Kelly responded by devoting every single moment of air time to hit pieces, twisted and presented in the most negative ways possible; night after night, story after story, it was a non-stop Trump Hate Clusterfuck. Trump, again, responded in kind, further verbally undermining Kelly’s credibility and going a step further, calling for a boycott of her show.
News stories as Fishing Nets metaphor: cast the net (the story, either spun to the point of near unrecognizability from origin point), hook the easier, smaller fish almost immediately by building in a hot-button issue guaranteed to instantly trigger some desired segment of the audience - typically a familiar archetype of villain vs. hero, ogre vs. damsel, anything at all able to be repackaged and sold as “Misogyny!!” by Neo-feminists to their soft, delicate adherents. In this scuffle, Trump calling Kelly a “bimbo” was an instantaneous trigger and effective dog whistle to the Perpetually Offended, the “Beta-Cuck” White Knighters, the “Third Wave” Feminists, who are known for the full and immediate shutdown of all logic, reasoning and critical thinking abilities at the moment of “triggering”, and are thus morphed into a nearly unstoppable drone force, impervious to the slings and arrows of truth, facts, context, mitigating factors. These Outrage Warriors (WarXies) replicate and propagate with stunning speed and efficiency. The only way to thwart or defeat them is to present inarguable facts, debunk their more broad complaints (don’t bother trying to achieve a full victory -- this is a war of attrition, on its best day), and to keep repeating the fee fee-trumping facts until they tire, give up or go off to find their next fresh kill.
As of this writing (3-24-16), Trump has not gone after Kasich in any meaningful way, similar to how he did not eviscerate Ben Carson in any memorable ways prior to Carson dropping out...and then subsequently coming to endorse Trump. The Master!
Men Are Such Pigs, Am I Right?
That'll be your rendition of things as you head to divorce court to
battle your disgusting, cheating, narcissistic, soon-to-be ex. It’s the
same version you’ll tell all of your friends, who, predictably, will
rush to your side to offer support and comfort in the form of red wine,
Oreos and the validation inherent in their unwavering belief in your
side of things. You'll conveniently leave out ancillary details about
the years you spent demoralizing, demeaning, insulting, and vilifying
your once Dream Man.
You won't tell your friends that you married him because he would be a "good provider", but you didn't, deep down, actually respect or admire him, and you certainly won't reveal that after you knew you had him nailed down, you dropped the pretense of everything you portrayed yourself to be and let your true self emerge - a petulant child with Daddy issues, an insatiable sense of entitlement, and a level of passive-aggressivity not even Menninger could fathom. You and your circle of BFFs will also steer clear of the fact that you've gained 50, 60, 70 pounds since your wedding and you will definitely not mention that you hung up your freaky-deaky "Fuck Me" pumps a long, long time ago.
You'll all nod in agreement at every fucking bullshit excuse as to how and why you iced your husband out, denying him the one thing he's biologically programmed to desire, forcing him to choose between life as a eunuch or to be that guy, the stereotypical "cheating man" guy - a guy he may very well have never wanted to be.
It's a two-way fucking street ladies and you are NOT exalted princesses who bear no responsibility for carrying your portion of the relationship. Am I advocating a return to the (perceived) subservience of the archetypal ‘50s housewife? Am I saying your worth as a woman is somehow less than that of a man, and that you are somehow commanded to put out each and every time your Misogynist Overlord™ wants it? No, but that's what some of you are going to insist I mean. I can already smell the smoke of the torches being lit and hear the metallic whine of pitchforks being sharpened. Here is where some of you will stop reading, because you feel that you've been triggered.
Of course you do, sweetheart. You're triggered because no one wants to say this to you. No one wants to piss off the fucking Pitchfork Mafia™ that you belong to; and you belong to it because that's what you've been instructed to do. I'm not afraid of your ire, your angst, your bruised little egos; I'm too old for that shit and, more importantly, I came of age in a world that didn't give much of a fuck about your (individual) little fee fees. And honestly, thank GOD for that.
I didn't have to grow up hearing that if I failed, it was not because I wasn't good enough, I didn't work hard enough, I wasn't smart enough, brave enough, talented enough but because of some ginned-up construct like "because you're a girl!" or "because PATRIARCHY!!". I grew up hearing, loud and clear, that "YOU ARE THE AUTHOR OF YOUR OWN FATE"; that I, and I alone, was the captain of my ship and there wasn't another option beyond "learn the rules of the game and use intellect, cunning and skill to progress through that game, to work that system". The reward for learning and successfully navigating the system was the deep satisfaction that comes from triumph; from overcoming obstacles, challenges, barriers and yet succeeding in spite of those things.
Before you get too excited, let me just interject here that I did not grow up with the Mike & Carol Brady of parents. (I can already hear you whining that I must have had some privileged upbringing to turn out with such a strong sense of self. On the contrary, darlings, I grew up quite alone, quite lost, quite UN-normie. So, put that in your pipe and fuck right off then.)
Where marriage and/or relationships are concerned, I chose a partner who unambiguously proved himself worthy of trust, respect, admiration and loyalty and, perhaps even more importantly, didn't cower in the face of my "strong" personality. There was no doubt when the time came to decide.
After hearing that, perhaps you wonder if I'm yet another brainwashed, delicate lady flower, a subservient housewife -- let me assure you, I am the exact opposite of all of those things. Read some of my other ramblings if you're not convinced. There is a critical distinction to be made between being a strong, independent-thinking woman and being a straight up bitchy twat.
Things today just aren't rooted in merit the way they once were; somewhere along the line, achievement and excellence and strength became dirty words and vilified concepts. I ask you this: If you don't have to strive for anything, really sweat and work and burn for a goal, what the fuck is the point; and if everything is handed to you because of some irrelevant, arbitrary criteria such as gender, deep down do you actually feel like you worked for it?
We are all broken in ways, some of us in many ways; just about all of us are the inhabitants of the Island of Misfit Toys. You are, I am, we all are, and if you believe otherwise, here’s a link to my Patreon*, because I definitely, totally agree with and validate the entirety of your belief system, so please contribute, because as glamorous as being a writer may appear on the surface, it’s not nearly as lucrative as say, stripping or escort work, both of which I’m long since retired - er, excluded from. Because I’m old. And fat "curvy", or maybe “zaftig”; zaftig sounds much more...genteel. I own it though - I don’t lie to myself and say I’m just a big, beautiful, curvy woman who is perfect the way I am. No, I will tell anyone who asks, unabashedly, that I’m a short, squat, middle-aged, booze-loving agoraphobe, and you can have my vodka when you pry it out of my cold, dead hands.
Emasculating your man never, ever works, but rather, does the exact opposite of what you're goal likely is. Constant nagging, harping, demeaning and belittling just pushes him further into his man-cave hidey- hole; you know, the one you hate and take personal offense to, because you're not self-aware enough to comprehend that if you abuse anyone long enough, they're going to need respite from your bullshit. You and your enabling friends, wine and comfort food in hand - if you married for security or because you simply figured it was "time" or you gave up on the game of life and just settled for the poor shmuck you were able to nail down at the appropriate time, and NOT because you genuinely loved, admired, and respected that man - you have absolutely no one to blame but yourself should you find yourself in a shitty, loveless, boring, unfulfilling marriage. There are caveats, of course - physical or emotional abuse, addiction, debilitating accidents, cheating pieces of shit, etc., but that's not the type of situation I'm referring to here, and I think you know that.
Mmmmmm, MISANDRY. A term hardly seen in print today unless in the context of something pro-MRA (another group you disparage, malign, etc., because MEN, the evil patriarchy, never, ever suffer abuse or discrimination or prejudice, right?). Misandry is the poorly-veiled mechanism of 3rd Wave Feminists everywhere!! It is no surprise that "Feminism" is an increasingly pejorative term these days, and rightfully so, as it is absolutely antithetical to the nature of equality. When a movement seeks to subvert a gender or a race based solely on a single criteria, how on earth can that be considered "equality" in any way? When neo-Feminism seeks to subvert men simply because they're men, because "PATRIARCHY!", that is absolutely NOT equal, and is in reality the antithesis of equal.
I could keep going, and I will in some other 3WF-related screed, "FEMINISM"
You won't tell your friends that you married him because he would be a "good provider", but you didn't, deep down, actually respect or admire him, and you certainly won't reveal that after you knew you had him nailed down, you dropped the pretense of everything you portrayed yourself to be and let your true self emerge - a petulant child with Daddy issues, an insatiable sense of entitlement, and a level of passive-aggressivity not even Menninger could fathom. You and your circle of BFFs will also steer clear of the fact that you've gained 50, 60, 70 pounds since your wedding and you will definitely not mention that you hung up your freaky-deaky "Fuck Me" pumps a long, long time ago.
You'll all nod in agreement at every fucking bullshit excuse as to how and why you iced your husband out, denying him the one thing he's biologically programmed to desire, forcing him to choose between life as a eunuch or to be that guy, the stereotypical "cheating man" guy - a guy he may very well have never wanted to be.
It's a two-way fucking street ladies and you are NOT exalted princesses who bear no responsibility for carrying your portion of the relationship. Am I advocating a return to the (perceived) subservience of the archetypal ‘50s housewife? Am I saying your worth as a woman is somehow less than that of a man, and that you are somehow commanded to put out each and every time your Misogynist Overlord™ wants it? No, but that's what some of you are going to insist I mean. I can already smell the smoke of the torches being lit and hear the metallic whine of pitchforks being sharpened. Here is where some of you will stop reading, because you feel that you've been triggered.
Of course you do, sweetheart. You're triggered because no one wants to say this to you. No one wants to piss off the fucking Pitchfork Mafia™ that you belong to; and you belong to it because that's what you've been instructed to do. I'm not afraid of your ire, your angst, your bruised little egos; I'm too old for that shit and, more importantly, I came of age in a world that didn't give much of a fuck about your (individual) little fee fees. And honestly, thank GOD for that.
I didn't have to grow up hearing that if I failed, it was not because I wasn't good enough, I didn't work hard enough, I wasn't smart enough, brave enough, talented enough but because of some ginned-up construct like "because you're a girl!" or "because PATRIARCHY!!". I grew up hearing, loud and clear, that "YOU ARE THE AUTHOR OF YOUR OWN FATE"; that I, and I alone, was the captain of my ship and there wasn't another option beyond "learn the rules of the game and use intellect, cunning and skill to progress through that game, to work that system". The reward for learning and successfully navigating the system was the deep satisfaction that comes from triumph; from overcoming obstacles, challenges, barriers and yet succeeding in spite of those things.
Before you get too excited, let me just interject here that I did not grow up with the Mike & Carol Brady of parents. (I can already hear you whining that I must have had some privileged upbringing to turn out with such a strong sense of self. On the contrary, darlings, I grew up quite alone, quite lost, quite UN-normie. So, put that in your pipe and fuck right off then.)
Where marriage and/or relationships are concerned, I chose a partner who unambiguously proved himself worthy of trust, respect, admiration and loyalty and, perhaps even more importantly, didn't cower in the face of my "strong" personality. There was no doubt when the time came to decide.
After hearing that, perhaps you wonder if I'm yet another brainwashed, delicate lady flower, a subservient housewife -- let me assure you, I am the exact opposite of all of those things. Read some of my other ramblings if you're not convinced. There is a critical distinction to be made between being a strong, independent-thinking woman and being a straight up bitchy twat.
Things today just aren't rooted in merit the way they once were; somewhere along the line, achievement and excellence and strength became dirty words and vilified concepts. I ask you this: If you don't have to strive for anything, really sweat and work and burn for a goal, what the fuck is the point; and if everything is handed to you because of some irrelevant, arbitrary criteria such as gender, deep down do you actually feel like you worked for it?
We are all broken in ways, some of us in many ways; just about all of us are the inhabitants of the Island of Misfit Toys. You are, I am, we all are, and if you believe otherwise, here’s a link to my Patreon*, because I definitely, totally agree with and validate the entirety of your belief system, so please contribute, because as glamorous as being a writer may appear on the surface, it’s not nearly as lucrative as say, stripping or escort work, both of which I’m long since retired - er, excluded from. Because I’m old. And fat "curvy", or maybe “zaftig”; zaftig sounds much more...genteel. I own it though - I don’t lie to myself and say I’m just a big, beautiful, curvy woman who is perfect the way I am. No, I will tell anyone who asks, unabashedly, that I’m a short, squat, middle-aged, booze-loving agoraphobe, and you can have my vodka when you pry it out of my cold, dead hands.
Emasculating your man never, ever works, but rather, does the exact opposite of what you're goal likely is. Constant nagging, harping, demeaning and belittling just pushes him further into his man-cave hidey- hole; you know, the one you hate and take personal offense to, because you're not self-aware enough to comprehend that if you abuse anyone long enough, they're going to need respite from your bullshit. You and your enabling friends, wine and comfort food in hand - if you married for security or because you simply figured it was "time" or you gave up on the game of life and just settled for the poor shmuck you were able to nail down at the appropriate time, and NOT because you genuinely loved, admired, and respected that man - you have absolutely no one to blame but yourself should you find yourself in a shitty, loveless, boring, unfulfilling marriage. There are caveats, of course - physical or emotional abuse, addiction, debilitating accidents, cheating pieces of shit, etc., but that's not the type of situation I'm referring to here, and I think you know that.
Mmmmmm, MISANDRY. A term hardly seen in print today unless in the context of something pro-MRA (another group you disparage, malign, etc., because MEN, the evil patriarchy, never, ever suffer abuse or discrimination or prejudice, right?). Misandry is the poorly-veiled mechanism of 3rd Wave Feminists everywhere!! It is no surprise that "Feminism" is an increasingly pejorative term these days, and rightfully so, as it is absolutely antithetical to the nature of equality. When a movement seeks to subvert a gender or a race based solely on a single criteria, how on earth can that be considered "equality" in any way? When neo-Feminism seeks to subvert men simply because they're men, because "PATRIARCHY!", that is absolutely NOT equal, and is in reality the antithesis of equal.
I could keep going, and I will in some other 3WF-related screed, "FEMINISM"
My God, It's Full of Shills!
There is a battle being fought on Twitter between anyone even
remotely pro-Trump and those staunchly anti-Trump. Both camps are
equally as dedicated to their respective causes. The anti-Trump camp is
an odd conglomeration of pro-Cruz and strictly anti-Trump people, but
the vitriol is ubiquitous and is very, very real. Brb, time to check my
Twitter feed!!!
Political battles these days seem increasingly originate on Social Media ("SocMed"), and it's not difficult to figure out why. Cloaked in the anonymity the internet affords, people say whatever the fuck they want and have little to fear in the way of actual consequences. What's someone going to do, Tweet you back a bitchy retort? Block you? Oh, boo hoo, how will I survive?
I've experience quite a rude awakening this time around the merry-go-round, where this election is concerned and, in how SocMed is forever changing everything, in particular the role of the media. While it's not a new thing to question the veracity of the things we're spoon-fed by MSM, never has it been more starkly clear than it is at this moment just how deep and wide the swamp of bullshit goes. Fuck the people posing as journalists, but who are nothing more than anthropomorphized click-bait. I can think of one member of the media in particular who embodies this; he and his Dumpster Fire of a "publication" post absolutely nothing of any value, but rather earn their Cruz-backer-funded paychecks by posing as "journalists" who pump out twisted, biased, garbage fluff all day, every day.
I jumped into this mess at a time where the general consensus was that said "journalist" once had some credibility; he had been an early proponent of anti-SJW rhetoric, and seemingly didn't start out the game as a PsyOps / infiltrator, but sadly, seems to have unambiguously ended up as that very thing. When I jumped into the proverbial pool, I could still hear the echos of his prior popularity, but it was now waning and what remained was a growing negative sentiment over his total abdication of the principles and issues that once garnered him quite a bit of support.
He wouldn’t be the first person to pretend to be on one team, whilst spying for the other, and it's not just him. It's across the board, to varying degrees - across the whole media.
[ANGRY RANT WARNING] This whole thing has me really quite agitated, in that “yep, gonna pound drinks, shitpost and plant seeds where I can” sort of way; other days my view beyond the veil is straight up depressing and I employ my ninja-like avoidance skills (though never for very long - the hallmark of every codependent, abusive relationship). If it’s good enough for people calling themselves “journalists” to spew their opinions and present them as fact, it’s certainly good enough for some angry woman with nothing better to do than sit on Twitter and drink vodka all fucking day (and night) to do the same, right? If the type and quality of "news" disseminated today is the unashamed detritus that now qualifies as "journalism", sign me up because I can spew shit painted gold just as well as, if not better than, most of these hacks.
Fuck this whole bullshit game. I think I’ve crossed the Event Horizon at this point where my perception of the media and the general understanding of journalistic integrity is concerned; there is no turning back. Once you see beyond the veil, there is no going back to putting on the tv and finding out what’s “happening”, because you know that every word of it is parsed, couched, spun, twisted and re-packaged in such a way as to fit a desired agenda. Everything that comes across the airwaves today is old news, has been scrubbed of any undesired facts, cleaned up to suit what the target audience wants to hear and was something entirely different hours or days before it gets to you.
If you’re Ted Cruz, the GOPs Flavor of the Week at the moment, you get to enjoy the benefits of media protection by having your colossal cluster fuck of a marital infidelity scandal barely even register, let alone be afforded any appreciable coverage by any network. I fucking hate to say this with every single fiber of my being, but (gritting teeth) I’m starting to understand what (gritting) Sarah (gritting) Palin meant when she pejoratively referred to the “Mainstream Media” back in the 2008 election cycle. Of course, she added “Liberal” to that whole thing, because at that time (2007), Liberal was still a fairly effective dog whistle, versus the rather threadbare colloquialism it has become today. Or maybe I’m just super desensitized to it now. Regardless it isn’t just the “liberals”, it is across the board. It is every single network on TV (they’re all owned by what, 2 or 3 ppl?). Where Trump is concerned, the onslaught and abject hatred is coming from within his own party, the soon-to-be incinerated GOP.
We need our fucking monopoly busters back. A handful of rich fuckers should NOT control the entirety of American news media. Is this the United States or are we North Korea, FFS? Russia probably has more variety and less of a slant in their news coverage at this point. I’m gonna ask one of my Russkie Twitter peeps about that one of these days. On that note, it would be fucking great to see America and Russia work together again; this Cold War shit is BTFO and it’s time for US and RU to unite and kick everyone else’s asses.
Yeah, just retweeted a (likely photoshopped) pic of Scott Walker (R-WI) in lingere, giving the Heil Hitler, on a swastika rug. It was fucking glorious and I don’t regret it at all, because I'm angry, buzzed and damnit, sometimes I get to throw an over-the-top, fake-as-fuck hat into the ring. It’s been fine and dandy with everyone, everywhere, across the board in the media, to malign and smear Trump with the absolute most disgusting bullshit - “Literally Hitler”, KKK, racist, white supremacist.
It’s abhorrent and they ALL went with it. They ALL repeated the lies, obscured the truth, took everything he said out of context and have done absolutely nothing else but wage coordinated effort after coordinated effort to utterly destroy his campaign; and for what - Money? I’m having a hard time restraining myself from straight up calling them all out for the complete whores they are, but whore really is the most appropriate description for what I’m seeing happen everywhere. One could almost boil it down to a mathematical expression of “Trump said X, Media twists it and presents it as Y”. Piece of shit [allegedly] Soros-funded thugs show up at a campaign event, act like the shitbags they are? Yep, still going to be blamed on Trump, because why the fuck not and who doesn’t LOVE money??
The saddest thing is that these fucking CHILDREN could have ushered in a whole new age of enlightenment where the media and bias are concerned. They’re young, educated, connected - they REALLY could have made a difference, the way journalists USED TO. Journalism USED to be about seeking and reporting the truthiest truth obtainable. Journalists of an era long since gone worked tirelessly to bring news to the fore that was at VERY least somewhat true, somewhat unfiltered versus the repackaged, tainted, pre-digested fucking GARBAGE being put out now.
The insanity in the media and across social media is absolutely mind-blowing. I wonder when or if any of the people spewing racist, hateful shit on Twitter will ever learn to temper themselves and the things they say. The media loves to push the “Trump supporters are evil, hateful, racist violent thugs” narrative 24/7, unabashedly, forcefully, unashamedly and yet the people I consistently see spewing the very worst of it are the anti-Trump crowd, particularly the willfully -ignorant Cruz folks.
From assassination threats, to threats of violence, to total disregard for the will of the voters, to outright debasement of the very underpinnings of our “democratic society” (representative republic, actually, right?), pro-Cruz folks seem to have no problem whatsoever with any of that, nor the notion of poached delegates or a contested convention to prevent Trump from becoming the nominee, should Trump fail to achieve the magic 1237 number. The Cruzers seem willing to ignore to the devastating effect that rigged outcome will have on our country, to our political process and are absolutely unconcerned at how gravely and irretrievably stealing the nomination will injure America. They don't care because their hatred of Trump renders them unable to think of anything else; they are unable to contemplate a situation in which these same things were being done to their candidate and consider how distraught they might be in that instance. Nope, it's all "rawr, NeverTrump! Hurr Durr! Cruz is literally awesome and you're all big, dumb poopie heads!!". That's about the level of retort from that side of the aisle; potty words, ad hominems and strawmen. Sad.
There seems to be no distinction whatsoever between actual “journalists” and hack “pundits” who do absolutely nothing but offer up opinions couched as fact. These hacks are driving a very destructive, very dangerous narrative and the narrative is, unfortunately, what motivates most of the population in action, thought and belief. Say negative things about a candidate with enough force and frequency, and you will have brainwashed a sizable segment of the population to see that candidate all of the negative, hateful, almost completely false things you’ve painted them as - and because you’ve presented it as some sort of altruistic “just want what’s best for you!” manipulation, that segment will buy it.
There is a LOT of psyOp, subterfuge propaganda and tactics being employed / deployed across the board right now. Even FoxNews, the very mother-ship for “conservatives”, has taken a forcefully anti-Trump position, and they make absolutely no secret of it. From Megyn Kelly’s ridiculous questions whilst serving as a moderator for the first GOP debate, to her unwavering commitment to doing absolutely nothing else with her time slot on Fox but smearing Trump to the very best of her ability, to CNN & Fox’s obsession with ridiculous diversions like “Corey-gate”, “Wife-Gate”, while a near media blackout of the massive Cruz sex scandal story, we are seeing a concerted, choreographed effort to destroy Trump’s candidacy.
The hacks even go so far as to readily admit their singular cause - they often express befuddlement over how, despite their best efforts, he can still be the frontrunner. Without a shred of shame for violating just about every tenet of journalistic ethics, they wonder aloud how none of the smears, biased coverage, touting of every other candidate as orders of magnitude better than Trump, have worked; they can understand neither Trump’s continued and growing popularity nor how it is even possible that their smear campaigns haven’t worked.
Political battles these days seem increasingly originate on Social Media ("SocMed"), and it's not difficult to figure out why. Cloaked in the anonymity the internet affords, people say whatever the fuck they want and have little to fear in the way of actual consequences. What's someone going to do, Tweet you back a bitchy retort? Block you? Oh, boo hoo, how will I survive?
I've experience quite a rude awakening this time around the merry-go-round, where this election is concerned and, in how SocMed is forever changing everything, in particular the role of the media. While it's not a new thing to question the veracity of the things we're spoon-fed by MSM, never has it been more starkly clear than it is at this moment just how deep and wide the swamp of bullshit goes. Fuck the people posing as journalists, but who are nothing more than anthropomorphized click-bait. I can think of one member of the media in particular who embodies this; he and his Dumpster Fire of a "publication" post absolutely nothing of any value, but rather earn their Cruz-backer-funded paychecks by posing as "journalists" who pump out twisted, biased, garbage fluff all day, every day.
I jumped into this mess at a time where the general consensus was that said "journalist" once had some credibility; he had been an early proponent of anti-SJW rhetoric, and seemingly didn't start out the game as a PsyOps / infiltrator, but sadly, seems to have unambiguously ended up as that very thing. When I jumped into the proverbial pool, I could still hear the echos of his prior popularity, but it was now waning and what remained was a growing negative sentiment over his total abdication of the principles and issues that once garnered him quite a bit of support.
He wouldn’t be the first person to pretend to be on one team, whilst spying for the other, and it's not just him. It's across the board, to varying degrees - across the whole media.
[ANGRY RANT WARNING] This whole thing has me really quite agitated, in that “yep, gonna pound drinks, shitpost and plant seeds where I can” sort of way; other days my view beyond the veil is straight up depressing and I employ my ninja-like avoidance skills (though never for very long - the hallmark of every codependent, abusive relationship). If it’s good enough for people calling themselves “journalists” to spew their opinions and present them as fact, it’s certainly good enough for some angry woman with nothing better to do than sit on Twitter and drink vodka all fucking day (and night) to do the same, right? If the type and quality of "news" disseminated today is the unashamed detritus that now qualifies as "journalism", sign me up because I can spew shit painted gold just as well as, if not better than, most of these hacks.
Fuck this whole bullshit game. I think I’ve crossed the Event Horizon at this point where my perception of the media and the general understanding of journalistic integrity is concerned; there is no turning back. Once you see beyond the veil, there is no going back to putting on the tv and finding out what’s “happening”, because you know that every word of it is parsed, couched, spun, twisted and re-packaged in such a way as to fit a desired agenda. Everything that comes across the airwaves today is old news, has been scrubbed of any undesired facts, cleaned up to suit what the target audience wants to hear and was something entirely different hours or days before it gets to you.
If you’re Ted Cruz, the GOPs Flavor of the Week at the moment, you get to enjoy the benefits of media protection by having your colossal cluster fuck of a marital infidelity scandal barely even register, let alone be afforded any appreciable coverage by any network. I fucking hate to say this with every single fiber of my being, but (gritting teeth) I’m starting to understand what (gritting) Sarah (gritting) Palin meant when she pejoratively referred to the “Mainstream Media” back in the 2008 election cycle. Of course, she added “Liberal” to that whole thing, because at that time (2007), Liberal was still a fairly effective dog whistle, versus the rather threadbare colloquialism it has become today. Or maybe I’m just super desensitized to it now. Regardless it isn’t just the “liberals”, it is across the board. It is every single network on TV (they’re all owned by what, 2 or 3 ppl?). Where Trump is concerned, the onslaught and abject hatred is coming from within his own party, the soon-to-be incinerated GOP.
We need our fucking monopoly busters back. A handful of rich fuckers should NOT control the entirety of American news media. Is this the United States or are we North Korea, FFS? Russia probably has more variety and less of a slant in their news coverage at this point. I’m gonna ask one of my Russkie Twitter peeps about that one of these days. On that note, it would be fucking great to see America and Russia work together again; this Cold War shit is BTFO and it’s time for US and RU to unite and kick everyone else’s asses.
Yeah, just retweeted a (likely photoshopped) pic of Scott Walker (R-WI) in lingere, giving the Heil Hitler, on a swastika rug. It was fucking glorious and I don’t regret it at all, because I'm angry, buzzed and damnit, sometimes I get to throw an over-the-top, fake-as-fuck hat into the ring. It’s been fine and dandy with everyone, everywhere, across the board in the media, to malign and smear Trump with the absolute most disgusting bullshit - “Literally Hitler”, KKK, racist, white supremacist.
It’s abhorrent and they ALL went with it. They ALL repeated the lies, obscured the truth, took everything he said out of context and have done absolutely nothing else but wage coordinated effort after coordinated effort to utterly destroy his campaign; and for what - Money? I’m having a hard time restraining myself from straight up calling them all out for the complete whores they are, but whore really is the most appropriate description for what I’m seeing happen everywhere. One could almost boil it down to a mathematical expression of “Trump said X, Media twists it and presents it as Y”. Piece of shit [allegedly] Soros-funded thugs show up at a campaign event, act like the shitbags they are? Yep, still going to be blamed on Trump, because why the fuck not and who doesn’t LOVE money??
The saddest thing is that these fucking CHILDREN could have ushered in a whole new age of enlightenment where the media and bias are concerned. They’re young, educated, connected - they REALLY could have made a difference, the way journalists USED TO. Journalism USED to be about seeking and reporting the truthiest truth obtainable. Journalists of an era long since gone worked tirelessly to bring news to the fore that was at VERY least somewhat true, somewhat unfiltered versus the repackaged, tainted, pre-digested fucking GARBAGE being put out now.
The insanity in the media and across social media is absolutely mind-blowing. I wonder when or if any of the people spewing racist, hateful shit on Twitter will ever learn to temper themselves and the things they say. The media loves to push the “Trump supporters are evil, hateful, racist violent thugs” narrative 24/7, unabashedly, forcefully, unashamedly and yet the people I consistently see spewing the very worst of it are the anti-Trump crowd, particularly the willfully -ignorant Cruz folks.
From assassination threats, to threats of violence, to total disregard for the will of the voters, to outright debasement of the very underpinnings of our “democratic society” (representative republic, actually, right?), pro-Cruz folks seem to have no problem whatsoever with any of that, nor the notion of poached delegates or a contested convention to prevent Trump from becoming the nominee, should Trump fail to achieve the magic 1237 number. The Cruzers seem willing to ignore to the devastating effect that rigged outcome will have on our country, to our political process and are absolutely unconcerned at how gravely and irretrievably stealing the nomination will injure America. They don't care because their hatred of Trump renders them unable to think of anything else; they are unable to contemplate a situation in which these same things were being done to their candidate and consider how distraught they might be in that instance. Nope, it's all "rawr, NeverTrump! Hurr Durr! Cruz is literally awesome and you're all big, dumb poopie heads!!". That's about the level of retort from that side of the aisle; potty words, ad hominems and strawmen. Sad.
There seems to be no distinction whatsoever between actual “journalists” and hack “pundits” who do absolutely nothing but offer up opinions couched as fact. These hacks are driving a very destructive, very dangerous narrative and the narrative is, unfortunately, what motivates most of the population in action, thought and belief. Say negative things about a candidate with enough force and frequency, and you will have brainwashed a sizable segment of the population to see that candidate all of the negative, hateful, almost completely false things you’ve painted them as - and because you’ve presented it as some sort of altruistic “just want what’s best for you!” manipulation, that segment will buy it.
There is a LOT of psyOp, subterfuge propaganda and tactics being employed / deployed across the board right now. Even FoxNews, the very mother-ship for “conservatives”, has taken a forcefully anti-Trump position, and they make absolutely no secret of it. From Megyn Kelly’s ridiculous questions whilst serving as a moderator for the first GOP debate, to her unwavering commitment to doing absolutely nothing else with her time slot on Fox but smearing Trump to the very best of her ability, to CNN & Fox’s obsession with ridiculous diversions like “Corey-gate”, “Wife-Gate”, while a near media blackout of the massive Cruz sex scandal story, we are seeing a concerted, choreographed effort to destroy Trump’s candidacy.
The hacks even go so far as to readily admit their singular cause - they often express befuddlement over how, despite their best efforts, he can still be the frontrunner. Without a shred of shame for violating just about every tenet of journalistic ethics, they wonder aloud how none of the smears, biased coverage, touting of every other candidate as orders of magnitude better than Trump, have worked; they can understand neither Trump’s continued and growing popularity nor how it is even possible that their smear campaigns haven’t worked.
Some Shit About Feminism.
On false (rape or other) accusations: I feel personally offended, as
a woman, when the premise is put forth by other women that somehow,
because of my gender, I’m required to take a woman’s side in every
single instance where “he said / she said” exists. The sad reality is
that should a woman decide she regrets a sexual encounter - an encounter
that was completely* consensual at the time- she can decide that it was
assault or rape, and destroy the life of someone else. Worse still is
the fact that this same “opportunity” is not afforded to men, at all,
ever.
Men who allege sexual assault are almost always disbelieved, mocked, belittled. It’s a demeaning and oppressive double standard. Why aren’t men allowed the opportunity to be helped, comforted, consoled after being sexually assaulted? Insisting that “men can’t be raped” or anything of the sort is a disgusting instance of double standard, and is yet another bastardization of one of the original tenets of feminism - EQUALITY. Feminism, originally, was the desire for equality, right? What is equal about one gender being allowed to allege sexual assault and receive comfort, support and be believed in those allegations, but not the other gender? The war on cis-het men really needs to stop. It’s disgusting.
A strong, successful woman I recently spoke with about feminism pondered feminism's role and meaning in her life. She asked, "If I am not a feminist, who is??" Here's the thing - today's "feminism", as we generally, colloquially understand it to be (and let me plainly state, I am no scholar of the ideology) has been hijacked and corrupted, perhaps purposefully or perhaps as a matter of time and societal evolution. Today's feminism isn't what it started out as.
I often contemplate American society in terms of evolution, both broadly and in the context of a human life span (probably synchronous with my own lifespan thusfar and its likely endpoint). The 60s, in hindsight (I wasn't there, but society is akin to the Titanic - it doesn't change course all that quickly), were collectively younger, wilder, idealistic teenage years. The 50s, more child-like, more naive, more trusting of government, authority, etc. The 70s were...a mess, ha ha - an era replete with the awkwardness of "finding ourselves". The 80s were perhaps that launch-point we all get to (if we're lucky), where we're well into our 20s, maybe early 30s, and we've achieved cruising altitude. After that, the 90s - young, but not quite as young, still naive, but not as naive, and most importantly, the last moments of a SocMed-free world. Continuing onward, the 2000s came and with it both the end of everything we knew and the beginning of everything we will know. The entire game has changed.
What was once "it would be nice to be allowed to have a career, an education, be something more than a brood mare" (which was absolutely a valid and worthy ideal) has morphed into a terrible, "She-Lady Man Haters"Club, complete with decoder rings, secret handshakes and shunning if you dare stray outside the acceptable dogma. My hope is that it's a pendulum of sorts - that it will settle into a more inclusive equilibrium. Men today seem (rightfully) angry at decades of being infantilized, feminized, subtly told they're horrible, unfeeling, rapey ogres, and I think they're really quite tired of that narrative.
Women have also been fed a false narrative - that they are both strong, powerful, "better than boys" warriors AND special, perfect princesses. None of those things are compatible in any way, and everyone is a mess because societal gender roles that in any way mimic biological ones have become a dirty, verbotten thing. Everyone is completely confused and it's readily apparent and palpable across all SocMed. I think the "special, perfect princesses" is really the root of the problem, where current feminism is concerned. It's the opposite of empowering, it's actually quite patronizing, yet all we hear about is "the evil patriarchy!!".
I think the overarching problem today is the adoption of the victim mindset. Somehow, we went from a manly-man, suck-it-up, don't cry ya big baby society to "everyone gets a trophy, no one ever has to feel any pain or inferiority and you don't have to break a sweat and try at all, because that's [insert oppressive buzzword here]". It went off the rails. You are probably an admirable, beautiful, intelligent woman, and there is likely no reason for you to feel anything but pride in who and what you are.
"Feminism" is not a badge, it is not an achievement. It is an ideology, and it has been co-opted by many over the years and used as a device of sorts (if that's even the right word). I hope you keep asking the questions, I hope that you never back down from being courageous. I know you know far better than I do the narrative, the propaganda of it all that forms the narrative that ripples through the zeitgeist these days.
* The definition of "completely" is somewhat ambiguous. I don't deny the fact that there are situations where a seducer takes advantage of a drunk girl and while I do believe we are responsible for our actions, including the decision to get hammered at a bar and go home with some guy, I also believe that the responsibility for actions and choices should be shouldered equally with both the seducer AND the seducee. Also applicable to both is that part of being a fucking ADULT is using some common sense, not putting yourself in a vulnerable, potentially dangerous situation, and not dragging a drunk girl home just because you can AND taking ownership of your mistakes. Shit like having ruphies slipped into your drink doesn't count here, and in such an instance, the blame shifts squarely onto the shoulders of the piece of shit doing the drugging.
Men who allege sexual assault are almost always disbelieved, mocked, belittled. It’s a demeaning and oppressive double standard. Why aren’t men allowed the opportunity to be helped, comforted, consoled after being sexually assaulted? Insisting that “men can’t be raped” or anything of the sort is a disgusting instance of double standard, and is yet another bastardization of one of the original tenets of feminism - EQUALITY. Feminism, originally, was the desire for equality, right? What is equal about one gender being allowed to allege sexual assault and receive comfort, support and be believed in those allegations, but not the other gender? The war on cis-het men really needs to stop. It’s disgusting.
A strong, successful woman I recently spoke with about feminism pondered feminism's role and meaning in her life. She asked, "If I am not a feminist, who is??" Here's the thing - today's "feminism", as we generally, colloquially understand it to be (and let me plainly state, I am no scholar of the ideology) has been hijacked and corrupted, perhaps purposefully or perhaps as a matter of time and societal evolution. Today's feminism isn't what it started out as.
I often contemplate American society in terms of evolution, both broadly and in the context of a human life span (probably synchronous with my own lifespan thusfar and its likely endpoint). The 60s, in hindsight (I wasn't there, but society is akin to the Titanic - it doesn't change course all that quickly), were collectively younger, wilder, idealistic teenage years. The 50s, more child-like, more naive, more trusting of government, authority, etc. The 70s were...a mess, ha ha - an era replete with the awkwardness of "finding ourselves". The 80s were perhaps that launch-point we all get to (if we're lucky), where we're well into our 20s, maybe early 30s, and we've achieved cruising altitude. After that, the 90s - young, but not quite as young, still naive, but not as naive, and most importantly, the last moments of a SocMed-free world. Continuing onward, the 2000s came and with it both the end of everything we knew and the beginning of everything we will know. The entire game has changed.
What was once "it would be nice to be allowed to have a career, an education, be something more than a brood mare" (which was absolutely a valid and worthy ideal) has morphed into a terrible, "She-Lady Man Haters"Club, complete with decoder rings, secret handshakes and shunning if you dare stray outside the acceptable dogma. My hope is that it's a pendulum of sorts - that it will settle into a more inclusive equilibrium. Men today seem (rightfully) angry at decades of being infantilized, feminized, subtly told they're horrible, unfeeling, rapey ogres, and I think they're really quite tired of that narrative.
Women have also been fed a false narrative - that they are both strong, powerful, "better than boys" warriors AND special, perfect princesses. None of those things are compatible in any way, and everyone is a mess because societal gender roles that in any way mimic biological ones have become a dirty, verbotten thing. Everyone is completely confused and it's readily apparent and palpable across all SocMed. I think the "special, perfect princesses" is really the root of the problem, where current feminism is concerned. It's the opposite of empowering, it's actually quite patronizing, yet all we hear about is "the evil patriarchy!!".
I think the overarching problem today is the adoption of the victim mindset. Somehow, we went from a manly-man, suck-it-up, don't cry ya big baby society to "everyone gets a trophy, no one ever has to feel any pain or inferiority and you don't have to break a sweat and try at all, because that's [insert oppressive buzzword here]". It went off the rails. You are probably an admirable, beautiful, intelligent woman, and there is likely no reason for you to feel anything but pride in who and what you are.
"Feminism" is not a badge, it is not an achievement. It is an ideology, and it has been co-opted by many over the years and used as a device of sorts (if that's even the right word). I hope you keep asking the questions, I hope that you never back down from being courageous. I know you know far better than I do the narrative, the propaganda of it all that forms the narrative that ripples through the zeitgeist these days.
* The definition of "completely" is somewhat ambiguous. I don't deny the fact that there are situations where a seducer takes advantage of a drunk girl and while I do believe we are responsible for our actions, including the decision to get hammered at a bar and go home with some guy, I also believe that the responsibility for actions and choices should be shouldered equally with both the seducer AND the seducee. Also applicable to both is that part of being a fucking ADULT is using some common sense, not putting yourself in a vulnerable, potentially dangerous situation, and not dragging a drunk girl home just because you can AND taking ownership of your mistakes. Shit like having ruphies slipped into your drink doesn't count here, and in such an instance, the blame shifts squarely onto the shoulders of the piece of shit doing the drugging.
Ted's A Mess...
The #CruzSexScandal bomb has exploded all over Twitter, with a
vengeance. Reporter Adriana Cohen poked the tiger / spilled the beans
directly @ Amanda Carpenter on Friday, March 25th on CNN. It
was one of the most savage things I’ve seen on TV in forever, and I
jumped up shrieking over the fact that someone actually had the sack to
bring this thing up. 'Twas "Great Moments in Television" along the
lines of the OJ Slow Speed Chase (and accompanying prank call "Bababooey
to y'all!").
Carpenter’s body language - head twitch and shoulder roll / flinch - was a complete tell and if she could have incinerated Cohen with just the searing heat of hatred emanating from her eyes, she would have. It looked as if Carpenter had taken a slug to the chest, frankly; she of course tried to downplay or hide her reaction to the gut-punch, but wasn't able to pull it off. Carpenter seemed genuinely shocked that the subject would even be brought up, much less stated so starkly, live, on the air, on CNN. In hindsight, it almost looked as if Carpenter, until the moment the projectile impacted her chest, was smugly certain she’d be safe from “that tabloid garbage” simply by proxy of being safely ensconced on CNN. She was wrong though; so very, very wrong.
True to form, the internet immediately and savagely set upon Carpenter’s twitter feed, unearthing such gems as “Daddy Cruz is coming for you WaPo”, something about “on my way to steal your girl” as a hash tag under a picture of Cruz in what looked to be a military transport plane. As an aside, if you still look like a complete tool whilst sitting on a military transport plane and sporting cop sunglasses, there's just no hope for you, bro.
There are many other Twitterific gems, including the April Fool's “matching Churchill tattoos, tee hee!” thing, the “odd that Ted would appear on TV in just his shirtsleeves and no jacket” / “hey, look at that masculine-looking jacket Amanda’s wearing in that pic while showing off the Churchill tat...on the same day, at the same hour as Teddy" and of course the "zomg, my friend loves cheese and tee hee, we're having some"…at 2am. Guess they got started early that day. There are more where those came from, but I can't be arsed to bother with them further.
Another player in the Mess That Is Ted is Liz Mair, who is also a MESS. Mair's "ethics" (or rather, lack thereof - a deficit she brusquely explains away as brilliant political strategy) leave much to be desired. She was the orchestrator of the "Naked Melania" slut-shaming bit in UT just prior to that state's primary. The ad, featuring a naked Mrs. Trump, taken from a photoshoot done years ago, was put out by Mair's anti-Trump SuperPAC, "Make America Awesome". Despite all of Mair’s smug, smarmy and frankly overly defensive and nasty protestations that Cruz was in no way involved, and that the PAC wasn't a pro-Cruz PAC, it’s pretty hard to argue that your trashy attack ad “wasn’t for Cruz!” when it says at the bottom of the ad “or you could vote for Cruz”.
Such a delight, Mair is. How very fitting that she worked for some of the biggest pieces of shit in the game including Walker (from whose campaign she was fired on day 1) and Fiorina (that nasty dumpster fire of a witch); she leaves a trail of fail wherever she goes. If it weren’t so blatantly offensive and ridiculous, it would be funny just how loudly Mair and people of her ilk are saying “you’re too stupid to see what’s right in front of your face” where the technicalities of who and what was behind the campaign. For a brief moment the other day, I thought “ok, I see the logic in the strategy - presenting prim, proper Mormon women with eye-searing harlotry is, I suppose, a rather brilliant tactic. But the more I thought about it, and more importantly, gained a better insight into how Mair operates and who she appears to be based on her own comments and ridiculous tweets, and I realized that she’s really just a super tacky, base bully of sorts. Yuck. Just, yuck.
Being the secret wus that I am (I try my best to stuff all of the feels where they belong - locked up tightly in a box, submerged in a vat of Vodka) I can’t help but empathize with the Cruz fans once in a great while (that is, until I remember their willful ignorance and straight up nastiness). How horrible to have one’s illusions shattered to that degree? To have an almost cult-leader-like faith in some ass-hat you’ve never even met, who professes to be Super God Squad No. 1 Fan, BFF of Jesus himself, purer than the driven snow, is probably akin to the faith or suspension of belief it takes to be a hardcore-(any religion). The folks on Twitter who are hardcore in the tank for Cruz are freaking out - lashing out, staunchly entrenched in the denial and anger phases of denial. And it just keeps getting better…or worse, depending on how you look at it. Most recently, Cruz has been employing his usual dirty tricks to poach delegates and usurp the will of the people. Color me not shocked.
Do we have anything aside from heresay to go on where Teddy's dabblings are concerned? Not really.
In a court of law, absent discovery and subpoenas, would this shit fly? Not really sure, but I will say that when there is a pile of circumstantial evidence like there is here, it's certainly cause for concern, and I'm sure people have been convicted on far less for far greater crimes. Realistically though, we, the jury of the Court of Public Opinion, have all seen this movie before. We’ve seen stories like this spring to life, slowly at first - whispers, rumors within a closed community of colleagues; from there it becomes a Jean Natee commercial - I told two friends and they told two friends and they told two friends...etc., on and on, ad infinitum, until the entire internet - from Twitter, Facebook, Instagram etc. to 8chan/pol/, the primordial soup of the internet from which all life forms spring, is ablaze with the internet equivalent of Morse code; dits dots dashes (read: 0s,1s) fly across the ether in a digital tsunami and the truth meter needle drifts precariously away from "omg, can't be true" to "wow, this is really starting to get some legs". And then, the inevitable National Enquirer story is published, and I think we all know where it goes from there.
Carpenter’s body language - head twitch and shoulder roll / flinch - was a complete tell and if she could have incinerated Cohen with just the searing heat of hatred emanating from her eyes, she would have. It looked as if Carpenter had taken a slug to the chest, frankly; she of course tried to downplay or hide her reaction to the gut-punch, but wasn't able to pull it off. Carpenter seemed genuinely shocked that the subject would even be brought up, much less stated so starkly, live, on the air, on CNN. In hindsight, it almost looked as if Carpenter, until the moment the projectile impacted her chest, was smugly certain she’d be safe from “that tabloid garbage” simply by proxy of being safely ensconced on CNN. She was wrong though; so very, very wrong.
True to form, the internet immediately and savagely set upon Carpenter’s twitter feed, unearthing such gems as “Daddy Cruz is coming for you WaPo”, something about “on my way to steal your girl” as a hash tag under a picture of Cruz in what looked to be a military transport plane. As an aside, if you still look like a complete tool whilst sitting on a military transport plane and sporting cop sunglasses, there's just no hope for you, bro.
There are many other Twitterific gems, including the April Fool's “matching Churchill tattoos, tee hee!” thing, the “odd that Ted would appear on TV in just his shirtsleeves and no jacket” / “hey, look at that masculine-looking jacket Amanda’s wearing in that pic while showing off the Churchill tat...on the same day, at the same hour as Teddy" and of course the "zomg, my friend loves cheese and tee hee, we're having some"…at 2am. Guess they got started early that day. There are more where those came from, but I can't be arsed to bother with them further.
Another player in the Mess That Is Ted is Liz Mair, who is also a MESS. Mair's "ethics" (or rather, lack thereof - a deficit she brusquely explains away as brilliant political strategy) leave much to be desired. She was the orchestrator of the "Naked Melania" slut-shaming bit in UT just prior to that state's primary. The ad, featuring a naked Mrs. Trump, taken from a photoshoot done years ago, was put out by Mair's anti-Trump SuperPAC, "Make America Awesome". Despite all of Mair’s smug, smarmy and frankly overly defensive and nasty protestations that Cruz was in no way involved, and that the PAC wasn't a pro-Cruz PAC, it’s pretty hard to argue that your trashy attack ad “wasn’t for Cruz!” when it says at the bottom of the ad “or you could vote for Cruz”.
Such a delight, Mair is. How very fitting that she worked for some of the biggest pieces of shit in the game including Walker (from whose campaign she was fired on day 1) and Fiorina (that nasty dumpster fire of a witch); she leaves a trail of fail wherever she goes. If it weren’t so blatantly offensive and ridiculous, it would be funny just how loudly Mair and people of her ilk are saying “you’re too stupid to see what’s right in front of your face” where the technicalities of who and what was behind the campaign. For a brief moment the other day, I thought “ok, I see the logic in the strategy - presenting prim, proper Mormon women with eye-searing harlotry is, I suppose, a rather brilliant tactic. But the more I thought about it, and more importantly, gained a better insight into how Mair operates and who she appears to be based on her own comments and ridiculous tweets, and I realized that she’s really just a super tacky, base bully of sorts. Yuck. Just, yuck.
Being the secret wus that I am (I try my best to stuff all of the feels where they belong - locked up tightly in a box, submerged in a vat of Vodka) I can’t help but empathize with the Cruz fans once in a great while (that is, until I remember their willful ignorance and straight up nastiness). How horrible to have one’s illusions shattered to that degree? To have an almost cult-leader-like faith in some ass-hat you’ve never even met, who professes to be Super God Squad No. 1 Fan, BFF of Jesus himself, purer than the driven snow, is probably akin to the faith or suspension of belief it takes to be a hardcore-(any religion). The folks on Twitter who are hardcore in the tank for Cruz are freaking out - lashing out, staunchly entrenched in the denial and anger phases of denial. And it just keeps getting better…or worse, depending on how you look at it. Most recently, Cruz has been employing his usual dirty tricks to poach delegates and usurp the will of the people. Color me not shocked.
Do we have anything aside from heresay to go on where Teddy's dabblings are concerned? Not really.
In a court of law, absent discovery and subpoenas, would this shit fly? Not really sure, but I will say that when there is a pile of circumstantial evidence like there is here, it's certainly cause for concern, and I'm sure people have been convicted on far less for far greater crimes. Realistically though, we, the jury of the Court of Public Opinion, have all seen this movie before. We’ve seen stories like this spring to life, slowly at first - whispers, rumors within a closed community of colleagues; from there it becomes a Jean Natee commercial - I told two friends and they told two friends and they told two friends...etc., on and on, ad infinitum, until the entire internet - from Twitter, Facebook, Instagram etc. to 8chan/pol/, the primordial soup of the internet from which all life forms spring, is ablaze with the internet equivalent of Morse code; dits dots dashes (read: 0s,1s) fly across the ether in a digital tsunami and the truth meter needle drifts precariously away from "omg, can't be true" to "wow, this is really starting to get some legs". And then, the inevitable National Enquirer story is published, and I think we all know where it goes from there.
The Girl Who Cried "Wolf" (and couldn't stop)
There is Truth (with a capital T, representing actual facts
substantiated by evidence) and then there is narrative. Truth exists,
but must be sought. Narrative, by its very nature, is wholly vulnerable
to manipulation by the agenda-driven and is perhaps the most dangerous
tool employed by every single network, media outlet, journalist and
pundit as a means to an end. And their collective use of narrative is
truly, utterly brilliant. The ability to manipulate, to utilize
psychology and science, to affect desired patterns of thought and
behavior in an almost wholly imperceptible way is the unquestionable
Holy Grail of those who understand the tremendous power inherent in the
possession of such an ability.
In reaction to the Michelle Fields / Corey Lewandowski assault allegation debacle that blew up all over Twitter, ensnared journalists and people with opinions far and wide. Of note is Ben Shapiro - he rode this story like his life depended on it and the Terris guy (who, I think, is FIelds’ boyfriend and was the other “eye witness” to the “assault”.
The alleged incident happened days ago and now, with multiple videos and stills surfacing and disseminated ubiquitously, the variety of tangible evidence - if not completely debunking the allegations, has, at very least cast a broad shadow of doubt on the veracity of Fields’ account of the “incident”. Now, some 24 hours after it really blew up across SocMed, the White Knighters, feminists and agenda-pushers have fallen strangely silent. Barely a blip on the radar at this point.
One wonders what will become of the (alleged) charges filed in Jupiter, FL against Lewandowski. I personally wonder if I’m the only fucking person on earth with the rudimentary skills to review multiple videos frame by frame to determine just who it was that so “violently assaulted” Fields.
A review of the many videos circulating, and analysis of the "incident" frame by frame:
In one of the vids, in the seconds just before the alleged incident btw Corey ("CL") and MF [a scene not shown in the vid linked to this post], CL's body language has the appearance of him indicating something to the Secret Service guy, and the SecSvc agent ("SSA") then moving ahead of CL towards MF.
In viewing vids and stills from many other angles of perspective of the seconds of activity in question, including the moment where MF REACHES FOR TRUMP'S ARM (or sleeve or whatever), it can clearly be seen that the SSA man is alert to something and moves to take action.
In one vid in particular, a brief gap is seen between CL's torso and that of the person to his left; CL's left arm is outstretched in a "crowd control / directing" stance, and the light beige fabric of MF's garment is seen. In that nanosecond, with the SSA forward of CL, and (from a distance / depth of field perspective) closest to MF, with CL's left arm still in the aforementioned raised position, a hand enters the frame, making contact with the beige-colored garment MF is wearing. It appears to be her arm. The video linked here captures literal nanoseconds AFTER that, and this is where CL is seen ushering MF aside.
Assessing CL's body language throughout this entire thing (again, a span of time in the neighborhood of 3 seconds in total), the scenario has the appearance of CL alerting the SSA to something, ostensibly MF's interaction w/Trump, the SSA taking an active interest and forward motion in MF's direction, and CL reaffirming the action with the goal of control of the flow of "traffic" as Trump is attempting to depart the location unhindered.
The question of whether CL made contact with MF may still be up for debate, but the allegations of assault, "being violently jerked" and "nearly thrown to the floor", however, are NOT.
Forensic analysis of vids and stills where an allegation of assault is made is not agenda-driven, but rather a prudent and necessary tool for discerning the veracity of claims made. An analysis like this is a far more dependable piece of evidence on which to rely than notoriously unreliable "eyewitness" accounts. The reliability of eyewitness testimony has long been found to be faulty at best.--
Update, Sunday 3-13-16 6:14pm - Ann Coulter just tweeted “it’s beginning to look like Michelle Fields assaulted Trump”. Funny how everything I said a day or two ago is popping up across Twitter. I’m OK with not getting the credit for this shit though - what an absolute shit-show the whole CL/MF thing has been. Amongst the crowd joining us in the Coliseum are (predictably), the rabid Social Justice Warriors, whose sole and sworn duty is to work themselves into a lather at the slightest hint or allegation of ANYTHING that even remotely triggers them.
A woman claimed to be assaulted by someone at a public event? “Oh my GOD, crucify that loathsome he-man woman-hater misogynist IMMEDIATELY!! If you question her story or even hesitate for a moment because you’re wondering if there is anything, in addition to her story, to substantiate her very serious allegations, you are LITERALLY a monster and you should die, slowly and painfully!!”. It doesn’t matter to a certain ilk of people that this incident took place in front of hundreds of onlookers, arguably all of whom were holding cameras, recorders, cell phones, and all means of capturing audio and video moments.
The moments in time of interest were captured by multiple people. Numerous videos, stills and photographs have circulated across the ether. Powerpoint slide-like JPGs, GIFs, and forensic analysis of a sort rivaled only by the Wyckoff analysis of the fucking Zapruder film in it’s level of scrutiny have been done by numerous people. And yet? That’s STILL not good enough for some people. The most rabid of pro-Fields folks are strikingly similar to the sort of Tumblr-ific folks who might psychologically shatter if their tightly-held world view is compromised by an iota of infiltration of their echo-chamber hug-box psyche. Fields is a WOMAN, and you are a dirty, orphan-raping monster if you doubt anything a woman says, especially when it men!!
There seem to be quite a few questionable vignettes around Fields out there, but honestly, I don’t know the woman, I have no horse in this race other than the pursuit of truth and because I have an almost perverse addiction to forensic analysis. I offer no statement either way as to Ms. Fields character, integrity, etc., and I absolutely don’t condone the pitchfork and torch mob going after her.
That being said, one would hope she and Terris would offer up something, anything to rectify the situation, if that’s even possible. For the Journos who, using specious and scant evidence available to them at the outset, set upon this story like rabid dogs YOU are the people who need to come clean on this. Purge yourselves of the stink of having jumped the gun, because the initial story elicited a hand-brain response of sorts and you absolutely ran with it. A greater clarification has been determined since this story first broke. Your continued adherence to the “that terrible man assaulted that poor, helpless woman!!” trope really just casts serious doubt on your credibility and on your use of “journalist” to describe your profession. Edward R. Murrow is spinning in his grave so fast, he is just about to create his own electromagnetic field.
Guess who’s back / Back again…
Yep, Michelle Field, Ben Shapiro and some new partners in crime, Liz Mair and Betsy Woodruff. All literally foaming at the mouth over Field’s trumped-up assault charges on Corey Lewandowski. This has (of course) blown up all over Twitter and, strangely enough, was immediately shoved into rotation on FoxNews, in stark contrast to virtually no coverage of the Cruz sex scandals. The strategy REEKS of Liz Mair - who continues to disgust me more with each passing day. Her M.O. is to play the dirtiest pool she can - street thug style. I expect to see her hired on at Shapiro’s rag, The Daily (Dumpster) Fire, an online “publication” that has become the absolute benchmark for everything crass and wrong and fucking unholy in modern journalism. They can’t even call themselves journalists, not with a straight face; they are bought and paid for political hacks, shilling unabashedly for their corporate overlords and violating every single ethical standard of journalism. Click bait titles that make Daily Best, Breitbart, WND, etc. look like fucking Pulitzer Prize poster children; stories assembled relying on absolutely nothing but “a source said”, or recycling some other publication’s prior shoddy, unsourced, biased heresay garbage.
I hate everything their brand of “journalism” is: predatory, disconnected from reality, purposefully misleading, willfully obtuse, painfully exploitive.
And then a wild Betsy Woodruff appears. Just sent Cernovich a pic of her I found via Fields’ Instagram (these fucking kids today and their entire lives publicly available…), appears to be wearing something VERY VERY similar to the girl in the pic, most notable is her very prominent chin, and of course, that she’s yet another “journalist” in the fucking tank for Cruz. He’s such an intensely unattractive, creepy guy. I can’t for the life of me fathom, even taking into account the Senator thing, power, status, etc. why on earth ANY young, attractive woman would ever want to sleep with him. UGH. He’s so gross, and he’s like, a first time Senator! WTF? It’s not like he’s Paul Ryan or anything! (Shhhh! Don’t tell anyone I think P-Ry is a-dorrrbs! It’s probably the dreamy blue eyes and the whole Wisconsin thing. I used to fucking LOATHE him, when he was running with Romney in 2012. Maybe that’s the reason - Romney. That smarmy fucking putz. “Elder Gent” of the GOP, my ass. Ha ha ha. BTFO, more like it.
It’s all a carnival ride. The media runs with every single shred of everything, and the consumers of their output.
The absolute worst thing about all of this, in a macro sense, is that once you see beyond the veil, you can never un-see what you’ve seen. Once you learn a truth, you’re unlikely to un-learn it, unless of course, it ceases to be true; though if it were a True(™) truth to begin with (in accordance with my standards for Truth(™)) it most likely wouldn’t be up for debate. Whatever, more on Truth(™) later. I was trying to articulate that if you’re someone who just happens to have nothing but free time - maybe you’re in a minimum security prison and you’ve earned internet access with all your good behavior and whatnot - and can sit around all day, every day on Twitter (the information junkies’ Valhalla crack den), you start to see patterns appear. You start to see deeper into the layers of the media, social media, psychology, hive-mind, how stories break, where they break from, with what speed they replicate across the internet.
How do we bring about a drastic change in the media? How do we separate legitimate journalists from the plethora of absolute hacks out there; hacks who spend every waking moment posting nothing but heresay, rumor, allegation and presenting it, unsourced, as actual news?
The ability of any idiot who knows how to type and use the internet to call themselves a “journalist” and to slap up a blog and call it a “news source” has led to an influx of truly awful click-bait mills. It is alarming how seldomly one is able to find an article that presents facts without filling the rest of the space with opinion and biased reimagining of reality.
I always thought the profession of journalism carried with it a certain standard of ethics around truth, impartiality and equity in how any given story is parsed and presented. I was clearly very wrong, and it has never been more apparent to me than it is now in this election cycle.
Since early March, the long-since-debunked “Grab Gate” [Gates of Our Lives] has monopolized the Twitterverse almost daily. Despite the availability of videos from every angle, eye-witness accounts, a litany of past bogus accusations on Fields’ part, and analysis more thorough than that of the Zapbruder film, there yet remain people steadfast in their conviction that that poor, young reporter was manhandled by that terrible, awful Trump “henchman” and as such, said henchman should be executed by firing squad!
Absolutely nothing sways their firm belief in their own correctness. Not facts, not actual video, not a track record littered with false accusations, nothing. Worse still, these same people (typically, Cruz supporters - a group I am at once truly beginning to both despise and pity) add this incident to their collection of seething, bitter, unfounded abject hatred for Trump and everyone who supports him in any way. I’m particularly fond of the latest dreck to bubble up through the fucking ooze of the Cruz Camp, the accusation that Trump supporters idolize and worship him; that we are nothing but uneducated, violent, Nazi sympathizers who realistically shouldn’t be able to dress ourselves in the morning, let alone form a cohesive, intelligent thought.
The irony in that accusation is palpable; the reality is that despite really quite compelling evidence that something just isn’t right with Ted Cruz and that he is wholly unsuitable for POTUS, the Cruz Crew clings to him as if he were their Canadian born, rat-faced, DC-insider Lord Jesus. The cognitive dissonance necessary to still believe the “uber-Christian, wholesome family-man, man of god” bullshit is immeasurable. At least most Trump supporters can articulate something reasonably factual, reasonably coherent as to why they have chosen Trump. This is not the case with the Cruz Crew, by and large. Their responses to anyone questioning their high priest are comprised of ad hominem attacks, strawmen arguments, personal attacks and childish insults. They seem wholly incapable of engaging in anything remotely resembling civil discourse. Even when approached civilly, their rebuttals typically involve “NO U!” And “Ur guy SUCKS!”. Or, they employ the “regurgitate lies the media has told me, present them as fact and then claim victory in the skirmish”.
I’ve had more productive and civil interactions with pro-lifers and THAT is saying a lot.
There is a component of willful ignorance at play here as well. Someone perceived as being pro-Trump in any way could be reading off a recipe, and people of the Cruz Crew ilk will dismiss the facts out of hand, and vilify the messenger. Theirs is a visceral, involuntary reaction to anything Trump related. They, like SJWs do when faced with anything that goes against their narrow ideology, completely shut down all areas of the brain responsible for critical thought, civil discourse, unbiased investigation and review of facts and the ability to discern concrete fact from everything else. They suck in heresay and rumor like black holes of stupid, and reject anything at all that deviates from their hug-box echo chamber.
In reaction to the Michelle Fields / Corey Lewandowski assault allegation debacle that blew up all over Twitter, ensnared journalists and people with opinions far and wide. Of note is Ben Shapiro - he rode this story like his life depended on it and the Terris guy (who, I think, is FIelds’ boyfriend and was the other “eye witness” to the “assault”.
The alleged incident happened days ago and now, with multiple videos and stills surfacing and disseminated ubiquitously, the variety of tangible evidence - if not completely debunking the allegations, has, at very least cast a broad shadow of doubt on the veracity of Fields’ account of the “incident”. Now, some 24 hours after it really blew up across SocMed, the White Knighters, feminists and agenda-pushers have fallen strangely silent. Barely a blip on the radar at this point.
One wonders what will become of the (alleged) charges filed in Jupiter, FL against Lewandowski. I personally wonder if I’m the only fucking person on earth with the rudimentary skills to review multiple videos frame by frame to determine just who it was that so “violently assaulted” Fields.
A review of the many videos circulating, and analysis of the "incident" frame by frame:
In one of the vids, in the seconds just before the alleged incident btw Corey ("CL") and MF [a scene not shown in the vid linked to this post], CL's body language has the appearance of him indicating something to the Secret Service guy, and the SecSvc agent ("SSA") then moving ahead of CL towards MF.
In viewing vids and stills from many other angles of perspective of the seconds of activity in question, including the moment where MF REACHES FOR TRUMP'S ARM (or sleeve or whatever), it can clearly be seen that the SSA man is alert to something and moves to take action.
In one vid in particular, a brief gap is seen between CL's torso and that of the person to his left; CL's left arm is outstretched in a "crowd control / directing" stance, and the light beige fabric of MF's garment is seen. In that nanosecond, with the SSA forward of CL, and (from a distance / depth of field perspective) closest to MF, with CL's left arm still in the aforementioned raised position, a hand enters the frame, making contact with the beige-colored garment MF is wearing. It appears to be her arm. The video linked here captures literal nanoseconds AFTER that, and this is where CL is seen ushering MF aside.
Assessing CL's body language throughout this entire thing (again, a span of time in the neighborhood of 3 seconds in total), the scenario has the appearance of CL alerting the SSA to something, ostensibly MF's interaction w/Trump, the SSA taking an active interest and forward motion in MF's direction, and CL reaffirming the action with the goal of control of the flow of "traffic" as Trump is attempting to depart the location unhindered.
The question of whether CL made contact with MF may still be up for debate, but the allegations of assault, "being violently jerked" and "nearly thrown to the floor", however, are NOT.
Forensic analysis of vids and stills where an allegation of assault is made is not agenda-driven, but rather a prudent and necessary tool for discerning the veracity of claims made. An analysis like this is a far more dependable piece of evidence on which to rely than notoriously unreliable "eyewitness" accounts. The reliability of eyewitness testimony has long been found to be faulty at best.--
Update, Sunday 3-13-16 6:14pm - Ann Coulter just tweeted “it’s beginning to look like Michelle Fields assaulted Trump”. Funny how everything I said a day or two ago is popping up across Twitter. I’m OK with not getting the credit for this shit though - what an absolute shit-show the whole CL/MF thing has been. Amongst the crowd joining us in the Coliseum are (predictably), the rabid Social Justice Warriors, whose sole and sworn duty is to work themselves into a lather at the slightest hint or allegation of ANYTHING that even remotely triggers them.
A woman claimed to be assaulted by someone at a public event? “Oh my GOD, crucify that loathsome he-man woman-hater misogynist IMMEDIATELY!! If you question her story or even hesitate for a moment because you’re wondering if there is anything, in addition to her story, to substantiate her very serious allegations, you are LITERALLY a monster and you should die, slowly and painfully!!”. It doesn’t matter to a certain ilk of people that this incident took place in front of hundreds of onlookers, arguably all of whom were holding cameras, recorders, cell phones, and all means of capturing audio and video moments.
The moments in time of interest were captured by multiple people. Numerous videos, stills and photographs have circulated across the ether. Powerpoint slide-like JPGs, GIFs, and forensic analysis of a sort rivaled only by the Wyckoff analysis of the fucking Zapruder film in it’s level of scrutiny have been done by numerous people. And yet? That’s STILL not good enough for some people. The most rabid of pro-Fields folks are strikingly similar to the sort of Tumblr-ific folks who might psychologically shatter if their tightly-held world view is compromised by an iota of infiltration of their echo-chamber hug-box psyche. Fields is a WOMAN, and you are a dirty, orphan-raping monster if you doubt anything a woman says, especially when it men!!
There seem to be quite a few questionable vignettes around Fields out there, but honestly, I don’t know the woman, I have no horse in this race other than the pursuit of truth and because I have an almost perverse addiction to forensic analysis. I offer no statement either way as to Ms. Fields character, integrity, etc., and I absolutely don’t condone the pitchfork and torch mob going after her.
That being said, one would hope she and Terris would offer up something, anything to rectify the situation, if that’s even possible. For the Journos who, using specious and scant evidence available to them at the outset, set upon this story like rabid dogs YOU are the people who need to come clean on this. Purge yourselves of the stink of having jumped the gun, because the initial story elicited a hand-brain response of sorts and you absolutely ran with it. A greater clarification has been determined since this story first broke. Your continued adherence to the “that terrible man assaulted that poor, helpless woman!!” trope really just casts serious doubt on your credibility and on your use of “journalist” to describe your profession. Edward R. Murrow is spinning in his grave so fast, he is just about to create his own electromagnetic field.
Guess who’s back / Back again…
Yep, Michelle Field, Ben Shapiro and some new partners in crime, Liz Mair and Betsy Woodruff. All literally foaming at the mouth over Field’s trumped-up assault charges on Corey Lewandowski. This has (of course) blown up all over Twitter and, strangely enough, was immediately shoved into rotation on FoxNews, in stark contrast to virtually no coverage of the Cruz sex scandals. The strategy REEKS of Liz Mair - who continues to disgust me more with each passing day. Her M.O. is to play the dirtiest pool she can - street thug style. I expect to see her hired on at Shapiro’s rag, The Daily (Dumpster) Fire, an online “publication” that has become the absolute benchmark for everything crass and wrong and fucking unholy in modern journalism. They can’t even call themselves journalists, not with a straight face; they are bought and paid for political hacks, shilling unabashedly for their corporate overlords and violating every single ethical standard of journalism. Click bait titles that make Daily Best, Breitbart, WND, etc. look like fucking Pulitzer Prize poster children; stories assembled relying on absolutely nothing but “a source said”, or recycling some other publication’s prior shoddy, unsourced, biased heresay garbage.
I hate everything their brand of “journalism” is: predatory, disconnected from reality, purposefully misleading, willfully obtuse, painfully exploitive.
And then a wild Betsy Woodruff appears. Just sent Cernovich a pic of her I found via Fields’ Instagram (these fucking kids today and their entire lives publicly available…), appears to be wearing something VERY VERY similar to the girl in the pic, most notable is her very prominent chin, and of course, that she’s yet another “journalist” in the fucking tank for Cruz. He’s such an intensely unattractive, creepy guy. I can’t for the life of me fathom, even taking into account the Senator thing, power, status, etc. why on earth ANY young, attractive woman would ever want to sleep with him. UGH. He’s so gross, and he’s like, a first time Senator! WTF? It’s not like he’s Paul Ryan or anything! (Shhhh! Don’t tell anyone I think P-Ry is a-dorrrbs! It’s probably the dreamy blue eyes and the whole Wisconsin thing. I used to fucking LOATHE him, when he was running with Romney in 2012. Maybe that’s the reason - Romney. That smarmy fucking putz. “Elder Gent” of the GOP, my ass. Ha ha ha. BTFO, more like it.
It’s all a carnival ride. The media runs with every single shred of everything, and the consumers of their output.
The absolute worst thing about all of this, in a macro sense, is that once you see beyond the veil, you can never un-see what you’ve seen. Once you learn a truth, you’re unlikely to un-learn it, unless of course, it ceases to be true; though if it were a True(™) truth to begin with (in accordance with my standards for Truth(™)) it most likely wouldn’t be up for debate. Whatever, more on Truth(™) later. I was trying to articulate that if you’re someone who just happens to have nothing but free time - maybe you’re in a minimum security prison and you’ve earned internet access with all your good behavior and whatnot - and can sit around all day, every day on Twitter (the information junkies’ Valhalla crack den), you start to see patterns appear. You start to see deeper into the layers of the media, social media, psychology, hive-mind, how stories break, where they break from, with what speed they replicate across the internet.
How do we bring about a drastic change in the media? How do we separate legitimate journalists from the plethora of absolute hacks out there; hacks who spend every waking moment posting nothing but heresay, rumor, allegation and presenting it, unsourced, as actual news?
The ability of any idiot who knows how to type and use the internet to call themselves a “journalist” and to slap up a blog and call it a “news source” has led to an influx of truly awful click-bait mills. It is alarming how seldomly one is able to find an article that presents facts without filling the rest of the space with opinion and biased reimagining of reality.
I always thought the profession of journalism carried with it a certain standard of ethics around truth, impartiality and equity in how any given story is parsed and presented. I was clearly very wrong, and it has never been more apparent to me than it is now in this election cycle.
Since early March, the long-since-debunked “Grab Gate” [Gates of Our Lives] has monopolized the Twitterverse almost daily. Despite the availability of videos from every angle, eye-witness accounts, a litany of past bogus accusations on Fields’ part, and analysis more thorough than that of the Zapbruder film, there yet remain people steadfast in their conviction that that poor, young reporter was manhandled by that terrible, awful Trump “henchman” and as such, said henchman should be executed by firing squad!
Absolutely nothing sways their firm belief in their own correctness. Not facts, not actual video, not a track record littered with false accusations, nothing. Worse still, these same people (typically, Cruz supporters - a group I am at once truly beginning to both despise and pity) add this incident to their collection of seething, bitter, unfounded abject hatred for Trump and everyone who supports him in any way. I’m particularly fond of the latest dreck to bubble up through the fucking ooze of the Cruz Camp, the accusation that Trump supporters idolize and worship him; that we are nothing but uneducated, violent, Nazi sympathizers who realistically shouldn’t be able to dress ourselves in the morning, let alone form a cohesive, intelligent thought.
The irony in that accusation is palpable; the reality is that despite really quite compelling evidence that something just isn’t right with Ted Cruz and that he is wholly unsuitable for POTUS, the Cruz Crew clings to him as if he were their Canadian born, rat-faced, DC-insider Lord Jesus. The cognitive dissonance necessary to still believe the “uber-Christian, wholesome family-man, man of god” bullshit is immeasurable. At least most Trump supporters can articulate something reasonably factual, reasonably coherent as to why they have chosen Trump. This is not the case with the Cruz Crew, by and large. Their responses to anyone questioning their high priest are comprised of ad hominem attacks, strawmen arguments, personal attacks and childish insults. They seem wholly incapable of engaging in anything remotely resembling civil discourse. Even when approached civilly, their rebuttals typically involve “NO U!” And “Ur guy SUCKS!”. Or, they employ the “regurgitate lies the media has told me, present them as fact and then claim victory in the skirmish”.
I’ve had more productive and civil interactions with pro-lifers and THAT is saying a lot.
There is a component of willful ignorance at play here as well. Someone perceived as being pro-Trump in any way could be reading off a recipe, and people of the Cruz Crew ilk will dismiss the facts out of hand, and vilify the messenger. Theirs is a visceral, involuntary reaction to anything Trump related. They, like SJWs do when faced with anything that goes against their narrow ideology, completely shut down all areas of the brain responsible for critical thought, civil discourse, unbiased investigation and review of facts and the ability to discern concrete fact from everything else. They suck in heresay and rumor like black holes of stupid, and reject anything at all that deviates from their hug-box echo chamber.
Life In Cyberspace
I am now forever spoiled for any type of mass communication that
doesn’t involve zero latency. I’ve crossed the Event Horizon in terms
of fact and news gathering, and there really isn’t any coming back from
that, that is, unless you burn out and decide, “fuck this, I’m out” and
take up gardening, or tennis or golf or whatever. Internet crack is
perhaps the most addictive thing known to man, though - and all it takes
to break a sabbatical or a “I’m really quitting this time! No,
seriously!” Is a taste, a peek, a glimpse of a news crawl in an unlikely
place. Then you start jonesing, sweating, your heart races; your
abdominal muscles and jaw clench, and you know all too well that you’re
not getting out of this without a hit. Without a check of that phone or
a “quick stint” at your computer. You’re hooked. Welcome to the club.
I think Reddit was probably my gateway drug, in hindsight. All of that sweet, uncut, fresh, instant information at my fingertips! So many millions of people commenting, commenting, endlessly, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week!! Intermitted insomnia was an unlocked door for the insidiousness of Reddit. Awake at 2am, don’t have to be up at a particular hour, nor have any particular place to be “tomorrow” or later or whatever? Pop open that iPad and read for a bit! Fall back to sleep around 5am, sleep til 9am or so, and you still have the whole day in front of you! Strangely awake and perhaps a bit wired (read: vodak)? Stay up for a while! After all, you’re reading, and who could possibly find fault in that?? I’m enriching myself, right? Educating myself by reading up on current events, or wet shaving with a straight edge, or fountain pens, makeup, circle-jerkery, nudie pics, replying to sad, lonely, depressed or TBI people in an effort to give them a binary code hug of sorts; I found all of that and much, much more on Reddit.
Spend any appreciable time on Reddit, and you start to notice certain recurring references (aside from the obvious, a particular favorite of reddit, memes) to “the chans” or “/pol/” or “top kek” or any of the other innumerable words, phrases, memes and colloquialism that people who perhaps spent even more time online than I did typically used. Naturally, I’d be curious, especially at times where I’d spent so much time on reddit that I’d run out of new things to read. The “Ellen Pao” event from last summer was one of those times.
The Ellen Pao thing. Oh my god, the mother of all cluster-fucks. But really, that’s ancient history, so I’ll tell you about it some other time.
Back to [current year]. I’m noticing a trend that surprises me, frankly. I’m beginning to be followed by people with tens of thousands of followers. I am pretty sure some number of them are bots, triggered by some combination of keywords (though I read today that Twatter had put the kibosh on auto-follower scripts or whatever the IT gurus call that function); not all of them are bots, however. It’s pretty odd, but ngl, definitely a little bit thrilling. This bizarro Twit universe is one that seems both so complex, so multi-layered, so nuanced, and yet so familiar, so navigable, so...do-able. Since I really don’t have anything else at all going on at the moment aside from laundry, blah blah housewife shit, and find it necessary to take my brain to trot (like a racehorse) lest it succumb to the repetitive vodka-boarding I subject it to, it’s pretty fcuking fortuitous that I’ve potentially found something that combines everything in life I love the most - digging up information, learning systems (organically - grab a machete, head into the wild and either live or die), posting witty bon mots, having people pay attention to me - all of it! I found it necessary to kick my habit up a notch from reddit’s upvote / downvote system to the more pure, uncut, pharmaceutical grade shit -- the immediacy of Twitter and everything that comes along with it.
One of the benefits to living on the internet, conversing with journalists, both hack and legit, is the “make sure you understand the words you’re using” imperative. I will be trying to express a relatively nuanced thought or concept in 140 fucking characters, and it will occur to me that there is a word, a word I’ve either used or read before, that says exactly what I’m trying to say, but before posting it, willy nilly, I’ll look it up so as not to come off as...one of those people - people who use a fancy word just because they can, but who parse it in such a way as to belie their fundamental lack of understanding of the word or its use.
I love the internet so much, I can’t even stand it. If mankind ever finds a way to transmogrify crunchy-boned meat-suit wearers into binary code, I am going to literally marry the internet and have like 100, no, a GOOGOL babies with it. Thank God I had my tubes tied when I did. Hypergamy and whatnot. (Hypergamy is a cool new word I keep coming across in Red Pill literature - still not 100% sure what it means, but...brb, looking up “hypergamy”).
Well, hypergamy doesn’t mean anything close to what I thought it meant. Huh. Weird. Thought it was pretty my Red Pill for “big giant hoe!!”, but it’s not!! It’s defined as the action of marrying a person of a superior caste or class. Makes more sense now, contextually. Guess I was born a deficient affront to my gender, because hypergamy never appealed to me. I pretty much didn’t want to marry a medium-height, angry, hairy Mediterranean guy; always had a proclivity for blone haired, blue eyed tall guys.
I think Reddit was probably my gateway drug, in hindsight. All of that sweet, uncut, fresh, instant information at my fingertips! So many millions of people commenting, commenting, endlessly, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week!! Intermitted insomnia was an unlocked door for the insidiousness of Reddit. Awake at 2am, don’t have to be up at a particular hour, nor have any particular place to be “tomorrow” or later or whatever? Pop open that iPad and read for a bit! Fall back to sleep around 5am, sleep til 9am or so, and you still have the whole day in front of you! Strangely awake and perhaps a bit wired (read: vodak)? Stay up for a while! After all, you’re reading, and who could possibly find fault in that?? I’m enriching myself, right? Educating myself by reading up on current events, or wet shaving with a straight edge, or fountain pens, makeup, circle-jerkery, nudie pics, replying to sad, lonely, depressed or TBI people in an effort to give them a binary code hug of sorts; I found all of that and much, much more on Reddit.
Spend any appreciable time on Reddit, and you start to notice certain recurring references (aside from the obvious, a particular favorite of reddit, memes) to “the chans” or “/pol/” or “top kek” or any of the other innumerable words, phrases, memes and colloquialism that people who perhaps spent even more time online than I did typically used. Naturally, I’d be curious, especially at times where I’d spent so much time on reddit that I’d run out of new things to read. The “Ellen Pao” event from last summer was one of those times.
The Ellen Pao thing. Oh my god, the mother of all cluster-fucks. But really, that’s ancient history, so I’ll tell you about it some other time.
Back to [current year]. I’m noticing a trend that surprises me, frankly. I’m beginning to be followed by people with tens of thousands of followers. I am pretty sure some number of them are bots, triggered by some combination of keywords (though I read today that Twatter had put the kibosh on auto-follower scripts or whatever the IT gurus call that function); not all of them are bots, however. It’s pretty odd, but ngl, definitely a little bit thrilling. This bizarro Twit universe is one that seems both so complex, so multi-layered, so nuanced, and yet so familiar, so navigable, so...do-able. Since I really don’t have anything else at all going on at the moment aside from laundry, blah blah housewife shit, and find it necessary to take my brain to trot (like a racehorse) lest it succumb to the repetitive vodka-boarding I subject it to, it’s pretty fcuking fortuitous that I’ve potentially found something that combines everything in life I love the most - digging up information, learning systems (organically - grab a machete, head into the wild and either live or die), posting witty bon mots, having people pay attention to me - all of it! I found it necessary to kick my habit up a notch from reddit’s upvote / downvote system to the more pure, uncut, pharmaceutical grade shit -- the immediacy of Twitter and everything that comes along with it.
One of the benefits to living on the internet, conversing with journalists, both hack and legit, is the “make sure you understand the words you’re using” imperative. I will be trying to express a relatively nuanced thought or concept in 140 fucking characters, and it will occur to me that there is a word, a word I’ve either used or read before, that says exactly what I’m trying to say, but before posting it, willy nilly, I’ll look it up so as not to come off as...one of those people - people who use a fancy word just because they can, but who parse it in such a way as to belie their fundamental lack of understanding of the word or its use.
I love the internet so much, I can’t even stand it. If mankind ever finds a way to transmogrify crunchy-boned meat-suit wearers into binary code, I am going to literally marry the internet and have like 100, no, a GOOGOL babies with it. Thank God I had my tubes tied when I did. Hypergamy and whatnot. (Hypergamy is a cool new word I keep coming across in Red Pill literature - still not 100% sure what it means, but...brb, looking up “hypergamy”).
Well, hypergamy doesn’t mean anything close to what I thought it meant. Huh. Weird. Thought it was pretty my Red Pill for “big giant hoe!!”, but it’s not!! It’s defined as the action of marrying a person of a superior caste or class. Makes more sense now, contextually. Guess I was born a deficient affront to my gender, because hypergamy never appealed to me. I pretty much didn’t want to marry a medium-height, angry, hairy Mediterranean guy; always had a proclivity for blone haired, blue eyed tall guys.
How The Left Fucked Itself
Another day, another gruesome terrorist attack by the “Religion of
Peace”. "Naughty Lists" seem to be the hot new thing to do; see Amanda
Carpenter and her McCarthy-esque “Trump Supporting Heathens to be
Shunned From the Great GOP Cabal” list (now, rather passé) and, more
recently, from The Buckley Club, this shit: https://archive.is/TkkAj
- another list of "Conservative Traitors" to be admonished and shunned
at a later date. I find these compilations so fucking offensive and
juvenile, I can't even articulate it.
In light of the soaring popularity of compiling Mean Girls-esque lists of traitors (read: people whose opinions simply differ from yours), it seems the time is ripe for another list; a list of excuses employed by the Apologist Left when the verboten idea arises that perhaps some incompatibility exists between radical Islam and what we typically refer to as Western culture.
“Racist!” - Islam isn’t a race, it’s a religious, fascist, misogynist, authoritarian dogma.
“Bigot!” - My opinion differs from yours where Islam is concerned. You are intolerant to my opinion. Thus, you are the bigot. Concern or disagreement with an ideology is not bigotry. Rejecting out of hand the concerns of someone with an opinion differing from yours, however, is the literal definition of bigotry.
“America created ISIS!” - Unlike the Left, I will not immediately and completely reject the possibility that this premise has some measure of merit. Criticism of a violent, archaic, barbaric philosophy is not an endorsement of faulty foreign policy. The Middle East has been a quagmire for decades, and the reasons are plentiful, intermingled, and complex. To attempt to summarize the overarching reason as “It’s America’s fault” is both nauseatingly disingenuous, intellectually dishonest and is a myopic simplification of a broad, multi-faceted issue.
“Not All Muslims!” - Agreed. Clearly, this problem isn’t laid at the feet of “All Muslims”, but it is interesting that while we’re sternly admonished and shamed by the underlying sentiment implicit in the “Not All Muslims” trope, there is a deafening silence where the “Not All” Muslims should be loudly and publicly stepping up to disavow and decry these horrific acts of senseless violence being perpetrated by “only a scant few” of them.
And yet? Nothing. Crickets. Not a single Muslim leader ever makes a bold, public, unequivocal condemnation of the actions of “a few” “radicalized” Muslims. World leaders appear on television within minutes after attacks like these are perpetrated, condemning them, insisting that somehow, sometime soon, we’ll finally eradicate these “few bad apples”. Until the next time.
“We must take in refugees! How can you be so hateful towards women and children?!?” - Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, the Left desperately clings to the fantasy that all of the refugees are just poor, downtrodden, oppressed peace-loving souls who are desperate to escape the horrific hell-hole from whence they come, that they just want to come to America and live peacefully, and not a one could possibly harbor any radical, violent, hateful ideas or would ever harm America! The left willfully ignores the terrible realities of life in once-peaceful European countries. They deny the explosion in crime, rape, violence, intolerance that has come along with unchecked immigration of Muslims from ME countries. They welcome these “refugees”, provide for them, feed them, house them, afford them the ability to live a free, peaceful, civilized life - to leave behind all of the horrors they once knew.
What is the reward for the magnanimity of western countries? Suicide bombings, murder of innocent citizens, assaults, rapes, closed-off communities where Muslims live and replicate everything they purported to want to leave behind. Worse still, the more base aspects of their oppressive ideology comes along as well. Western women and children, who once enjoyed lives mostly devoid of the heinous crimes condoned and encouraged by adherents of Islam, now live in fear - in their OWN HOMES, their OWN countries, of acts of sexual and physical violence at the hands of barbaric animals unfit to live in Western society. Sure, Not All. We get it. Not all. But Not NONE, and even ONE is TOO MANY.
Being vilified and denigrated for a reticence or unwillingness to invite this kind of violence, this kind of intolerant, murderous, misogynist horror into our countries, our communities, our daily lives, is an affront to the most rudimentary logic, the most basic human instinct. It is a dangerous instance of not only a willful ignorance and a myopic denial of harsh reality, but is an affront and insult to anyone with the most rudimentary critical thinking skills.
Funny how it’s so often younger, more affluent, “educated” Liberals who cling so vehemently to this insidiously naive notion that “everyone is, at their core, good and kind, and those who aren’t are just misunderstood, suffering the effects of oppression”. This is the natural by-product of a generation or more of inculcation into the group-think which worships feelings over facts, denigrates any system that in any way encourages self-sufficiency or exceptionalism, and insists that everyone get a trophy just for showing up. If there is no reward for excellence, no one will feel bad or inferior; and in time, no one with have any reason to strive for better, to achieve greater, to evolve beyond what is normal, average, acceptable.
We have a deep chasm of divide growing between the right and left, between conservative and liberal, here in the US. The validity of any of the claims or beliefs on either side are loudly and viciously drowned out by the flames of hate being fanned by the media, by academia, by those with a vested interest in dividing and conquering us all.
It always comes back to the narrative - the pervasive message being played on loop so we’ll all fall in line and behave in accordance with whatever happens to serve the masters at any given time. In recent years, we’ve seen the emergence and propagation of a staunch liberalism, or rather, a bastardization of what was once described as Liberalism. As with the trajectory of feminism over the last 3 or 4 decades (the metamorphoses from classical feminist thought to the ugly hydra of “3rd wave” feminism we see today), Liberalism has evolved from a system espousing values of liberty and equality, to that of a Frankenstinian, cancerous pandemic of rigid conformity of thought, stiff penalties for any variance from the acceptable patterns or thought or action, and an abject fear and loathing of anything external that in any way challenges or worse, contradicts the mandatory group-think. Should you dare to hold an opinion contrary in any way to the collective, you are punished without trial, afforded no opportunity to defend yourself nor to clarify your position. You are mocked, vilified, marginalized, and shunned, as you would be for similar infractions in other closed societies like the Amish, or Scientology or Amway. The penalty for violation of the warm, safe security of the hug-box echo chamber is figurative death. You are rejected, cast out, abandoned, left to survive in a strange, foreign violent world where you no longer enjoy insulation from the terrifying and harsh realities of the real world.
Following each of the terrorist attacks, attacks happening with a growingly alarming frequency, despite the protestations of the apologists; like clockwork, Facebook profile pics are changed to graphics of flags, iterations of solidarity, prayers, prayers and more prayers. Thoughts and prayers crowd the ether like locusts, hugs and feels and calls for peace and love and unity echo through the land; until concerns begin to be raised, the issue presented for discussion. And then comes the insulting, vilifying, marginalizing backlash from the Left, accusations of bigotry, racism, intolerance - all because someone dared to allude to the possibility of a problem with Islam.
"People on the right are angry! They’ve violent! They’re intolerant, awful, terrible people who should die in a fire!!" That’s the never-ending narrative put forth by the Left where the Right is regarded. The so-called party of tolerance and acceptance is anything but; it is a lie, a farce, a dangerous ideology unto itself, masquerading as some special, safe, inclusive club that cares not about race, creed, color, gender. The reality is starkly different.
In light of the soaring popularity of compiling Mean Girls-esque lists of traitors (read: people whose opinions simply differ from yours), it seems the time is ripe for another list; a list of excuses employed by the Apologist Left when the verboten idea arises that perhaps some incompatibility exists between radical Islam and what we typically refer to as Western culture.
“Racist!” - Islam isn’t a race, it’s a religious, fascist, misogynist, authoritarian dogma.
“Bigot!” - My opinion differs from yours where Islam is concerned. You are intolerant to my opinion. Thus, you are the bigot. Concern or disagreement with an ideology is not bigotry. Rejecting out of hand the concerns of someone with an opinion differing from yours, however, is the literal definition of bigotry.
“America created ISIS!” - Unlike the Left, I will not immediately and completely reject the possibility that this premise has some measure of merit. Criticism of a violent, archaic, barbaric philosophy is not an endorsement of faulty foreign policy. The Middle East has been a quagmire for decades, and the reasons are plentiful, intermingled, and complex. To attempt to summarize the overarching reason as “It’s America’s fault” is both nauseatingly disingenuous, intellectually dishonest and is a myopic simplification of a broad, multi-faceted issue.
“Not All Muslims!” - Agreed. Clearly, this problem isn’t laid at the feet of “All Muslims”, but it is interesting that while we’re sternly admonished and shamed by the underlying sentiment implicit in the “Not All Muslims” trope, there is a deafening silence where the “Not All” Muslims should be loudly and publicly stepping up to disavow and decry these horrific acts of senseless violence being perpetrated by “only a scant few” of them.
And yet? Nothing. Crickets. Not a single Muslim leader ever makes a bold, public, unequivocal condemnation of the actions of “a few” “radicalized” Muslims. World leaders appear on television within minutes after attacks like these are perpetrated, condemning them, insisting that somehow, sometime soon, we’ll finally eradicate these “few bad apples”. Until the next time.
“We must take in refugees! How can you be so hateful towards women and children?!?” - Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, the Left desperately clings to the fantasy that all of the refugees are just poor, downtrodden, oppressed peace-loving souls who are desperate to escape the horrific hell-hole from whence they come, that they just want to come to America and live peacefully, and not a one could possibly harbor any radical, violent, hateful ideas or would ever harm America! The left willfully ignores the terrible realities of life in once-peaceful European countries. They deny the explosion in crime, rape, violence, intolerance that has come along with unchecked immigration of Muslims from ME countries. They welcome these “refugees”, provide for them, feed them, house them, afford them the ability to live a free, peaceful, civilized life - to leave behind all of the horrors they once knew.
What is the reward for the magnanimity of western countries? Suicide bombings, murder of innocent citizens, assaults, rapes, closed-off communities where Muslims live and replicate everything they purported to want to leave behind. Worse still, the more base aspects of their oppressive ideology comes along as well. Western women and children, who once enjoyed lives mostly devoid of the heinous crimes condoned and encouraged by adherents of Islam, now live in fear - in their OWN HOMES, their OWN countries, of acts of sexual and physical violence at the hands of barbaric animals unfit to live in Western society. Sure, Not All. We get it. Not all. But Not NONE, and even ONE is TOO MANY.
Being vilified and denigrated for a reticence or unwillingness to invite this kind of violence, this kind of intolerant, murderous, misogynist horror into our countries, our communities, our daily lives, is an affront to the most rudimentary logic, the most basic human instinct. It is a dangerous instance of not only a willful ignorance and a myopic denial of harsh reality, but is an affront and insult to anyone with the most rudimentary critical thinking skills.
Funny how it’s so often younger, more affluent, “educated” Liberals who cling so vehemently to this insidiously naive notion that “everyone is, at their core, good and kind, and those who aren’t are just misunderstood, suffering the effects of oppression”. This is the natural by-product of a generation or more of inculcation into the group-think which worships feelings over facts, denigrates any system that in any way encourages self-sufficiency or exceptionalism, and insists that everyone get a trophy just for showing up. If there is no reward for excellence, no one will feel bad or inferior; and in time, no one with have any reason to strive for better, to achieve greater, to evolve beyond what is normal, average, acceptable.
We have a deep chasm of divide growing between the right and left, between conservative and liberal, here in the US. The validity of any of the claims or beliefs on either side are loudly and viciously drowned out by the flames of hate being fanned by the media, by academia, by those with a vested interest in dividing and conquering us all.
It always comes back to the narrative - the pervasive message being played on loop so we’ll all fall in line and behave in accordance with whatever happens to serve the masters at any given time. In recent years, we’ve seen the emergence and propagation of a staunch liberalism, or rather, a bastardization of what was once described as Liberalism. As with the trajectory of feminism over the last 3 or 4 decades (the metamorphoses from classical feminist thought to the ugly hydra of “3rd wave” feminism we see today), Liberalism has evolved from a system espousing values of liberty and equality, to that of a Frankenstinian, cancerous pandemic of rigid conformity of thought, stiff penalties for any variance from the acceptable patterns or thought or action, and an abject fear and loathing of anything external that in any way challenges or worse, contradicts the mandatory group-think. Should you dare to hold an opinion contrary in any way to the collective, you are punished without trial, afforded no opportunity to defend yourself nor to clarify your position. You are mocked, vilified, marginalized, and shunned, as you would be for similar infractions in other closed societies like the Amish, or Scientology or Amway. The penalty for violation of the warm, safe security of the hug-box echo chamber is figurative death. You are rejected, cast out, abandoned, left to survive in a strange, foreign violent world where you no longer enjoy insulation from the terrifying and harsh realities of the real world.
Following each of the terrorist attacks, attacks happening with a growingly alarming frequency, despite the protestations of the apologists; like clockwork, Facebook profile pics are changed to graphics of flags, iterations of solidarity, prayers, prayers and more prayers. Thoughts and prayers crowd the ether like locusts, hugs and feels and calls for peace and love and unity echo through the land; until concerns begin to be raised, the issue presented for discussion. And then comes the insulting, vilifying, marginalizing backlash from the Left, accusations of bigotry, racism, intolerance - all because someone dared to allude to the possibility of a problem with Islam.
"People on the right are angry! They’ve violent! They’re intolerant, awful, terrible people who should die in a fire!!" That’s the never-ending narrative put forth by the Left where the Right is regarded. The so-called party of tolerance and acceptance is anything but; it is a lie, a farce, a dangerous ideology unto itself, masquerading as some special, safe, inclusive club that cares not about race, creed, color, gender. The reality is starkly different.
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