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.
Thursday, April 21, 2016
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.
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