The crazy years
The Trumpening.
Frankly, I’m tired of politics. The left is in full on deranged mode, calling everyone who doesn’t agree with them a racist, sexist, homophobe, etc. Watching grown people lose their shit over a hat with a campaign slogan on it really doesn’t restore any of my faith in humanity. If you can’t handle seeing a hat, stay home. So, I’ve basically adopted the Captain’s philosophy that the left is just entertainment.
The pro-Trump hysteria is equally disheartening. A portion of his supporters have just lost their minds. And many are supporting positions they’d never really held before because of Trump.
The never Trumpers I can’t figure out what their end game is. And I don’t care.
It’s amazing to me that two people can see a video/news story and draw polar opposite conclusions all based on their preference for red or blue. It’s astonishing.
The media is just pathetic. They’ve stuck their dick in it so many times trying to find anything on Trump or a supporter of his. And all they’ve gotten for their trouble is a few indictments for process crimes.
I see a story and think to myself “Self, that seems unbelievable”. I used to go check and see if they were true or false. Now, I just don’t care and don’t bother to check. The field where I keep my fucks to give is empty.
So, yeah, that’s why the blogging has been light.
January 28th, 2019 at 6:47 pm
Well, you’re describing the “dialectic method”, aren’t you? You can side with the “good cop” or the “bad cop”, one party or the other, one candidate or another, and either way that system is going to own you.
Marx posited the dialectic method over 150 years ago (beginning to assemble his writings in 1844, which is a highly significant date), but the method was alive and well long before that.
“You can make me a sandwich now, or in ten minutes. Pick one, and thus exercise your freedom of choice! And then thank me for granting you that freedom of choice!”
It’s been in practice in this country since the beginning, and we’re just now starting to realize that it’s been bullshit all along. What we once thought of as real disagreement and genuine concern for this or that, never really was, so it’s our own perceptions of the past which must be adjusted.
Nothing has changed except that you’re beginning to see the game as a game, yet hoping and wishing that it were something else.
I describe it as a football game. The job of the sports announcers (the media on both sides) is to keep as many people as possible interested and focused on the game, being as totally absorbed into it, as possible. That is all the pundits do, it’s a very simple job, and they do it well; agitate.
As in a football game, people must choose “sides” and root for all they’re worth for their “team”, but what isn’t quite dawning on people with regard to the political football game is the fact that, no matter which team wins, it is always the league (the political, or criminal, class) which profits. The league, the venue, and the promoters, vendors, and of course the players, all profit. The “fans” (that’s us) only pay. We pay for it all while losing our precious time and energy besides.
The league profits most when most people are caught up in the game, and so the more extreme and ridiculous the contest, the more attention it gets, the more people are upset, pissed off, frustrated and afraid, the better, so long as the true, clear and simple principles of liberty never enter into the discussion.
If, on the off-chance that true liberty does get mentioned, it will appear to be so out-of-sorts, so not-of-the-moment, so irrelevant to the game, so crazy even, that it will be either ignored or put down with a vengeance.
Since no party is advocating liberty (perish the thought! for none of them would ever tolerate liberty, much less advocate it) and since liberty is never on the ballot, so long as we’re focused on the “football game” we’re distracted from the simple truth.
So tell me; what could be better? It seems to me as it’s working, either very well, or perfectly.
This is the message, which has been repeated over and over and over through the millennia; “Come, oh ye people, out of Babylon! Come out and be separate! Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them!” but we’re supposed to believe that bringing everyone together is the best thing. So we’re fucked. But cheer up; you’ll soon be dead.
January 28th, 2019 at 6:54 pm
Joe Huffman describes what we are seeing from the Left, in a detailed analysis of his efforts to discuss firearms and gun control with Joan Peterson of the Brady group. He describes her behavior as a process failure, in which her inability to determine truth from falsehood leads to irreconcilable cognitive dissonance, and then, basically, madness. There is no cure, there is no way to break through to rationality with them, there is no conversing calmly with them. To hell with them.
January 28th, 2019 at 7:01 pm
After the way they treated those kids, I bought a MAGA hat. I don’t particularly like Trump, and hate ballcaps, but if I can trigger one leftist into having a stroke, it’s a win.
January 28th, 2019 at 7:07 pm
I personally hope that this is just a pendulum swing and we will start to see a more normal level of crazy as people get used to the nightmare that is social media.
I’ve seen the split in my friend group on social media, but it never seems to show up when we are talking in person. People are more civil and listen to each other. We don’t end up agreeing, but we don’t call each other names either.
January 28th, 2019 at 8:29 pm
And people scoff at me when I tell them I’m an anarchist. “It’s pretty much anarchy now, so what’s your beef?”
January 28th, 2019 at 9:25 pm
“I’m tired of politics…that’s why blogging has been light.”
But…it’s a gunnie blog; what’s that got to do with politics?
😉
January 28th, 2019 at 9:26 pm
Man that’s an effed up looking winky face!
January 28th, 2019 at 10:43 pm
Lyle does a good job of describing the dialectic method. Well done. But the right side (as opposed to the left side), losing the football game has become deadly. The consequences of losing have never been this impactfull in American history except for the Civil War and globally, WWII.
Mr. Says Uncle is reacting exactly like the left wants him to do. Proforma. I suggest he just give them his guns now and be done with it.
January 29th, 2019 at 12:42 am
Here you go, JTC. ~_^
January 29th, 2019 at 1:20 am
I
January 29th, 2019 at 1:23 am
Sigh. Didn’t mean to hit send.
Uncle isn’t the only one I’ve seen to get burned out on politics lately, and there’s got to be a better way to motivate people to go on than “Well, you might as well give your guns up now, quitter!”
I mean, yeah, it’s true, but I don’t think it would ever get Dale Carnegie’s stamp of approval.
January 29th, 2019 at 7:43 am
You do good deeds here with to-the-point comments and proper links. I look forward to the return of your regular posts and if no one’s said it lately, thank you.
January 29th, 2019 at 11:17 am
I see too much emotion from people who think being on “the right side” of an issue is more important than actual data. It reminds me of this quote:
“What are the facts? Again and again and again – what are the facts? Shun wishful thinking, ignore divine revelation, forget what “the stars foretell,” avoid opinion, care not what the neighbors think, never mind the unguessable “verdict of history” – what are the facts, and to how many decimal places? You pilot always into an unknown future; facts are your single clue. Get the facts!” — Robert A. Heinlein
January 29th, 2019 at 7:39 pm
Mike, you are a rationalist. Good for you. But it doesn’t matter. The left always wins. Then it breaks.
January 29th, 2019 at 10:30 pm
“And many are supporting positions they’d never really held before because of Trump.”
I’m surprised to find myself a Trump supporter. I really liked Cruz for a while. Now I look back and think: We dodged a bullet, because Cruz would have lost, honorably of course, just like McCain and Romney.
Trump won. And he’s nominated judges who are, while not perfect, at least little bit concerned about liberty and the constitution, in stark contrast to the RBG clones who would have been nominated by HRC.
And while “many” might find themselves supporting positions they never would have, I can’t think of a single thing I now support that I didn’t before. 2A rights, border security, letting people keep their own money: Nope, all are pretty much core principles for me.
What specifically do you think people are now advocating, that they didn’t before? I’ve tried to suss out your post and I cannot for the life of me come up with what you had in mind here.
January 29th, 2019 at 11:27 pm
Pastafarian, he is weary as are many.
January 29th, 2019 at 11:38 pm
Rest while you may, Uncle. It’s coming. Won’t be any time for naps once it arrives.
January 30th, 2019 at 10:22 am
Joseph Constable: Thank you, I certainly try to be rational. My hope is that you’re wrong about the despots (on the extreme left or the extreme right) always winning, but I do think you’re right that the left always breaks down when they do win.
January 30th, 2019 at 5:41 pm
“…despots (on the extreme left or the extreme right)…”
Mike, most of those you think were on the Right were actually Leftist. The Left is very good at re-labeling the disasters to keep their side looking palatable to the masses. Most famous would be Hitler and the NAZIS. Socialist to the core. The Left prefers the Communists, which is why our State Dept supported the Soviets when those two fell out.
January 30th, 2019 at 7:42 pm
I am more or less with Pastafarian. I had severe misgivings about Trump given his background and association with leftist causes in the past. I feared a uncouth version of Romney. I have been pleasantly surprised. I can mostly support his policy initiatives. Not all but nobody is perfect. I had problems with some of Reagan’s too. In the end though, I feel obliged to support him because the Left is trying to overturn an election by extralegal means. Trump’s superpower is getting leftists to say what they really think which is frightening to say the least.
The news cycle is wearing on me too. I consume less because in most cases I can look at the headline and the source and know exactly what they are going to say. So no need to spend the time reading it.
February 1st, 2019 at 2:51 pm
Interesting to say the least as your description is that of politics since the 1700’s, with duels settling matters, to the democratic riots of 1968, to today’s TDS children. All fueled by the media lies and obfuscation, you need to live by the rule that anything and everything that is listed as a political disaster is about 15% factual at most.
Bottom line, today’s left pant sh!tting is nothing new at all, and is a result of public schooling and colleges that have hired the far leftists, which started from teachers unions all the way up the chain.