A few more ideas here, in light of recent events.
1) The United States is fucked as a cohesive nation. It is truly doomed. Of course, we already knew that. But now, it’s…. um, more obvious. Obviouser.
I’m not referring to the shootings this week of prominent Republicans, but to the more telling thing, which was the reaction to them.
Last night, I scoured twitter for reactions to the shootings. In particular, I focused on the twitters that matter most. After a brief look around, I pulled up the twitters of prominent Hollywood types (i.e. my current and former girlfriends) and found… nothing. Literally nothing. Not a word was said about the shootings amongst them. Not even one of them said anything supportive to the victims of the shootings, or to their families, or to anyone who may have been affected by them, at all.
To detail things, I looked first at the twitters of Katy Perry, Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, Selena Gomez, Miley Cyrus, Demi Lovato, Ariana Grande, and Anna Kendrick. Not even one of those eight had anything supportive to say to anyone who was involved with the shootings.
Then, I went further down the line, and looked at Debby Ryan and Bridgit Mendler, and a few others in line with their level of fame. Nothing. Nada.
I had almost given up hope of finding anything when I at last pulled up in desperation the perennial borderline “celeb” Eliza Dushku. All she had to say was a retweet from Bernie Sanders denouncing violence in general, which she then qualified by posting a graduation picture of the black guy who apparently stopped the shooter, seemingly to point out that he was black, and a graduate of high school. No expression of sympathy for anyone shot, or for their families, was forthcoming from Eliza.
So, interesting. Yes, we are fucked.
No need to contrast the echoing lack of responses here with the time when the Democratic congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was shot. I’m sure people can do that without me.
Some thoughts, then. First, I wonder why nobody amongst them said anything. I mean, I didn’t say anything, either, but then again, I’m a dark wizard, not a pop star whose entire career comes from being the center of attention. I mean, you would think that at least one of them would say something about this, at least to score some easy points with a huge section of the public. But… nothing. Crickets.
The situation is I think this. The stars in question here are beyond terrified of being called “racist”. In fact they are so frightened of this that they refuse to support even victims of mass violence from the left, if those victims might have possibly, say, supported something like a border wall.
So….. what does this mean? Other than the obvious, which is that there is no way to reconcile things anymore?
As far as PR is concerned, silence is acceptance of course. The stars’ refusal to say anything says huge amounts more than if they had said even something bland and general about violence.
This country is truly divided beyond repair. The United States is doomed.
2) One would think that this shooting, and everything else that’s going on- say, the ongoing retail annihilation, the soaring public anger, the horrific jobs numbers, etc. would prompt something from the oligarchy concerning making life better for the non-wealthy here. But again, nada. Crickets.
What people here need are JOBS. And BUSINESSES. And they’re not getting them, or anything even close to them. The best that the infants that run the United States came come up with these days is the idea of a “universal income”. Well, that, and other equally childish and idiotic things. These people are not living in the real world, clearly.
This country’s ruling “elite” is beyond tiresome to deal with. The people running the show are clearly immature fools with no connection to the outside reality. And this is as obvious to others as it is to people here.
The Republicans are hopeless. Their concern these days is fairy tales about Jesus and Israel and not much else. Trump himself is only concerned for his own family, and with getting away from the circus that always surrounds him. And of course Israel, which he seems to love more than his own country.
The Democrats care only about themselves. The things that people voted for in the last election- like, say, the wall, they will not allow to happen, the legitimacy of the system be damned. The Jesus stuff from the Repubs can stay of course, since fairy tales are what we deal with now, but the actual on the ground real world stuff is BAD, since how dare the common people care about reality! So, the people won’t be getting that. But the Jesus and Israel crap that nobody wants? They’ll be getting that in spades, since that will be the token “concession” to the “public” that the people here will be “afforded”. So the democrats can say see, they were given something!! It’s something they never wanted, of course, but they’ll get something, for sure!
3) The United States has lost it, internationally.
Domestic politics here is a circus. It’s just such an embarrassment to be represented by the idiots and children in our government that it makes one want to renounce citizenship. The clown show that is D.C. looks isolated and weird on the world stage.
Part of the problem is that our foreign policy still makes no sense. Depending on the day of the week, our worst enemy is either Islamic extremism or Russia, Islamic extremism’s worst enemy. To clarify, as much as that is possible, we support either ISIS and it’s backer of Saudi Arabia against Russia, or Russia against ISIS and Saudi Arabia. Or perhaps both, simultaneously. And is China our enemy or not? I mean, they make all of our stuff since we gave them our entire manufacturing base, but then they apparently are our mortal enemy, so… are they an enemy, or not? Does anyone know?
Nobody knows anymore WTF our government is doing, or what it even stands for. This fact is driving the rest of the world away. Even if we have money to give, it seems that nobody wants it, because nobody understands WTF is going on with us, anymore.
This is I think why China is making such inroads now into South America, which was once this country’s own backyard. When the Chinese come in, you know what you’re getting. They come in with money to develop businesses which benefit both countries, and that’s that. Which makes sense. When we come in with money, we come in also dragging an unimaginable amount of drama, confusion and emotional baggage in tow that absolutely nobody wants to deal with.
The fact that the Chinese are able to just, you know, invest and create businesses and then leave makes them eminently the better international partner. In this country, they can’t even do that domestically. I mean, our own businesses are dying off at such a rapid clip that even our own ultra-controlled media needs to say something. And everyone else can see that, too. With that in mind, who are we to try to help others? Like, Trump the idiot has talked about helping Venezuela. Helping Venezuela? Holy fuck, Trump, why not try making a few repairs here, first?
4) The age of liberalism really does seem, like always these days, to be coming to it’s natural end. It really does seem like the whole liberal project has run it’s course.
That old liberal/Judeo-Christian dream of creating a nameless, raceless world under Vatican or Protestant leadership which would be devoted to Jesus or some Jesus-like deity seems today to be farther away than ever, and it seems to be slipping away further and further with each passing hour.
It’s over, and IMO there’s no going back, anymore. Time to pack it away and move on.