Sunday, October 27, 2019

Sunday, October 27, 2019

 Another lazy Sunday has come and gone. The sun kept behind the clouds, rains misted the ground and I stayed in bed and read about Socrates while listening to country blues. Recommended.



 Today is the one year anniversary of the Tree Of Life Synagogue shooting, where 11 worshipers - including a couple Holocaust survivors - were gunned down by a rabid anti-Semite. This is the worst terrorist attack on Jews ever in the United States.

 However, the shooter was motivated by more than just Antisemitism. He claimed he was motivated by what was called "white genocide theory". In short, these nutsacks are convinced immigrants are being brought into the country (and Western Europe) to eliminate white folks and replace them with black and brown people.

 This same mentality has been behind similar shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand, the church shooting in the 2015 Charleston, SC, and the massacre in Oslo, Norway, in 2011. And despite what conservatives try to tell you, this same mentality ("you will not replace us") was the impetus behind 2017's Unite The Right rally in Charlottesville, VA, that caused the death of activist Heather Heyer.

 Now. It would be tempting to blame all this on Donald Trump. Without question, he has used the flames of racial hatred and fear of immigrants to get his way in the White House. A lot of folks want to say Hillary Clinton ran a bad campaign or made too many mistakes in 2016 and that's why she lost to a two-bit game show host. But maybe that's not it.

 Maybe we underestimated just how strong a pull white nationalism and white supremacy has on our culture. The Tree Of Life shooter actually had a dislike for Trump because he felt the cheap chisler was too easy on the Jewish people. Without a doubt the election and (more or less, considering) successful presidency of Barrack Obama infuriated more of Our Fellow Americans than a sane person would like to admit. All the business about him being a Muslim and not born here, thus going for the presidency for nefarious reasons, that's nothing but pure racism.

 Donald Trump's election and the on-going blind, screaming loyalty isn't the disease. It's a symptom. If you objectively explore this country's history, it's based on white supremacy. Not necessarily racism, but the idea that the perfect, ideal human being was White and, in particular, Anglo-Saxon stock. You can look this up, the Irish and Italians, the Eastern European and Southern European, they weren't white. Weren't considered white, anyway, and even up to Faulkner's day, Italian or certain strands of European blood in your mix considered you to be a "mongrel".

 And when we get down to actual People Of Color? Forget about. The absolute horror white America has practiced on African-Americans and Native Americans is sometimes hard to swallow. It's hard for the average white person to own up to the fact, undeniable fact, that this is part of our cultural development and history. We pretend it's not. We need it to be otherwise, if just to keep the idea of "All men crated equal" on the "shining city on the hill" alive.

 I don't have any answers to this problem. You'd think that someone like me, someone who grew up in rural Mississippi, for cryin' out loud, wouldn't have been so naive as to think we'd moved past our racist past, to a point where we not only considered everyone equal and worthy, but also had owned up to the darker points in our history. But here we are, allowing what could credibly called genocide on our southern border, just so some fool can be president and far too many weak white people can pretend their safe.

 I don't know. Remember the folks at the Tree of Life, the 11 who lost their lives to fear and hatred as well as those who have to carry on. Remember everyone who's had to suffer because the ruling class in this country doesn't want to share some of the bounty.

 In other news that's a big open wound in our culture's hypocrisy, Rep. Katie Hill announced today that should would resign following ethics investigations into sexual relationships with a pair of his staffers. Openly bisexual, Hill has admitted to the relationship with the female staffer but has denieed any sort of improper relationship with a male staffer.

 Now, the main reason we know all this is because her (apparently) abusive ex-husband used that wretched hive of scum and villainy RedState to publish revenge porn. Now, from what I can tell, Hill's relationship with her staffer is against the rules set up for Congress members. There's that and Rep/ Hill agreed to the rules.

 But "revenge porn" is the lowest of the low. It is the height of hypocrisy that we as a culture still shame women for being sexual beings while at the same time demand they be sexual attractive to men. Furthermore, a recent book, All The President's Women, credibly accuses the President of the United States of everything from sexual harassment to rape. One of 43 credible accounts, mind., and we've known that Trump was a horndog since we've known who he was. He brags about pressuring women into sex and taking advantage of his position to do so.

 But Katie Hill has to fall on her sword and die for our sins. A promising legislative career is being cut short because we're full of shit about sex and, especially, female sexuality. Some say it's because she's a woman her resignation is "required", some say it's because she's a Democrat. I say it's because we as a culture are lying to ourselves about human sexuality and morals.

 Anyhow, that's why I spent all day reading about Socrates and listening to country blues. Sometimes the world isn't worth paying attention to. But tomorrow is another day, another week.

No comments:

Post a Comment

All comments are moderated, & may be discarded & ignored if so chose. Cry more & die, man.