So it has come down to it at last. The final nail in the coffin. The ending waltz on the dance floor. The last Pringle in the can. Or something. Either way, we have sworn in another president, we have upheld our particularly American brand of Democracy, and we are all certainly awaiting every politician to be taken into custody, executed, and then for Trump to rule forever. Q just has to be correct right? The track record is.... stunning? Pictured: Q at his computer, or something. Creator: Rembrandt | Credit: Hermitage Either way, our country has reached the dawning of a new administration. An event that has happened 45 previous times, and will undoubtedly happen many many more. But along the way, there was a bit of... discourse, if you could call it that. Most of it was spurned on by the greatest of all threats in this day and age, the Keyboard Warriors. Yes, this multi-class, 12th level, 5h Edition DnD champion has, for the last 5-6 years at least, had an alarmingly large a
Anyone who knows me well knows of a quote that I always refer back to:
"Quotation marks make things sound more important than they really are. Especially fake things."
-Abraham Lincoln (impersonator) 2009
These words, which I have definitely said many times in my life (ed note: wink wink) have given me many things to think on. Many things that have become more and more relevant as our world spins round in this year of 2018. For instance, the above quote, (which is, like, totes real guys), is so blatantly fake that even the Nigerian Princes are shaking their heads in disbelief. But these days, one can't be so sure about what you read. Or hear. Or watch. OR EXPERIENCE!!
You see, in an era where buzzwords like "fake news" and "alternative facts" and "oh god what the hell now" are becoming more and more commonplace, we have started to develop an innate bullshit sensor that helps us to cut through the crap and figure out what's real and what's not. Well most of us have at least. And that's pretty much a required survival instinct these days now that most headline news stories sound like something theONION would have put out.
Indeed, it's sad that many of our once vaunted news networks are now spreading what amounts to little more than propaganda. Not saying that they never did that before, but it has become their entire purpose for the most part nowadays. And, you may be thinking to yourself, "oh here we go. Another librul minded idiot saying Fox news doesn't totally tell dah truth! " And, well, you'd be correct. Fox News is such a horrendous and sickening Right Wing propaganda machine that they have, in the past few days as of this writing, debated the merits of whether it's a good thing that we now so closely emulate Nazi Germany. I imagine Goebbels is readying the copyright lawsuit as we speak. In the paraphrased words of the great Tommy Lee Jones, "I cannot sanction this buffoonery."
However, I wouldn't be a cynical contrarian if I didn't also point out that CNN and MSNBC spew the exact same propaganda minded "news" as Fox does, except, with a more left leaning turn. They have, on multiple occasions, endorsed similar, if not downright copycat tactics that the right-wing groups have. They regularly rely on shaming, victim complexes, skewing of facts and mild revisionist history to get their points across, just as they have always blamed the right for doing.
Among the latest egregious and downright nonsensical things that left leaning people have started to crusade against, is the fact that our founding fathers *gasp* owned slaves! They had racist ideals!! They were all misogynist pigs!!! To which I gladly say, well no shit! I hate to use a cliché argument like 'It was a different time', but, it really was. And even before them, their ancestors held views that they thought horrible as well.
The thing is, we are all guilty of looking at history through a modern eye. Things that seemed okay in the 50's, are now considered monstrous. People who were held up as models of equality and tolerance are now seen as horrible bigots who were just as much a part of the problem as the people they swore to oppose. And through all this, you have that nagging cliché hanging in the back of your head, 'It was a different time'... But, often, we push that cliché aside and begin to alienate our heroes and legends, because by our civilized standards, these people would have deserved nothing more than our scorn and hatred. This is not only something that does more harm than good, it is eroding the history of this world faster than those who deny these things never happened.
As we grow as a society, our ideals and morals change. Once upon a time, it took a scraggly Jewish guy coming down from a mountain to tell us that lying and stealing was bad. Murder too. But for all those that didn't follow said Jewish dude, they somehow came up with very similar laws and morals that were passed down through their respective cultures. Could it be that these things are intrinsic within us? That we, as a people, know right from wrong automatically? Well, kind of. Because if you really want to get into an argument at your local church/synagogue/courtroom, then ask them about the things that WEREN'T on those stone tablets. Where was "Thou shalt not hold another human in bondage and commit acts of slavery upon them", or "Thou shalt not act against thine country if the peoples are not pleased". See what kind of reaction you get with those right there. Go on, it’s fun. Come up with your own as well.
Truth is, right and wrong are two sides of the same coin, but sometimes that coin lands on a fine edge. Some morals are imbued upon us through instinct. Anyone with a concept of death knows that killing is something to avoid at all costs. But, some morals have to be learnt. We as kids often order around other kids, make them do things they might not have wanted to do, or threatened them with petty things such as not allowing them to play with us unless they did this one gross/bad thing. Does this make the children monsters? No. It makes them products of their age, and products of their time. Black children in the 50's were told to not go around the white kids, even if the kids didn't know why. White kids were told not to go around the black ones because they were subhuman, "not like us son." But what the hell was subhuman? Other than the color of his skin, why wasn't he like us? "Because I said so son." And that was that. Hatred and intolerance was bred, not ingrained, but being a little shit is instinctive.
You may ask how all of this ties in with my attacks on our local propagandist news networks. And I’d tell you, it’s because we are in a cyclical cycle of stupidity. One that persists throughout our society no matter how hard we try to stamp it out. This cycle, is called ignorance. Ignorance of our history, ignorance of our meaning, ignorance of each other, of our opinions and views, ignorance of our races and beliefs. 400 Years ago, the world was flat. For some, it still is. 50 years ago, racism was stamped out. But it never really was.
These things fester, under the surface, and often rear their heads in uncommon ways, ways we would never expect. We believe the world operates a certain way, and then wake up to it changing before our very eyes. Some of us choose to believe it, but others reject our reality and substitute it with their own. This ignorance has given us some of the most horrifying news stories of the past year. And it’s just getting started. It won't be until our innate bullshit sensor becomes a passed down trait, that we as a species can rise up against our oppressor whose name is idiocy.
Welcome, to Uncommon Stupidity.
"Quotation marks make things sound more important than they really are. Especially fake things."
-Abraham Lincoln (impersonator) 2009
These words, which I have definitely said many times in my life (ed note: wink wink) have given me many things to think on. Many things that have become more and more relevant as our world spins round in this year of 2018. For instance, the above quote, (which is, like, totes real guys), is so blatantly fake that even the Nigerian Princes are shaking their heads in disbelief. But these days, one can't be so sure about what you read. Or hear. Or watch. OR EXPERIENCE!!
You see, in an era where buzzwords like "fake news" and "alternative facts" and "oh god what the hell now" are becoming more and more commonplace, we have started to develop an innate bullshit sensor that helps us to cut through the crap and figure out what's real and what's not. Well most of us have at least. And that's pretty much a required survival instinct these days now that most headline news stories sound like something theONION would have put out.
Indeed, it's sad that many of our once vaunted news networks are now spreading what amounts to little more than propaganda. Not saying that they never did that before, but it has become their entire purpose for the most part nowadays. And, you may be thinking to yourself, "oh here we go. Another librul minded idiot saying Fox news doesn't totally tell dah truth! " And, well, you'd be correct. Fox News is such a horrendous and sickening Right Wing propaganda machine that they have, in the past few days as of this writing, debated the merits of whether it's a good thing that we now so closely emulate Nazi Germany. I imagine Goebbels is readying the copyright lawsuit as we speak. In the paraphrased words of the great Tommy Lee Jones, "I cannot sanction this buffoonery."
However, I wouldn't be a cynical contrarian if I didn't also point out that CNN and MSNBC spew the exact same propaganda minded "news" as Fox does, except, with a more left leaning turn. They have, on multiple occasions, endorsed similar, if not downright copycat tactics that the right-wing groups have. They regularly rely on shaming, victim complexes, skewing of facts and mild revisionist history to get their points across, just as they have always blamed the right for doing.
Among the latest egregious and downright nonsensical things that left leaning people have started to crusade against, is the fact that our founding fathers *gasp* owned slaves! They had racist ideals!! They were all misogynist pigs!!! To which I gladly say, well no shit! I hate to use a cliché argument like 'It was a different time', but, it really was. And even before them, their ancestors held views that they thought horrible as well.
The thing is, we are all guilty of looking at history through a modern eye. Things that seemed okay in the 50's, are now considered monstrous. People who were held up as models of equality and tolerance are now seen as horrible bigots who were just as much a part of the problem as the people they swore to oppose. And through all this, you have that nagging cliché hanging in the back of your head, 'It was a different time'... But, often, we push that cliché aside and begin to alienate our heroes and legends, because by our civilized standards, these people would have deserved nothing more than our scorn and hatred. This is not only something that does more harm than good, it is eroding the history of this world faster than those who deny these things never happened.
As we grow as a society, our ideals and morals change. Once upon a time, it took a scraggly Jewish guy coming down from a mountain to tell us that lying and stealing was bad. Murder too. But for all those that didn't follow said Jewish dude, they somehow came up with very similar laws and morals that were passed down through their respective cultures. Could it be that these things are intrinsic within us? That we, as a people, know right from wrong automatically? Well, kind of. Because if you really want to get into an argument at your local church/synagogue/courtroom, then ask them about the things that WEREN'T on those stone tablets. Where was "Thou shalt not hold another human in bondage and commit acts of slavery upon them", or "Thou shalt not act against thine country if the peoples are not pleased". See what kind of reaction you get with those right there. Go on, it’s fun. Come up with your own as well.
Truth is, right and wrong are two sides of the same coin, but sometimes that coin lands on a fine edge. Some morals are imbued upon us through instinct. Anyone with a concept of death knows that killing is something to avoid at all costs. But, some morals have to be learnt. We as kids often order around other kids, make them do things they might not have wanted to do, or threatened them with petty things such as not allowing them to play with us unless they did this one gross/bad thing. Does this make the children monsters? No. It makes them products of their age, and products of their time. Black children in the 50's were told to not go around the white kids, even if the kids didn't know why. White kids were told not to go around the black ones because they were subhuman, "not like us son." But what the hell was subhuman? Other than the color of his skin, why wasn't he like us? "Because I said so son." And that was that. Hatred and intolerance was bred, not ingrained, but being a little shit is instinctive.
You may ask how all of this ties in with my attacks on our local propagandist news networks. And I’d tell you, it’s because we are in a cyclical cycle of stupidity. One that persists throughout our society no matter how hard we try to stamp it out. This cycle, is called ignorance. Ignorance of our history, ignorance of our meaning, ignorance of each other, of our opinions and views, ignorance of our races and beliefs. 400 Years ago, the world was flat. For some, it still is. 50 years ago, racism was stamped out. But it never really was.
These things fester, under the surface, and often rear their heads in uncommon ways, ways we would never expect. We believe the world operates a certain way, and then wake up to it changing before our very eyes. Some of us choose to believe it, but others reject our reality and substitute it with their own. This ignorance has given us some of the most horrifying news stories of the past year. And it’s just getting started. It won't be until our innate bullshit sensor becomes a passed down trait, that we as a species can rise up against our oppressor whose name is idiocy.
Welcome, to Uncommon Stupidity.
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