Marginalia, Trivialities & Suchlike
Well, I had a whole post prepared about the ravings of John Kelly in regards to the American Civil War, but anything I might have said has since been eclipsed by people far smarter than me.
I’ll leave it at this: Read a fucking book.
Now with a new computer (thanks, Dr. Evil), so expect some high speed, low drag kinda contextualizing from here out, brothers and sisters. Or more likely, more of the same, but with fewer cries of frustration from this side of the conversation.
While fixing dinner last night, I heard this line: “But since you’re accusing me I might as well be guilty.” It struck me a such an odd bit of passive/aggressive nonsense, or victim blaming that it stuck with me. Then this morning I came across a report about a 33 year-old man who stabbed his father to death while ranting about some secret pedophile ring run out of a DC pizza joint. This was but one of many conspiracy theories he bought into.The 911 call from his frazzled parents on the day of the stabbing has been released and it is unsettling to say the least. At the beginning of the call, the mother sounds almost bored, as in “here we go again,” but by the end of the call, her husband is dead. At one point during the call (calls, actually), the man can be heard saying, “OK well, so here’s the deal. If I am going to go to prison for threatening to kill somebody, I mean…” before fatally stabbing his father with a kitchen knife, stabbing him in the chest and back.
There are plenty of questions to be asked here: why is a grown man living with his parents? was he unemployed because he was unemployable? would he have been such a conspiracy nut if he did not spend hours upon hours chumming up to—and arguing with, I’m sure—other conspiracy nuts? But one question that plagues me concerns the responsibility of website owners and managers in instances like this. Legally, I think they are on firm footing, as long as they make the minimum effort to discourage and report unlawful behavior, but what about ethically? This man frequented Reddit, which I have a slight familiarity with, but was also a long-time contributor to the Ralph Retort, a far right fringe group deeply mired in GamerGate, and was a collaborator with Milo Yiannopoulos of Breitbart infamy. What does a society with a deep belief in the principal of freedom of speech and association do when the hubs of these associations are frequently destructive to that very society? The easy answer is a better educated populace, but I am not convinced that’s likely or even possible. The dummies and simps have alway been amongst us, it’s just that they were previously unable to make their voices heard beyond the local tavern or fraternal lodge, you know places that had rules of conduct and social norms.
Quiet time in 2017 seems to get interrupted by two things: sitting next to your partner reading the news of the day and one of you ejaculating1 either
I suppose we should be thankful that the “Oh my Gods” are outnumbering the “Oh noes,” but it’s a hard way to live, ya know? The first thing I do upon waking each morning is check my iPad for overnight news alerts, hoping there are none. They’re bound to come through the day (like today’s alert that employers are largely off the hook for including birth control in their health insurance packages. Why? FuckifIknow. It’s certainly not because Trump is a prude or a typical sex-fearing evangelical, maybe just another case of undo-what-the-black-man-did, is my best guess), so it’s a relief when the screen is blessedly blank before my first coffee. Someone remind me why health care (via insurance) is linked to employment again, because that is some stupid shit right there. Oh, and while we’re at it, how come dental care is not health care when it comes to insurance?2
But back to the “Oh my God” that prompted me to write this. Last night, after dining with many senior members of the military (and their plus-ones, who must have had fantastic feelings of ambivalence about being invited to the White House, but this White House), Trump, in a photo op, commented that this was the calm before the storm, and when asked by the press what he meant, replied, “You’ll see.” Presidenting by reality show rules, ain’t it grand? And it makes for an awesome night’s sleep, let me tell you. Will we bomb North Korea? Invade Mali? You’ll see. Tune in tomorrow.
1 I am trying to rehabilitate this verb to include definition number two in common conversation again.
2 I know the historical reasons for this, I just want to know who thinks they still make sense in the 21st century.