Here’s a woman with a tattoo that reminds us that about 45% of our countrymen have joined a cult of ignorance and hate, and another 5% are in another, closely related cult: one of selfishness and greed.
Both vote for the modern Republican party, and the more overtly sociopathic its leader, the better.
From a reader, with my comments below:
I’m not a billionaire, let alone one with the net worth of Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk, so maybe I’m the wrong guy to ask, but I would say that the answer to the question that this young man raises at left lies in the fact that most of the world’s wealthiest people care very little about anyone but themselves, and perhaps their immediate families.
It’s possible that this is simply an element of human nature that applies to folks with a ferocious appetite for extreme levels of wealth. How do you think they wound up with $200 billion in the first place? Teaching high school English? Charitable giving?
There is a certain irony here, of course. These horrible people either need to a) live on this decaying planet, or b) export their horrible nature to a neighboring rock orbiting the sun. In either case, their disease can’t be cured by moving to Mars, any more that Pennsylvanians with metastatic cancer can be cured by moving to New Jersey.
Coincidentally, I met a TV actress yesterday who owns a Tesla. I asked if she was aware that some Tesla drivers have bumper stickers that read: I bought this car before I learned what a terrible person Elon Musk is. She laughed, and exclaimed, “That’s exactly what my bumper sticker reads!”
At left are the words of U.S. representative Adam Schiff. Sure, conservatives view Schiff as some sort of blend of the anti-Christ and Karl Marx, but doesn’t he have a point here?
Didn’t the American people have a right to have a Justice Department, that was given the better part of four years to get the job done, to uncover the truth about the former president’s attempt to overthrow their country’s legitimate government and prosecute him accordingly?
The implosion of the multiple cases against Trump is simply proof that the rule of law means essentially nothing at this point in U.S. history.
When people like Ramaswamy are taken to be serious candidates to become president of the United States, it can only be because the people they’re speaking to are morons.
It’s a grotesque truth–but one we’re forced to accept.
The author of this meme asks a very good question–one I would love to have answered before I check out of here.
If you surveyed everyone who voted against Trump, I think you’ve find four prevalent responses:
• Trump has a very close connection with Putin and the Russian oligarchs from which he’s profiting handsomely.
• Trump may not be profiting from these relationships, but has a feeling of great reverence for the world’s dictators, i.e., those whose actions are completely unconstrained.
• Trump loves to create outrage. He doesn’t particularly care what people are saying about him, as long as he’s in the news. (I hadn’t realized this was a possibility until I saw his picks for key cabinet posts.)
• Trump’s nature as a sociopath commands him to make life miserable for everyone except his supporters, i.e., people who can do something for him. Since Europeans don’t have any direct effect on U.S. politics, why should he care a damn what they think?
Perhaps there were times in U.S. history when government failed the people in a way that was not too different from what we have today. I heard recently that the robber-barons of the late 19th Century were so corrupt that they essentially owned the presidency and congress.
Having said that, no Americans alive today have ever experienced anything like having Donald Trump in the White House, with his cronies in cabinet positions, with four long years to take battering rams to women’s rights, our healthcare system, national defense, education, and environment. If anyone thought there was any fairness in the justice system as it applies to rich people, as Dante said, “abandon hope all ye who enter here.”
As I explained to my mom on the phone the other evening, roughly half of this country walks around in a state of deep disappointment in the abject failure on the part of 76 million of their countrymen to apply basic moral reasoning at the voting booth.
This photo appears to have been taken about the same year I was these kids’ age, ca. 1965. It depicts white and black school students , all standing to recite the Pledge of Allegiance.
What made this generation “the best?” The unquestioning belief that the United States is the greatest country on Earth, and that God goes out of His way to bless America over the other 200+ sovereign countries around the world?
I’m willing to believe that these kids’ parents’ generation, those who abandoned their educations and fledgling careers to overrun European fascism before it overran us, was, as they are frequently called, “the greatest generation.”
What did we “boomers” do? Well, lots of us became fairly affluent, often as a result of the sacrifices our parents made on our behalf.
But what are we doing now? For one, 76 million of us just reelected Donald Trump, a man whose political base is largely composed of hateful morons, a man who’s dead set on baking the Earth to a crisp for profit, ruining American education, and making the billionaires richer with each passing year.
It’s hard to understand what’s “the best” about that.
Trump plans to nominate Chris Wright, CEO of Liberty Energy and environmental policy skeptic, to be the next energy secretary. Wright plans to slow the process of phasing out fossil fuels in favor of renewables, and is perhaps best known for his statement, “There is no such thing as dirty energy.”
Outside of Big Oil/Coal/Gas, it’s hard to find anyone who doesn’t acknowledge that the consumption of fossil fuels is making our planet hotter and thus more prone to hurricanes, floods, wildfires, loss of land mass, desertification, ocean acidification, and cases of heat stroke.
Looking for flood insurance? Good luck.
I can’t deny that the scenario here happened occasionally. What happened to me personally, is that if I had a burning desire to know something, I’d ask a teacher of that specific discipline, or perhaps my grandfather, who was a learned man.
The real difference is that now, I need to have only a mild curiosity about something before I go to Google or YouTube.
Technology is, IMO, the only advantage to living in the 21st Century. It certainly isn’t morality, courtesy, job opportunities for honest people, quality education, human rights, respect for one’s employees, or rule of law.
