Maybe we will now see the end of the Republican war on science. Indeed, we should see people in the streets with their torches afire and their pitchforks a-sharpened. Because of this sort of crap:
Also, Republicans are racists. Like this:
“As long as I’m president” Hmm… we can fix that.
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or Paperback
*Please note:
Links to books and other items on this page and elsewhere on Greg Ladens' blog may send you to Amazon, where I am a registered affiliate. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases, which helps to fund this site.
Thanks, shared
“Maybe we will now see the end of the Republican war on science. Indeed, we should see people in the streets with their torches afire and their pitchforks a-sharpened.”
I’d be happy to see the first sentence come true but unless I’ve missed something, Trump’s approval level has been, to me, astonishingly high in the population in general and absurdly high among Republicans. Whether this is due to the apparently huge numbers of people who get most or all of their news from Faux News, right-wing radio, Facebook, or some devil’s brew of two or more of these I don’t know. Whatever the reason it certainly bodes little good for the future of the U. S. A. So far, a large segment of the U. S. public seems to be successfully avoiding diluting with reality whatever fantasy caused them to vote the current inhabitant of the White House into the presidency.
He’s buying their votes – giving everyone a $1000 gift card – Add to that the attack on education, especially a liberal arts education that teaches people to think for themselves, that has taken place by Republicans and DINOs for the last 6 decades or so and, well there you have it.
Maybe some will wake up when the deaths reach into the hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions, but I doubt it. Hundreds of years of jingoistic salute the flag, support the troops (who are not defending democracy they’re enriching the MIC), say the oath of allegiance every morning in school, instill the belief that elected politicians have your welfare as a high priority (or often even any priority) etc. ad nauseam and you have an electorate that votes for the GOP and Donald Trump while being buggered without the use of lubricant.
The US is well on its way to becoming a 3rd world country and the only thing keeping it afloat for now are petrodollars that are, with few exceptions, only US currency. Given where O&G is going in the market and the rise of renewables that won’t hold for much longer.
Doug, there is much in what you say but there is nothing wrong, as such, in saluting the flag, supporting the troops (who often number among them relatives and friends), and taking oaths of allegiance. There is plenty wrong, however, with cynically using such things for self-aggrandizement and other evil purposes and this is the source of my discontent with what the Republican Party has become.
I would also quarrel with your use of “hundreds of years” of doing the things you list as a relevant factor in the sorry state of affairs at present. Human behavior is not so simply transmitted. It is not in detail genetically inheritable programming and there are limits on how much cultural transmission via education can occur, else there would be no generation gaps in behavior, culture, or politics.
We should not forget that there is now, and has been for years, a particular tv news source which, along with social media, are and have been providing a near-constant flow of mis- and disinformation to the general U. S. public. These sources of untruths are aided, abetted, and used by both internal (e.g., GOP) and external groups (e.g., Russia) to help achieve their particular objectives. These objectives have little or nothing to do with the health, wealth, and well-being of most of the U. S. population. This is obvious in the case of Russia and is inherent in the continuing adherence of the Republican Party to the “trickle-down” or “serve the already-rich first” economics they promote at every opportunity and in every way they can.
Trevor, like Canadian Steve, I too am Canadian and we have a whole different outlook on such things. Indeed, I would go so far as to say it is one of the major differences between Americans and Canadians. So I was giving you a foreign perspective on American society.
In it’s entire history the US has only had 22 years of peace. Think about that for a second and consider how the rest of the world likely sees your country, not as a defender of democracy but as an enabler of the MIC and murderers of many hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians. This is why I say honour the troops is a farce. What they are doing is not honorable, though they think it is (again social conditioning from birth.)
You’re right to say it is not genetically transferred, at least so far as we know, separated identical twin studies however have shown some remarkable similarities in attitudes, tastes, politics, etc. for example. But cultural/social conditioning can explain a lot – like the millenia of persistent belief in religion in general and staying with the same denomination of one’s parents (if a choice is available.)
My comments are based on watching our two societies since my late teens, so over 50 years., well before the media went astray and social media became a thing. In our short history (152 years) as a nation Canada has always striven to be a peace keeping country, despite efforts by conservative politicians to change that. We keep our patriotism to ourselves and that often seems to confuse Americans into thinking we are not patriotic – nothing could be further from the truth.
As John Prine once said:
@Trevor Winn
There is indeed something wrong with saluting the flag, when that is demanded of a person rather than out of free will respect for the truth of what a country actually represents. There is something terribly wrong with supporting the troops when the troops are committing war crimes. Oaths of allegiance are prisons of mind that say you can’t criticize your country because your first loyalty must be to your country, no matter how much it doesn’t deserve your loyalty. These things are some of the causes of the problems in the US right now, and you should be able to see that
I’ve lived near Canada, traveled in several provinces, lived in Canada (briefly}, and have a great regard for the country and its people.
Re: Conflicts
Despite its shorter history as an independent country ~150 yrs) compared with the U. S., Canadian armed services have also participated in several conflicts along with the U. S. (WWI & II, Korean conflict). During the Vietnam War, Canadian corporations sold war materials to the U. S. and about 30,000 Canadians voluntarily served in the U. S. military (I went through basic training with some of them). I very much doubt that there is a military in the world that allows loyalties to supersede those to the needs of the country except for religious objections for which non-combat service can be substituted for combat duty.
Re: “There is something terribly wrong with supporting the troops when the troops are committing war crimes.”
“War crimes” requires a definition and you seem to be using the word “troops” as if it applied to single responsible individual. Justification for this would exist only if the “war crimes” were the general policy of the country or the military but this is not the case as far as I know in the U. S. or Canada.
Re “Oaths of allegiance are prisons of mind that say you can’t criticize your country because your first loyalty must be to your country, no matter how much it doesn’t deserve your loyalty.”
I suppose some people can make “prisons of mind” out of anything (religion for example) but the First Amendment in our Constitution allows plenty of room for criticism of the government. And, of course, on both the U. S. and Canada voting is an option for changing the laws and/or direction of the country. in common with many other countries allow emigration if you think the country no longer deserves your loyalty. For a variety of reasons, quite a few U. S. citizens emigrated to Canada during the Vietnam War (including the brother of a good friend of mine).
As with any country, there are things in both U. S. and Canadian history that are nothing to be proud of, even despicable but the point is to make their future behavior better. Usually this is not a processes without regressions. Certainly both the U. S. and Canada have made some gains during their respective histories.
@Tyvor Winn
Re: Re: conflicts. I’m not sure of your point here. Canadians, like Americans, have a volunteer army. If people choose to join the army, then they are also free to choose not to serve in the army. Surely, if one chooses to serve, then that person is responsible for their choices. Lumping in a variety of very different wars is also not helpful.
Re: War crimes.
War crimes occur on many different levels. But ultimately it falls to individuals. It is an individual that pulls the trigger (or presses the button or whatever) or refuses to do so. The UN and Geneva conventions describe what war crimes are. Following orders is not an excuse. Yes, individual soldiers feel many pressures to obey, but that is not an excuse. As shown by many credible sources, members of the US army and the US army as a whole have been committing war crimes. The individuals that make up the army have to make a choice – participate in the crimes or fight against them. By far, the majority have shown they choose to participate, so they should not be supported.
Being a supporter of my country does not require that I put aside the wrongs that have been committed in its name. Canada has things to be proud of, and I can celebrate those things, but I can still be critical of the things that are not right.
good work. thanks
Nice words. keep it up
It was only a matter of time before this headline appeared:
“OF COURSE THE ANTHONY FAUCI ATTACKERS ARE ANTI-VAXXER CONSPIRACY THEORISTS – One of them thinks vitamins can prevent and treat the coronavirus”
– Bess Levin (Vanity Fair, April 14, 2020)
______
This is not the first article pointing out this connection – it’s the perfect example, chemically speaking, of a Stupidity + Idiocy covalent bond – but it is the first one I’ve had the stomach to read:
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/04/fire-fauci-anti-vaxxers?utm_source=nl&utm_brand=pol&utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_mailing=thematic_ballot_041520&utm_medium=email&bxid=5be9e5823f92a40469fb160d&cndid=38506323&utm_content=A&utm_term=Thematic_Ballot_Subscribers