Lies at the bottom of the slime barrel
This series of three emails written to the same Republican, include my late response to the Texas massacre. Mass shootings of small children, of anybody, should be a tipping point to serious congressional action but it hasn’t been. Defense of any congressman or woman who defends the NRA and doesn’t defend a complete ban on assault weapons is, as far as I’m concerned, a murderer. They probably will never pull the trigger but in effect, they are.
Letter 1: May 24, 2022
I stayed up late last night reading an article from the April 22nd issue of the Atlantic, which had a profound, and if not life-changing effect on me. I would bet if you read it, it would do the same for you. I realized how wrong I was. The article was entitled, “Why the past 10 years of American life have been uniquely stupid,” by Jonathan Haidt, an imminently qualified social psychologist from NYU. In a nutshell, we have all been victims of social media. It all began in 2009 with Facebook and Twitter, basically rubbing the lamp and releasing a catastrophic genie.
Haidt’s opening paragraph read:
“The story of Babel is the best metaphor I have found for what happened to America in the 2010s, and for the fractured country we now inhabit. Something went terribly wrong, very suddenly. We are disoriented, unable to speak the same language or recognize the same truth. We are cut off from one another and from the past.”
The result has been that social media has become the Frankenstein of the 2010s; the opposite of what Zuckerberg wanted. Instead of bringing people together it has fragmented us into our own little bubbles, trusting no one. In actuality, neither Republicans nor Democrats are at fault, we are more accurately, all victims. However, having said that, the election of Trump in 2016 accelerated the process because he took advantage of this fragmentation to expand it even further. Knowing that, “to elect either Donald Trump or Ron DeSantis as our next POTUS in 2024, will be to rewrite the American Constitution in disappearing ink.” (my words, not Haidt’s). From what I read last night, if we do elect one of them, we will have effectively killed this country and this democracy. That is not a hyperbolic statement. You don’t have to believe it but it is the consensus of just about everyone who knows what they are talking about. I definitely do not, and I suspect neither do you. The Republic party needs to come up with someone else for 2024, but definitely totally different than those two. Either one would be the death knell to our democracy. Let’s not get into Biden at this point, because it is irrelevant.
Now we have a totally fragmented society, with none of the fragments having a clue what to do and going 1000 different directions, and we are getting increasingly more fragmented. Stupidity has happened at all levels of society (universities, churches, etc.).
Haidt maintains the following (some paraphrasing): 1) it is going to get much worse before it gets better, if it does; and 2) the supply of disinformation will become infinite; and 3) we have to make changes or we definitely will implode.
There are 3 solutions according to Haidt:
1. Harden Democratic institutions: Reforms should reduce the outsize influence of angry extremists and make legislators more responsive to the average voter in their district.
2. Reform social media: A democracy cannot survive if its public squares are places where people fear speaking up and where no stable consensus can be reached.
3. Prepare the next generation: Gen Z––born after 1997––bear none of the blame for the mess we are in, but they are going to inherit it. The signs are that older generations have prevented them from learning how to handle it.
Letter 2: May 25, 2022
I gave you my word about mailing any more emails to the GOper group and I mean to keep it. This cartoon was just sent to me yesterday by a close friend, who is a true Renaissance Man in every way. I know no one like him. He could be a theologian as easily as being a biologist. The cartoon was originally a response to the Big Oil – Republican Party continuous tryst that has kept this country’s carbon emissions high for years, decades, past when they should have quit lying about it. Both Republicans and their Congressional lackeys. At this moment in history, you could use the same comparison for the NRA – Republican Party Symbiosis, and the deaths of 19 school children. Both groups, both evil. That means that if you vote for a Republican (or Democrat) who is being supported by Big Oil and/or the NRA, rather than voting for candidate who takes a stand on stringent controls on either one or both industries, you are an accomplice to murder and the unnecessarily shortening of human lives.
Take a stand to halt the train of human destruction. You didn’t shoot a kid in the head or the heart but you do support people who support people who did shoot that kid. Let’s say you voted for Marco Rubio or any of a number of Florida congressperps who support the NRA who support the automatic weapon and ballistics industries who support their purchasers who commit mass murder of children.
If I convince one member of the GOPer group to quit voting for murderers, I will have done my job. As I’ve told you, I could care less their opinion of me. They should be judging themselves.
Letter 3: May 26, 2022
One parting suggestion: as a historian, you need to read, “Davos Man,” by Peter Goodman. Goodman explains very carefully and clearly how the billionaires (.001% of humanity) have screwed the world and its “have not” inhabitants. Us. I assume that includes you. At their side is the sycophantic Republican Party, licking their boots and wiping their asses. When you vote for one of those sycophants, you are voting for more global misery and destruction, not less as the Davos Man would have you believe. The Republican politician and Davos Man are joined at the hip.
Of course they support the NRA. And the NRA supports the murder of innocent people; murder is good for business. In my mind, this symbiotic behemoth is no different than Putin. War is good for business. In fact, if you believe Tucker Carlson, Republican politicians and Davos Man support Putin. And so what does that make you if you vote knowing all this is true? What do you think?
I even fault the Republican masses because they maintain their ignorance and their stupidity intentionally. That gives them an excuse to invade OUR national capital. “I don’t knowed the whole Constitution but I do knowed that they’re trying to take away ma guns and that ain’t right.” That also gives them an excuse to call Mexicans rapists, drug dealers, and whores. “Them motherfuckers is taking our jobs, man.” Never mind we won’t do those pissant jobs urselves. ”