Pulvis et Umbra Sumus (We are but dust and shadow, part one.)

Proximo: He [Commodus] knows too well how to manipulate the mob.

Maximus: Marcus Aurelius had a dream that was Rome, Proximo, this is not it. This is not it!

Proximo: Marcus Aurelius is dead, Maximus. We mortals are but shadows and dust. Shadows and dust, Maximus!
~From the film Gladiator.

So, I keep hearing about this "Shadow ban" crap. Basically, what the right-wingers are saying now is that through some combination of algorithms and something something gazpacho, Twitter (a site which is often favorable to right-wing morons) is somehow effectively "banning" conservative speech.

First of all, Twitter is a private company, they can run their platform however they like. Second, nobody is banning conservatives from speaking or censoring them. In fact, Facebook and Twitter alike seem to do everything they can get away with (and a good deal that they can't) to favor conservatives. What these fucking people are really saying is...they and their ideas have become unpopular but it's not because they have shitty ideas...it's somebody else's fault. You know, the Deep State, George Soros, the Bogeyman, or what the fuck ever. I guess when you're a conservative these days anything is possible, because nothing is true, and nothing is ever your fault.

So of course, it's not that conservatives have shitty ideas and seem to be increasingly incapable of shutting up when "Loose lips sink ships" might be a good policy to start following. No, these people are so stuck on their mythology of right-wing victim-hood that they're basically blaming everybody else for their problems. Not only that, but now since they can't get popular on their own, they want to socialize popularity, along with sex and any loss of corporate profits. Screw personal responsibility, or doing a better job. They want to do what they want to do...and they want YOU to pay for it.

I thought these people said socialism was bad?

These people are literally ripping defeat from the jaws of ultimate victory even as I type this. Today's American conservatives make the defeatist French Army leadership in June of 1940 look gung ho and ready to fight by comparison even as the truth has already gone around their Maginot Line of bullshit. I mean, fucking seriously. It's not just that their poll numbers are sliding off a cliff, and Trump's approval rating almost always hovers somewhere in the mid-30% range. It's that according to what I saw on a Fox News twitter thread yesterday (Where I committed the cardinal sin of being a gun owner who does not feel the need to carry a weapon everywhere) these fucking people have reached the point where they think they need a rifle and sidearm to take out the trash...but my GOD do they feel threatened by you if you don't!

How does the logic of any of that work? I've had guns since I was a kid and I've never thought I needed to take one of my weapons with me just to go to the store or run out to get burgers.

For me, though, it's not just the rampant illogic of it all that pisses me off. I can't help but think "Who in the hell finds any of this inspiring?"

I don't know who came up with their whole idea of "Owning the libs" but it sure seems like they're managing to do literally everything but that in spite of enthusiastic assistance from some of the liberals. In fact, the longer this Trump bullshit goes on, the less authoritative these fucking people can even sound.

American conservatism is dead, and Republicans have effectively killed it.

But no, it must be Twitter's fault. Right?

I mean, come on, it's not like Laura Loomer isn't a Muslim-hating, racist, self-important bitch or anything, nor that she lies a lot even for somebody who used to work for "Project Veritas" (Spoiler: She is and she does, I've commented on a few of her posts, usually trying to correct her on whatever bullshit she was spewing. Pissing into the wind, I know.) It's Twitter's fault, there's just no way a Republican could have bad character.

I find it impressive that I was able to even type that crap with a straight face.

Fucking seriously, what in the hell is even wrong with these people?

Look, I understand that these people think they are entitled to power and they want some kind of thousand-year kleptocracy or something but come on.

All things change, all things die, life goes on, social change is inevitable so long as humans keep being humans, things evolve. History is going to keep sliding right on by and making itself no matter what you do. We are but dust and shadow, as the philosopher Horace said, quoting Plato.

Our culture has already changed significantly even from what it was a decade ago, and that's OK.

It's too late to change it back. The way forward, were conservatives willing to try to find it, would be to abandon homophobia, racism and Trumpism (and Trump) and accept diversity. There's lots of people, not least Africans and many Latinos, who would be perfectly fine with being Republicans if Republicans would treat them decently.

Hell, I used to be a Republican.

Meanwhile, don't let the bullshit distract you from stuff like this, or from the Russia scandal or from the fact that Republicans seem to want to do nothing more than crap all over our environment and national park system or steal a bunch of money before they're either voted out or beat up, tarred and feathered or arrested, charged, impeached, tried and eventually shot by firing squads because that's the kind of thing that happens to quislings, traitors and those who are the collaborators for illegitimate authoritarian regimes. This is what happens, this is what they're afraid of. They are afraid of justice. But at the same time they have created a situation where the State must act against them to ensure its own survival.

We are but dust and shadow.

But then there's the flip side...what we do in life echoes in eternity.

Despite their professed belief in Platonic philosophy, these two ideas absolutely terrify Republicans. They fear death, but they seem to fear being discredited and being out of power even more.

And that's why we have to vote the bastards out, come November. We may be dust and shadow, but put enough of it in the air and dust can wear down mountains.

I'll be there, will you?

Part Two