Boiling (Scenes From The Culture War IX.)

Blood that has soaked into the sands of a beach is all of one color. America stands unique in the world: the only country not founded on a race but on a way, an ideal. Not in spite of but because of our polyglot background, we have had all the strength of the world. That is the American way. ~Ronald Reagan

I've been saying for years, in response to these Fox News motherfuckers always speaking against their fellow Americans, stirring the pot, stoking grievance and hate, that all this shit wasn't going to keep simmering forever. It's eventually going to boil over and become violence.

And here's Jesse Watters literally talking shit about ambushing Dr. Fauci, literally talking about murdering an American hero with a list of accomplishments stretching all the way back to the AIDS crisis of the 1980's, he advocated for LGBT people when nobody else did. Fauci also worked on George W. Bush's PEPFAR program which saved 20 million lives around the world, especially in Africa. Dude has faithfully served both Democratic and Republican administrations for his entire career in public health. And for all that, has to have an armed security detail because of nuts like Jesse Watters. How fucked up is that? Seriously, dude, people have a right to be left well enough alone...and I think Fauci earned that a long time ago. It's really that simple. 

Ask a person from Africa, and they will tell you that George W. Bush and Anthony Fauci represent the best of America...just because of that AIDS program alone. I've spoken to people from places like South Africa and Zimbabwe about this. You have no idea how much of an impact PEPFAR made on a lot of people's lives. I've written about such conversations before.

But those were people in other countries...and lots of them were Black...so to a lot of Americans all that might as well not exist. These fucking people are mad, basically, because somebody with real knowledge told them what to do. Dr. Fauci somehow managed to offend white far-right idiots, so these people rant publicly about murdering him.

But it's not just him.

These people rant about, and presumably whack off to the idea of, murdering their fellow Americans all the time. 20...or even 10...years ago this was in comments sections and the dark corners of the internet and while they were hanging out with their buddies. Now? It's live and in person, publicly, at so-called "Conservative" political rallies.

And this crap is being mixed in with huge dose of open racism.

I mean, seriously, I don't think I've heard anybody use the words "Yellow People" to describe Asian people since I was a little kid in the 1970's and I'm fairly sure it was an old white person who said it...and it came off as racist even then.

These people couldn't force fascism on the rest of us and turn back the clock to the 1930's for everybody...so they're doing it to themselves in the hope...I think, anyway...that they will be able to use force to accomplish what they want and remake the world in their perverse image. It's not going to work...and I think they know that...but right now these fucking people want to go out and fight the whole rest of the world anyway.

And lots of people will still die for no damned good reason.

I've been writing since COVID-19 began about a feeling of dread that I had, that this situation was going to result in large scale violence eventually. When Trump lost the election and left office and a whole bunch of the 1/6 people got prosecuted, that feeling receded. I wrote, on election day last year, that I felt like the shroud of bad spirits had lifted...and I wrote that my ferrets that I had at that time seemed to feel it as well.

But those bad spirits didn't really go away.

They went into these people who had (to use the Christian idiom) accepted Trump into their hearts. 

I've felt that way for quite awhile too...but it's one thing to think it, and completely another to see it in action and see these people talking about murdering their fellow Americans...citizens and otherwise...like it's nothing to them.

This kind of shit is not natural. There's something wrong with these people.

If this shit is not stopped, it's going to result in violence.

And I guarantee you these fucking people won't care if the people they kill are Democrats or Republicans. They don't care about that, they just want to kill somebody, because they think it will give meaning to their lives or make them "tough."

PTSD ain't no fun, by the way. I'm just going to put that out there for anybody who thinks Jesse or Marge has some kind of a point. 

The downfall of civilization and having to shit in a hole in the woods ain't no fun either...and it only ever gets worse from there. No electricity, no food, war and the disruption to commerce and food distribution and trade ain't nothing to joke about. I'm serious. In a civil war...or really any kind of apocalyptic situation short of nuclear war involving the destruction of large cities, fallout, radiation and stuff like that...more people will die from bad water than die from combat. 

And trust me, because I had it happen once...in Mexico, getting sick from bad water and shitting your innards out for a week ain't no good either.

None of this stuff has to come to pass.

But unless this extremist bullshit is stopped...and I hate to tell you this, but stopping it in their own ranks is something conservatives are going to have to be responsible for themselves. Somebody's going to have to grow a conscience here...otherwise, even though it still has to be done, the government or the military or the police or regular people doing it will further just further these people's sense of grievance and their hate and while it may push us less toward oblivion it will still do so. 

Unending cult-radicalization is the perfect trap. They can't get out, but like crabs in a bucket they want to pull the rest of us in with them.

Somebody's going to have to stand up here. And it's better if it's somebody on their side...but I worry that nothing any one person does will be enough.

Like I said months ago, these people will even leave Trump behind. It's already starting. Some of these people are already too far down the rabbit hole. The pot people like Tucker Carlson have been letting simmer forever for fun and profit is going to boil over.

And if somebody doesn't think of something, or there isn't some kind of mass outbreak of common sense or conscience, that figurative pot boiling over will take the real-world form of armed conflict, right-wing insurgency, of violence.

And the only thing most of us can do about it, if we want a better country, is to try and be a better citizen, and yes, a better person.

So get after it.

Because they won't.

Part VIII

Some seem to forget that I’ve worked with those on movies and television. I warn you. Television may be exciting, but always take what you watch or read with a grain of salt. The more extreme these people act, the more money they make. They don’t care about us. You should always do your own research using verified primary sources. Editorials or articles published can be exciting, but they are seldom the truth. This country will eventually be destroyed for the sake of a paycheck. ~Ronald Reagan

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