Ridiculosity Again (Reagan Wept, Revisited, Four.)

No one familiar with the history of this country can deny that congressional committees are useful. It is necessary to investigate before legislating, but the line between investigating and persecuting is a very fine one and the junior Senator from Wisconsin has stepped over it repeatedly. His primary achievement has been in confusing the public mind as between the internal and the external threats of communism. We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men — not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate and to defend causes that were, for the moment, unpopular. This is no time for men who oppose Senator McCarthy's methods to keep silent, or for those who approve. We can deny our heritage and our history, but we cannot escape responsibility for the result. There is no way for a citizen of a republic to abdicate his responsibilities. As a nation we have come into our full inheritance at a tender age. We proclaim ourselves, as indeed we are, the defenders of freedom, wherever it continues to exist in the world, but we cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home. The actions of the junior Senator from Wisconsin have caused alarm and dismay amongst our allies abroad, and given considerable comfort to our enemies. And whose fault is that? Not really his. He didn't create this situation of fear; he merely exploited it — and rather successfully. Cassius was right. "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves." Good night, and good luck. ~Edward R. Murrow

I saw this yesterday.

I have a question: Why in the hell is everything a goddamned grift, scam, or trawl for "donations" with these fucking people??

And why must every damn thing, no matter how long it's been around (Consider that the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence were incorporated in 1979, nobody outside of Southern California or the gay community seems to have noticed this until recently, though) be framed as hair-on-fire existential, no matter how innocuous or unworthy of comment it may seem to the rest of us??

It seems like it's only in the last few years that "Conservatives" bothered to take note of a changing world...and now?

Well, they'd be desperate to stop it, except that they seem to be far more desperate to make money off of it, while not making any effort to actually change anything, in any way such as changes could even possibly be made.

And are all these fucking people who give these scammers money just that dumb or hopped up on the perpetual outrage machine that they can't see that all this stuff is still here?

Same with all this "Own The Libs" and "Triggered" crap. Do these fucking people really think we care?? I see that kind of crap, my first response is to block the idiot on whatever platform I'm on, and move the fuck on with my day.

And then when somebody calls them out, they...hit back trying to simply use the same words, as if "racist" were simply an insult rather than a descriptive of a belief system or bigotry??

Seriously, nobody is going to stop being bisexual, gay, lesbian, transgender or a liberal or a person of color or whatever because of the "disapproval" of "Conservatives." Just like nobody who doesn't already believe in it is going to bow before right-wing authoritarianism or White Supremacy.

By the same token, unless you're an already-conservative-leaning celebrity or somebody who's desperate for attention, money or to have that narcissistic hole in your soul filled up for a second or two, nobody's going to go out and change their life because of the approval of "Conservatives" either. There's simply no benefit in doing so, for the vast majority of us.

Unless you're just a scammer looking for a bunch of easy marks for a particularly unimaginative scam.

The only reason these fucking idiots are mad about diversity, inclusivity or "Wokeness" is that they're by definition not the only ones who get to have it.

Why the fuck do "Conservatives" and Republicans think the world revolves around them (or that it should) and also think that so many people out there are just dying inside waiting for their approval??

Simply put, the rest of us end up wondering why this overly-tattooed neckbeard MAGA "Rapper" that nobody's ever heard of or heard a song by is standing there looking so intently at boxes of tampons. And trust me, I see a dude like that...especially looking at tampons...the last thing that's going to cross my mind as a way to describe them is "Christian." I'm far more likely to think they're just a dude-bro picking up feminine supplies for a girlfriend or their wife, I'm sure not going to make a big deal of it. Happens all the time where I work.

And what, exactly, went "Viral?" I ask because I sure haven't heard it. This whole Target thing...like so many of the other right-wing moral panics...seems rather like a Tempest in a Tweet to me.  An awful lot of it seems to be not too much more than Benny Johnson trying to make himself feel important...which isn't hard.

Yeah, Target's stock prices are down, but they're down because the last quarter's numbers just posted and Target had a bad quarter, entirely before all this silly bullshit even started!! 

It's like the whole Bud Light thing, trust me, nobody's stopped buying Bud Light and if they did AB InBev (a global corporation based in Belgium) wouldn't care because they don't answer to American "Conservatives" anyway and have a diverse global customer base to cater to. 

The people bitching the most about this crap where I work?? They mostly don't buy beer anyway.

The real danger of all this sticky-fingered bullshit is that these fucking assclowns trying to make money off this shit rile up dimwitted violent goons, which has already happened in this and other cases.

In situations where, thanks to too much access to weapons, it only takes one person to perpetrate some horrible massacre...well it's getting to the point where I personally think these fucking people should be held accountable for incitement and corn-holed by the Law. 

I think all it would take is one or two of these little shits having to be really careful not to drop the soap for a few years and a lot of this bullshit would go away.

And the thing that gets me is, it's not like there isn't a lot more serious stuff that's going on in the world that should be tying up these people's attention.

I'll note after a steady diet of stories of right-wing BS from Poland a lot of that shit went away as soon as there was a real threat invading Ukraine right next door.

Or maybe it's just that, given a real opportunity to prove themselves, to protect their own freedom, to prevent being invaded and colonized (again) by Russia...the Poles saw a chance at greatness and took it, or saw a threat and reacted appropriately at least.

Yet in the face of atrocity, Republicans not only double down on the fuck-fuck games and political horseshit and the stealing, they by turn actively side with the invader or pretend that nothing untoward is happening while at the same time feeling liberated to openly profess their hatred of America and their retroactive love for the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. 

I mean, seriously, I was a kid/young teenager in Southern California in the 1980's. If you would have told me that in 40 years Republicans (of all the fucking people) would be screaming about the Sisters Of Perpetual Indulgence (Gay men in Habits, LOL, what...being my basic reaction at the time and I was a freaking Catholic) as if they were an existential threat while treating a re-Sovietized and violently aggressive and imperialistic Russia as a non-issue or even as an ally? 

I wouldn't have believed you.

I have to wonder what they'll do when it's America that Ivan is looking at through a gunsight. Why? Because Republicans, themselves, are singlehandedly ensuring the day will come. 

It's Republicans and their bullshit, that in the face of European solidarity and Ukrainian courage, make it likely that Vlad or one of his successors sees America as the weak link and comes at us directly.

And as long as Republicans were told they could continue their stupid grifts and ratfuck games I have no reason to suspect that they'd stand up and fight. 

In point of fact, I believe they'd simply surrender and outsource that fight to the rest of us and that's if they didn't directly take up arms and join the enemy. I legit wonder if...or more likely simply how much, they'd try and steal from the Russians, too?

I used to be a Republican and I seem to remember being taught that we had...at least different values than this.

But since a Black man said "Yes We Can" the entire Republican mantra and value system has become "No We Can't."

Everything since flows from that, and they're completely fine with exchanging greatness for laughable ridiculosity as a result.

They've gone from demanding that the Berlin Wall be torn down to demanding that America be walled off.

Motherfuckers couldn't be bothered to properly defend themselves against a virus, think about that for a second.

Reagan Wept.

If you want a better country, you have to be a better citizen. If you want a better world, you have to go out and make it better. Either of those things costs precisely $0.

Ridiculosity ain't the answer you think it is.

And don't you forget it.

Three

Слава Україна!

We welcome change and openness; for we believe that freedom and security go together, that the advance of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace. There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace. General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev...Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!
~Ronald Reagan