Alarming News: I like Morgan Freeberg. A lot.
American Digest: And I like this from "The Blog That Nobody Reads", because it is -- mostly -- about me. What can I say? I'm on an ego trip today. It won't last.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: We were following a trackback and thinking "hmmm... this is a bloody excellent post!", and then we realized that it was just part III of, well, three...Damn. I wish I'd written those.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: ...I just remembered that I found a new blog a short while ago, House of Eratosthenes, that I really like. I like his common sense approach and his curiosity when it comes to why people believe what they believe rather than just what they believe.
Brutally Honest: Morgan Freeberg is brilliant.
Dr. Melissa Clouthier: Morgan Freeberg at House of Eratosthenes (pftthats a mouthful) honors big boned women in skimpy clothing. The picture there is priceless--keep scrolling down.
Exile in Portales: Via Gerard: Morgan Freeberg, a guy with a lot to say. And he speaks The Truth...and it's fascinating stuff. Worth a read, or three. Or six.
Just Muttering: Two nice pieces at House of Eratosthenes, one about a perhaps unintended effect of the Enron mess, and one on the Gore-y environ-movie.
Mein Blogovault: Make "the Blog that No One Reads" one of your daily reads.
The Virginian: I know this post will offend some people, but the author makes some good points.
Poetic Justice: Cletus! Ah gots a laiv one fer yew...
What we’re seeing play out now is a conflict about how one achieves, not the authority that goes with being President of the United States, but the basic respect that we expect to come our way once we’ve reached full adulthood. And I mean, by that, real adulthood not legal adulthood. True maturity. Two sets of rules.
To people who’ve fully reached adulthood there are two simple rules:
1. I can’t make you respect me. I can only inspire respect by way of my words, my efforts and my achievements.
2. I can also inspire you, in the same way, to disrespect me. It’s your choice how to see me, my choice how to inspire you.
To people who haven’t reached adulthood the two rules are much simpler:
1. I get to tell you what to do.
2. You can’t tell me what to do.
The problem that turned deadly last week is that people who haven’t fully reached adulthood can’t see things from the perspective of people who have. And so with all the loud voices heard most often, belonging to people who haven’t fully reached adulthood, the whole “certify the votes” ritual turned into an imbroglio. We hear of the people who “stormed the capitol” and committed the acts of violence, be they genuine Trump supporters or not, having trashed the movement. This is demonstrably true. We’re left to debate whether it was foolish Trump supporters doing damage to their own cause, or brilliant Trump-phobes who committed the perfect false flag operation (seems to be an eclectic mix of both).
But as far as what happened, with the election itself as well as with the aftermath, it’s been a never-ending fireworks show of decrees dressed up in fancy costumes as hard news. But we have to wait so long to get any hard news. Most of it is just decrees, from people who haven’t grown up all the way, telling us what to think.
“Baseless” and “false” have been thrown around by these loud people, so often and so lazily, you have to wonder about the ramifications of wearing out whole words. Can you do that? We can certainly wonder if editorialists have programmed them in as keyboard macros. Words certainly can be abused. The word “false” has been used in place of “contested” or “disputed,” so routinely that by this point we just expect it. We don’t discuss it. It’s “false” that natural herd immunity applies to the Chinese Virus, or it’s “false” that Joe Biden received votes that are non-existent. If you contest either of these, or any one of several other “debunkings” and say “You know I think there might be something to that,” the guy who made the statement that they’re false will just find an expert or two who agrees they’re false. Then the conversation is over. So what’s the point? There may be an equally qualified expert who would affirm these propositions are possible, not necessarily false…but this is so time consuming and we all have work to do. So false it is.
We all like things to be settled, don’t we?
And people who have not yet reached full maturity, need things to be settled.
One of the defining attributes of true adulthood, is the condition of knowing what to do when doubt remains. It’s a learned skill, and these kids don’t have it. They’re accustomed to knowing which answer to choose on a written test, and they want to know…just that much. A, B, C, D or None Of The Above.
Meanwhile, we also hear that power corrupts. I think deep down, whether people want to admit it or not, we’re seeing how that happens. No one who has achieved genuine adulthood, is inspired in the genuine-adulthood way, to respect Joe Biden as a fellow adult let alone as a U.S. President. It’s not as if this predicament is new ground for us. We saw Bill Clinton would lie just for the sake of lying, as if someone was ready to slap a fine or a penalty on him for not telling enough lies within some defined period of time. Joe Biden has the same issue. This whopper about “[BLM] protestors would have been treated very differently…[had they been the ones that] stormed the capitol” is as good an example as any. It’s the sort of lie that demonstrates an intense disrespect against anyone who’s being persuaded to believe it. It relies on a forgetfulness of the events of just a few short months ago that, if it were to be validated, would signify something bordering on mental illness.
Trump-phobes would retort that the current President has told 20,000 lies or something. But the claim disintegrates when placed under the minimal burden of being taken seriously. These are just more postcards from the heartland of faux-adulthood, “I get to tell you what to think.”
If Joe Biden really does get to serve a full term as our next President, or even part of a term, I don’t envy him. He’s pushing eighty and he’s still at that stage where you stumble around thinking you get to give orders to others about how much respect to give you. As the kids say on the Internet, that’s not how any of this works.
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We like things being settled in OUR favor.
And yes, when a statement of opinion that differs from ours qualifies as a “lie”, there are lies, lies, everywhere.
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