How much do we have to take? My God, the avalanche of corruption, mendacity, boorishness, and inhumanity spewing from Orange Julius keeps cascading over us. More and more.
I’ve been upset with everything about our Orange Leader for decades, but my ire was lit to a level I had never felt before while I watched his speech to the Nation this last week. We were told he would tell us about the status of the Iran War (“War”, of course, is the correct way to describe it no matter what words the Liar-in-Chief uses). What were we told? Nothing but lies and distortions, the same lies and distortions that we’ve been told since this shitstorm started. As I type this, one of the critical lies was belied. He told us that we controlled the air over Iran – that we could fly wherever we want without any opposition. Bullshit. Today the news tells us that one of our fighters, and maybe two, were shot down. He took us to war and now he lies about how it’s going. Despicable.
When we are children, our view of the world depends on what our parents tell us about it. They are our authority figures. If they consistently lie to us about what the world is like, we’re not going to enter life with a valid picture of what to expect. When we are adults, politically, the President becomes our authority figure. We depend on information from that source for our worldview. When we have a President, like we do now, who consistently lies to us about what’s going on, we can’t have any valid idea about what’s out there. And, like now, when we know that the President who is lying to us is a meanspirited malignant narcissistic huckster, we must realize that the worldview we are being fed must be opposed.
I have no recipe for a sure-fire cure. Unfortunately, there is no pill we can take to make this Trumpian fantasy America go away (although certain pills make it seem like it has gone away). I’m not smart enough to know exactly what we should be doing. I do know, though, what we shouldn’t be doing.
We should not shy away from talking about it, wherever and whenever we can. We should talk about it with anybody and with everybody. We should talk about it with family, with friends and even with strangers. We should talk about it with people who agree with us and, more importantly, we should talk about it with people who think we’re full of shit.
There is an old axiom that says, “never discuss religion or politics.” That axiom could not be more stupid. There is nothing more important to discuss than religion and politics. There are no two topics that have a greater control over how we live than religion and politics.
Those who seek to shy away from those discussions do so because they are afraid of offending. Why? If you know that anyone you associate with is a Trumper, it is your obligation to try to point out the tragic error of that person’s ways. Oh, I know, the Trumper mentality does not permit of much malleability. But that should not deter us. If your child was trapped in a hole and a boulder was blocking it, would you not try to move the boulder, no matter how hard that might be? This is not an exaggerated analogy. The Orange Boulder is trapping our children and grandchildren in a hole that will hideously disfigure the world that they will be stuck in. We at least have to try to move it.
Every time you shy away from a conversation about what Orange Julius is doing, you are helping him. Every time you shrug and change the subject when some misguided Trump believer extolls his virtues, you are giving that maniac support. You are chickening out. It is as important to oppose the Trumpian ideas of our opponents in private conversation as it is to carry a sign and march along with our brethren on a “No Kings Day.” Maybe more important.
If you have any belief in the value of reason, you of course agree that any reasonable analysis of the Trumpian mindset undermines it. Use reason. Undermine as best you can. Even if you fail, you will have done your duty.
The future depends on it.
We were right 