Doug's Darkworld

That meme made me laugh. It’s getting harder to laugh these days. I was going to blog about my decision to vote for Biden, but as so often happens these days, other stuff came up. Watching all those movies in the 80s and 90s about a dystopian 21st century, from Mad Max to Blade Runner, I was so relieved that the 21st century in America  was mostly the eighties with cooler gadgets. And now here we are, the country is going down the tubes. The weirdest thing about it, most people are still in denial about how bleak it is.

Moving right along, Trump’s reactions to the wildfires in California. In a nutshell he blamed them on poor forestry practices, not doing enough logging, and environmentalism. And that California had refused his “rake the leaves” advice for years, and he was thinking of cutting funding to them as a result of these fires. Ah, where to start? This is textbook narcissism; narcissists always victim blame and frame things so that they look good. Yeah, if they’d only followed Trump’s advice, everything would be fine. It’s also a stunningly childish argument for a man in his seventies.

Back in reality, California has a wildfire problem for a number of reasons. It’s always been prone to wildfires, in fact they are a natural part of the ecology there. Exacerbated by global warming, California has been getting hotter and drier. And the Smokey the Bear factor. For a hundred years America religiously put out fires as quickly as possible all over the west. Turns out this was a terrible mistake, the regular fires had kept the burnables to a minimum and prevented giant out of control fires. So yes, bad forestry practices contributed to this, but they ended decades ago. And lastly, too much poorly thought out development in fire prone areas. Maybe the state shares some blame for that, but sure as shit the environmentalists don’t. Lastly, very few of these fires are in logging areas, the idea that more logging would have prevented this is, well, a lie.

And in other weirdness, the current USPS situation. This summer Trump appointed a political donor and personal ally as Postmaster General, a man with exactly zero experience in running the USPS; in fact this is the first time in history that the Postmaster General wasn’t from the ranks of the USPS. The USPS is a key government service, it’s in fact the only government service mandated by the Constitution. It’s a service for all Americans. And as far as anyone can tell Mr Louis DeJoy is doing what he can to hamper the USPS in its duties. It’s caused some pretty ugly problems already. And Trump has all but admitted it’s all about making voting by mail difficult. This is something that we would normally think of as happening in a corrupt third world dictatorship. It’s like putting someone who has never served in charge of an army, simply because he’s got the right political connections. Yeah, that never turns out well.

Then the pardoning Susan B. Anthony thing. Trump wonders why it wasn’t done before. Um, because she would have rejected the pardon, the same way she rejected the crime she was accused of? A pardon implies the person being pardoned did something wrong, a charge Susan B Anthony would have disputed. She didn’t get a fair trial, so her conviction was bogus. If Trump had actually wanted to do the right thing, he would have voided her conviction, not pardoned her. On the one hand this is no big deal, on the other hand more evidence Trump is pandering for votes without any real understanding of the issues.

Lastly I read an interesting article about Q-Anon: ‘We Are Your Family Now’: What It’s Like to Lose a Loved One to QAnon. Not sure what to think. Sure sounding like Q-Anon is turning into a cult. The Minutemen or Tea Party never turned into cults. I know one fellow who lost his wife and kids to a cult, but it was a real cult, not an online one. Q-Anon doesn’t appear to even have a central leader or organization. It’s people who believe, apologies to future readers and sane people the world over, that a secret pedoplhile ring is trying to take over the world, and Trump is engaged in an epic secret battle to destroy it. And soon Trump will triumph, and something great will happen, and all sorts of monsters will be arrested. This sounds like bat-shit lunacy to me, convince me otherwise.

I guess in one sense it makes sense. Working Americans are hosed by the American system in myriad ways that appall the rest of the developed world. And the narrative they are fed (by both parties) to justify it all is one giant pile of steaming BS. On some level people get this, so they are vulnerable to anyone who claims to have an answer that explains it all. Q-Anoners  are no longer victims of an oppressive system, they are heroes fighting for freedom!

Fun times ahead. Maybe tomorrow I will blog about why I am voting for Biden. Hint: It has nothing to do with Trump. Have a great weekend everyone, stay safe, stay sane. Or a reasonable approximation thereof.  #StaytheFHome #WearaDamnMask #MundiSolisOccasum

Copyright © 2020 Doug Stych. All rights reserved.

(Image: Facebook post, used without permission, claimed as Fair Use under US copyright law. Credit: Elizabeth Hackett.)