535 e-mails were waiting for me when I returned Wednesday night. As you can imagine, many were spam, many were blog comments but more than enough were little packets of outrage; pictures of Muslims carrying signs warning of retribution billed as a general picture of all Muslims, dire warnings of collapse if we reform health care, little buckets of irrational snickering about Obama and much more. All unworthy of further comment.
Every time I leave the US and come back I'm shocked and have to wait a few days for the numbness to set in and the shivering to stop the way you do when you jump into cold water.
I watched BBC news every day whilst in the UK. We really have nothing like it here. It's dull, reasoned, thorough, polite and controversies are actual and not designed to make facts look dubious and madmen seem sane and well intentioned. Yes, there was much discussion about "reforming" health care and disability insurance, but no shouting, no interrupting, no slogan shouting, no insults, no comparisons with Pol Pot, Hitler or Karl Marx: more like engineers talking about making your car run better by adjusting the spark advance or fuel mixture curve. "Yes sir, we could perhaps remove some people from inability payments but wouldn't we have to provide more money to train them?" I'd forgotten what civility was like.
We're a crazy country, mad, ill informed, aggressively rude, contemptuous of reason, terrified of civilization and of its demands. I'm sick to death of it, sick of talking about it and sick of trying to do something about it -- at least for today.
Welcome back, Capt.! (LOL)
ReplyDeleteHi Capt. Fogg. Glad you're back. I could have used some of that righteous ire earlier this week.
ReplyDeleteThat's me -- ire for hire.
ReplyDeleteAnd you're back just in time for the Nobel Peace Prize nontroversy.
ReplyDeleteWelcome back Capt. Fogg.
ReplyDeleteYes, the BBC is spot on much of the time. American news programs too often buy into the notion that one must take liars and lunatics seriously in order to "be fair." One could say they're just working with the intellectual and political material at hand, but that really isn't a sufficient excuse for fake objectivism.
Only in this country could winning the prize be a controversy. It's apparent everywhere else that the right wing hatred is a basic principle and not a reaction to circumstances. It's a hatred constantly looking for something to attach itself to and if God almighty descended on a cloud to shake Obama's hand and say "well done" they'd be snickering just as hard as they are now.
ReplyDeleteThis is what happens when arrogance takes over. This is a country suffering from emotional and verbal abuse. There are the bullies and then there are the victims who are quashed.
ReplyDeleteIn Israel, where I lived for a long time, there are many political parties, which means that many voices are heard and are valid.