January, 2023 archive
Nazis for Neighbors 0
A little girl leaves her house to go to school and finds Nazi swastikas strewn over her front yard.
We are a broken society.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
An oxymoronic “responsible gun owner” welcomes in the new year by taking the life of yet another child as his (or her, but probably his) celebratory bullets fall back to ground.
We are a society of stupid.
QOTD 0
David Schramm, in the voice of Roy Biggins:
You know, you make up a story and repeat it enough times it starts to sound true.
Q. E. D.
Precedented 0
Michael in Norfolk proffers a unexpectedly artful precedent for the present Donald Trump.
Vaccine Nation 0
Speaking, we were earlier today, of refusing to learn the lessons of history . . . .
We are a society of stupid.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Celebrate special occasions with politeness.
(Snip)
Already in pain, and crying, she took off her sweater and then made the startling discovery: a bullet fell to the ground.
We are a society of stupid.
Putin on the Fritz 0
Sergei Guriev, in an article at The Japan Times, argues that the future does not seem bright for Vladimir Putin.
Follow the link for his reasoning.
Aside:
I fear that Guriev’s faith that others might learn from Putin’s mistakes (enumerated at the link) disregards the lessons of history. If history teaches us one thing, it is that humankind (especially succeeding generations) seems incapable of learning from history.
Critique of Poor Reason, Disinformation Superhighway Dept. 0
At Psychology Today Blogs, Armin Zadel explores why so many persons seem to be abandoning reason for ideology. It does not surprise me that he points one finger towards the Disinformation Superhighway and “social” media (emphasis added).
This dramatically changed with the advent of the internet, particularly social media. Suddenly, folks around the world found others who shared their obscure ideas, which not only allowed nonsense to propagate but also emboldened many silent supporters to join. The result is a delusion pandemic, with ideas mutating and becoming increasingly hostile toward academics and the “elite” who try to expose and disparage illogical thoughts and theories.
I commend the entire article to your attention.
Normalizing Nastiness 0
Emma talks with with Andy Campbell about the “Proud Boys.”
Aside:
I think Emma’s comparing this to frat boy culture is quite on point.
Patriot Gamers 0
Tom Moran of the Newark Star-Ledger argues forcefully that patriotism does not mean boosterism, nor does it mean turning a blind eye to a nation’s faults. An excerpt: