Political Theatre category archive
Dismayed 0
At the Bangor Daily News, Jim Fabiano is nonplussed. Here’s the end of his article:
Follow the link to see what he said in reaching his conclusion.
The Disinformation Superhighway, It Might As Well Be True Dept. 0
Shannon Gillies documents a deception.
Promises, Promises 0
Nicholas Kristoff takes inventory.
Misdirection Play, If You Think Anti-Fascists Are the Enemy, What Does That Say about You? Dept. 0
At the Bangor Daily News, journalism professor Joseph Hayden looks at the (right-wing) hysterics about “antifa” and concludes that it is a barrel of balderdash, a bucket of batherskate, a freight-load of fantasy, designed to derail the discourse. Here’s a snippet; follow the link for the evidence.
The Reopening, COVID Roulette Dept. 0
The superintendent of schools of a Georgia county is less than impressed by his state’s response to COVID-19 as regards schooling. His comments, methinks, could more generally. Here’s a bit of his piece (emphasis added):
(snip)
Don’t suddenly tell me, as educators, we have now become “essential workers” just to get us back to work. What were teachers before now, unessential?
In a similar vein, Portland, Maine, Press-Herald contributor Victoria Hugo-Vidal is not impressed:
Methinks many decisions about reopening and about COVID-19 are based on magickal mystical thinking alloyed with political and moral cowardice. Politicians, in a mirror echo of Captain Picard, keep saying, “Make it not so.”
But it is so. And will continue to be so for some time. And the virus will feed on their cowardice and denial of science and fact.
My town seems to be acting responsibly.
Individual Blights 0
Many seem to forget–or ignore–that one of the phrases in the preamble to the United States Constitution is “to promote the general welfare.”
At the Idaho State Journal, Leonard Hitchcock points this out in the context of a failure to do just that. A snippet (emphasis added):
The willful stupidity of those remarks is astonishing. It’s true that we, as citizens of a democracy, enjoy a wide range of personal freedoms, some of which are spelled out in our Constitution. It’s also self-evident that exercising those freedoms entails personal decision-making and that we can do what we want as long as we are not harming (or are at high risk of harming) someone else.
Base Desires 0
Werner Herzog’s Bear takes a close look at Donald Trump’s base and suggests the economic anxiety is secondary to his cultural factors in his appeal thereunto. A nugget (emphasis added); follow the link for the rest.
The fundamental issue beneath this cultural anxiety is that the country is changing in ways that Trump’s people don’t like. It’s becoming less white, less rural, less Christian. Trump voters are concerned that they will no longer be the unquestioned norm in American life. This is why “cancel culture” is such a potent meme for them. This is why my trip to an Italian deli in mid-June included an old white guy yelling a profanity-laced tirade at the owner about statues being toppled.
Suborning Felonious Conduct 0
You can’t make this stuff up.