History isn’t likely to look kindly on the ignorance of the right wing
Ignorance is not bliss. But it is sometimes peaceful.
Watching the news on television or reading a newspaper has proven, in my case, to elevate blood pressure levels and induce a strong feeling of dread. When the Republican National Committee officially states that the deadly insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, was “legitimate political discourse,” and when local GOP groups invite certifiable wackos like Marjorie Taylor Green to be keynote speakers, I get a ringing in my ears that just might signal a stroke.
We seem to be living in an age where a good portion of the country’s politicians would rather kowtow to a bellicose hate-monger than carry out the business of governing the country. A second-rate reality show personality has kidnapped the Grand Old Party and is holding it hostage. Politicians on the right are afraid of the power of his sound bites and fear losing their jobs if they don’t play along.
That shows these politicians’ shallow depth of character. Their principals and morals are subject to the whims of one man, and they look very much like a cult.
When their shining stars are Q-Anon followers, and their fearless leader is the man who stoked so much anger in a crowd of followers that they attacked Congress shouting threats of murder for Republicans and Democrats alike, I have to step back and wonder what alternate reality we are living in.
I am reminded of a quote by a Bush official years ago who said, “We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study, too. And that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors … and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.”
At the time I thought it mere hubris. But today I fear it is much more. The party of Lincoln has strayed so far from its roots it would be unrecognizable to onlookers from just a decade ago. The leaders of today’s GOP have become masters of deception and media manipulation and have raised ignorance to a high art.
Though this may be bliss for the party’s “base,” it should sound major alarms to the rest of the country. Book burnings, banning teaching of facts that might disturb students, “alternate” news services that spew patent falsehoods and complete fabrications — all are signs of something very bad happening in our land.
History rarely deals kindly with “empires” that do such things.
The idea that “history is written by the victors” only holds true in the short term. In time, the truth usually comes out, and often history is written in the dust of “victorious” civilizations that rose and fell believing their own lies.
So, I won’t stop reading the newspaper, whether online or in the quaint, old-fashioned printed version, and I’ll keep watching the news on TV. And I will definitely take the time to cross reference what I read, just to make sure from where it came.
I guess I will have to live with my anger and dissatisfaction with the current miasma in which our land is mired. Perhaps my anger comes with the knowledge that temporary bliss is not worth the price we’ll pay long term.
Hardy Haberman is a longtime LGBTQ activist and chairperson of the Woodhull Freedom Alliance board. Read his blog is at DungeonDiary.blogspot.com.
“Activist” Haberman,
What you are seeing is that people are waking up, and are not buying the crap that you are your ilk have been spewing for decades. The conservative movement among LGBT people is growing, and growing fast, lead by Log Cabin Republicans. You see Hardy, things like a stable government, lower taxes, fiscal responsibility, support for our military (yes Hardy, there are many LGBT veterans out there) and control of our borders…those issues are very much gay rights.
I’m sorry (not really) that Donald Trump got under your skin. You have made that clear over the years from all your bloviating. Too bad. Millions of us voted for Donald Trump, including many LGBT people. As a matter of fact, Donald Trump doubled the LGBT vote from 2016 to 2020, from 14% to 28%. And this does not include the countless LGBT people who sat both elections out, because that could not stand Hillary or Biden or Trump.
So let me clarify a few things for you. The “deadly insurrection” you refer to was made deadly by a capitol police officer shooting a protestor named Ashli Babbitt. In fact, the only gun that was ever fired that day at the U.S. Capitol was by that capitol police officer. Hmm..go figure?
But. just a few months before that, Antifa and BLM were allowed to run rampant across our country, looting, destroying property, destroying livelihoods. And in at least one case, burning a courthouse to the ground in Oregon.
And let’s not get started with BLM. Read the news. I mean the real news. Looks as if they are embroiled in a money scandal right now. Can you report on Patrice Colors’ new multi-million dollar homes? Today, Amazon has booted BLM from its charity platform.
So you want to talk about the right being “masters of deception?” Look around. Take a hard look at your own party. The democrats have been dividing us for decades. And you have just gone along with it.
Sad.