I think I have it figured out now. I know why there are so many angry fucking people in the world right now, and it's not because of social media, although it hasn't made matters better. It has made matters worse. Kind of like a gun. Use a gun to kill, say, John Wayne Gacy, and you're a hero. Use a gun to shoot up a school, and suddenly you're the reason for politicians muttering soulfully about thoughts and prayers. Social media is a mirror. It reflects yourself back. Not the you you think you are. The you you actually are.
So many people build themselves up to be something. They say they're this, that or some such until they're blue in the face. They'll talk themselves up. I'm a loyal guy, but fuck with me and you're dead. That kind of thing. And social media will help you spread that image. I have the perfect family. Look at my adorable children! Except when the camera's not taking pictures, the li'l brats are tearing wings off of flies, or they're beating the mortal shit out of each other.
Lying isn't the problem. At least, lying to others isn't the problem. Lying to yourself is the problem. Because we now have social media, we have surefire ways of revealing one's self-deceptions. Because you are not defined by the things you say, no matter how much you wish that were true. It's your actions that define who you are.
And because of social media people are discovering, holy shit, maybe I'm not the person I think I am? And it's pissing them off.
More often than not? The person who has just had this revelation is going to take it out on everyone else and save the self-loathing for later when no one else is around. And that's why people are so angry. If those people had critical thinking skills, and if they applied those to themselves, we wouldn't have so much rage going around. But that requires taking a good look inside of oneself. How many people are willing to do that? Are you?
No matter how crazy and extroverted I can be (especially if I have some booze in me), I have always been an introvert. I constantly examine who I am and who I think I am and hope that they line up. A few times they don't, and I have to reevaluate. People don't want to do that kind of work, though. Why constructively criticize oneself when it's a lot easier to get mad at someone else? Why must I change? Why can't I bludgeon the world into doing what I want it to do?
You know who would benefit from self-evaluation? Everyone in the Fuck You Caucus. You know who I mean. The dipshits and fuckfaces who keep holding up legislation in this country. If they took a real good look at themselves, and I mean objectively and in earnest, I think they would be surprised to discover that they don't actually give a shit about freedom unless it's their own. When you talk about things like freedom, you can't have qualifying rules about that freedom. You can't abridge it for anyone, you can't prohibit it from anyone. Freedom is for everyone, not just a bunch of whiny assholes who keep poking their noses into your business, but GOD FUCKING FORBID THAT ANYONE ELSE LOOKS INTO THEIR BUSINESS,. That's Deep State harassment, buddy.
They have the fucking gall to call themselves the Freedom Caucus when they work ceaselessly to take freedoms away from people? Just fucking once in this goddam miserable shitbowl of a fucking Congress that one of these pricks would think to look inward, to question themselves, to wonder if they are really doing good work or if they're harming people. Just fucking once.
Maybe they do. I imagine if one of them did, they'd probably keep it to themselves. They crow constantly about their own morality, but they don't strike me as very moral people. They strike me as people who would break something at a friend's house and then pretend they were nowhere near it, that it must have been the wind or the dog or something.
So maybe they do look inward. Maybe they recognize their own moral ineptitude. But they're politicians, and they have a base to pander to. If they admitted they were wrong and tried to fix it, their own party would vote them out of their plum House positions, and in the world of politics, that is just UNTHINKABLE. Getting reelected is more important than being good, or at least trying not to be evil. I'll take trying any day over someone who just doesn't give a shit about their own dark side.
Or! Maybe they called themselves the Freedom Caucus in much the same way as a deer conservationist might call themselves deer hunters? The age old question. Is Demon Knight about a demon who is a knight, or a knight who hunts demons? Is it Billy Zane or William Sadler?
Fuck it. Quit being Vern for a while. Try to be Ernest.
Holy shit, 800 columns. And if I don't take anymore than four weeks off from this, I might even make it to 1000 by the end of the year. Heh. Who am I kidding? It'll probably be in 2025, but who knows?
Also, do you know what the P in Ernest P. Worrell stands for? I didn't know until about five minutes ago that it stands for Powertools. Weird, huh?
No comments:
Post a Comment