I am a crazy, uncivil hippie

[lwcon]

You know what crazy is? Crazy is majority rules. Take germs, for example.... In the eighteenth century, no such thing, nada, nothing. No one ever imagined such a thing. No sane person, anyway. Ah! Ah! Along comes this doctor, uh, uh, uh, Semmelweis, Semmelweis. Semmelweis comes along. He's trying to convince people, well, other doctors mainly, that's there's these teeny tiny invisible bad things called germs that get into your body and make you sick. Ah? He's trying to get doctors to wash their hands. What is this guy? Crazy? Teeny, tiny, invisible? What do you call it? Uh-uh, germs? Huh? What? Now, cut to the 20th century. Last week, as a matter of fact, before I got dragged into this hellhole. I go in to order a burger in this fast food joint, and the guy drops it on the floor. Jim, he picks it up, he wipes it off, he hands it to me like it's all OK. "What about the germs?" I say. He says, "I don't believe in germs. Germs is just a plot they made up so they can sell you disinfectants and soaps." Now he's crazy, right? See? Ah! Ah! There's no right, there's no wrong, there's only popular opinion.

— 12 Monkeys

My e-buddy Chicago Dyke at Correntewire has started a fascinating discussion with her real-world friend Olivier Knox, a White House correspondent who's agreed to answer questions about how they make that undercooked sausage called "modern journalism."

Try as I might, I cannot muster much decorum on this topic. Comments I wrote to this nice fellow include the following:

There are many theories on why the MSM has all-but-completely let the country down on the most important issues of the day. But the simple fact is, it has, and the ink-stained wretches have gallons of blood on their hands.

Gosh, that’s uncivil to say. But it’s my country, and I’ll cry for it if I want to.

What a rude, crazy hippie I must be to talk that way!

I've had recent conversations with friends and colleagues who, for example, have a nice word to say about John McCain. I'm uncivil enough to bring up a few of the dozens of disreputable, hypocritical things he's done and said in just the last few months.

It's kind of awkward, really. Knowing that the media's meme about the moderate maverick is a merely a myth. It would be much more polite, and probably much "saner" not to know and not to care. Then I could just smile and say, "he's a good man."

Why can't I be comfortably numb about Bush and Cheney, and not notice that they're evil, corrupt, and incompetent? Why can't I be civil and sane like Britney Spears?

Honestly, I think we should just trust our president in every decision he makes and should just support that, you know, and be faithful in what happens.

Even when I gain the peace of accepting George and Dick for who they are, there's something that makes me crazier still: when people who should know better — say, the media and about half our voters — eat up their bullshit and thank them for the fudge.

Somehow I find living in a "what's wrong with this picture?" a little upsetting. Crazy, huh?

Given the state of politics in this country, perhaps staying civil about it should be the new crazy.

Maybe it's crazy not to raise a fuss when...

• ...in the face of a global climate crisis and deadly politics in the oil-rich Middle East, we have governance by the petroleum executives and for the petroleum executives
• ...America's fundamental freedoms — including privacy, habeas corpus, and protection against being tortured — are dismantled in the name of freedom
• ...a record surplus is turned to a record deficit
• ...two trillion of those dollars are going to a war that's not only unnecessary but it's thoroughly counterproductive and unwinnable
• ...superstition has science on the run
  
• ...the only agenda the administration is sincerely committed to is shifting money and power to the richest and most powerful
• ...we've gone from a president who lied about having an affair to one that seems incapable of telling the truth about anything
  

Of course I could go on and on, but that would be crazy. When confronted with boundless governmental malfeasance, the sane thing is to care only a little or not at all. Clearly the media thinks so.

As far as I know, only one person in the news media has ever asked the most obvious and important question of the day: Why the fuck are we in Iraq? Is it just me, or is there something wrong with that picture?

___

Hey, the liberal light is always on at the Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy. Please stop by and say "hi!"

[CrazyOrangeCat]

1. You are definitely crazy.

And an uncivil hippy to boot.

And in good company here.

:grouphug:

K&R

[lwcon]

2. Thanks

Crazy loves company.
___

Hey, the liberal light is always on at the Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy. Please stop by and say "hi!"

[mopinko]

3. pleased to meet you.

you know that old quote, "if you can't say something nice about someone, sit right here next to me."

[kineneb]

4. and "nice" is a two-way street

if they are screwing us, then we have a right to defend ourselves (and the Constitution).

[lwcon]

5. Pleased to meet you, too!

I actually used to have nice things to say about one member of the Bush administration. I thought Donald Rumsfeld was kind of entertaining.

If you're going to destroy the world, at least have some personality, dammit! The rest of these guys can't even clear that bar.

If they're crazy, and all their policies suggest they are, they're crazy in an incredibly boring way.