The Cruelty Is The Point

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

I’ve been struggling for several weeks to write a snarky post on the latest right-wing horror show of attacking schools, teachers, and books. But I can’t. Quite honestly, I cannot find anything snarky or humourous in this latest attack on what should be the foundation of our American culture.

This latest outrage comes upon six continuous years of outrages driven by The Former Guy (TFG)The Former GuyMocking reference to the disgraced twice-impeached one-term looser pres*dent trump. I don’t know if I’ve become worn down by continuous right-wing obscenity, or just numbed. Reading the news about horrific laws being pushed in Republican-controlled state capitols has taken on a surrealistic feeling. And not in a good way.

Besides all the above, just yesterday America experienced the third mass shooting in four days. This most recent one being the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas. Nineteen children and three adults shot dead while inside their classrooms. The Republican response? “Thoughts and Prayers.” Oh, and on Friday the National Rifle Association (NRA) will be holding a convention in Texas, with the [Republican] Governor and [Republican] Senators all planning to attend.

Nothing to see here folks, now just move along.

To identify what’s wrong with conservatism and Republicanism — and now with so much of America as we are about to enter the Trump era — you don’t need high-blown theories or deep sociological analysis or surveys. The answer is as simple as it is sad: There is no kindness in them

Neal Gabler

So in Today’s America:

Republicans ban books, because those books are too dangerous for children to read. But guns keep us safe.

Republicans pass increasingly more draconius laws regulating women’s bodies, because life is sacred. But children killed by guns is just another thing best solved with thoughts and prayer.

Republicans pass laws regulating what teachers can teach in classrooms, because knowledge is dangerous. But let’s force all teachers to pack guns in their classrooms to keep kids safe.

Last week, in the midst of a crisis-level national shortage of baby formula, 192 (out of 208) [Republican] lawmakers voted against an emergency spending bill to address the crisis. This happened while another [Republican] governor claimed we had formula shortages because we were giving it all to illegal immigrants. Besides the absurdity of claiming a few hundred refugee children caused a nation-wide twenty-five percent reduction in baby formula, the consensus seemed to be that it was OK for refugee children to starve.

Not to forget; apparently the Southern Baptist Church was envious of all the attention the Catholic Church was getting for hiding/ignoring their pedopile sex-scandled priest problems. Needless to say, both the Catholic leadership and Southern Baptist leadership support the Republican Party. Because Abortion!

And on day 144 of this brave new year of 2022, here in America we’ve experienced 198 mass shootings. But who’s really counting?

Numbed Beyond Belief

Meanwhile, between banning book and restricting teachers’ free speech, these same Republicans are busy trying to make life harder for the least among us. Laws restricting social safety net programs designed to help the poor are flying through Republican-controlled legislatures. Ever-more ingenious laws targeting transsexuals are being written by Republicans, apparently because there’s nothing else for those lawmakers to focus on. Not to mention the laws Republicans are pushing through to make voting harder for anyone who doesn’t want to vote for Republicans.

We have Republican governors announcing that the high maternal mortality death rate in their state is not as bad as it seems – if you subtract the deaths of Black women. Which apparently is what passes for compassion amongst Republicans now-a-days, as lots of other Republican lawmakers and Republican TV personalities have rushed in to defend this asshole.

I periodically pop in on random stories from my website archive just to read stuff I wrote. What I can’t help noticing is how routinely outraged I sounded several years back. Compared to how not-outraged I sound now when I write about stuff so outrageous it would have seemed like dystopian SciFi back a few years ago. I feel like I’ve become numbed to the hell-hole that life in America is rapidly becoming. Trying to summon the outrage appropriate to each new outrage is no longer possible. All my energy seems to be sucked up in my effort to make it from one day to the next.

The Joke May Be On Us

The common denominator all points back to a relatively small group of people deciding that life has to suck so let’s pile on the hate and cruelty. Those people all swear allegiance to the Republican Party, or the Trump party, as anymore it seems impossible to see daylight between any Republican official and the disgraced twice-impeached one-term loser former Pres*dent Trump.

But, the joke may yet be upon us normal people, given how up-front Republicans have become about rigging elections. I’ve written before about how I was bullied all through K-12 school, and even well into my Navy days. I now see a horrendous future where former schoolyard bullies are running America.

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