Trashy America

Will Smith, Chris Rock, and the Rules of the Street

I remember Will Smith from the Fresh Prince days.  I did not really watch the show, but I would see it occasionally, and Smith was indeed very funny.  But he really came to my attention with the 1993 film Six Degrees of Separation.  His performance was dazzling.  But over the last thirty years, I stopped going to the movies.  And I rarely see any of the blockbusters or blockbuster-wannabe's that command the likes of the movie star that Will Smith has become.  The one exception was the 2007 film I Am Legend.  It was no Six Degrees, but it was another excellent performance and, at the time, an interesting script.  Today I would argue that I Am Legend is a must see film, especially for all the little Covid totalitarians.

In any case, to the extent that I think about movies and Hollywood, which is very little, I have always maintained a high opinion of Smith as an actor.  Of course, as with all actors, I have no idea of what kind of man he is.  I am vaguely aware that he and his wife have some sort of unconventional marriage.  But I don't follow any of that closely enough to know the details.

I don't think I have ever watched the Academy Awards.  Perhaps once as an adolescent.  And Sunday night was no exception.  The truth is, I did not even know it was happening.  And even now, I would not typically know that it had happened.  Except that, within hours, it appeared on my favorite website, Instapundit.  Even there I would have ignored it but for the fact that this is not the sort of material that normally appears on the site.  So something highly unusual must have happened.  Earthquake was my first thought.

No need to rehash the details here.

Now, if you have an occasion to spend time with our criminal elements in their natural habitat, I would like to give you one little piece of advice on how to comport yourself.  Be respectful.  Not obsequious, just respectful.  If circumstances call for firmness, fine, be respectfully firm.  To everyone.  Especially to those who don't deserve it.  Why?  Because respect is a big deal in these quarters and any perceived disrespect may lead to violence.  If you are a big guy with a gun, maybe it does not matter.  But if you are a small guy with no gun, use some common sense.  Oh and one more thing, leave your wife at home.

Is it right?  Maybe not.  But hey, this is the street.  And they have their own rules.  When in Rome....

Besides, when you get back home, to your safe neighborhood, in your safe, law-abiding community, you can get back to your normal self.  You can hit that new restaurant that just opened, maybe take in a movie, visit the wine bar on Main Street.  Or hey, maybe a comedy club.  And you don't have to worry about the rules of the street.

Right?

Well no.  In America in 2022, the rules of the street are now just the rules.

I did not care enough to write about this incident until I noticed who was getting all the support.  And it was not Chris Rock.  So it's not only that Will Smith is a thug who lives by the rules of the street, it is that most Americans are on his side.

And don't think I'm letting women off the hook here.  There is no doubt that Smith was egged on by his wife.  She felt aggrieved by a comedian, so she sent her man to defend her honor.  Violently.  She loved it; of course she did.  I have witnessed this dynamic myself, and it is becoming more common.  Can there be any doubt that America is in cultural regression?

I heard Jesse Watters on Fox News ask:  What if instead of Will Smith, it had been, say for instance, Mel Gibson?  Would Americans be equally supportive of a white man attacking a black man over a harmless joke?  Where is the real privilege?

And yes, it was harmless.  Perhaps ill-chosen, but certainly not malicious.  The fact that Will and Jada Pinkett Smith did not recognize this immediately, and their graceless response, speaks volumes about their character.  And the character of all of their supporters.

Graceless?  Let's call it what it is:  Trashy.  I can think of no other word for it.

No one doubts how beautiful she is.  Certainly not Chris Rock.  One possible graceful response?  Jada should have stood up and taken a bow.  Given the fact that most people in that room seemed to know that she has alopecia, she would have received a standing ovation.  Look, it's simple baldness, not cancer; but never-mind that.  Instead she showed us her all too common ugly side.  Her genuine side.

Sadly, this whole episode is a vivid reflection of America in 2022.

I have said it before and I will say it again:  These are not my people.

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A Vision For Our Future

The Awakening of Jennifer Van Arsdale:  A Political Fable For Our Time

George C. Leef

★★★★☆

Bombardier Books

4 March 2022

268 pages

Fiction

$ 17.99 (Paperback)

$  9.99 (Kindle)

* Prices accurate on date of this post.

George Leef calls this book a political fable.  My guess is because he has exaggerated the current and coming danger in order to make his points.  But I would have preferred if he labeled it a vision.  A Political Vision for Our Future would make a better subtitle.

Here's the scenario he lays before us:

1. The Left gains control of both the executive and legislative branches of government, including both houses of Congress.
2. The senate completely ends the filibuster.
3. Both the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico are admitted to the Union as our 51st and 52nd states, adding four reliably Democratic seats to the senate.
4. Congress passes a law raising the number of Supreme Court justices to fourteen and
5. The president quickly nominates five additional justices and they are just as quickly confirmed.
6. The Left then proposes one absurd law after another, which Congress passes, the president signs, and the Supreme Court declares constitutional.

Think about that.  What would happen to our country?

Well I will tell you what would happen.  The same thing that is going on now, only faster.  This book is a vision of the future in fast forward.  If you don't like the direction of this country, the slow but never-ending leftward drift, often nudged and occasionally shoved, you will really find this book depressing.  And worse, after the last few years, can we doubt that any of the above is possible?

Leef's book highlights the immorality of the leadership of the Left.  Notably their sheer lust for power.  Mind you, not the power to make the world a better place.  But rather power for their own benefit and to satisfy their need to be in control of others.  Leef points out that, for all their hand-wringing, the Left actually cares very little about policy.  They only care about policy insofar as it helps them achieve and maintain power.  They certainly don't care about the long term effects and consequences of their policies.  History has proven this time and again; there is no reason to assume the future will be any different.

The book includes the media and the journalists who cover for those same lefty politicians.  Note, not cover them, but cover for them.  As Glenn Reynolds says, they are political operatives with bylines.  It includes the naive, useful idiots who support the politicians, either because they actually believe the propaganda or because they are looking for something for themselves.  Finally, the book includes a cast of characters representing the millions of Americans who are hurt by the progressive sham, often with little or no recourse.  The result of course is an America that is grinding to a halt.

The book ends with the redemption of the protagonist.  And the fable ends with an antidote.  But here I agree, it really is a fable.  In time, this is a vision which will absolutely come true.  But it's like a terminal disease, there will be no antidote forthcoming.

Only misery.

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Reflections on Truth

There is truth and there is Chinese truth

A society that is unable or unwilling to define a woman is a society that has failed.  It may not have crashed, yet.  But the crash is inevitable.  I don't need to add to the current discussion around this issue.  But it strikes me as a sign of where we are and where we are going.  Never mind Ketanji Brown Jackson.  After all, she's not a biologist.  But just imagine, the largest circulation newspaper in our country cannot define a woman.  This is not some obscure academic journal discussing rare cases of Klinefelter syndrome.  No, it's a common sense journal of the masses.  Or it pretends to be; just look at its Sports section.

Now, they could if they so chose.  Because regardless of what they print, they know, we all know, what is a woman.  But rather, they decided to obfuscate.  To make it seem complicated and unclear.  And of course, they are not alone.  Fully half of our fellow countrymen are onboard with this nonsense.  They either fully support it or tacitly support it.  If you doubt me on this, ask yourself if Joe Biden would answer the question:  What is a woman?  Would Joe do any better?  I don't think so.

Do you really want to vote for someone who does not know what a woman is?  Or simply is too cowardly to say?  And herein lies the problem.  Evidently, half of the country says:  Yes, I want that!

The fact that these people cannot define a woman is not the start of it.  It's the end of it.

The end of what?

Truth and reason.

And that is the end of everything.

Can we build and sustain a society without truth and reason?  You bet.  Perhaps the best current example is China.  And the Soviet Union before that.  But there are numerous current examples.  North Korea.  The theocratic states of Iran and Saudi Arabia.  The autocratic states of Russia and Venezuela.  The many kleptocratic states of Africa and Latin America.

But our forefathers built Western Civilization on truth and reason.  It was never perfect.  And it will never be perfect.  But for those imperfections, past and present, many people today want to kill it.  They do not believe in Western Civilization, just as they do not believe in truth and reason.  They believe in my truth, your truth, and his truth.  But not objective truth.  And without truth, there can be no reason.

Subjective truth is pliable; it is whatever we want it to be.  So the only truth that matters is the truth of those who are in power.  It is worth noting that this is not the truth of the fittest.  And it is certainly not the truth of those with the best ideas.  It is rather the truth of the most corrupt and ruthless.  Think of it as Chinese truth.

For many years, I have asked, quite sincerely, what is it that these people want?  These people among us who do not believe in objective truth.  Do they want to live in a society like China?  They find the question absurd, and maybe it is.  No one claims to want that.

What you have to understand is they still fiercely lay claim to reason.  In fact, they truly believe that subjective truth yields better reason.  How?  Because according to its advocates, subjective truth is more empathetic, compassionate, understanding, and broad-minded.  And tolerant, they always profess tolerance.  They argue that objective truth is a simplistic, narrow-minded fiction which refuses to acknowledge multiple perspectives.

Of course this is not true.  Those of us who believe in objective truth can acknowledge, appreciate, and even learn from, any number of perspectives.  I think the difference is that we see one more truth than they do.  As they assert, there is my truth, your truth, and his truth.  But there is also the truth.  While it may be difficult, our job is to find it.  Even if they agree that the truth exists in theory, they grant it little or no importance.

This is why the subjectivists have such an inflated sense of their own morality.  And an artificially low opinion of anyone out-of-step with their ideas.  They do not merely disagree with their adversaries; they have convinced themselves that their opponents are morally inferior.  This is the true genesis of cancel culture.  They believe we are intolerant and narrow-minded, and therefore do not deserve to be heard.  Never mind the arguments put forth.  Their professed tolerance simply does not extend to everyone's truth.  And certainly not to inconvenient truth.

Okay now, so what do they want?  They want reason on a foundation of subjective truth without the constraints of objective reality.

It is possible.  That is to say, it is possible to believe in such.

This is how you can believe in open borders and an unlimited taxpayer-supported social safety net.  You see no reason to secure the US border, but you believe in the sanctity of the Ukrainian border.  You can require IDs to buy cigarettes and alcohol, but not to vote.  You can shut down the sources of carbon and nuclear energy, and then complain about electricity and gasoline prices.  You can dramatically raise the money supply, and at the same time rail about inflation.  You can believe that dividing people into racial groups will lead to greater equity.  You believe in free speech in concept, but not in practice.  You can believe in affirmative action for minorities, but not for all minorities.  You can believe in high taxes and defunded police departments, and yet not understand the shrinking tax base.  This is how you can live without God, yet believe in the dignity of jihadists.  This is how you can blame Guns, Germs, and Steel for global inequities, and not the carcinogenic culture of these societies.

Subjective truth allows you to believe that Western Civilization is grossly unjust, while at the same time elevating a broader swath of people than any other system by far.  Subjective truth does not ask, because it cannot answer, the question:  What else then?  Besides, who are we to question the truth of other cultures?

Subjective truth allows you to believe that the man in the pool is a woman.  Likewise, who are we to question Will Thomas' truth?

Reason on a foundation of subjective truth.  It's a faith system.  The adherents are the same people responsible for an out of control and unaccountable government.  High energy prices, lockdowns and mask mandates, a costly regulatory environment, supply chain issues, a farcical foreign policy, the devaluation of the dollar, and a complete breakdown of our education system.

Yes, our education system.  Let's call it what it is:  K-12 grooming and indoctrination, followed by a university degree that is nothing more than credentialed proof of post secondary (advanced) indoctrination.  These are the people who gave us intersectionality, which we now understand is a fancy word for divide and conquer.  And while our education system is so busy grooming and indoctrinating, there's very little actual educating going on.

If you doubt me on this, pick any ten-year-old, and ask him a single-digit multiplication question.  Educators no longer teach multiplication tables.  Nor spelling, nor grammar, nor history.  Ask a high school student who fought in the Second World War.  Ask a college student which two bodies of water the Suez Canal connects?  You can forget about critical thinking.  As Glenn Reynolds likes to say, this is not a bug, it's a feature.

Reason on a foundation of subjective truth.  What is that?  Subjective rationality, dogmatic expectations, doctrinaire reality?  There must be a term for it.  But whatever it is, it is not critical thought.  Again, it's a faith system.  They believe in the truth of those who are in power.  Critical thinking is difficult.  Believing what you are told is so much easier.  And hey, since truth is subjective, their truth (that is, the truth of those who are in power) is just as likely as any other truth.  It sounds good, it sounds hopeful.  So let's go with that.

They may want reason on a foundation of subjective truth, but that does not invalidate objective truth.  It is still there; lurking beneath all.  The corrupt and the ruthless will take advantage of this naivety.  They always do.

In the end, there will only be Chinese truth.

This is not an admonition.  This is a prediction.

With a single party state, a complicit media and educational establishment, and social media censorship, we are well on our way.  Will Thomas is a woman called Lia and a champion female swimmer.  Hunter Biden's laptop was Russian disinformation.  The high price of oil is Putin's fault.  Zelenskyy is a democrat.  America is the most racist country in the world.  Race is the most important attribute of a person and biological sex is completely irrelevant.  These are Chinese truths.  Many more to come.

These people are killing us.  I would like to say:  I fear for my country.  But is it my country?  I certainly don't recognize it.

I suggest you hold on to your guns and buy some more ammo.

We get closer to Chinese truth every day.

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Safe Tucking

Back in February, we brought you a document from an American institution of higher learning on neopronouns.  Today, we bring you a new document on tucking from Doernbecher Children's Hospital at the Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU).

So what is tucking?  Well, they're not talking about tucking in your shirt.  Oh no, this is rather more advanced.

As we did with the previous document, find the original document on the OHSU website here.  And the webpage offering this document and describing their gender services here.  Where you will also find a helpful handout on chest binding.  One can't help but wonder when did they drop the handout on foot binding?

You might recall that I had quite a bit of commentary on the whole neopronoun phenomenon.  Not the least of which reason was my view that pronouns are not ours, but rather belong to others.  And so the proponents of neopronouns want to inflict their nonsense on others.  That is the whole point of their narcissism.  This is very clearly the case; just watch how incensed they get when others don't play along.

Tucking is something people inflict on themselves.  But given the source, I do fear they are encouraging children to inflict this upon themselves as well.  One might ask, what does this do to the emotional development of children?  And what kind of people encourage this?

Now I can hear the proponents already:  Tucking and binding are relatively safe methods for individuals to try out a new body without resorting to the knife.

But maybe it would be better to invest in a good psychiatrist.

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On Covid Madness

The vaccine argument is weak.  So why all the lingering anger?

As I understand it, the argument is, if you get vaccinated, you may still catch the Covid, but you are less likely to be hospitalized.  And if you are hospitalized, you are less likely to die.  In other words, your symptoms will be less severe.  And if we can believe government statistics, this appears to be true.  Of course, the government has proven itself a dishonest broker regarding all things Covid.  So make of it what you will.

In any case, I just can't get past the actual words of Obama's tweet:

1.  I am vaccinated and boosted.

2.  But I caught Covid anyway.

3.  You go get yourself vaccinated too.

That's a winning argument if I ever heard one.

But no matter what you think of the argument, it's not very reassuring.  And the long term effects of the vaccines are just starting to come out.

What kills me is the moral outrage that people bring to the argument:  You unvaccinated plebs are clogging up our hospitals and costing us all a lot of money.  In fact, I have read some go so far as to argue that insurance companies should not pay for Covid-related treatment for the unvaccinated.  And hey, I don't really have a problem with that.  But I find it difficult to believe that anyone can get so exercised about this issue.  I'm so angry about this, that I'm willing to let you go bankrupt, or even die; you selfish unvaccinated bastards.

Really?  Is that why they are angry?  Not buying it.

No, I think the anger is because of simple disobedience.  Like parents who get angry at a disobedient child.  I told you to clean your room, and you did not.  So now you will suffer the consequences.  And then there are those who are angry because they obeyed and others did not.  That is, little Karen is mad because dad told both her and her brother to wear a coat, and she did, but her brother did not.  Yes, yes, that's infuriating.  That's how little Karens grow up to be emotionally stunted adult Karens scolding people on airplanes.

To switch metaphors, the good little sheep are angry that the black sheep just might be getting away with something.  The shepherds ordered us to vaccinate.  We just can't have all these black sheep running around not doing what they're told.

And for the time being, I think there is an element of fear involved.  Deep down and unspoken, people are afraid.  People are now waking up to their own decisions to blindly follow government advice.  Maybe they acted hastily and unnecessarily.  Even recklessly?  There are questions which may never get a public hearing, but they percolate just below the surface.  That too is infuriating.

The problem with this particular strain of anger is where people tend to direct it.  Are they angry with the government and media types who bullied them into getting an untested jab?  Are they angry with themselves for allowing themselves to be bullied?  Or are they angry with those of us who refused to be bullied?  I guess we're seeing some of all three.

It will be interesting to watch as this fear and anger either wanes or grows.  It will depend on if and how the long term effects of the vaccines develop.  And just as importantly, if they are reported.  I can make no predictions.

But it's better if we don't think about it.  Let's talk about something else.  The Russia/Ukraine situation, climate change.  Something needs to be done.

This is the world we live in today.

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