After many epic controversies in American presidential politics, this is what we have finally come down to: as much as we dislike the party that we are voting for, we despise the party that we are voting against even more.
Another Epic Battle of Big Ideas
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication, WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a frequent contributor to The Wall Street Journal, a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "The Stringer."
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I’m reminded of George Carlin’s observation that these politicians didn’t just fall out of the sky. That is, these pols are here as the functional end-product of our corrupted system. We get what we deserve. Why? Gene Wilder’s line in “Blazing Saddles” comes to mind: “These people are the common clay … you know, morons.”
Whether it’s the original fentanyl (religion) or the newer items in the product line: garbage television, the insipid news programs, or the moral puritans that control all of the largest fora online — “Oh, he used a badtouch word! Delete the comment! Only what we approve of! Only what we approve of! Children might be watching. Did we get the Victoria’s Secret ad account? And where’s the latest picture of some Kardashian’s fat naked ass?” — we are just like the five or six people who don’t panic in a fire stampede. We know what to do to save everyone, and we can’t implement any of it because, in a fire, just like in a democracy, everyone has the right to cause everyone’s death through stupid decisions.
(I note with some amusement that all the people who make their livings off the Internet claim it’s the great liberator and equalizer and so forth. But none of these defenders of democracy and open discourse can devise software that sends comments directly to publication. Oh, they can make it so you can choose to moderate content, but the idea of simply setting everything to automatic publication? It’s like they’ve summoned Jimmy Doohan back from the beyond: “I kenna change the laws o’ internet physics. I’ve got ta make the comments section malfunction. We would all be forever lost in a sea of open ideas. Och …”
It’s not just Ted’s site, either. The New York Times’ site has a comments section that functions exactly like I would expect a comment section to function if it was designed by Yale students. I’m amazed I don’t get electric shocks through the keyboard: “Oh, you DIDN’T want the users to get 60 volts through their fingers? Gee. Well, we’ll need to get a Jira ticket submitted for that, but we’re having trouble integrating that functionality. Someone didn’t like that Jira is a four-letter word, so, to be respectful to all our diversities, we have to have a consensus meeting to discuss whether to serve artisanal kale or local-sourced wood chips at the bruncheon we’ll have in four months to discuss implementing plans to move forward on discussions on the issue …” )