Writing in the dissent to the decision granted gays and lesbians the right to marry, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia urged us to “ask a hippie.” A hippie? IN 2015? Has Scalia been outside since 1974?
Ask a Square
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’ve heard several Americans complain about “hippies” recently. It is a pejorative that substitutes for “liberal” or “progressive” in their twisted, brainwashed minds. Yes, it is very stupid and irritating as I have also tried to point out to them that hippies vanished sometime during the early 70’s.
Huh prolecenter? They vanished sometime during the early 70’s?
What world do you live in? Don’t the words extinct or vanished mean that something no longer exists? – or do you have a different definition of vanished or extinct than exists in most dictionaries?
In comparison, the statement that the Confederate Flag is merely a symbol of Southern heritage and not hateful actions could be construed to be just as true as your bizarre idea that hippies “vanished” sometime during the early 70’s. How did they vanish? Were they beamed up or transported to Area 51? You tell me, because I still know a few and where you can find them.
The Cartoon is funny. Hippies may not have vanished, but they quickly went from a ubiquitous presence to something you rarely saw anywhere (outside of Eugene, Bezerkely, Madison, and a few other hotbeds). For all practical purposes, they have vanished. Scalia’s suggestion requires one to hire a private investigator to find you a hippie. The joke works.
@chronofugit
NICE ‘nick
@Ted – chrono is right, it’s a damn fine cartoon, (in spite of or because of all the fun we’ve had with it this afternoon)
I would guess that most people judge someone as “mentally qualified” based on their past actions and performance of responsible positions or jobs. So if you’d confront Scalia with this, he might say “Fooled You!”, and then you could go home whining and crying cause he didn’t live up to your expectations. Or else, you could point out that his actions and words didn’t seem to be objective or impartial, and hope that this could explain or educate others about his recent “badnesses”, i.e., judgements and opinions that seem at odds with your reality. In any case, he is a Supreme Court Justice, and if you don’t like it, vote him out! LOL! 🙂 As far as hippies, yes, they DO still exist, and I know a few – old and wrinkled, but still hippies and proud of it. (Dude, the Grateful Dead are still alive and performing, less Jerry).
Eh, I’ve still got my pony tail & dies. It’s arguable that the Dead without Jerry is not “THE Dead” – that’s my take on it. (Yes, I did follow them around on tour some years – but that was long, long, ago.)
I did sell the old van with all the Dead stickers and the ticket stubs stuck into every nook & cranny, and I do have a day job. Am I a hippy? I dunno, sometimes I call myself such – but then I sometimes call myself as biker as well. Labels really don’t mean much to me.
But as to Scalia – it’s obvious he’s got complete & utter contempt for the Constitution and the founding principles of this country, regardless of how often he gives them lip service. See my rant above …
Hilarious Ted! “Hippies went extinct in the 1970’s.”? Absolutely wrong and incorrect. Ted,please think before you type. Don’t type after drinking a few beers or whatever can influence logical thought – as you obviously have done here. There are lots of old hippies still around, and although their number may be few, you can’t say they are extinct. I’m not an old hippie, but I am wearing a tie-dyed shirt right now and I like a lot of the old “hippie” music, so I find it a bit ignorant of you to say sh!t like this – hoping it will accepted and that people will not realize how wrong you is. 🙂
Ted, “squares” disappeared a long time ago. Not for you evidently, while my nephews and nieces don’t really immediately understand the term, they do recognize what it means in the context spoken. However, “hippies” is more readily understood, because they still do exist. Still, I’d be easily persuaded that some hippies have become squares, although I think that deep down they might still be hippies, except for economic and job requirements they might have to conform to. I might be wrong. Educate me. 🙂
I read both Scalia’s and Robert’s dissenting opinion gay marriage. I’d expect that kind of massive ignorance from some inbred, homeschooled, trailer dweller – but these guys sit on the highest court in the land.
The question was never whether the Constitution granted gays the right to marry – the question was always whether the Constitution granted the government the power to deny it. It doesn’t. That should end the discussion right there.
In the Land Of The Free [tm] the *only* legitimate reason to outlaw something is if someone is harmed by that thing. Two people you’ve never met getting married in a church you’ve never stepped into does not harm you one whit.
I seem to remember quite a few hippies running around loose in California all the way up until the demise of Jerry Garcia in 1995. And, I am told, even today they can be sighted in the wild at Burning Man during some kind of butterfly-like mass migration. So not “extinct,” surely.
But Ted has a point, to wit: The specific correlation between the hippie subculture of the ’60s and the Free Love Movement of the same era unraveled during the ’70s. Today a hippie is no more or less likely to be involved in a non-monogamous relationship than anybody else you meet on the street. But! This is simply because hippie-style fornication among unmarried people long ago became a mainstream value. The hippies won that round.
And Scalia remembers. He sneers. He resents us. To him we are all hippies now.
(It’s not clear from the cartoon, but Scalia brought up “hippies” in his dissent specifically to credit the allegedly hippyish idea that marriage = bondage, as opposed to the majority opinion wherein marriage = freedom. The really odd thing here is not so much that Scalia is citing hippies from the bench, as that he is doing it in order to AGREE with them, that marriage has nothing to do with freedom and therefore the majority opinion is wrong. Scalia says the hippies were right. So there’s that.)
No way! Hippies never went extinct. Oh sure, the media wanted everyone that they just disappeared one fine day. But the truth is, many just went into disguise. We find it much easier to live without no media spotlight. And hey, look at the young people today…. and tell me if you don’t see a bit of HIPPY in most of them.
Under pressure, even hippies in deep disguise can reveal their true colors. Or if they just want to piss off some old conservative politician. Every conservative politician has a strong Hippy Archetype dancing around in their subconscious. Of course, they do not really know what to make of actual hippies, but it can be fun to play with that mental mania. To Scalia, we’re all hippies now.
Hello, old Hippy – I used to know an “OldHippy” who posted on Alternet. Wouldst thou be he?
Bravo !… 😉
Henri
Scalia prolly wears a zoot suit under his robe, thinking it’s the cat’s meow.
😀
I always figured he was wearing a pink lace bra and matching panties. 😉
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😀 😀 😀
Bravo !… 🙂
Henri
Not «the cat’s meow», mein verehrter Lehrer, but the bee’s knees !… 😉
Henri
Are we telling our age????
😀
Or perhaps those of our parents…. 😉
Henri