Nurse the Hate: Turbulent Waters

When I was a teenager I had a teacher that showed us his Beatles ticket stub from Shea Stadium.  It was an amazing artifact to a 15-year-old, our version of the Dead Sea Scrolls.  The 1960s at that point were our older brother’s record collection, a faded color film clip of a time that might not have really existed.  The romanticism over the 1960s has already started to kick in by then, and I don’t think it was until that moment that our little peanut brains put together that our teacher had been a young adult like us during those turbulent days.  I remember one of the other students saying “Mr. Layman!  You were alive during the 60s!  That must have been so cool!”.  Mr. Layman looked a little sheepish as if considering wading into the deep waters of that time to explain what it was really like versus our cinema version of 1968.  He looked down at the carpet and quietly said “It was a really stupid time.”.  I have always remembered that.

In the last few days we have had bombs sent to political opponents of a president that spends most of his time at his version of Third Reich rallies whipping up dissent towards half of our population.  The news source for most of these disciples is Fox News, a government propaganda tool that is untethered to the professional standards of journalism.  They spent the broadcast day of the letter bombs focused on the “migrant horde” descending on our “dangerously flimsy” southern border ready to inflict rape, murder and mayhem.  They breathlessly tell their audience the administration’s talking points of Middle Eastern sleeper cells hidden among the dangerous brown people.  Somehow these people are part of a Democrat plot to cause mayhem in the country.  It doesn't make sense because it doesn't have to.  Logic is dead.  Mike Pence, when faced with the complete lack of basis in fact of this claim, stated in effect “though it might not be true, no one can prove it isn’t true”, thus providing justification to the simple-minded audience.  Who can blame some lunatic for trying to assassinate people our leadership has finger pointed as being “enemies of the state”?  These are turbulent waters my friend.

I think the real revolution going on in America boils down to one point.  It is the stupid and uninformed versus everyone else.  There are a staggering number of Americans that don’t read anything, are fundamentally uneducated, and have no experience in travel.  They haven’t been anywhere.  They haven't done anything.  They know their little corner of the world and have been taught to be afraid of anyone else that looks or thinks different.  Is it elitist to suggest that most people are as stupid as woodchucks?  Maybe, but I’m in advertising and I can tell you that the only mass messages that work must be dumbed down to a level that a second grader can understand.  This is, of course, the president’s wheelhouse, and why the country is in big trouble.  His true gift is to understand what the disenfranchised mob wants to hear and how to press their buttons.  Now while a debate could be held if it is inherently evil to mislead a large portion of the nation you are pledged to serve, there can be little debate about the effectiveness of the tactic.

The talking points haven't yet been assembled on today's mass shooting in Pittsburgh.  There will be some horse shit dodge to suggest that our current national tone has no impact on "the actions of a crazed individual.  Thoughts and prayers." It doesn't take a genius to put together that the daily rhetoric from leadership and their propaganda machines that people different than you are a threat and need to be dealt with is going to plant seeds in unstable minds.  I don't know how much longer this can keep going in this direction.  I know when I go to vote in the upcoming election, I am going to vote against anyone that has an "R" next to their name.  While most of these people certainly are not the cause opening this Pandora's Box of hatred and fascist thought, they are all complicit in not trying to stop it and riding the wave for personal gain. 

I am concerned that my worst fears will come to fruition after this election.  Are those among us that believe in discourse, freedom, and equality be outnumbered by the "nationalists"?  There is the very real possibility that I am part of a minority in a Nation of Dicks.  I hope not.  But I am not optimistic.  Things have just gotten away from us.  These are dark times.  Maybe we turn the ship around and in the future groovy movies will be made about this time making it look exciting.  Years from now some kid will look at my picture at a Father John Misty show and say, "Mr. Miller!  You were alive in 2018!  That must have been so cool!".  I'll think for a second about what happened, try to figure out how to explain it, stare down at the ground and say, "It was a stupid time."