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Crow Underhill's avatar

Fun! Yes, I have been using that word a lot lately. Whenever I am out, usually working, I use it to describe the people all around me. They are having fun. I am not but then, I am not like them and I really feel I have no kinship with them. I work as Event Staff, many different venues and I hear that term all the time. "Wasn't that fun?" I don't see any fun in it, though I am entertained by the masses of morons spending ungodly amounts of money on this bullshit. Bird brains I call them, they all act in unison, no matter what, all without an ounce of intelligence. Very scary if you give it some deep thought.

The gushing "patriotism" is disturbing, knowing what is really going on. They will all stand and cheer for the anthem, rigid and proud and then go back to watching the spectacle of ball or noise they call song or whatever is going on. I rarely watch the events, like I said, I get my entertainment from watching the people. Mindless, ignorant and woefully stupid. I would find it sad but then, I have no kinship with them and so I retreat into my own zen meditations. Oh, so peaceful.

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JustPlainBill's avatar

I learned a lot today! First, I'm barely caught up on fentanyl, and had not yet heard of zylazine. Second, I happened to read a brief news piece this morning about some arrests at a “sideshow” in the Tractor Supply parking lot in Fresno, and didn't know what a “sideshow” was supposed to be. So thanks for that, although you must admit that it’s pretty sorry that a guy writing a blog from Cambodia knows more about this stuff than someone (me) living in the US where it is actually happening. I need to get out more. :-)

Of the many English words that have been corrupted recently, I nominate “hate” as one that has truly been hijacked. Most of us know which of our feelings is best described by this word, and I charitably submit that most don’t feel it often. But to hear the way it is tossed around these days, hate is all-pervasive and constant. Someone, somewhere is always trying to "hate" the “good guys”. I myself think it has been relegated to a mere synonym of the word “disagreement”. For example, "The Center for Countering Digital Hate" (which you may have heard of) is really countering "disagreement". With what, you say? Why, with “the narrative” of course. (Oh, and BTW, it’s not really a “center” but just one guy and a keyboard.)

As I commonly find myself doing nowadays when I think of such stuff, I grew a bit nauseous toward the end of your piece, not from your writing, but from the sad truth of what you are describing. I can’t tell any more if most Americans feel the way you describe about the bullying, or realize that these guys seem unaware that the nation they're most accurately describing is their own.

I’m certainly no fan of Bill Clinton, but I remember something he said not too long after the collapse of the USSR. He was asked what he thought the US should do with the “peace dividend” we supposedly were going to get from the end of the Cold War, and he said that we should use it to try to build the kind of world we want to be living in when we are no longer top dog on the block. I feel that we in the US are getting very close to finding out how well that worked out.

This morning I just renewed. Thanks for what you do, and keep on keeping on!

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