Thursday, June 23, 2016
Thursday
There's this scene in M. Knight Shamaylan's killer plant movie, where Mark Wahlberg and company take refuge in some lady's home. And then the wind blows and the lady gets swept up by the toxic pollen and commits suicide by smashing her face into a window again and again.
I don't know the name of that movie. I won't bother to look it up now. But that image of a woman in her house dress, face expressionless, intentionally throwing herself into the broken glass is the stuff of nightmares. And for some reason makes me think of the political climate in our country right now.
I remember when the administration first presented the Affordable Care Act and held town hall meetings to discuss it. I'd never seen such panic and anger. I heard about a fight breaking out at one of these town halls where a man bit off the end of someone's finger. There are lots of videos on Youtube of old white people yelling at Arlen Spector.
There will always be those young anarchists from the Rhianna video, who find love in a broken place, and then strap on gas masks and throw rocks at the police so we can all finally use bitcoins. But since those townhall meetings in 2009 and the rise of the teaparty and now this white nationalist movement that seems to be Donald Trump's real base, I keep thinking of that lady smashing her face against the glass. It seems like our country has been overrun with radicalized white people who are emboldened by the subtext of certain media outlets and public personas. And they don't care how much damage they inflict on others or to themselves. Some motherfucker in Tennessee is running for state congress with billboards that read "make america white again". When asked about it he says on his website
"Of great significance, as well, is the reality of the Trump phenomenon and the manner in which he has loosened up the overall spectrum of political discourse"
And by that he means that he is now allowed to overtly race bait as a campaign strategy. Loosened up the political discourse? I hope we can survive this madness.
I don't know the name of that movie. I won't bother to look it up now. But that image of a woman in her house dress, face expressionless, intentionally throwing herself into the broken glass is the stuff of nightmares. And for some reason makes me think of the political climate in our country right now.
I remember when the administration first presented the Affordable Care Act and held town hall meetings to discuss it. I'd never seen such panic and anger. I heard about a fight breaking out at one of these town halls where a man bit off the end of someone's finger. There are lots of videos on Youtube of old white people yelling at Arlen Spector.
There will always be those young anarchists from the Rhianna video, who find love in a broken place, and then strap on gas masks and throw rocks at the police so we can all finally use bitcoins. But since those townhall meetings in 2009 and the rise of the teaparty and now this white nationalist movement that seems to be Donald Trump's real base, I keep thinking of that lady smashing her face against the glass. It seems like our country has been overrun with radicalized white people who are emboldened by the subtext of certain media outlets and public personas. And they don't care how much damage they inflict on others or to themselves. Some motherfucker in Tennessee is running for state congress with billboards that read "make america white again". When asked about it he says on his website
"Of great significance, as well, is the reality of the Trump phenomenon and the manner in which he has loosened up the overall spectrum of political discourse"
And by that he means that he is now allowed to overtly race bait as a campaign strategy. Loosened up the political discourse? I hope we can survive this madness.
# posted by joel @ 9:34 AM 
