Mendacities and Cruelties and Stupidities

Let’s see: first it was China. Then it was the Democrats. Then the Center for Disease Control (CDC). Then it was Obama. Then it was back to China. And now the fault lies with the World Health Organization. At some point, of course, I am certain that someone on the ridiculous (and dangerous) right will blame the schools and especially the teachers for the spread of the novel coronavirus. After all, they will say, they teach novels in English classes don’t they? And I suppose eventually blame will be attributed to Drs. Sanjay Gupta and Anthony Fauci. In the meantime, the Trump administration refuses all responsibility for anything relating to the outbreak, spread and ravages of the pandemic and instead has decided to congratulate itself on achieving victory over COVID-19. I suppose nobody at the White House has read the papers. I know they do watch Fox News that offers not news but propaganda. When someone criticizes anything about him, even on Fox News, like a pit bull he attacks. His loyalty is only to himself.

     I cannot recall a single instance during the entire reign of Trump when anyone in his administration has acknowledged fault for anything. Rather they have consistently attributed blame elsewhere and usually supported these accusations with falsehoods and calumnies. And this despite overwhelming evidence of wrong-doing, of wrong thinking; of abusive and hate-spewed language; of lies and deception. Civility has no place in his world view.
     That anyone continues to believe anything emanating from a polluted White House speaks to a serious problem in the United States. One thread that might offer some insight might suggest holding onto the belief that in a country born (erroneously) as a city on a hill, a country to be held by the world as utopian and pure, there should be no need for fault finding because no fault could be attributed to this perfect God-blessed union. This administration assumes the mantle of national purity and casts blame everywhere else. Despite the  earlier jeremiads of Puritan ministers that periodically accuse the populace of sin and wrong-doing, acknowledgement of fault by the populace remains anathema except that blame that can be assigned to those who would ascribe culpability and imperfection to the administration and to the nation. I understand that most of the angriest people out there are white people whose sense of privilege is not only dangerous but unjustified.

     Another thread winds its way to the ideological position that in the Land of the Free (for white folks, anyway) no one can require anyone to do anything: this is a free country, they assert and I can do what I want whenever I want to do it. They refuse to wear masks though the stores in which they would shop require them to do so. They hurt and hurl invective at the employees that ask them to follow the regulations. These people do manage to stop at red lights (mostly, though they do not come to a full stop at signs); obtain drivers licenses; fasten their seat belts (I suppose); they await their social security payment; pay their sales tax. Their view of freedom is limited to comfort and self-interest.
     A third thread is that these folks are just not very bright and cannot (or will not!) discern truth from lies. They cannot (or will not) follow an argument from premise to premise and note inconsistencies or erroneous statements; they are too much invested in the world view that Trump’s lies protect. I awaken every morning to the noise emanating from the White House and its minions and I despair.