The Woke Mind Virus 2: If we told Republicans sticking their heads in a Gas Stove was bad would they do it?

Kitchen "Table" Agitprop

There was an "old" internet joke that if President Obama told Republicans to keep breathing they would hold their breaths in protest.

Would that were true, instead the Republicans & Rightwingers have declared they will use everything at their disposal to make Americans lives worse in every way.  That's why Rightwingers decide every issue can be a wedge issue.  Enter the Gas Stove.

No...

From the Washington Post article,

Natural gas stoves emit air pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide and fine particulate matter at levels the US Environmental Protection Agency and World Health Organization have said are unsafe and linked to respiratory illness, cardiovascular problems, cancer and other health conditions, according to reports by groups including the Institute for Policy Integrity and the American Chemical Society. 

Only Ben SShapiro is a more
learned conservative philosopher
than Catturd2 

Which lead to the pushback by Republicans & Rightwingers on their Fashiest platform, Twitter to demonstrate their contrarian coolness.  As with everything from the Right this is all performative anti-woke, anti-virtue signaling designed to appeal to their base.  If the rightwing incestuous media scaffolding had existed in the 1980's Republicans & Rightwingers would have come out in favor of Radon in basements.

Here's just a smattering of responses from the depths of Fash Twitter.

Schlapp is busy ignoring the revelation of her
husband Matt Schlapp's propensity to pummel
Men's Junk without consent

Unfortunately, The Fash in America is strong and entrenched and not going away until they get what they are after; i.e. the rounding up and elimination of every Non-MAGA.

Matt Gaetz doesn't know how stoves work
probably because Gaetz makes his 14 year old    
dates do the cooking for him

In the meantime we are seeing in real time the anti-woke mind virus crusade which has captured the right completely and can chalk this up to another category of Dying of Whiteness.

We are All Secular Fascists Now!

I would never take anyway and adults religious beliefs. Of course, I think, the real reason many adults are religious is because when they were children they were indoctrinated and browbeaten into believing a certain fairy tale (dependent upon where and when they live on Earth).

But, an interesting thing has happened of late. Atheists are no longer quiet about their non-belief. The reaction has been predictable. Religious believers have had their way and freedom from questions concerning unsubstantiated and unverifiable claims for so long, many have lost the methodology of proving faith through contemplation and dialectic. To paraphrase Robert M. Pirsig in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, They don't understand from where the shot has come. They've never confronted a living Atheist. Only dead ones.

The latest recent flare up was the placing of a sign by the Freedom From Religion Foundation in the Washington State Capitol building, and recently in Springfield Illinois. The sign displayed the following message:

At this season of the Winter Solstice, may reason prevail.
There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell.
There is only our natural world.
Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds.

This has caused a backlash, as the religious have organized protests against the sign. This is fantastic. The proper way for ideas to grow or die is through reason, discourse and the competeion of ideas in the free marketplace of ideas. Except to Newt Gingrich, Bill O'Reilly, Bill Donahue, Ken Ham and others who want such godless ideas stopped through government action.

Bill O'Reilly wants Governor Gregorie hounded for allowing the sign. And stated; “She is a weak and confused leader who allows a fanatical group parody in Christmas displays. I mean, how crazy is this?” Bill-O also declared Gregorie "insulted Christians all over the world".

According to Newt Gingrich the declaration of atheists ideas fits into his worldview that there is Secular Fascism in America today. As far as I know there have been no atheist murders of religious believers based on their hatred of said believers faith. Nor have there been church or temple bombings done by the godless. No Night of the Long Atheist Knives, no rounding up and internment of believers in camps, no confiscation of believers belongings to benefit the State.

But, for clarification Newt Gingrich believes the following: Free Speech=Fascism.

Bill Donohue declared on Fox & Friends the Washington State Capital sign is Hate Speech. (From Atheist Media Blog). I'm sure Bill Donohue would like to know that his characterization of criticism of religion is hate speech is exactly the same idea espoused by the government of Saudi Arabia, which is attempting to get the United Nations to ban all criticism of religion (mainly islam).

I just can't wait for the Righteous to disavow their attachment to that Secular Progressive ultimate Religious betrayer president George W. Bush who, when asked if the bible is literally true, declared: "You know. Probably not. ... No, I'm not a literalist..." (From Crooks and Liars).

The judeo-christian-islamo god most assuredly does not exist. Religion is about control and power.

Center-Right Chrisitian Nation

The election of Barack Obama has caused the Folks at Fox News and elsewhere to declare America is a Center Right country. It is utter nonsense to apply such a vacuous generalization to individuals. No two individuals hold the exact same political beliefs. The pernicious genius of the current structure is it has shoe-horned individuals into one of two camps. Often causing people to swallow hard and vote "for the lesser of two evils".

Similarly since a very high percentage of Americans identify themselves as christian, America is often referred to as a "christian" nation. I suppose if one lumps the First Baptists, Catholics, Mormons, Methodists, Armenian Orthodoxy and all the other branches together it could be considered true. The problem is no two individuals hold the same religious beliefs but for the sake of civil society and friendships they often, but not always, overlook scripitura disagreements.

Well, The Founding Fathers were not christians. They were deists. (100%)

My own mind is my own church. ~ Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason.

Nor were they politically right.

They founded the United States as a Feudal Oligarchy controlled mainly by the landed interests. It did incorporate the Platonic ideas of meritocracy that occasionally in the merchant class and very rarely in the fields were the lower classes toiled would be found a man of talent who could rise into the quasi-aristocracy.

James Madison recognized America was founded where, "the rights of persons were subjected to those of property. The poor were sacrificed to the rich."

Madison and others since they were well versed in the classics, also understood Aristole's warning:

Aristocracy degenerates into oligarchy, when the few, who are rich, govern the state as best suits the interests of their avarice and ambition; and a republic degenerates into a democracy when the mass who are poor, make the gratification of their own passions the only rule of their administration.

James Madison fully expected class struggle between rich and poor. And the history of America is testament to this struggle. The last 8 years have been a phase of utter dominance by the plutocracy.

Look In My Eyes

What do you see?
The Cult of Personality

I sell the things you need to be
Im the smiling face on your t.v.
Im the Cult of Personality
I exploit you still you love me

I tell you one and one makes three
Im the Cult of Personality ~Living Colour

With the recent Cult followings which have arisen around Barack Obama and Sarah Palin, neurologist Robert Burton recently reiterated the well established findings published in his book "On Being Certain" which show once people have made up their minds they do not change them. Obama and Palin have invoked a visceral emotional stirring in their followers which has metastasized into full blown fanatical devotion demanding unrestrained political warfare to destroy the enemy.

No Quarter is to be given. Obama and Palin and their campaigns do nothing to stop this and actively encourage it. This is why elaborate, detailed speeches on their stances aren't given. That would nail them down and limit their appeal. By not telling the people what they believe or what their positions actually are, they allow the deluded people to graft upon them their hopes and dreams. And people convince themselves often times despite the spoken facts that their beloved savior holds those same beliefs themselves.

The certainty and unwillingness to change one's positions is not a new phenomenon and has been mentioned by Carl Sagan, Isaac Asimov, Betrand Russell and an apocryphal Zen Story.

The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.

Despite all the rhetoric of Change We Need and Maverick Reformers, whichever ticket of the Two parties wins they are going to be beholden to certain powerful groups which do not represent 99% of the People in this nation. And the new President and Vice President will use their position to further entrench the power in the hands of the Few. The question remains which deluded group do you belong to which thinks they are going to help you?

Update 09/25:
LT Nixon warns America of the Palin of the Corn.

Military Advisor

At the end of Blockbusters such as Iron Man you always see a Special Thanks to military advisor USAF Lt. Colonel So-and-So. Well, the brother of a friend of mine who is an actor and involved with the Provision Theater Company called me to attend a reading of a rough draft of a play about a young army medic struggling with PTSD after serving in Iraq. I agreed.

The Play revolves around a female Army Medic's struggles to reconnect within society circa 2005.

It's a fairly standard story. Young girl joins in 2000 in attempt to escape the small town farm life in Minnesota and finds herself in Iraq in 2003 or 2004. A terrible event occurs which she happens to survive. At home her father and her best friend don't understand the changed woman. She finds it difficult to handle regular dates. She's reluctant to go to the VA and when she does is paired with a bureaucratic doctor at first until she requests a new doctor and is helped by an unusual doctor who goes out of her way to save the young woman.

So after the reading the board expressed it's dismay at the playwrights use of profanity, the overuse of dialogue to stage scenes and move along the drama, the predictable device of unusual doctor finds a way to connect, and found they couldn't care about the main character because she was an "unlikable brat". Worst of all the play needed work and while suggestions could be made to the playwright he was under no obligation to make any changes. However, the board seemed happy the play didn't delve into politics and remained focused on this one young female soldier.

Then I was asked for my opinion. I stated I thought the play was supposed to be about the struggle to reconnect within normal society and what was missing was the second act in which the audience gets to see the resolution. The young girl reconnecting and re-entering into society. I then said while the character was sarcastic and sardonic I wasn't put off by her demeanor and thought it would be a good juxtaposition to expand the flashback of her prior to service being a happy go-lucky girl deciding to join up to "see the world and pay for college". Also I didn't think there was enough profanity, but then of course I was in the Marines.

I mentioned what everyone seemed to want was a modern retelling of The Odyssey. Because as I explained all of Odyssey's trials and tribulations are parables about a soldier trying to "return home" from war. I asked if they'd heard about Joseph P. Dwyer an army medic made famous by an iconic photograph who died as a result of his struggles with PTSD. No one had...

The board decided to not pursue the play.

When One Stood Against Many

I've liked the film The Naked Prey (1966) for a while. It tells the story of one man given a chance to run for his life after the Great White Hunter he is guiding insults a warrior from an African tribe. The Warrior get his revenge by attacking the Hunter camp and capturing the Ivory Poachers. The African baggage carriers are given quick deaths, but the white Ivory Hunters are put to death in inventive and gruesome ways. However, the guide who is never named is given a chance for his life and by a combination of luck and skill he survives. Much of the movie watches like an extended Mutual of Omaha Wild Kingdom episode.

What always struck me about The Naked Prey was the non-stereotypical treatment of the Africans and The Ivory Poachers. The African tribe doesn't inflict these deaths due to their inherit savagery but after being insulted. And the Poachers aren't shown as bringing the light of European Civilization to the savage Africans but as loud, boorish, uncultured thieves.

I figured this might be based on an actual story from the European control of Africa or out of the fevered pen of Joseph Conrad but it turns out this is based on the exploit of John Colter, a member of the Lewis & Clark Expedition, in an escape from Blackfeet Indians. Colter told British Naturalist John Bradbury of his escape, According to Bradbury's accounting;

They now seized Colter, stripped him entirely naked, and began to consult on the manner in which he should be put to death. They were first inclined to set him up as a mark to shoot at; but the chief interfered, and seizing him by the shoulder, asked him if he could run fast?

The chief now commanded the party to remain stationary, and led Colter out on the prairie three or four hundred yards, and released him, bidding him to save himself if he could. At that instant the horrid war whoop sounded in the ears of poor Colter, who, urged with the hope of preserving life, ran with a speed at which he was himself surprised.

I wonder where Richard Connell, the writer of "The Most Dangerous Game" (1924), got the idea for his short story. Since Hollywood is bereft of ideas most writers and actors owe their comfortable existence to "The Most Dangerous Game". Something about the one against many and the desperate hunted man resonates in the minds of man. I can think of several blockbusters which utilize this motif.

Predator (1987)
Die Hard (1988)
Under Siege (1992)
Hard Target (1993)
Surviving the Game (1994)
Apocalypto (2006)

Angst Rock

This post began as a discussion of the new album Viva La Vida by Colplay and of the band itself. I saw an online photo of the famous painting used as the backdrop and (without googling) my internal monologue told me the painting was Liberty Leading the Way by Eugene DelaCroix (1832) in praise of the 1830 Paris riots. The image having been implanted in my middlebrow brain when I visited the Louvre in 2000. Anyway I was ready to slam Coldplay for the cheesy use of such an iconic painting because their graffiti style title name covered the exposed bare bosom of Liberty. Whether the it does or not is now irrelavant to this post.

Of course, Gwyneth Paltrow, wife of Coldplay's lead singer, describes the album as "brillant".

Anyway...

In Jan 2003, I deployed to England, JAC Molesworth. Besides the fact England has some town names, which to an American ear, just have an odd ring to them (Catworth, Stow Longa, Thrapston, Alconbury, GODMANCHESTER) Coldplay was entering the bigtime with their second album release. I heard it and I liked it and I bought it. Due to a confluence of personal events, the intellectually stultifying and mentally depressing atmosphere of the Corpse itself I was not very happy during 2003 so I found myself listening to "Sad Rock" quite often.

As an aside I still wonder if mankind listens to sad and emotionally depressing music because they are already unhappy or if the music itself pushes one into a depressed mood. I think it's a combination and it varies from individual to individual. However, I think one can create and nourish "negative" brain pathways forming a happy or sad personality through repeated exposure.

Back to Coldplay. I liked the album but while I was in Danelaw I realized I've heard this music before back in the 90's! Radiohead. The Bends and OK Computer capitalized on the Angst ridden music scene of the 90's. Of course, it wasn't that Radiohead capitalized on the 90's genre by being cliche but due to their complex and impressive musical talents.

So, the question is why is Coldplay such a huge group today? I think it has something to due with Susan Jacoby's thesis from The Age of American Unreason. People have allowed themselves to become intellectually lazy and Coldplay resonates because they have the patina of a highly impressive band which the musically elite and those with a cultured ear would listen to.