I don’t know if the following observation is accurate, but it seems to me that the more rights that people think they have, the less responsibly they behave. Also, the less they had to work for those rights, the more entitled they feel to possess them. The resultant abuse of those freedoms then becomes pervasive enough to imperil the very system that provided the privileges in the first place.
If everyone’s personal idea of liberty is valid then it’s only a matter of time until bedlam and chaos rule the day. Then an authority of some sort forcibly reins in the chaos and a new order with limited freedoms is established. People accept this reset because chaos is stressful enough that any form of order is deemed preferable. After a bit of authoritarian time, we typically have a revolution in the name of those lost freedoms. Once the freedoms are regained either through blood or negotiations, then it’s only a matter of time until the abuse restarts and we repeat the cycle. Ad Infinitum. Ad naseum.
I think that the Americans are the most likely candidates for taking that next step toward an authoritarian government. Hell, they almost elected Donnie for a second term, and Republicans have decided to strip away any pretenses of representational democracy in favor of fanning the hatred of culture wars.
There is however a method to this latest republican madness. Culture wars and fear of minorities is simply the most effective and devious tool to maintain the status quo.
Tommy Douglas sums up the current American state of affairs quite nicely.
Fascism begins the moment a ruling class, fearing the people may use their political democracy to gain economic democracy, begins to destroy political democracy in order to retain its power of exploitation and special privilege.
So, the idea is to promote as much fear and loathing as possible. This keeps the masses distracted from the real agenda, which is to suppress voting, gerrymander districts, and block legislation that doesn’t solely benefit the people already possessing the most benefits.
And it fucking works marvelously. Always does and likely always will, because we need villains. We absolutely require good guys and bad guys in every story we tell or the story just isn’t worth telling. Of course, it’s worth pointing out that when these stories are told that the teller of the story is invariably the good guy. This deep desire that we have for villains provides all kind of latitude for the story tellers. Latitude to lie, misinform and spew venom. Latitude to unashamedly invent bad guys where none exist.
And that explains Fox opinion hosts. Tucker provides Americans with a steady diet of villains.
People love to have someone to hate and will eagerly ignore minor details like the truth if it gets in the way of their love for hate relationship. It makes them feel like the good guy victims, and once you’ve cast yourself into that role in the story then you’re free to rain down pain on your perceived villains wherever you determine they exist.
Like black church congregations, gay night clubs and Asian massage parlors.
Canada doesn’t have a Fox network, We’ve also gotten along just fine without a Canadian Limbaugh. Our version of Rush features guitar riffs and drum solos, and the American version features malevolence. I much prefer the music.
I’m not sure why the Americans always seem to generate a following for assholes. I think the concept of free speech has turned into a competition to see who can test the limits of this most cherished of American freedoms. The concept of falsely yelling fire in a crowded theater isn’t even a debate any longer. There appears to be no repercussions to lying and misinforming when all you have to do is cry about your free speech as soon as you’re challenged. In fact, Sydney Powell is now using the Tucker defense that no reasonable person should believe the vomit that spewed from her mouth..
Regardless of how consequential that vomit was to American democracy.
But in typical American fashion it appears that one of the biggest drivers of hate speech in America is profit. Tucker and Sean and a host of other remora’s have found a method to obtain personal fame and profit as hate and fear peddlers. I’m not sure that even they believe their half truths, innuendoes and lies. But, two and a half million viewers each night ensure good ratings and a paycheck that guarantees the little fuck doesn’t have to spend any time in the company of his t.v. audience. Tucker doesn’t fly coach is all I’m saying.
He’s a hate siren, and Americans, unlike Ulysses are free from being tied to the mast of their ship. And so they flock to the Isle of Fox, all the while ignoring the rotting corpses of those that preceded them. The siren speaks to them in ways they sense but can’t articulate and the song cannot be resisted.
Kind of like religion.
America reminds me of The Stand by Steven King. I’m not sure if Steve was trying to reflect on humanity in general when he wrote the book, or if he was just trying to scare the shit out of people. Either way, I see some parallels with the novel and the current state of my Southern neighbor.
First of all there’s the plague.
Steve imagined a much more lethal plague than the version we’re currently enduring, but still, a plague right?
But the most poignant parallel to me at least, is the choice that people are forced to make to gravitate to the light or to the dark. I read the book years ago and I’m hoping that my memory serves me well, but the basic premise was that some people are naturally drawn to the dark and to the light. It’s in their nature so to speak. In some ways, those people whether light or dark really have no choice in the matter. They are what they are and aren’t the least bit conflicted.
But Steve’s story hinged on the people that were undecided. The people that needed to make a conscious choice, and this freedom to choose takes me back to Tucker and the song of the sirens. He lures the undecided with his arsenal of lies, fear and hatred and it appears his song has the ear of many of those undecided Americans. Even though at least one judge decided that no reasonable person should believe any of his nonsense. Steve King understood the influence of the sirens and their presence was subdued yet consistently there in the entirety of the novel.
So, rights.
It would seem to me that the ability to choose is the primary right in a democracy. To choose an elected representative. To choose to protest or to speak freely. To choose to assemble or to own guns or to terminate a pregnancy. What I don’t see though is the obligation to exercise that right responsibly. Any attempt to legislate responsibility is seen as an infringement on the right itself.
Meanwhile, the undecided roam the land, and oddly enough are perfectly fine abrogating their right to choose in favor of letting someone like Tucker make the choice for them. I guess that formulating your own opinion is too challenging and it’s a right to not be challenged to think.
Perhaps the Senate should give some consideration to forwarding an amendment to the American constitution that enshrines the right of deliberate ignorance, because in my opinion that’s exactly what free speech has evolved to become.
Tucker merely stands on the pedestal of that ignorance. He’s a symptom and not the disease itself. The disease is ignorance and the lack of desire to cure that ignorance and believing that nescience is a right.