Fri. Mar 29th, 2024

Imagine a neighbor who not only doesn’t care if his dogs decorate your lawn daily, but keeps saying he’d love to force your face down into it. Love to smear it all over your face. And you KNOW he’s serious and won’t deal with you any other way. That is much of today’s more radical right wing

Inspection

By Ken Carman

 You know the poo is strong when talking points go from chanting to hang Pence, Pelosi, to the insurrectionists were BLM, to they were just like tourists. Then when fellow chanter, Ashli E. Babbitt, tries to get at these same leaders to murder them and she gets killed. Here comes the poo again! She supposedly was “murdered” and a “martyr.” This from the party that brought us Stand Your Ground (apparently a Capitol cop has no right to that?) and legislation to make driving over protesters perfectly legal
Morning Joe
 There was a debate between one more left, one more right, about Critical Race Theory. The rightie blathered on and on using the usual Commie, Socialist, absolute nonsense blah, blah talking points… excuse me: ACCUSATIONS. His fast banter reminded me of the bottomless vessel dog who decorates your lawn every day, year after year.
  There is absolutely NOTHING “Communist” about considering slavery’s and racism’s impact on our history. Does anyone think Stalin, or Khrushchev, or… would have tolerated teaching about the history of Russian abuse of dissidents? About the poisonings, the many murders, including a host of journalists? The true history of the Gulag?
 If anything teaching about slavery’s impact on its victims and our history is the OPPOSITE of what some dared call “Communism.” So that’s one reason, out of so many, to consider teaching how slavery, oppression and segregation treated blacks and affected society as a whole. And how we treated the natives. And how we treated the Japanese who lived in the US. Muslims. The Irish. And to some extent still do.
 Long list could follow.
 Amongst so many obviously memorized dog secretion quality talking points, our liar said something that woke me up from my yawn laden somnambulate state.

 ”There are people on the left who don’t like Critical Race Theory.”

 First time I heard that. Expect the echo chamber to echo more of that, as the right wing miscommunication machine does. Some dare call it “news”
 I’m pretty sure I know what this snarky twerp was referring to, and I plead guilty to helping. I plead guilty to not liking the phrase when used beyond academia, or used for general education of public school students; if that were to come to pass. I LIKE the idea it’s actually based on; and that idea sure as hell has nothing to do with all Mr. BS Talking Point blathered. I especially like it when handled well: a well controlled discussion respectful of HONEST differences. Have students investigate, provide resources, and then discuss. I’ve been in classrooms where I have experienced similar concepts done quite well.
 I suppose the phrase works well in academia. Such academic explorations filling in history’s holes have. They work in college because scholars understand the use of “Theory,” and “Critical.” I have had experience with this kind of honest approach to education. I had a 4th grade teacher who taught truth about the natives; but only here and there to keep out of trouble, And that was the 60’s. “Truth” like the natives weren’t stupid enough to let settlers get their wagons in a circle before they attacked… or in 9th a teacher who had us look into Nam’s history, come back and discuss respectfully, The same with Germany and what to prevent a return of fascism.
 But not a fan of how it’s being phrased for the general public.
 I feel the same about “Defund the Police” and “Woke.” To go back to a point I made in the beginning I made sure I used “woke me up” (past tense) instead of any variation on the phrase, “I am woke.” It’s a grammatical atrocity. It sounds ignorant, uneducated and stupid. “Defund” is as bad, though a little different, but I do get it. Shift funds. Change how law enforcement is funded, who responds to certain situations. I am for all of that. But, despite intent, that is NOT what “Defund” says. And NOT how it’s successfully being used against us.
 When the right says to defund abortion do they mean still spend money on it, just in a different way? “Defund” and “reorganize” (or change) are not synonyms. They are closer to antonyms than synonyms.
 When the hell will the left pay attention to usage?
 When will they get saying something intended to make them think means many won’t?
WHEN WILL THEY STOP GLEEFULLY HANDING RHETORICAL WEAPONS OVER TO THE RIGHT?
 These poorly thought out phrases, talking points, when released upon the public, help to lose elections. Did you want a more leftward Dem candidate in NYC? We didn’t get that in large part because of revulsion regarding “Defund.”
 The important difference here is between weapon-izing what we did say and weapon-izing what we DIDN’T say. We CAN control phrases we use. But what to do about them attacking what we didn’t say? Attack back: immediately, which of course the all too gracious leftie didn’t do on Morning Joe. Something our talk show hosts too often don’t do.
 One creative example of a potential exchange: “Liberals like you don’t understand that even some liberals hate Critical Race Theory.” Response: “Just like you don’t understand some Conservatives want to make police raping black women legal.” (Protest follows.) “Well, if you can make up lies so can I.”
 And please, please, PLEASE stop thinking these phrases will make opponents think. On that today’s stage, where rage is often the one and only goal, such phrases are turned into what they never were. And then turned into flag poles used to beat Capitol police, or to turn a peaceful protest violent. Used to win elections, to make sure we lose.
 Don’t want any of that, do you?

                                        -30-

Inspection is a column that has been written by Ken Carman for over 40 years, first published in fall of 1972. Inspection is dedicated to looking at odd angles, under all the rocks, and into the unseen cracks and crevasses, that constitute the issues and philosophical constructs of our day: places few think, or even dare, to venture.
©Copyright 2021
Ken Carman and Cartenual Productions
all rights reserved

By Ken Carman

Retired entertainer, provider of educational services, columnist, homebrewer, collie lover, writer of songs, poetry and prose... humorist, mediocre motorcyclist, very bad carpenter, horrid handyman and quirky eccentric deluxe.

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