Perhaps someday, someone will explain to po' dumb me the substantive difference between the lumpen "Low information voter" that somehow always ends up at Trump rallies yawping about Ivermectin and the Biden Crime Family, and the vast, dull Middle who have been exempted by the punditocracy from knowing anything about how their country is run or who is running it because, y'know, they're just "normal" people. Not "obsessed" with politics or policies or issues like we Savvy Take Havers (hahaha!) Salt of the Earth, one and all, but, y'know, they're just so veryveryvery busy living their normal lives.
To me, it sounds like a distinction without a difference. Much like:
"The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who never learned to read." -- Mark Twain
Well, there is one difference.
When another pillar of democracy comes crashing down under the Republican wrecking ball, the "Low information voter" stands up and cheers. Take that, Soros! Take that, Fauci!
But when a pillar is turned to ash by the fascist rabble and their monstrous leaders, the so-sorry,still-veryveryvery busy people barely notice...
...unless that particular arcane, boring, who-knows-who's-to-blame-and-why-can't-Both-Sides-stop-fighting pillar happened to be holding up one of the never-noticed-it-because-it-was-supposed-to-last-forever rights that affects them personally.
At which point they may actually, finally be moved to pay attention to the news long enough to notice that that right is now effectively gone forever, because its destruction was presided over by highest authority in the land. And thus begins the locking of yet another barn door long after the horse has galloped off, been shot in the woods by maniacs and devoured by vultures.
Wait, you mean a court can do that? But isn't [voting rights, abortion, getting-fired-for-no-damn-reason, climate change, not-getting-mowed-down-by-a-madman-with-a-machine-gun, and on and on and on] something something protected by the Constitution?
Then some brave soul breaks the bad news to them.
Then they want to know, "Well,
who the hell is to blame for this?!?!"
Short answer is, you are bucko!
You wanted someone else to do the business of citizenship for you. To pay attention for you. To think for you. To decide for you. And the MyPillow-dick-pill-fascist entertainment complex was more than happy to help you let the reins of our democracy slip from your veryveryvery busy hand because the all those various "controversies" that the MyPillow-dick-pill-fascist entertainment complex ginned up were so hard to understand and why-can't-Both-Sides-stop-fighting.
And so forth.
And into that ever widening abyss of electoral ennui marches the ever growing mob of "Low information voters", which is why the MyPillow-dick-pill-fascist entertainment complex manufactures those bullshit "controversies" in the first place.
Well, for the last five days I have been both a veryveryvery busy, person and a low information voter. Very busy because the aftermath of the storms that tore through here last week has left us without power, reliable phones, wifi for five days and counting, so we have been busy trying to keep various batteries charged, preparing meals, staying on the power company that keeps telling us that we're not in an outage area, keeping in touch with family etc.
Did I mention that the van's "Check Engine" light lit up this morning? It never rains but it derechos, I suppose.
Anyway...busy.
And also "low information" in the sense that I've largely been away from the firehose of Breaking!News! for five days now. When the wind is right I can get a single bar on the phone and skim some highlights, but that's not really much more informative than scanning the headlines at the store while waiting to buy one of the last bags of ice in the tri-county area. And honestly, I have become way more interested in local, weather-related news than anything else.
Instead, we've been reading books. Washing dishes. Helping out the neighbors. Doing some post-storm cleanup. Figuring out food. Figuring out meds. Staring at the inert electric garage door behind which all my tools are trapped (The door is old. There is no lock. No manual entry option. No emergency open kit stashed in the frame. No door or window. Until the power company gives me the "Open, Sesame!" all the treasures within are denied me.) And generally trying to stay low and still deal with the heat, humidity and depressing uncertainty.
And yet, even as busybusy and low information as I am, I'm somehow also able to become aware that...
...this week the Republican majority on the Supreme Court wiped their asses with the 14th Amendment and struck down affirmative action in college admissions because that is what these black-robed destroyers were hired to do. And I know that the liberal majority ripped 'em a new one for doing so.
...the same Republican majority on the Supreme Court took on a theoretical case about a purely hypothetical situation so they would once again trash legal precedent and give the pre-emptive go-ahead to bigots who want to deny public accommodations to protected classes of people. And they did it, because, fuck you, we're here for life! Bawahahaha!
... yes, that very same Republican majority on Supreme Court gutted president Joe Biden's very modest student loan forgiveness program, and that a whole lotta Savvy Pundits are trying to somehow blame Biden for it.
...some "centrist" outfit called "No Labels" is acting as a cutout for a handful of high-dollar, dark-money Conservatives who want to put Trump back in the White House.
Somehow it was possible for my wife and I to attend to all the problems and contingencies and worries that arose from our derecho disaster, and to cope with the idea of remaining in a state of sweaty weariness for an indefinite period of time, and the loss of 95% of our news media inputs...and still remain aware of the wider world enough to know that Republicans are howlingly sadistic fascists who are drooling at the prospect of bleeding American democracy to death from 1,000 cuts.
Finally, stepping out of my "low information" role for a moment, I knows that they have been on this trajectory for decades.
And that the people who are still hiding behind "Both Sides Do It" are either inexcusably lazy, arrant cowards, posturing cynics, or some unholy Turd Tur-duck-en of all three.
Your pal,
driftglass
&n
3 comments:
Ugh, man. That sucks. Sorry about the distress, and the struggle with the utility company. Hope you start to see resolution soon.
Hoping too that the "Check Engine" light in this case just means you need a new O2 sensor. Mine's been off and on for months now.
That's ridiculously good on you that in the midst of your own struggles, and you both not being exactly in your 20s any more, you're still helping neighbors. Way to be the actual "salt of the earth" that the old oft-misused adage is talking about. Go you!
Hang in there.
That inaccessible garage seems like an incredibly good metaphor for something we're all going through but I don't know exactly what.
Happy Independence Day, thanks for reporting, and best of luck.
When the "Mono Wind Event" knocked out our power for six days last year, there wasn't the eight feet of snow on the ground that we had last winter, so we could go to town for supplies. Somehow, the gods of PG&E kept the power on through the aforementioned eight feet of snow so we didn't fucking freeze to death.
So there was that.
We're working on moving to a lower elevation this year...
When the power did finally come back on, though, I seem to remember finding several hundred unread emails in my inbox, most of which were wondering why I hadn't given them three dollars yet even though they had sent multiple emails.
-Doug in Sugar Pine
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