1984
Recently, reading "news" stories online, I had the unique opportunity to experience a vague sense of Orwellian discomfort provoked by both the left and the right.
First, a story about a high school girl who didn't think her father would be able to attend her graduation, as he is in the military and, presumably, stationed overseas. Lo! He appeared anyway, as a video telling her he loved her and so on.
http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/soldier-surprises-daughter-chelsea-jusino-on-her-graduation-day/19513784
Why did this piss me off? Well, the Fox logo got me started on how this was just propaganda about Our Boys on the Front, one half of the propaganda war that portrays The Enemy as a faceless brown evil and Our Boys as Walmart-shopping, Friendly's-Ice-Cream-eating, country-western-singing, doting fathers of daughters, waving the flag, and so forth.
But it also pissed me off because, if we really want to hear a heartwarming story, how about something that's actually news? And by "news," I mean something that affects more than precisely 1 person, and maybe her extended family. Progress in the war counts as news, so do the efforts of NGO's to create and maintain stability in the region. Hell, so do any number of happy things going on in this country. But this? This was just some random event that was only being broadcast because of its capacity to enforce a particular image of Our Soldiers, something that flies in the face of what the Liberal Elite, with their focus on war crimes and irritating questions about what our goals are and what our exit strategy is and whether we should even be oil-dependent in the first place and hey, isn't there, like, an oil spill we should be talking about.... no, forget that, man. He made it to his little girl's special day.
Plus, as a father, it pissed me off because, to quote Aristotle, one swallow doesn't make a summer. He's away every day, he's not up at night changing diapers, he's not warming up bottles, he's not putting baby furniture together and giving rides to doctor appointments and setting up meetings with teachers and helping with homework. He's not even there, and he gets to be called a great dad on national television because he made a video tape? Fuck you.
And now, the left wing:
The NAACP has found a racist Hallmark card.
http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/local/los_angeles&id=7475737
At least the right-wing one described a real event, albeit distorted and presented in bad faith. This one is about mass-delusion. The card is clearly a joke about how graduating kids feel like they can "take on the world," there are multiple references in the art and text to establish that we are talking about astronomical phenomena, and what's most important it clearly says HOLES. When you see people listening and saying "You can't hear the 'l,' it's definitely an 'r' sound," it's just madness.
And it's been on the shelves for 3 years without incident. You know why? BECAUSE IT FUCKING SAYS "HOLES"!!!!
This is not a real issue. This is not a real battle. This is a made-up problem. This card is not offensive. It's insane.
In the interest of full disclosure, I will admit that, while I'm calling this an Orwellian moment, the real first thing I thought when I saw this was "There...are....four....lights!!!!"
And now back to studying for the bar.
First, a story about a high school girl who didn't think her father would be able to attend her graduation, as he is in the military and, presumably, stationed overseas. Lo! He appeared anyway, as a video telling her he loved her and so on.
http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/soldier-surprises-daughter-chelsea-jusino-on-her-graduation-day/19513784
Why did this piss me off? Well, the Fox logo got me started on how this was just propaganda about Our Boys on the Front, one half of the propaganda war that portrays The Enemy as a faceless brown evil and Our Boys as Walmart-shopping, Friendly's-Ice-Cream-eating, country-western-singing, doting fathers of daughters, waving the flag, and so forth.
But it also pissed me off because, if we really want to hear a heartwarming story, how about something that's actually news? And by "news," I mean something that affects more than precisely 1 person, and maybe her extended family. Progress in the war counts as news, so do the efforts of NGO's to create and maintain stability in the region. Hell, so do any number of happy things going on in this country. But this? This was just some random event that was only being broadcast because of its capacity to enforce a particular image of Our Soldiers, something that flies in the face of what the Liberal Elite, with their focus on war crimes and irritating questions about what our goals are and what our exit strategy is and whether we should even be oil-dependent in the first place and hey, isn't there, like, an oil spill we should be talking about.... no, forget that, man. He made it to his little girl's special day.
Plus, as a father, it pissed me off because, to quote Aristotle, one swallow doesn't make a summer. He's away every day, he's not up at night changing diapers, he's not warming up bottles, he's not putting baby furniture together and giving rides to doctor appointments and setting up meetings with teachers and helping with homework. He's not even there, and he gets to be called a great dad on national television because he made a video tape? Fuck you.
And now, the left wing:
The NAACP has found a racist Hallmark card.
http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/local/los_angeles&id=7475737
At least the right-wing one described a real event, albeit distorted and presented in bad faith. This one is about mass-delusion. The card is clearly a joke about how graduating kids feel like they can "take on the world," there are multiple references in the art and text to establish that we are talking about astronomical phenomena, and what's most important it clearly says HOLES. When you see people listening and saying "You can't hear the 'l,' it's definitely an 'r' sound," it's just madness.
And it's been on the shelves for 3 years without incident. You know why? BECAUSE IT FUCKING SAYS "HOLES"!!!!
This is not a real issue. This is not a real battle. This is a made-up problem. This card is not offensive. It's insane.
In the interest of full disclosure, I will admit that, while I'm calling this an Orwellian moment, the real first thing I thought when I saw this was "There...are....four....lights!!!!"
And now back to studying for the bar.