We all know America is pretty screwed. If you don't, read on.
The interchangeable republican candidates are hateful, intolerant, ignorant idiots - whose campaign videos actually attack each other for any outward sign of education. But I am confident (read:hopeful) that when the eventual presidential candidate is chosen and he opens his mouth on the voting stage, his own idiocy will be loud enough to discount him from enough of the voting slips.
The religious fanatics (who often comprise much the same group) work hard to erase the trail of social development, scientific discovery, technology and knowledge if the subject matter goes against their holy books. Welfare systems lose backing, black people are barred, women are excluded from debates about contraception, clinics are burned and doctors are threatened with their life, children are kicked out of church, the dead have their lives desecrated, and their public school system is under attack from politically and religiously motivated re-imaginings of how things are, and how things work. I certainly wouldn't want to be a parent over there, but - selfishly, I know - it works out well for my lineage because the more indoctrinated creationists and other such woo-peddlers there are, the more openings there will be for people who have actually learned something useful, available to my kids.
Their police are out of control maniacs who heroically swarm round their massively outnumbered and outgunned target and assault them to within an inch of their life, or sometimes kill them. And then actively impede any attempts to file complaints with intimidation and threats. But I am out of their jurisdiction, so my life is relatively safe from their hot lead justice.
Many of the most powerful companies are massively corrupt institutions that avoid taxes, and avoid responsibility for their actions, and certain ones are lobbying with the mostly right-wing representatives in congress for much tighter control over people with the ACTA and SOPA acts. But they are being exposed for their ignorance of the consequences of those bills and it looks like for now, they will not make it into law.
However, their news people - those who are tasked more than anyone else to describe the world to the average American on a daily basis - affect the lives of everyone beyond on a daily basis also, coloring opinion with their own brushes and simplifying reality to make the guided choices of the masses easier to make; and lets just say the quality and impartiality varies.
I get to see snippets of this sort of thing daily thanks to the wonder of RSS feeds. Today however, I found this and it made my jaw drop, somehow also managing to leave my teeth clenched and gnashing together:
I..what?
I just don't understand. Has America really lowered itself to such a level that this can happen? Does a particular demographic of the American people actually entertain these views? Actually sit there, dribbling in front of their screens nodding their heads along to this?
News debates need standpoints to discuss and promote debate. Wheeling on three people whose opinions barely differ is not news, and NOT DEBATE! It's just a fat old man's club, whose patrons sit squarely in their comfort zones and bitching about stuff they clearly don't understand and have no desire to try. Both films are adaptations of stories written decades ago. Both of which have had several other adaptations in the past. They are suddenly a threat to the kiddywinks now? Gaah!
That they've said this about some films with an environmental bent is.. well even I didn't think that a mainstream channel could puke out such a massively ignorant viewpoint? Attacking the president because he wants everyone to have a fair shot? Criticizing a film because it has themes about protecting the environment? Suggesting that you go see the movie and throw popcorn everywhere before storming out? Somehow - somehow - tying all this to the Occupy movement?!
But all this I could handle, because it's America, and they have people as stupid as that over there. (Demonstrably, 1, 2, 3, 4...). But when you have a go at Arrietty, Lou, and for such massively stupid reasons.. well, you have just crossed a line, m'illaddo.
I am watching you, Lou. I don't want to, because every stupid, ill-informed, distrustful, intolerant, paranoid, bigoted, ass-hatted word from your purdy mouth makes me want to punch my computer repeatedly until my hands bleed. But it's clear that you personify all that is wrong with your fine nation, and my eyes are drawn to you and the effect you have on the world like a slow-motion multiple car pile-up.
Please, America. Stop this. Stop this now. It used to be funny from a distance, now it's as batshit scary as the nutters you are apparently fighting against in the name of freedom.
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