General Nattering

 

        I am sick to the point of puke of the entire “influencer” concept. It is understandable when persons of actual education and proven experience gain the approbation and respect of peers. It is another when shallow, sallow, and callow teens sit in front of their webcam and somehow magically acquire knowledge and cachet with zero actual creds. It’s even sadder when a pre-adolescent says that they’d like to be “an influencer” when they grow up. How very Kardashian!

        There seems to have been a recent explosion of new monoclonal antibody-based drugs with certain common features. Among these features are:

        Many are claimed to be improved treatments for syndromes of actual ailments which now have new catchy acronyms, such as IBS, RA, SLE, PCOS, etc. (and I have heard sufferers flaunt the acronym as if it were the Red Badge of Courage) However, this more recently amounts to, in some cases,  the promotion or creation of a disease out of a non-pathologic physical condition accompanied by the promotion of “new” medications.

These “new” treatments (of Pharma and well compensated MDs choice) have been given “catchy” names with too few vowels and astronomical prices, and list of side effects which sounds like biological warfare. I don’t know how many of these end in “ezza” but it’s a bunch. Apparently “ezza” is an old Viking word for “Immortal, destined for Valhalla.”

        I am still trying to get my head around the idea that any sentient human with an IQ over “turnip” would actually believe that John F. Kennedy Jr. had faked his own death and planned to return to the site of his father’s assassination in Dallas. This seems sort of like Jesus coming back and choosing to do it on Calvary. Qanon espoused the conspiracy theory that Kennedy Jr. did not die in a plane crash after all and is set to be America's next vice president when Donald Trump is swept back into the White House. A fair-sized crowd actually gathered at Dealey Plaza on November 9^th. The late, late president’s son failed to materialize (surprise!). One assumes the assembled morons all later embellished their Facebook pages with “safe from Zombie JFK Jr.”

        Right off the top, I’ll cop to being a Sci Fi fan for most of my life. I also freely admit to buying my fair share of Batman and Superman comics as a youngster. I actually read the book versions of many classics, later to become movies, such as Dune, Martian Chronicles, The Martian, All the HG Wells books, etc. I also spent a fair amount of time laughing my ass off at a pudgy Adam West as Batman, even though it was obvious he was camping it up. Before that there was George Reeves trying to look like a Superman.

        One of the “fun” aspects of Sci Fi is the concept of suspended disbelief. Done right (“Alien,” “Blade Runner,” “Star Wars”) it can be brilliant. Done badly, (Plan Nine from Outer Space) it can be hilarious in its inadequacy. Yeah, I know, “So what?” So, I honestly believe that two semi-related phenomena have been created by Covid 19 and the social isolation it engendered.

        The first is the seemingly never-ending stream of Marvel and Marvel spinoff superhero films. I admit to loving the first several, but like even Butter Pecan ice cream, a constant diet of them (for me) leads to gradual lessening enthusiasm. The same is true (again, for me) of the Star Wars spinoffs. The first several were good but as “space westerns” there is a sameness of type which eventually palls.

        The second, is the increasingly escapist nature of mainstream network programming. “La Brea?” really? Sixty-five million years of evolution on hold down below Los Angeles? One imagines that actually living in LA might make this seem a palatable alternative to daily reality, but…! The number of shows centering on alternative realities continues to grow. Of course, if one has access to CGI T-Rexes and Pterodactyls as villains, such things as real plotting and dialogue are of secondary importance, I suppose. Remember, this is my opinion. If you like escapism, such as NCIS (which is pure fiction in every aspect), be my guest.

        After an average week of seeing the most outrageously false claimed debunked, it seems we might be better served if there was a bullshit chip implanted in on air personalities. Wouldn’t it be cathartic trio see Tucker Carlson scream in pain every time he told a demonstrable lie? This child of privilege has all the advantages attendant to being the son of a rich white man and his diatribes and so called “causes” seem aimed at assuring he always will and no one else should be so fortunate (white male Conservatives excluded of course).   

        What does Carlson actually believe? I use the term “believe,” although there is always the Rush Limbaugh factor which makes actual belief a distant second to the desire for shock effect and ratings. Belief or scam, he isn’t subtle about it. He argues that immigrants make America “dirtier” and “poorer.” He criticizes politicians for praising diversity and suggests that it weakens the country. He often portrays the rioters who attacked the Capitol on January 6 in sympathetic terms while framing the Black Lives Matter movement almost exclusively in terms of violent unrest and civil disorder. He thinks white supremacy is a “hoax” and denounced President Joe Biden’s calls to fight it at the inauguration as nothing but a stealth plot to persecute conservatives. There is little doubt regarding his playing to the worst of us.

        Other prominent bigots apparently regard Carlson as their champion. He has received praise from Klansmen and neo-Nazis like David Duke and Andrew Anglin, the latter of whom called Carlson “literally our greatest ally.” Derek Black, the estranged son of a prominent white-nationalist leader, said in 2019 that his family watches Carlson to hone their messaging strategy. But in media circles, Carlson’s bigotry was often treated as a curiosity or an eccentricity in the early Trump years.

        So, what, if anything, makes Tucker Carlson different? To begin with, he’s a “born into it” lifetime member of the same “elite” that he frequently rails against. His father served as president of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and was the ambassador to the Seychelles. Carlson himself attended fancy East Coast boarding schools and colleges. He wrote for years for conservative magazines and more middle-of-the-road publications before turning to a broadcast career on CNN, MSNBC, and finally Fox. Carlson’s transition from the editorial safety nets of magazine journalism to unfiltered (read that as “unedited by his superiors”) and immediate live television exposed him as glib, smug, and not nearly as clever as he thought he was.

        One final example of just how morally bankrupt this man is: On an anti-mask mandate rant he actually said: “Your response when you see children wearing masks as they play should be no different from your response to seeing someone beat a kid at Walmart,” (he told viewers.) “Call the police immediately. Contact child protective services. Keep calling until someone arrives.”

        Joseph Goebbels would have been proud of that!