CSotD: Loyalty Over Logic
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Drew Sheneman offers an imaginary scenario, “imaginary” in that I wonder how many people are really going to toss their jobs in the gutter over something so petty and foolish, even in a labor shortage?
As has been said here before, a lot of older workers have chosen early retirement, because the disruption of the pandemic workplace allowed them to stop and look at the world and realize that you don’t win anything for being that old gaffer who is still plugging along at 80. Some didn’t even wait to hit 67, though I hope they didn’t claim their Social Security early, since taking the lower amount seems a bad bet unless you’re planning to die young.
Those minimum-wage jobs aren’t becoming rare, but only because there are enough people paying well above minimum that nobody needs to be flipping burgers for $7.50 an hour.
But even “well above minimum” won’t cut it for people like the fellow in Sheneman’s cartoon, who likely wants to earn near the median wage of $52,000, and a poke in the arm seems better than losing your house and car. And maybe your marriage.
Vaccine hesitancy, however, has become more political than logical, with people clinging to it out of head-scratching loyalty.
Best analogy I’ve heard was on an NPR program where the expert admitted that he’s a Cleveland Browns fan and watched every game through their 0-16 season purely out of team loyalty, not with any vestige of hope.
It’s important to be a member of the team in good standing, however foolish it appears to everybody else.
Ann Telnaes points out an act of similarly demented loyalty from the Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Facing a damning report about how Dear Leader directly solicited a fraudulent overturning of the 2020 election, Republican committee members released a minority report that said it was okay because he hadn’t followed through.
According to testimony, the reason he hadn’t followed through — assuming that’s an excuse anyway — was because he was told it would provoke a mass resignation among both White House and Department of Justice staff.
As Aaron Blake explained in this WashPo analytical piece, ‘That’s not “this is the wrong thing to do.” That’s “this won’t work.”’
Even the Donald knows that you can’t lead a coup if nobody’s willing to follow you.
But apparently elephants don’t have long memories after all, which is the topic of this
Juxtaposition of the Day
We’ve come a long way, from seeing Republicans in Congress recoil in horror from the Nixon White House to seeing them gloss over Trump’s planned coup.
More astonishingly, we’ve seen them go from barricading their doors and hiding under their desks on January 6 to claiming that nothing happened and the rioters were simply peaceful tourists.
A gallows was erected in front of the Capitol and people burst into the building, smashing windows, forcing doors, assaulting police officers and screaming “Hang Mike Pence!” but Pence — who, along with his family, was whisked away moments before the mob could reach him — is now loyally declaring that none of it happened.
By contrast, nobody in the National Socialist Party declared that the Reichstag hadn’t actually caught fire.
Nor did any of those Cleveland Browns fans claim to have won the Super Bowl that year.
But here we are.
Today, four legs are good and two legs better, and the Party is telling you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It is their final, most essential command.
And, in case anyone asks, we’ve always been at war with Antifa.
Fatwah of the Day
Yesterday, we covered the proposal among rightwingers that disrupting school board meetings, screaming “We know where you live!” and shouting more specific threats at board members is simply a sign of parental concern.
It’s obvious nonsense, particularly coming from the corner of the room that was sent into paroxysms of anguish over football players taking a knee to protest police brutality.
Whatever happened to “Get that son of a bitch off the field! He’s fired! Fired!”?
However, this call for parents to rise up against elected officials and overturn democratically arrived-at policies seems less as upsetting as the unanimity with which so many conservative cartoonists have taken up the call.
I don’t think it’s a conspiracy.
I think it’s a sign that they don’t need a conspiracy.
The disruptions have been going on for some time, but the catalyst for this sudden outcry in favor of screams and threats is apparently a letter to the President from the National School Board Association asking for help in stemming attacks on school personnel and disruption of board meetings.
Rightwing media went nuts over the letter, claiming the NSBA asked Biden and DOJ to declare the disruptions and threats a case of domestic terrorism, though you can see it only said they were the equivalent of domestic terrorism and hate crimes.
Close enough, mind you, to qualify as crimes against screaming and disrupting public meetings, threatening board members, gathering at their homes and threatening their families, sending threatening letters through the mail . . .
. . . you know, the normal actions of loving, concerned parents.
If I did believe in conspiracy theories, I’d wonder why all these conservative commentators and cartoonists are whipping things up and seem set on empowering and encouraging people to go to public meetings and disrupt them.
Are they preparing them for a more effective “peaceful tour of the Capitol”?
Of course, they can claim a tradition, going back to the Sons of Liberty and the assaults on tax collectors and Tories, but here’s something to note: The issue was “taxation without representation,” not “we disagree with the decision of the majority.”
As for the almost-jolly scenes in history books of Tories being ridden around on rails, we should note that it wasn’t so jolly at the time: Both Tories and Patriots were hanged and shot by their neighbors.
There was little romance in it, and we’ve got nothing to look forward to, if the anarchists have their way.
Disney offers a musical choice!
(For centrists and leftwingers)
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