I remember laughing at Italians’ expense when they elected and reelected their buffoon, Silvio Burlesconi. Who’s laughing now?
As some of us shudder at our clearly mentally-ill and intellectually challenged president, the world shudders with – and laughs at – us. With nearly 40% of our countrypersons still supporting the giant Cheeto, we deserve the ridicule.
One could say it’s not our fault. I mean, how could anyone expect Americans to have a brain, when so many are force-fed Fox News and other vapid TV fare, along with a completely dumbed-down primary/secondary education system? (As I have postulated before, a case can be made that anti-intellectualism is a purposeful conspiracy of corporate chieftains and theocrats.) So, it ain’t their fault, the precious darlings. Right?
It’s not like the revelations of this last week (thanks, Fire and Fury) are a surprise to anyone. Those with any analytical ability knew all of this by early in the 2016 primary-election cycle. Yet, the American people, tens of millions of them, signed on. They may not be completely at fault for their massive ignorance. But post-election analysis has demonstrated that a huge majority of the electorally stupid were driven by rank racism, for which there can be no forgiveness.
Not all of Trump’s supporters and current enablers are stupid, of course. The intellectual fellow-travelers (leaders, actually) are blindly self-interested. The Ryans and McConnells of the USA, along with a large number of those corporate leaders, just did the math: electing a sick moron would put more cash in their pockets and more power in their portfolios. Right now, Wall Street is laughing all the way to the bank. For these folks, destruction of the world is just fine, as long as it comes with another Learjet for personal use.
The US was dangerous enough with competent, somewhat ethical leaders, given our enormous economic and military power. Now we are just fucking stupid. And even more dangerous than ever. The world would be rolling in the aisles, if they weren’t busy fearing being nuked.
Ironically, there is one other people on the planet as blatantly stupid and racist and they are also Anglo-Saxons. Yes, tens of millions of English signed up for Brexit, even though it was obvious to all that it spelled doom for their economy (not to mention for European stability and – potentially – their own*). And they did their nasty deed overwhelmingly due to bigotry.
I remember, as a kid, reveling in the great record of Anglo-Saxons in establishing stable, liberal democracies. Of course, that was before I fully grasped the genocides and gunpowder these supposed democracies rested on.** And now the Americans and English lead the world in the kind of imbecility no other country would endure without committing national suicide in shame.
Sure, it’s amusing for us intellectuals to make fun of the president. Then we face the immense power he and the all-in GOP actually have.
I have always been mortified by our country’s imperialism and internal injustice. Now I am so ashamed to be associated with the greedy, racist, and stupid who dominate our land that I just can’t stand it.
*Brexit could blow up Northern Ireland and encourage Scottish separatism.
**Consider American Indians, Australian aboriginees, Canadian Inuits, New Zealand’s Maoris, and the path of arrogant annihilation the English left in their wake everywhere.
©2018 Keith Berner
Advertisements &b; &b;
