(no subject)
I want to write about this whole torture thing. You know what I'm talking about, right? The so-called "compromise" that gives Bush the right to detain people indefinitely and torture them? Yeah, that torture thing.
Isn't it remarkable that we live in the 21st century, and we consider ourselves a civilized nation, and yet our besuited leaders can get up in front of the world and vote in favor of torture and still feel good about themselves? Isn't it remarkable that the people who support it won't lose a wink of sleep over it?
I watched clips of the proceedings on TV last night, and it was just disgusting, all of these old men in expensive suits in luxurious quarters, voting to okay a procedure like "waterboarding". You might know of waterboarding based on its old, racist name - Chinese water torture.
You know, six years ago, when Bush was "elected", I sat and cried. Even though I had voted for Nader, I cried my fucking eyes out when Bush won. I suppose I was crying over the fact that I thought abortion laws would be rolled back, that government discrimination against gay men and women would continue, that our environment would be destroyed. I look back, and I realize that I had no idea how bad it would get. Bush did all of the things I feared, and yet he did so much more.
Six years ago, would you have anticipated that we would be involved in two utterly failed wars halfway around the world?
Would you have guessed that we would establish CIA "secret prisons" in Eastern Europe?
Would you have imagined that so-called Christian men and women would vote to legalize torture?
I've read my Zinn and Chomsky. I know that things have never been wonderful in the U.S. I know that our government has always committed the kind of atrocities, the kind we have no problem pointing out in other people. Yet I can't help but feel as though this is a new low. Before, they at least had the decency to recognize that things like torture weren't going to settle well with others, but now they don't even care about that. It's just so blatant, this flouting of international laws and treaties and, well, human fucking decency, that it feels like we've hit a new bottom. Worst of all is the fact that easily a third of our country supports this.
Beacon of light and democracy, my ass.
But, if I've learned anything over these last six years, it's that there is no such thing as the bottom with the Bush Administration and their followers. There is no act too immoral, no act too atrocious or too vile for these people. Unless, of course, it involves fetuses or Christians, in which case even so much as farting in the general direction of either is enough to be branded a Nazi by the whole lot of them.
It's not just the leaders, either. You know the bumper sticker that says I love my country but fear my government? Yeah, well, I fear my country, too. At least one out of every three people supports torture. At least one out of every three people supports blowing up children. At least one out of every three people couldn't give a shit about someone else if that person isn't American. I saw a bumper sticker on a truck at school a while back, covered with military stickers. One sticker prominently featured screamed "WAR PROTESTORS SHOULD BE SHOT." And it makes me think - if we are going to kill everyone who dissents from the government, then what the fuck are we even fighting for? What is the point of anything? To be safe? We don't even have that! Our infrastructure and our social safety nets are so decayed, so decrepit from lack of funding and lack of competence and lack of attention, that it's far more likely that I will die from untreated health concerns (thanks to no health insurance), polluted water and air (thanks to diminished environmental protections), or even an industrial accident (thanks to "tort reform"), than any actions of al-Qaeda. And I fucking hate my fellow Americans for falling for this shit, for letting fear rule their lives, for being too satisfied with their goddamn TV shows and their goddamn Starbucks coffee and their goddamn shopping malls to even think about anything else. If we as a nation were half as moral as we think we are, the streets would be flooded with protestors. The country would be shut down.
Instead, life goes on as always. What anti-war movement that does exist is small, marginalized. Going to a protest is meaningless. The media rarely covers them, Bush doesn't care, and non-protestors barely give them a second thought. Civil disobedience is meaningless. Letters to the editor - meaningless. Not paying your taxes - meaningless, and it gets you tossed in the slammer, to boot. Arguing with Bush supporters - meaningless. Nothing short of an anvil to the head will make them change their minds. Boycotts? Who the fuck can you boycott? Move out of the country? Why, so the Christofascists can have free run of the joint?
This is the face of totalitarianism - a government so large, so powerful, so enmeshed with the corporate world and technology that it's inescapable. As Sinclair Lewis predicted, it drapes itself in Old Glory and it marches around with a cross. (Isn't it ironic that the cross - a symbol of torture and oppression to early Christians - now serves as the vanguard for the modern-day Romans?)
What is next for us? I can't even begin to imagine. The recent actions of my government and my country were so inconceivable to me prior to 2000 that I haven't the slightest clue where we will go next.
-----
I'll finish this with my response at Pandagon:
‘’We are not conducting a law enforcement operation against a check-writing scam or trying to foil a bank heist,’’ said Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. ‘’We are at war against extremists who want to kill our citizens.’’
Considering that the Bush administration is now responsible for the deaths of more Americans than al-Qaeda, does this mean I get to waterboard Dick Cheney until he screams like a little girl?
Isn't it remarkable that we live in the 21st century, and we consider ourselves a civilized nation, and yet our besuited leaders can get up in front of the world and vote in favor of torture and still feel good about themselves? Isn't it remarkable that the people who support it won't lose a wink of sleep over it?
I watched clips of the proceedings on TV last night, and it was just disgusting, all of these old men in expensive suits in luxurious quarters, voting to okay a procedure like "waterboarding". You might know of waterboarding based on its old, racist name - Chinese water torture.
You know, six years ago, when Bush was "elected", I sat and cried. Even though I had voted for Nader, I cried my fucking eyes out when Bush won. I suppose I was crying over the fact that I thought abortion laws would be rolled back, that government discrimination against gay men and women would continue, that our environment would be destroyed. I look back, and I realize that I had no idea how bad it would get. Bush did all of the things I feared, and yet he did so much more.
Six years ago, would you have anticipated that we would be involved in two utterly failed wars halfway around the world?
Would you have guessed that we would establish CIA "secret prisons" in Eastern Europe?
Would you have imagined that so-called Christian men and women would vote to legalize torture?
I've read my Zinn and Chomsky. I know that things have never been wonderful in the U.S. I know that our government has always committed the kind of atrocities, the kind we have no problem pointing out in other people. Yet I can't help but feel as though this is a new low. Before, they at least had the decency to recognize that things like torture weren't going to settle well with others, but now they don't even care about that. It's just so blatant, this flouting of international laws and treaties and, well, human fucking decency, that it feels like we've hit a new bottom. Worst of all is the fact that easily a third of our country supports this.
Beacon of light and democracy, my ass.
But, if I've learned anything over these last six years, it's that there is no such thing as the bottom with the Bush Administration and their followers. There is no act too immoral, no act too atrocious or too vile for these people. Unless, of course, it involves fetuses or Christians, in which case even so much as farting in the general direction of either is enough to be branded a Nazi by the whole lot of them.
It's not just the leaders, either. You know the bumper sticker that says I love my country but fear my government? Yeah, well, I fear my country, too. At least one out of every three people supports torture. At least one out of every three people supports blowing up children. At least one out of every three people couldn't give a shit about someone else if that person isn't American. I saw a bumper sticker on a truck at school a while back, covered with military stickers. One sticker prominently featured screamed "WAR PROTESTORS SHOULD BE SHOT." And it makes me think - if we are going to kill everyone who dissents from the government, then what the fuck are we even fighting for? What is the point of anything? To be safe? We don't even have that! Our infrastructure and our social safety nets are so decayed, so decrepit from lack of funding and lack of competence and lack of attention, that it's far more likely that I will die from untreated health concerns (thanks to no health insurance), polluted water and air (thanks to diminished environmental protections), or even an industrial accident (thanks to "tort reform"), than any actions of al-Qaeda. And I fucking hate my fellow Americans for falling for this shit, for letting fear rule their lives, for being too satisfied with their goddamn TV shows and their goddamn Starbucks coffee and their goddamn shopping malls to even think about anything else. If we as a nation were half as moral as we think we are, the streets would be flooded with protestors. The country would be shut down.
Instead, life goes on as always. What anti-war movement that does exist is small, marginalized. Going to a protest is meaningless. The media rarely covers them, Bush doesn't care, and non-protestors barely give them a second thought. Civil disobedience is meaningless. Letters to the editor - meaningless. Not paying your taxes - meaningless, and it gets you tossed in the slammer, to boot. Arguing with Bush supporters - meaningless. Nothing short of an anvil to the head will make them change their minds. Boycotts? Who the fuck can you boycott? Move out of the country? Why, so the Christofascists can have free run of the joint?
This is the face of totalitarianism - a government so large, so powerful, so enmeshed with the corporate world and technology that it's inescapable. As Sinclair Lewis predicted, it drapes itself in Old Glory and it marches around with a cross. (Isn't it ironic that the cross - a symbol of torture and oppression to early Christians - now serves as the vanguard for the modern-day Romans?)
What is next for us? I can't even begin to imagine. The recent actions of my government and my country were so inconceivable to me prior to 2000 that I haven't the slightest clue where we will go next.
-----
I'll finish this with my response at Pandagon:
‘’We are not conducting a law enforcement operation against a check-writing scam or trying to foil a bank heist,’’ said Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. ‘’We are at war against extremists who want to kill our citizens.’’
Considering that the Bush administration is now responsible for the deaths of more Americans than al-Qaeda, does this mean I get to waterboard Dick Cheney until he screams like a little girl?