When I write I turn on the classical music station WQXR or listen to instrumental jazz, as they are less distracting. This doesn’t work when WQXR plays Largo al Factotum from The Rabbit of Seville. It’s over. Paul Calvalconte is following it with William Grant Still’s Wood Notes, excellent music to work to. I was back to not leaving the house yesterday, the day before all I did was pick up meds and milk. The pandemic is not good for my blogging. Did I at least do some exciting cooking? I made Syracuse salt potatoes on Thursday, does that count? I think it should as do the boneless ribs. I’m adjusting to life without an air fryer. Ribs might not come out quite as good, but they are still excellent. The biggest difference is in making fries. Baked potatoes work fine in the oven but between the pre-heating and cooking slower they take 20 minutes longer. I find that I’m settling for microwaved more often. As long as I use good better they taste fine. I have a mea culpa, I made popcorn. I’m out of snacks in the house and had a craving. Theoretically popcorn is one of the worst foods for someone with Crohn’s. Empirically it has never bothered me. I promised my gastroenterologist that I would stop eating it. I broke my promise. But it was so good. When I say I have an addictive personality I mean it.
Oh great. I took a lunch break. Now I’m back to writing and WQXR is playing the entire Met Opera Presents: Il Coniglio di Siviglia. I of course can’t turn it off, I love it. I saw it live at the Met, sadly Bugs did not play the titular hero. It didn’t have Elmer in it either. Even the Metropolitan Opera can’t always get the top stars in their signature roles.
Some people are disappointing me on Facebook today. People do things that I disapprove of every day, disappointment is different, it means I expect better. In the aftermath of the Capitol Putsch most of my Trump supporting friends went silent. The first to say something doubled down and showed no remorse. He did not disappoint me. He’s an out and out racist and while I have not given up on his enlightenment it would be unrealistic to expect it. There is one that I’ve known forever that I know is a sweet and good person. If even McConnell can repudiate Trump and his insurrectionists I thought she could too but no. Today she came out of her shell to announce her lack of contrition. This is Trump’s greatest evil, even more than trying to turn the country into his authoritarian fief. He failed at that, he has set back his cause, he has made many reconsider their loyalties. The great evil is that many have not, he has corrupted their hearts and minds. There are many areas of the world where corruption is the norm, Turkey which gave us the word baksheesh, Afghanistan, and India, for example. When it’s the norm it’s hard to change. People don’t think they are wrong to demand bribes, they think it’s how things work. It’s part of their compensation. Trump has made a new norm, rejection of all information that doesn’t come from Trump and his allies. Objective truth is denied. All the newspapers, networks, and politicians must be lying, they are denying that Trump won the election. That didn’t happen overnight, but it happened. We won’t get rid of it overnight. It’s a difficult task as admonishing them simply convinces them that you are the enemy, and not credible.
I’m also disappointed by many on my side of the political divide. It became apparent during the 2016 primaries that many people are willing to believe the lies that fit their world view. I know people that are convinced that Hillary didn’t win the primaries, that the elections were hacked, the same allegations that the Trumpists are making now. But that was not many people, nothing like you are getting on the right now. But in the last 24 hours I have seen so many heartily believing, unproven conjectures, half-truths, and lies. I will go into detail with only one example. I kept seeing on my feed the story of the insurrectionist that died because he hid a taser in his pants that went off and electrocuted him via his testicles. I saw the story repeatedly on social media but nowhere from a reliable source. I was reading intently and saw nothing. So, I resorted to Google and looked up everyone I could find on how the four insurrectionists died. I specifically read of the one that allegedly electrocuted himself. Every source said that he had a history of heart problems and died of a what appeared to be a heart attack. There’s no way that every newspaper, TV network, and news site I found would not print such a juicy story if it were true. It’s clickbait. They love clickbait when it’s true. Many sites love clickbait even if it’s not true. I searched for killed by his own taser and found two sources, revolt.tv and meaww.com. Not exactly trusted sources. I made a post with a link to Alabama Political Reporter, not something that I heard of and trust but that tells the same story as all the mainstream sources. It had the advantage of using the same picture that the fake sites used so people would recognize it. I said that no reputable sources have backed the taser claim. That’s where I got disappointing responses. One said, it had a source, revolt.tv. I said nobody had ever heard of that, they are not reputable. He said they quoted another source meaww.com. Here was an intelligent educated person with no idea of how to judge sources.
I justly compared the belief in fake news that confirmed prejudices by the left with the lies spread by the Trumpists, because it is the same thing. It’s judging truth by how it makes you feel. Another educated intelligent friend said that it’s different because the lies on the right led the insurrectionist to die. He cannot see the importance of epistemology and truth. Lies are only wrong when made by bad people. Remember the cops that were killed in the aftermath of the George Floyd killing? Did that make the protestors wrong? Of course not. And that wasn’t based on lies. When you go around saying that everyone who supported Trump is a Nazi, do you think it’s unreasonable that someone would take that as a license for violence? Did you think it unreasonable that Trump acts like his words wouldn’t lead people to violence? It’s not about what does or does not happen later. It’s about the fundamental value of truthfulness.
It’s simple. Don’t lie. Don’t spread lies that you think will make people think like you do. Do spread lies because it’s what you want to be true. If you want it to be true investigate. Find independent sources. Find reputable sources. Reputable sources have a reputation that they care about. That’s what the word means. The rhetorical bomb throwers only care about the emotional effect words have. Don’t be one of them.
As I wrote this I could hear people saying, “A trump supporter can’t be sweet or good.” “Someone that believed and defended the taser story can’t be intelligent and educated.” That’s also believing what you want to think is true. People are complex. The guy from Seven Years in Tibet was a member of the Nazi Party. Martin Luther King cheated on his wife. We are not defined by the best or worst thing we’ve ever done. Our circumstances have an enormous effect on us, remember that when judging others. If live in a place where corruption is a way of life, you don’t think it’s immoral. That doesn’t mean that morality is a myth, it means it’s complicated. One of the most common prejudices is against complications. People want rules of thumb. People want moral certainty. Sorry, things don’t work that way. You have to work at it. I have to work at it. And so, I both criticize and defend the same people. They are not mutually exclusive.
Wise Madness 