You know what drives me crazy about this political era
All the goddamn lying.
We sit and marinate in all of our bullshit. And then we pretend like the bullshit has no consequence. Like all the lying doesn't matter. And then we take the cynicism that is the final product of all that lying and we hold it up like a hairball and we say, "Now this is wisdom."
It's fuckin' disgusting. And stupid. And wrong. And dishonest.
And we're fuckin' responsible for it whether we take responsibility for that or not.
We will. Or at least our kids will see through our lying - which they do, now, by the way, in case you haven't had an honest conversation with a kid lately - and they and their children will look back on all of our bullshit and say, "Mommy, Daddy, why did all those people in the past lie so much? Why couldn't they be more honest about the problems they faced and their failures?"
And none of us will have any good answers except, "They just got so used to the lying that they just couldn't imagine anything different."
We've got to stop getting used to the lying. We've got to get more honest, with ourselves and one another.
Cynicism just isn't an option. You know why? Because it offers no real progress.
Cynicism says, "The reason things didn't change for the better is because things and people can't change for the better."
And if you don't believe that people and life can change for the better, you got no progress. Meaning a cynic can't really be a progressive, when they're being honest with themselves. Only someone who really believes in progress can be progressive in their outlook on the world.
Everyone else is a faker. Why? Because they've gotten so goddamn used to lying to themselves and to everyone else.
That's the way through, here.
And let me give you a clue. More "rule of law" just makes the problem worse. It makes all the lying worse. Doubt that? Ask the Nazis. Or the Communists. Or any other regime that operated under a governing philosophy of force. Both of those regimes operated under the rule of law. Chinese communism, North Korean communism, Cuban communism, Baathism, Fascism, theocracies of all sorts. They all operate under the rule of law. I know. I've heard plenty of the bullshit claim that Chinese communism doesn't operate under the rule of law. It's bullshit. Of course the Chinese operate under the rule of law. They just have laws we don't like. All repressive governments operate under the rule of law. Where do you think all that repression comes from, dumbass? Of course they do. We just don't like their version of the rule of law, is the truth. How does China defend its treatment of protesters of its one-child policy? Rule of law. How does China defend its execution of its top food inspector (a serious human rights violation, I don't care how people spin it)? Rule of law. How does China defend its policy toward Taiwan, Tibet, and Hong Kong? Rule of law. And what they're missing, which is completely fucking obvious when we are defending this bullshit logic, is freedom and liberal values. And like every other thing that's gotten said during this goddamn bullshit political period, we just bullshit our way through that question to not have to face the clear-as-fuckin'-day honest to God truth sitting right in front of our faces.
I've decided no more Mr. Nice Guy on this question. I'm calling out every motherfucker who lies on this question, for now on. I'm fuckin' tired of all the lying and the bullshit and the pretending and everything that makes the Chinese and the Cubans and the North Koreans and the Syrians and the Iraqis and the Iranians and every other group of people in the world and their governments look at the United States and the dumbass, bullshit debates and discussions we have here and wonder, "What the fuck are they smoking, they lie so goddamn much?"
It fuckin' drives me crazy. And I've decided that, in my presence, at least, we're gonna start getting more honest about things.
