Tuesday, September 25, 2018

Why I find it easy to believe Kavanaugh’s multiple accusers

Let me tell you a few things about rich, or even moderately well-to-do, white boys and men raised in the United States. Typically between the ages of 14 and 30. Some of whom will even read this. They are among the worst people you could ever meet.

It’s a unique subset of Americana – part of a class of people who get every advantage life can possibly offer them; health insurance, travel, a good education and guaranteed college, upwardly mobile career paths and expectations, fraternities and secret societies… it leads to a sense of entitlement that translates in many many cases to inexcusable boorishness. So many of this class of people become leaders in finance, law and politics that it’s nearly an unspoken part of the up-and-coming lifer’s resume.

Having grown up as a white male just outside of this subset (okay, substantially outside of this subset – we was poor) but growing up along-side them (getting into college, etc.) I was often astonished at how much all of these young men expected everything to go their way. That no matter how awful a thing they might have done, that they knew not only that they could get away with it but that they were supposed to.

They drank alcohol to excess because they were supposed to. They had (biblically had) women at parties because they were supposed to. They travelled and did the same things because they were supposed to. They committed acts of silly and stupid vandalism – often while drunk. They all believe in this. They brag about it in a bizarre display of comparative dominance, like wild animals. Sometimes they believe this because it’s what they’re taught. Sometimes it’s because they teach themselves. But one thing they all have in common is that this is a phase of life – something they do and then move on from. They look at the terrible things they’ve done to themselves and other people with pride, but behind them. In their eyes it’s unfair to expect anything else.

Judge Kavanaugh is most certainly one of these people. His classmates were – to this day they brag about it. They brag about him bragging about it. They are most likely all decent citizens and people NOW. They got through that phase. Even though that experience digs into the brain and influences them for the remainder of their days – displayed as simple misogyny to inappropriate behavior to sex crimes all the way to people who wish for the days of The Handmaid’s Tale. But they are also the people they used to be.

We are living in a time where the political party in power, from its lowest woman (and yes, the lowest people in the party are women – or black – look at how they’ve been used as pawns during this whole Kavanaugh process) to the most raw version of all this at the very top are people who believe in this. Who respect it. They will defend to the death those who have experienced it with them. Many experienced it themselves, including the man at the top.

It should come as no shock that Kavanaugh is this kind of man – I expected it of anyone that would get nominated. The people in power right now have coddled and brought forward men like this. Men who have had these experiences. MANLY MEN. There are tens, hundreds of thousands of men just like him out there, and if my some miracle we keep Kavanaugh off the bench the next one up will be just as bad. A believer that this is right. His right.

It’s sad, really, but we’ve done this to ourselves. This is a result of the further widening of the wealth in this country since the Reagan error, plus a near psychopathic coddling of people so far to the right in their Christianity that they believe that 51% of the electorate should be second class citizens. You do this for 4 decades and pretty soon everyone who considers themselves young (or young at heart) simply can’t remember a time when it wasn’t like this.

Now there are exceptions. Hell, I know a few. But people like Kavanaugh, the Comics-gate idiots, etcetera etcetera flat out believe that their entitlement outweighs anything else and will lie, steal and cheat to preserve it , all the while claiming that it is unfair to even point it out. Because what they’ve done and what they believe is how it’s supposed to be.

We are long overdue a new revolution. People without power with pitchforks and placards far outnumber this subset of Americana. People like to hide behind the idea of a new revolution just to justify their own ideology as right but this isn’t about my ideology, or yours. It’s about changing their sense of entitlement into something they should be ashamed of. Not their wealth and position, but what they did with it at the expense of others. It’s not about ideology, it’s about that golden rule that they constantly throw in our faces while breaking it with every step.

We need to revolutionize how we treat each other, top to bottom and starting at the top. Starting at the bottom. Starting in the middle. Start SOMEWHERE goddamnit!

Because I know all these things I find it very easy to believe and support Kavanaugh’s multiple accusers. Now you know all these things. I just taught them to you — although you already knew it all. How easy is it for you to support them?

You should. We have to start fixing this somewhere.

Cheap Shots:


This Gamble is kind of a big deal, and worth paying attention to.

I am reminded of the last line of the bit “Ralph Jameson” from his 1964 album, “I Started out as a Child”.

It was probably better in the original German. 1938 German.


He really is dreamy, isn’t he Senator?

No no no, they’re laughing with you, not at you. Okay, it’s at you but still, it’s a laugh.


Jeanine Pirro will cluck like a chicken when I snap my fingers in three… two…

Just for the picture – the law firm of PJ, Moose and Squee.


And because I love you, this surreal and brilliant take on it all:

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