Beyond Bullshit
BELL VIEW--Can America pay attention long enough to do anything to save itself from destruction? The massacre in Florida already feels like ancient history to everyone except the people who lived through it. The slaughter in Syria quietly churns on beneath the surface while Americans have lost the ability to connect two opposing ideas to create a real debate.
We need sensible gun laws, we say. Why do you want to repeal the Second Amendment? No one suggested repealing the Second Amendment. Why do you want to take away our right to self-defense? No one needs an AR-15 with a high-capacity magazine and a bump stock to defend himself. How much is George Soros paying you?
This is practically what qualifies as political debate in this country.
In his 2005 book On Bullshit, philosopher Henry G. Frankfurt defines bullshit as speech intended to persuade without regard to the truth. While a liar attempts to hide the truth, the bullshitter has no concern for truth or falsity, so long as he can persuade his listener. Trumpism is nothing but bullshit, and its adherents gobble it up as fast as Trump, Fox News, the NRA, and the Republican Congress can shovel it.
Outside the right-wing bubble – in the bizarre DMZ between the warring factions in this country – those Americans ironically choosing to identify as “conservative” in this radical age, have abandoned even the appearance of bullshit. No need to persuade anyone of anything. Just say your piece and move on the next “argument.”
I’m fully prepared to admit that I don’t have the answers to all of life’s problems. Can we slow or reverse climate change? Can we stem the tide of gun death? Can we develop a rational, compassionate immigration policy for this country? Can we provide everyone with decent healthcare? Education? Wages? Opportunity? Security? I don’t have the answers to any of these questions, but when one side is putting forward potential solutions to real problems and the other side is lighting its farts on fire, it doesn’t take long before you start to feel stuck.
Does anyone really think teachers with guns will prevent school shootings? Well … yeah, some people do. Or they say they do. And I guess saying you think something is what counts as thinking these days.
The entire discussion has gotten so meta that the only thing worth discussing is whether we’re actually discussing anything anymore.
Well, I can answer that one: No. The discussion in America has not “broken down along party lines.” The discussion has ceased to exist.
Meanwhile, the rich get richer. Turns out the Republican tax plan is working even better than expected as corporations inflate their stock prices by using the tax savings to buy back their own stock. The actual economy, of course, doesn’t quite know what to make of it, and may just crash and burn – but not before the rich have taken the pennies off of our dead grandma’s eyes. Contrary to popular belief, Trumpism is a well-oiled machine, and its paying dividends even quicker than its proponents thought it would.
(David Bell is a writer, attorney, former president of the East Hollywood Neighborhood Council and writes for CityWatch.)
-cw
