Whataboutism

Here yesterday, today and hopefully gone tomorrow.

The first time Whataboutism became rampant in our EOT (era of trump) I recall fencing with a local on Facebook. The issue was masks in the early pre vaccine days of the pandemic.

Above is from Politico, a terrific online publication. Mr. Rhodes, shown here, making a point while readying to polk out his other eye.

“I’ve done my own reaserach. Where’s your’s?” I was barraged by YouTube links taking me to the land of how stupid do you really think I am -itis, a place that’s on the outskirts of I’m yelling so loud you can’t hear yourself think. All nonsensical, but to a point. The message was consistent: Masks spread the virus, they are the problem, they are the killer. Free your face etc. It was the research however that was the turning point. It gave people the truth trough “research” they looked for to defend the face freedum they sought. Ask, and ye shall have YouTube provide.

Kellyanne, the Conway that made “alternative facts” a household phrase nearly overnight. It stopped the presses for just a moment and when they rolled again, we were all on the same page. Some made the appropriate snide remarks but there are plenty of people who nodded and trudged on. Why not? People have lives, busy ones making a living or piecing that together after covid, after losing a job, you know. All the problems everyone was in and still are. People with real responsibilities. The ones Democrats are fighting for while Republicans choose to limit rights, funding and generally play reindeer games.

This weeks playtime of events includes battering Biden for Trumps criminality. The documents. The documents we have all heard about and if not, simply look up, or turn on news for thirty seconds. What you’ll see is a parade of mainstream media, not nonsensical YouTube small corners of the universe feeding false equivalencies of the events. Big news outlets sending folks like Anderson Cooper to question with straight faces the integrity of Joe Biden in comparison to Donald Trump. Seriously. It doens’t work but it does. This kind of talk while insulting to everyones intelligence does get traction and any traction Trump can get is fine by him and the GOP.

The questions are why, who is paying for it. All the questions we still have about George Santos. What are they getting besides more money and more time to modify the cultural and social narrative that we somehow agree to in it’s telling us what we need to know. And why Donald J. Trump, arguably most difficult fellow to like, with the least to offer anyone? The guy with more dirty dealings, money grabs, a coup plot, rape trials. Yes, trials, with an “s” at this point, simply yell out crimes. He likely has participated or thunk them up. You know him. This is the guy being shown as equivalent to Biden. Totally the same, not.

False equivalencies are awful, they are being shown, offered, shoved but don’t swallow and the media will change its tune. It has, it will, but we must force it again and again. The big they does listen. People are drifting away for other voices. I’ll recommend again three that must be seen. Heather Cox Richardson, daily recounting by an historian. Available on substack also search amazon for her books. Keith Olberman on podcasts everywhere and Steve Schmidt’s The Warning also on substack. Two of these three say they were lifetime republicans and come with that perspective: Abject horror as to the workings of that important party today. Spoiler, it’s Olberman that has the more liberal background and shares the same outrage. These three share the views generally, and if the guy I argued with on YouTube about masks is correct about anything, then these folks saying the same things in national media is my research.

We will hopefully be out of the area of whataboutism and false equivalencies soonish. What happened to the Pinocchio guy rating lies in “Pinocchio’s”? Gone from his exhaustion or ours? When the trials begin again and start handing out prison sentences, things will change. People’s opinions started to shift when insurrectionists got arrested and sentenced. Big wave of people side stepping Trump when Elmer Stuart Rhodes of the Oathkeepers was found guilty of sedition. That’s treason. Where’s Bidens?

We are being dragged through the mud by our own and many seem like they were once friendly to our inner plodding American dream agenda that includes the democratic party big tent of everyone pulling to a happy place for as many as possible. Why Anderson is doing this? Contract? Money? We cried with him when his lovely mother Gloria Vanderbilt passed away.

I too, have done my YouTube research. Offered as best advice, Keep your head.

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