Perspective

 It wasn't too long ago...In fact, as I recall it was sometime in the year 2000 and 11 that folks were up in arms about the legality of the president killing American citizens. Remember that? remember how for the first time in history conservatives were squalling about the legality of killing an American, ( I find this amusing because conservatives agitate for less and less regulation of anything and everything constantly, which when enacted, inevitably leads us to shit like Flint Michigan's water supply, which has poisoned an untold number of Americans).

But I digress, in 2011 the conservatives were harping about the legality of killing an American with a drone. Now keep in mind that this was an American that had renounced his citizenship, and was actively perpetrating acts of war against the US and her allies on foreign soil...and conservatives made this buffoon their poster child for yet another smear campaign against Obama. Then a year or two later when Bo Bergdahl came back, with no trace of irony what so ever, conservatives were calling for the execution of an American soldier for desertion? Do you remember this crap? Do you also remember that because it was a diametrically opposed liberal narrative, liberals were squalling that Obama had acted within his authority by killing al-Awlaki with a drone, and then later that Bergdahl had done nothing wrong?

 I know, I know, that was 37 mass shootings, 6 Benghazi investigations, two unconstitutional rulings by the supreme court and a second unlawful election of a foreign born, America destroyin' gun snatchin' oversteppin' pretender ago. We've had other things on our minds. Hell, we've had two armed federal stand offs with members of one family, abortion videos, and Ebola since then. Damn it, we even had Obama try to take over Texas, round up all the guns and then make decent folks live under Wal-Marts and get gay married to ISIS jihadists. And through it all, we've been doing anything and everything to put Hillary Clinton in jail before she can continue leadin' this God fearin', Christian values nation down the road of destruction that we've been set upon by that heathen that currently occupies the residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. By God, we've had a full plate!!! We can't dawdle over the fact that one guy out of several that was killed with a drone may or may not have been an American, or whether that lily livered SOB was consortin' with the enemy or not.

I know that I used examples of conservative outrage in the previous paragraph, but don't get me wrong, liberals are just as bat shit crazy as conservatives are these days. Seriously, any damn ideology that supports an idiot high school drop out, who flips burgers making more money that his counter part, who took up arms in service to this country has also gone off of the freaking rails. It's just that conservatives take themselves so much more seriously while they are slinging bull shit. Just look at Ted Cruz or Louie Gohmert. 

That my friends is the point of this blog. It's about time that someone stopped and took a look at what we as a nation have become. I may be wrong, but from where I sit, the answer to the question of what we have become is that we've become a bunch of whining, self centered jack asses that spend entire days doing nothing more productive than being at at each others digital throats. Seriously, I, for the most part, quit posting politically charged material on my Facebook page, due to the fact that ensuing arguments with people that I have known for years became epic. I would literally look up and four hours had passed in which I'd done nothing but piss an old buddy off...and vice versa for him. We have become so divided politically that it would seem that compromise and intelligent discourse on relevant issues is bound to become a thing of the past. A legend. Something that our ancestors were able to do, but we will never able to emulate.  

I blame this phenomenon on two things. First, the fact that social media has become prevalent. Something that was designed to bring us closer together has in fact done just the opposite. It has created a universe in which bias affirmation is right at ones finger tips. All we have to do is type "conservative opinion" into that search box, and BOOOOOM, we are presented with all the opinions that we could possibly need to confirm our own opinions. Yup, there ARE people out there that think along the same lines as I do. I knew it all along. The problem with this is that after a while, in our minds, those opinions become facts. Hell, if everyone else believes it, it must be true. Look at all the references that I have!!!

The second factor in the division of this nation has been the rise of alternative "news" sources on the internet. You know the ones that I'm talking about: Occupy Democrats, Beitbart, The Raw Story, Conservative Tribune, Addicting Information, Infowars...the list goes on and on. The problem with these sources is that they are completely agenda driven. There are no journalistic ethics applied to anything that these sites put out. Yet, every day, I open my FB page, and lo and behold, someone has linked an article from Conservative Tribune telling me that this time it is real. No shit! Obama is REALLY starting the weapons confiscations. It begins tomorrow at midnight! Or I see an article from Addicting Info talking me how Elizabeth Warren has blown up everything that conservatives believe simply by pointing at them and yelling JIZZ MOPPERS! These sites are run by people who wear tin foil hats, folks. These are the same people that would, back in the day, leave their "newsletter" on your car when you were in the mall, and when you came out, you cursed the bastard for leaving shit on your windshield, and if you did read any of it, you wondered what kind of moron / lunatic could possibly believe this drivel. The difference now is that these people have a slick web site, so they look official, and because, due to the advent of social media, they are able to connect with other denizens of Mom's basement, who buy into their crap, so it makes it look like a legitimate movement.

The sad part about it is that I don't think that folks read half of what they repost. They see that headline that confirms their belief that in some way, shape, or form that Hillary and the pretender could have prevented Benghazi by simply ordering more of something to do something, something or maybe something else, and so presto...with the click of a button, it becomes known to all that THIS is how they think. It's bumper sticker politics of the worst sort.

So, with that in mind, every now and then, I am going to write about something that happened in recent history, (post turn of the century), just to remind everyone of how the outrage machine works in this country, and how it distorts our individual perspectives.  Hopefully people will share it, and folks will in retrospect, begin to realize how damnably ridiculous that we have become. Of course in order for that to happen, I'll have to gin up a slick looking web site and pepper it with click bait head lines...