Irony died sometime in the last four years. I don’t know the time, or date, of death but I do know the corpse of irony has been flogged relentlessly.
I know for sure it would have died the day the president’s mail order Eastern European third wife was put in charge of a nationwide effort to deal with cyber bullying. I also believe that if us out-of-the-loop folks didn’t know the term “gaslighting” before that we spent the day researching it after that announcement.
Any other administration we might have thought they were just being tone-deaf. But with these people - I mean both the president and the first mail-order lady had spent an inordinate number of tweets prior to their running to be the highest grifters in the land doubting the 44th president’s birth certificate credentials. What would you call that?
I call it cyber bullying.
Maybe she was given that task specifically because of her expertise in the art of being an asshole online.
Just think. On the 20th of January, a madman will no longer be sending out maniacal, diabolical and nonsensical tweets to his millions of bots, trolls and red-pilled Americans from the bathroom of the White House. He will no longer be able to incite insurrection from the White House grounds and he will no longer be shielded by executive privilege. If we are really lucky, Jack (his last name is not coming to mind and all of us on Twitter just refer to him as Jack), the creator of Twitter, will de-platform him because of innumerable terms of service breaches. And, as an ordinary citizen, Twitter will no longer feel compelled to put up with his bullshit.
To me - besides the fact I loathed this man’s personality - what truly bothered me from the very beginning was his abuse of the bully pulpit.
I knew Teddy Roosevelt, our 26th president, had something to do with the expression. I knew Roosevelt was quoted as saying, “Speak softly and carry a big stick” in reference to his overall attitude about foreign policy dealings. I knew he was the founder of the Bull Moose Party. I believe that happened as a consequence of his becoming TOO progressive for the taste of the Republican Party.
From Merriam-Webster:
Bully pulpit comes from the 26th U.S. President, Theodore Roosevelt, who observed that the White House was a bully pulpit. For Roosevelt, bully was an adjective meaning "excellent" or "first-rate"—not the noun bully ("a blustering, browbeating person") that's so common today. Roosevelt understood the modern presidency's power of persuasion and recognized that it gave the incumbent the opportunity to exhort, instruct, or inspire. He took full advantage of his bully pulpit, speaking out about the danger of monopolies, the nation's growing role as a world power, and other issues important to him. Since the 1970s, bully pulpit has been used as a term for an office—especially a political office—that provides one with the opportunity to share one's views.
The current occupant of the White House is the nation’s Number One cyber bully. He uses his cyber bully pulpit like a bludgeon. He’s been a prolific cyber bullier and his acerbic comments have no bounds as far as class of citizens. When it comes to demeaning opponents, non-fans or those who have fallen out of his good graces, he has been an equal opportunity bully. He rarely, if ever, uses the president’s “bully pulpit” to inspire, educate or encourage. When that does happen, it is more likely a surrogate tweeter.
Teddy the Roughrider has been on a rotisserie in his grave over these last four very long years.
I blocked the Tweeter-in-Chief’s tweets when I first started using Twitter. The only time I see them now is when I elect to click through someone else’s tweet to see what they are referring to. It’s usually just some madness from the man who would be king tweeting from his porcelain throne.
So, I don’t see his tweets on any regular basis. But I hear about them daily, or I hear about the rate at which he’s tweeting, or their guy-on-the-street-corner incoherence, or the sheer volume, or the excessive use of caps, or the comical misspellings. (Do you know how easy it is to misspell misspell?)
I don’t think any president should ever use social media as it has been abused over the last four years. Just as they are supposed to divest of financial instruments and businesses when they come in to office, they should also pledge to leave social media. Or someone on their staff should edit their commentary. I know we don’t need to worry about Joe Biden on Twitter. But it will be for those who come after.
I know this guy was an outlier.
But what this outlier should have taught us is the next one will - very likely - be even more insidious.
Even today, Individual 1 is at a press conference, ostensibly about the roll out of the game-changing COVID vaccine, railing about having the election stolen out from under him. Spreading more lies and misinformation in real-time. Bullying democracy via the cyber-verse. Bragging and going on and on about receiving more votes than any incumbent president while somehow not acknowledging that his opponent received 7 million more votes than he did.
Meanwhile, his intransigence - and, let’s just say it, his seditious behavior - is emboldening supporters throughout the country to physically threaten public servants of every stripe in all sorts of states. Under the guise of patriotism, (at least that is how his supporters see it), he is undermining democracy and may yet spark the insurrection he seeks.
If I had my druthers, I’d de-platform him now.
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My thanks to Dan Rather for posting this video and reminding me of the “good ol’ days” when people could safely gather like this.
AAR Charley McCabe reminded me that yesterday - when I was writing about music and my cultural declivities or my cultural Great Unconformities - was the anniversary of John Lennon’s death. In Charley’s email to me, he said that Lennon’s introspective album following his departure from the Beatles, the Plastic Ono Band, was one of his favorites. I am going to have to give it a listen because I will confess I was not a musical fan of ANY of the individual Beatles after their break-up. Though I did believe that - of all the Beatles - John Lennon’s music spoke to me more than any other.
This song - which I can’t believe - was also new to me. Even though, I was an avid fan of Pearl Jam. It’s John Lennon’s Gimme Some Truth from the Imagination album covered by Eddie Vedder and Pearl Jam. I’ve included the lyrics below.
As Charley pointed out, Pearl Jam changed the lyrics from “money for dope, money for rope” to “money for oil, no blood for oil”.
I'm sick and tired of hearing things
From uptight, short-sighted, narrow-minded hypocritics
All I want is the truth
Just gimme some truth
I've had enough of reading things
By neurotic, psychotic, pig-headed politicians
All I want is the truth
Just gimme some truth
No short-haired, yellow-bellied, son of tricky dicky
Is gonna mother hubbard soft soap me
With just a pocketful of hope
Money for dope
Money for rope
No short-haired, yellow-bellied, son of tricky dicky
Is gonna mother hubbard soft soap me
With just a pocketful of hope
Money for dope
Money for rope
I'm sick to death of seeing things
From tight-lipped, condescending, mama's little chauvinists
All I want is the truth
Just gimme some truth now
I've had enough of watching scenes
Of schizophrenic, ego-centric, paranoiac, prima-donnas
All I want is the truth now
Just gimme some truth
No short-haired, yellow-bellied, son of tricky dicky
Is gonna mother hubbard soft soap me
With just a pocketful of hope
It's money for dope
Money for rope
Ah, I'm sick and tired of hearing things
From uptight, short-sighted, narrow-minded hypocrites
All I want is the truth now
Just gimme some truth now
I've had enough of reading things
By neurotic, psychotic, pig-headed politicians
All I want is the truth now
Just gimme some truth now