Day 1091 – They Say …

Saturday, January 13, 2024

I remember watching a Smothers Brothers skit entitled, “They Say.”

Dick and Tommy were sitting in an office with the words “They Say” etched on the office door glass.

Here they were throwing phrases back and forth. I don’t remember exactly but it went something like this:

“ ‘They say a rolling rock picks up no grass’…”

“No. ‘They say a stone rolling down hill has no moss’ …”

And it went on like that for a while. I don’t remember how it ended, but it pointed out an interesting cultural phenomena. The development of a saying, which could become a belief. So many of these sayings are silly and might help salve the wounds of pride or defeat, but they aren’t necessarily reflections of reality. However, once those beliefs become – well – believed, they are hard to let go of. In negotiations I hear talk of “positions hardening,” or a phrase like “in for a dime in for a dollar.”

I wrote it yesterday about the persistence of stupidity. Maybe ignorance is a better way to phrase it, or how about “I’m a dumb ass and I like it.” When facts come up against belief, belief often wins. I think about the Egyptian burial practices, which went on for thousands of years, despite no evidence that any of it made sense. So too with the Mayans and many other cultures and civilizations. Are we any better now? I don’t think so. I think it was astrophysicist who as a kid when told god was in heaven and heaven was in the sky where god sat in the clouds asked, “Which cloud?” and then pointed to one and asked, “that one?”

I saw a George Carlin routine where he skewered the people who pound their chests proclaiming The Sanctity of Life. “Says who?” asked Carlin. He then went on to point out how the question then turns on “Do you believe in god?” and “Do you believe in my god?” if not Bang, you’re dead.

And recently the news has said Trump has the writings of Hitler on his bedstead. Remember when he was running in 2016 it was the speeches of Mussolini? I have a hard time believing he reads. I think suggesting that he has the speeches or writings of two of the most evil men of the Twentieth Century is giving him way too much credit. I think you can say that he is a narcissistic sociopath and that as such he could pretty easily come up with the stuff he says.

If you look at the development of Quanon and Trump believers and evangelic Christianity in the U.S. it seems to all stem from the same behavioral belief systems. And once you go down the path of whatever, it’s hard to say, “Gee, I was mistaken.” You want so hard to believe you were right from the beginning. It takes an overwhelming amount of evidence or a catastrophic event to change your mind. Like the people in Galveston Texas when the water left the bay and they stood there in wonder. Minutes later a giant wave came hurtling towards them. At what point in time did they say to themselves, “Oh Shit!”? Or did they? Were they too busy running for their lives?

We are in the middle of such a catastrophic event. The bay is empty of water. It is time to run. Okay, bad analogy. How did I go down this path? It is time to stand and fight the wave. Yikes, that isn’t much better.In fact, that’s terrible.

What surprises me is how far people are willing to lie to themselves to protect their earlier bad decisions, thoughts, or beliefs.

Be it saying the FBI was behind January 6th to saying Trump is standing trial for them. It’s mind blowing.

My newest hero is Jasmine Crockett who said that there are those who talk about “The Biden Crime Family” but who is in court defending themself?

Marjorie Taylor-Greene says they have all this evidence on the Bidens. Yeah? Somehow other than saying it, they haven’t shown any of it. You’d think if they had it they’d be pounding it on every media outlet they could find. Like Rudy, who kept and keeps saying, they have this evidence, and they know about all these phony votes and blah blah blah. Yeah? but when asked to produce they got nuthin’

Like the Smothers Brothers and their “They Say” skit. The right wing keeps pumping out falsehoods and creating the illusion that something terrible is happening. But when asked to show what they’ve got. They’ve got nothing.

In other news, health care. The window is closing to sign up for the ACA for this year. It’s been a historic success. So what are the Republicans doing? Badmouthing it. Trump says it sucks. The Republican congresses tried to repeal it seventy times. But to quote John Boehner who led many of the votes to repeal it , and replace it, he never saw in his decades in Congress a Republican health care plan.

Remember Trump’s health care plan? Kayleigh MacEnany gave Sixty Minutes the Trump health care plan. It was a big stack of papers. Words were on some of the papers. Some said medicine or health, I guess, but it was nothing more than that – a bunch of paper. It was no plan. It didn’t even pretend to be.

I recently saw video clips of Trump’s promises on health care and based on that I have to ask, “Which of his health care plans do you like better: 2016?, 2017?, 2018?, 2019?, 2020?, 2021?, 2022?, 2023? or his latest 2024? (The ‘Obamacare sucks’ with thumbs down gesture)?” Every year mentioned he promised a health care plan and every year nothing was produced.

Remember his Infrastructure plan? Which of his infrastructure plans did you like better: 2016?, 2017?, 2018?, 2019?, 2020? Because every year he promised one. It was a standing joke in Washington.

And yet, there are some that believe! Believe what? Believe ever since Truman tried to get national health care and Republicans stood in the way that things have changed? That the Republicans who voted against Joe Biden’s infrastructure plan, but show up at the groundbreakings in their district that they are going to change?

Personally, I think Joe is to soft on them saying, “God Bless them” (for finally showing up.) No, I’d be more in the Eric Swalwell camp of asking, “why didn’t you vote for this when it was in Congress?”

That somehow, trickle down will work? That the fat cats whom the Republicans represent care about you?