These days, when it comes to public discourse, nuance is nowhere to be found. Michael Harris writes:
There is no public discourse, just an ongoing screed between those fighting for the controls. It’s not just sex, lies and videotape that is used to bring the opponent low — but a hearty boot to the meat pies if you can manage to get the other guy down. The mayhem etiquette of cage-fighting has vanquished any vestige of the Marquis of Queensbury rules. Welcome to Trumpland and the skewed reality of the alt-right.
Making matters worse, we have entered the Age of Dishonesty and Deception as author Ralph Keyes calls it, where casual dishonesty has become a pandemic in public life. What does that mean? All the whoppers no longer come from Burger King.
Consider the reaction to Justin Trudeau's statement following the death of Fidel Castro:
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau lamented the passing of a world leader and family friend, and offered condolences to the Castros in the name of a deep friendship between the Canadian and Cuban people that runs back to the days of his father, Pierre Trudeau.
Stephen Harper’s son, Ben, called Trudeau’s statement about Castro “an embarrassment for Canada.”
Since Ben’s father set the record in that department, perhaps he could offer further enlightenment to the Great Unwashed. Perhaps Ben might share his wisdom on the subject of his father’s words of praise for the despot who ran Saudi Arabia, King Abdullah, when he died. The record shows that Harper spent $175,000 to send Governor-General David Johnston to Saudi Arabia to personally convey his condolences. Nice treatment for a misogynistic dictator with a human rights record far worse than Castro’s.
US Senator Marco Rubio saw Trudeau’s remarks as flowers for a brutal dictator, misplaced compassion for a political thug who brought opposition to his revolution to an abrupt end against a wall or deep inside a prison.
No one remembers Fulgencio Batista, the dictator Castro replaced. Donald Trump has made degraded discourse and outrageous lying normal. And we follow the Pied Piper, fools that we are.
Image: The Road To Cuba
16 comments:
Also forgotten is Castro's cameo on the Ed Sullivan show. Ed had him stand up and congratulated him for doing things ( overthrowing a dictator ) " the American way ".
Sorry, forgot many will not know Ed Sullivan. Think the Muppet show with a wooden frog.
Initially, the Americans praised Castro, rumley. They'd like to forget that.
United Fruit, the Dulles brothers and the CIA, the mafia, Batista - all forgotten.
Harris is right too. Social media has been a disaster and yet, and yet I still maintain a Facebook page to stay (sort of) in touch with family and far flung friends. Facebook Purity keeps it ad free and uncluttered and I am brutal about accepting "friend" requests and equally brutal about abandoning "friends" who affect my blood pressure and that includes some non-immediate family members who are American.
My wife joined Facebook to keep up with our children, Dana. A few relatives are her friends. Other than that, most additions to her timeline are advertisements.
That's precisely the problem, rumley. Historical memories -- like attention spans -- have gotten to be very shor
Important as discourse is to a healthy political process, it's easily poisoned by the practitioners of the dark art of wedge politics.
Install this, appropriate to your web browser, and the ads will go away.
http://www.fbpurity.com/
The bedrock of democracy is reasoned argument, Mound -- or, as Trudeau Sr. used to say, "Reason Above Passion." We've now reversed that axiom.
Thanks for the tip, Dana.
the Fidel Haters as you point out never met a right wing thug that did not make them drool, have never lived in Cuba. Now I admit there is a certian level of brainwashing that goes on, but the people of Cuba seem genuine in their grief. This is the best body of evidence to decide on what side of the scale Fidel falls.
Long ago, my wife and I honeymooned in Cuba, Steve. Our movements were controlled and it was clear that Cuba was not a first world country. But it was also true that Cubans had public healthcare.
Castro and crew made many big improvements, most notably health and education. Of course, those who thrived under Batista, such as Hershey, gambling establishments and organized crime were/are upset; those who could fled to Miami where they continue to brood about it.
My own observations include an over paternal government that meddles with trivia in peoples' affairs. When government permission is required by a farmer in order to sell a cow . . . .
The tourist business is changing Cuba. Those who deal with tourists have more money than those who don't and it shows. The universality of Cuba is breaking down. One can see the difference between Raúl's Cuba from Fidel's by simply walking a block or two in Havana.
It's hard to predict what will happen in Cuba, Toby. The truth is that Castro has been "gone" for quite awhile.
In the end its allmoneyball. How do you make a champion society?
Not this way, Steve.
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