Sympathy for the Devil: Slouching Toward the Sadist State

 

Donald Trump invokes the apocalyptic vision of the state of California--Los Angeles, in particular--as being on the verge of chaos and disintegration owing to the invasion/infestation by dark skinned immigrants, who we can shorthand simply as "MS13" from "shithole countries," and were it not for his timely intervention by calling in the Marines and the National Guard, white women would be murdered and raped and mere anarchy would be loosed upon the land.

Americans, who have long harbored a decidedly berserk streak, love visions of apocalyptic battles, won by strong men superheroes, sitting at their video game consoles, in their mothers' basements.

Sadistic Glee 2025

Sadistic Glee 1933

Of course, as Governor Gavin Newsome has noted, the murder rate in the Deep Red states is far worse than in the Blue States which Trump claims have been overwhelmed by murderous mobs of illegal immigrants welcomed into their sanctuary cities:

Murder rate in California: 5.9% (Murder/100,000 people)

Murder rate in Mississippi: 20.7% (voted for Trump by 23 points)

Murder rate in Alabama: 14.9% (voted for Trump by 31 points)

Murder rate in Louisiana: 19.8% (voted for Trump by 19.8 points)

Murder rate in South Carolina: 11.9% (voted for Trump by 18 points).

So, if strongman King Donald is a superhero, protecting American citizenry from the murderous onslaught of brown skinned immigrants--he isn't doing awfully well in his protection racket.

Updated American Sadism

Having grown up in the South, and having spent most of my life living below the Mason/Dixon line, none of this comes as any surprise.

Classic Sadists

Kids I grew up with, right through their teen age years, were often, not to put too fine a point on it, sadists, pure and simple. They might drown kittens or fry them alive in microwaves, beat up smaller kids, throw rocks, at least attempt to rape girls, and they would reassure you with a smile, this was all just fun, and very much okay.

Date Night at Sadist City

And their friends would, likely as not, just shrug, if not participate. 

It was, I imagined at the time, simply the inheritance of the master race who had once treated slaves sadistically, just for fun, but also for profit.

Founder of the Ku Klux Klan

They weren't doing anything their great grandfathers hadn't done, after all, and those figures were now framed photos on the walls of their parents' homes, often as not in the uniform of the Confederate States of America.

Who is the Brave One?

It was a culture of cruelty to keep the Black Man down.

Brave Boys, Having Fun

Or as Randy Newman put it in his imperishable song, "Rednecks," we are "keeping the Niggers down."

And I do use the "N-word" advisedly. By which I mean, "Nigger." There, I said it. Has the nation collapsed? 

Nothing is so infuriatingly woke as the refusal to say the actual offending word in polite company. Are our wives and daughters and sons really so fragile their psyches will be permanently scarred to hear the actual word which is the problem?

Which brings me to Professor Carole Hooven, who was driven from Harvard for the unforgivable offense of using the phrase "pregnant woman" instead of "pregnant person" among other transgressions including saying there are two sexes (as defined by gametes) and her insistence on cleaving to the truth--"Veritas" being Harvard's motto--even if that truth caused the ultrasensitive, hot house flowers, snowflakes to feel so traumatized, they could not leave their dorm rooms.

Oh, the victimhood! And at Harvard, no less!

In Hooven's case, there was never much question about the veracity of what she had said: In homo sapiens, there are two sexes--which may be different from saying there are two "genders"--and that these differences are pretty distinctive. But her sin was that some Harvard students felt unsafe hearing this. The effect of hearing true statements disrupted their safe spaces. And the Harvard faculty ran for the bomb shelters rather than simply squelching this nonsense as soon as it peeped its noggin out of its bomb shelter.  So here is a case I cannot work up much sympathy for the "victims" of the truth.

 I find myself unsympathetic to the snowflake. And on the other, I find myself appalled by the ultimate in lack of sympathy: the sadist.

But how can you sympathize with a woman, Laura Simone Lewis  who says, "It is vital to teach med students gender inclusive language, as they will certainly interact with people that identify outside the gender binary"? And by that she means nobody should ever utter "pregnant women" but only "pregnant people." And who is Laura Simone Lewis to be telling anyone what we should be teaching medical students?

And, I'm sorry, but after decades of speaking the only language I've been able to facilitate, I'm simply not able to re wire to say, "They went to town to get a haircut," when I'm speaking of a single person. Sorry, not going to happen. If that makes you feel attacked, victimized, then take to your room and consider therapy. But my pronouns belong to me, not to you. As Dave Chappell has said, "I support anyone's right to be who they want to be. My question is: to what extent do I have to participate in your self-image?"

Even Dave has trouble with the anyone/they convention here, but you get his point, with which I totally agree.

Our brave protectors fear for their lives! She does look so dangerous!

So, we emerge from a weekend in which U.S. Marines and National Guard troops were fully mobilized with their grenades and M-16 rifles to deal with mothers with infants in strollers, brave men that they are. 

And where does that leave us?

Oh, She is Just SO Brave!