Some really random thoughts

I usually try to link my commentary to some tidbit on the news, but that eludes me tonight. I guess it is because of all the stupidity I see. I apologize; change that to silliness (Pappy taught me it was not nice to call people stupid, unless they were bent over).

Now, mind you, I rarely watch TV anymore (unless there is a storm watch and then I watch the weather channel and channel surf between the local channels to see if they have any warnings).

I gave up watching what passes for prime time entertainment long ago, because I do not find it funny to make fun of people making mistakes or being jerks, just so we can laugh at them. I know, I am strange, but that is the way I am. So, you can see, most of the situation comedies really aren’t all that much fun for me. I guess I empathize too much with those who are the butt of the jokes (having often been the butt of many a joke myself).

I consider myself a reasonably intelligent adult, so most of the dramas leave me flat because, while maybe dramatic, there are holes in the logic of most shows that you could drive a supertanker through. I guess I fail at the required suspension of disbelief you need to watch such shows.

As for television news: Would you believe it? I once was an addict, but I think that was back when I was young and innocent and thought journalists really could be somewhat balanced. I knew they could never be objective, but at least I thought we working reporters and editors at least could try to compensate for our prejudices. Somewhere along the line, something my Uncle Joe told me (he was the one who used to be a TV news producer) finally clicked. The people in front of the broadcast cameras really are … well, for the lack of a better term – airheads. As the old soldier in me says, they have a real headspace and timing problem.

Now, my heart and my blood pressure doesn’t need the aggravation of what I see passing for journalism in the broadcast world these days. Believe me, it ain’t the journalism that I learned back in college 40 years ago.

So, having been a print journalist lo all those many years, I have turned to reading the news online. The internet is a great source … to a point. However, you have to take just about everything you read with about two tons of salt (as Pappy used to say). The sad thing is that it is getting worse and worse.

Now, we have an important political campaign happening this year in the United States … or is that the Untied States (I get confused sometimes). I have been fed up with the coverage of the various campaigns from the git-go. It always has been about the horse race, if you want to call it that, and who has stumbled lately. What a bunch of junk.

Now, it seems that (at least on one side of the presidential campaign) it has gotten to the point that even the truth doesn’t matter. Just sling up accusations and insinuations and go for it. Not to say the other side is doing much better, but at least – so far – they have tried to keep their mud focused on job performance and not on peripheral issues.

I guess what is really getting to me is how it has coarsened the discourse between people I thought were relatively sensible. My esteemed younger daughter, who despite her father seems to have a thoughtful head on her shoulders when it comes to most issues, put a rant up on her Facebook page the other day (everybody has a Facebook page, right?) admonishing those who post to do so only after fact-checking, or at least Googling the subject (Is Google a verb? I guess it is now), before posting comments that would make them look like idiots when talking about politics. She probably has a valid point.

But even then, it appears that people don’t let facts get in the way. No, it is better to trash people and denigrate stereotypes … and send out calls for the elimination of all dissenting thoughts. I have seen so much of that lately; it literally is about the make me physically sick. There are web sites that I go to, deliberately. Not because I agree with their perspective, but because most of the time I don’t agree. However, it is important to me to see what they are saying, if only to challenge me to defend my own perspective.

Hence, you probably will notice that I am more critical of the so-called progressives in the U.S. then I am of the libertarians. Even “conservatives” come out a little better than the progressives in my book. But then, I have lived in “conservative”, Bible-belt communities most of my adult life. And while I have rarely found myself in total agreement with those who are “out there” so to speak, I always have felt that for the most part there was a willingness to respect differences.

In fact, while I know I would get some arguments from so quarters, I would suggest that the stereotype of the Southern redneck fails to recognize the reality of the world that they live in. Most of those good old boys (and girls) aren’t all that bad, as far as folks go. May have a weird sense of humor to a lot of city folks, but then the converse is true … city folk humor seems a mite weird to them. Of course, if you want, you can set yourself up on a pedestal and look down on them, make fun of them, but most of them are secure enough in who they are that they don’t give a rip that you do.

Still, it is the ugliness of this portrayal that bugs me (I will probably say more on that in another post). Having traveled a mite around this world and seen things I would rather have not seen, I have come to the decision that by and large, despite all their problems, quirks and sensitivities, most Americans – be they urbanite, country bumkins, college educated or high school dropouts – pretty much are a good bunch of people to be around. Yet, I see a lot of attacking of people just because they believe different than you do, and that isn’t just a right-left thing.

I wish, if I could, touch some of you who come to visit these random thoughts. Make you think. Make you reexamine your assumptions and premises, maybe. Think about what would happen if you stopped throwing verbal bombshells and vitriol and started accepting people for their differences. Yes, they are different. And HELL YES sometimes those differences seem to be the silliest things you can imagine. But put the shoe on the other foot, and stop and think how you might look to them. Stop and think, that with the shoe on their foot that wouldn’t you want to be treated with dignity and respect rather than the other alternative.

Well, that is enough thoughts for now. Comments are welcome.