Susie and I watched the superb movie BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK. All-star understated layers of oblique dialogue and concise storytelling. Spencer Tracy carries no gun. His character solves problems with appropriate response and is polite and peaceful throughout. Afterwards, the TV flipped to some SWAT Team drama for a moment, armed and armored men in helmets that masked their faces moving in on someone huddled in a building. We both recoiled.
We both commented, “Oh, macho bullshit.” We loathe it. Might doesn’t make right. Ends don’t justify means. Guns aren’t a rational response to anything. Warrior culture is not admirable.
So, we need to stop making blockbuster hits of movies depicting toxic male psychopaths shooting everyone they think is a problem or obstacle – we need to rid ourselves of the violent First Person Shooter video games that indoctrinate kids into thinking the way you solve a problem is squeezing a trigger. No more celebrating violent male bullying.
Fuck John Wayne. Fuck Clint Eastwood and Dirty Harry. Fuck Charles Bronson’s Death Wish movies of vigilantism. Fuck Mark Harmon’s Gibbs with his psychopathic sniper façade covering a stone cold murderer. Fuck Tom Selleck’s Magnum murdering a Russian spy or his reverse-mortgage police chief deploying hit squads.
Fuck the whole Rugged Individualism myth that excuses the hate and greed embodied in the GOP magat cult of nihilism.
It is under their minority choke-hold on democratic processes that the leading cause of death for American children is now gun violence, bullets, not car crashes.
We need to shift culture toward Humanism. A human-centric ecology-friendly view of living as part of Nature instead of trying to bully, rape, and exploit it endlessly for profit.
Corporations must be strictly regulated and seized by the federal government if they continue to do harm.
Pollution must be curtailed and eliminated if possible. Hidden effects must be revealed and not permitted to kill for decades to keep sales soaring. Predatory practices, loophole approach to legality, and Capitalism must be replaced by, at the very least, democratic socialism. Justice must cease to be for sale. Term limits, no-confidence and recall votes, and genuinely transparency must be instituted and confirmed by independent media.
Propaganda mills such as FOX News must be investigated for foreign influence, reported on and countered at every syllable, and prosecuted when outright lies and harmful stochastic whistle-blowing is detected. Free speech? Absolutely. No consequences for what you say? No chance.
By the same token, quashing views by draconian means must be a crime, too, along with book banning, book burning, and all forms of censorship. If you don’t agree with something, counter it with something of your own. Do so factually; you’ll be checked and prosecuted for disinformation crimes otherwise. Healthy public discourse must be fact-based, reality-based, and independently confirmable.
Disagreeing on interpretations of facts is what makes for debates that matter in a democracy. Lying, spinning, slanting, and cherry-picking selective, unrelated items to create a false impression is misinforming. It’s the inverse and opposite of informative discussion.
None of these measures will save us from the extinction that is on our doorstep, but it might let us live better lives and eke out a few more years before people living today see humanity go extinct along with most other species. Community can be emphasized, a sense of belonging instilled. Ostracizing those out for themselves only is a good first step toward living better, longer, and avoiding a war-zone mentality.
And the train rolls on.
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