Pardon Me, Sir
False Equivalences, Fallacies, and Fractured Fairy Tales
A couple of quick things before I dive into today’s essay.
We did it! We reached 400 subscribers! Huzzah! That number will likely wobble to and fro over the coming days, but it’s been hovering for the past week and hitting it (even if it’s momentary) feels like an affirmation. Thank you! I’m doing my best to earn your attention, because I know how precious it is.
In other news, I have completely lost my voice. Let me know if you see it wandering around out there. It was but a whisper this morning. As Mr. Potter meditates early in the day, I imagine the relative quiet was welcome. I’m currently sipping warm tea with honey and lemon and remaining mostly speechless. We’ll see how that goes. Whatever is dancing around in my chest and throat woke us all up around 4 a.m. The additional coughing (I live with a chronic and relentless cough) has been rough on my vocal chords. Life and miming is what happens between the hacking. (Puts tiny violin away.) The point here is there is no recording to accompany this essay. On to the main event…
It appears our news media, with a few notable exceptions, has decided to go all in on the authoritarian scenario. They flirted with it in 2016, broke up with it in 2020, but now that time has passed, memories have faded, and ratings have fluttered, they’ve opened their arms wide for the return of their golden cash cow, “Oh Donny Boy! We missed you!”
I stopped watching CNN after the first time TFG was elected, in no small part due to their fawning adoration masquerading as feigned indigition. This time, I’m afraid I’m not alone in my exhaustion with the entire lamestream corporate media landscape. Weighing the scale, interfering in the process, kissing the ring, obeying in advance, amplifying fallacies, ignoring inconsistencies, and dissecting ‘what went wrong’ with a complete lack of self-awareness.
The 24/7 news cycle, fueled by outrage, chaos, and absurdity, focused on every errant inanity with breathless enthusiasm. “Can you believe this guy? What a rapscallion! But wait, there’s more!”
The multi-week freeding frenzy over Biden’s debate performance while glossing over or ignoring the endless signs of the wavering mental capacity of the other candidate was shameful. “Aw, look at TFG ‘dancing’ like a lunatic for forty minutes while a gape mouthed, red hatted crowd stands in silent disbelief. What fun, eh?”
Then came the delusional double standard applied at every step of Harris’ methodical campaign. Echoes of ‘but her emails’ lurk around the edges of each criticism and false equivalency. What’s up with the joy? So much smiling and cackle laughing! How dare they call them weird! Where is her gravitas? Why can’t she give us more details about her positions? Those 81 pages on her website aren’t enough, but also, there are so many words and we’re tired of reading. (Meanwhile…He swears he has nothing to do with Project 2025! Besides, he has concepts of a plan! Concepts!)
Yesterday’s news media overreaction to the news of Biden’s pardoning his son was beyond the pale. How dare they. I’m looking at you New York Times.
You may not agree with me, and that’s okay because this is an opinion piece and this is my opinion. If you have a different opinion you can write all about it on your Substack. Go get ‘em! However, I have run out of f*cks and it appears Dark Brandon has too. Joe hasn’t given the former guy ‘permission’ to do anything, because Donny was already doing far worse things and openly planning more. The regular rules stopped applying on January 6th, 2020, but thanks to Merrick Garland dragging his feet, our stolen and corrupted Supreme Court, and the endless media fawning over the Toxic Revenger…here we are.
(But her emails…but his pardon…but her laughter…)
Why are the Democrats expected to follow ‘the rules’ while the GOP runs roughshod over our republic on the regular? Where’s the outrage over the bloodless coup in North Carolina yesterday? What about some serious inquiry into the proposed cabinet of sex pests and felons? Let’s be real, folks, Joe did not tarnish his legacy. I hope he follows with a flurry of pre-emptive pardons for the many who stood firm in their resolve to fight for this country regardless of the personal cost. Who else will stand up for those whose names have been bandied about as grievance targets by the Broligarchs, the Neo-Gilded Age Barons, and the religious extremists? Joe has told us, over and over again, that we are in a fight for the soul of our nation. No joke, folks. This isn’t time for pearl clutching over semantics or fractured fairy tales, it’s time to do the right thing, even if the right thing means bending a few ‘rules.’ TFG has made it clear that the rules we thought sacred are mostly illusions anyway.
A bit of a bummer, that, eh?
I’m going to keep cheering on the Scrapper from Scranton, while giving the feckless ‘news’ media my most sincere middle finger.
Cheers, Margot
Spot on, Margo! It seems many of us don’t realize yet that things have changed and the democratic rules and honorable norms of society are no longer functioning. Like they say, you can’t bring a knife to a gun fight. Heck, the Dems don’t even have a knife. They seem to be trying to fight this with a haughty attitude. That ain’t gonna work. The sooner we all wake up, the better. My eyes are open and it is very, very painful and horribly scary. But I’m not going to walk peacefully to the gallows as I preach to everyone that I took the high road.
I also have cut back on watching too much political news. I do not want this creature to ruin anymore of my life by thinking about him. I just plan to do on about my business and enjoy myself. He can't live forever. I think the whole bunch of them will be so incompetent that nothing will ever get done. I am proud of Joe. His son would have probably been in great danger with the new regime. He was treated very unfairly and every time I hear someone say the Biden Crime Family it makes me laugh. You are doing good work, Margot.