I think because I love story telling so much, bad headlines tend to get under my skin like a sliver might get under your fingernail. It’s exceedingly painful and prone to fester.
Telling stories is about shaping narratives, not global narratives or political ones, but simply shaping the narrative of the story, attempting to paint a picture of what you see with words, setting the mood, controlling the tone, perhaps even revealing some truth in the process.
Then we have the mainstream media. Journalism that is no longer “journalism” but more like some kind of undead beast that should probably be mercifully put out of it’s misery. Satire is dead. Irony has fainted. It’s probably best to just assume if their lips are moving, they are lying.
A couple of my favorites from this week, “27 Police Officers Injured During Peaceful Protest.” We really don’t know what happened, they must have all tripped. Self inflicted injuries, perhaps? Obviously no violence occurred since it was a “peaceful protest.” Reminds me a bit of kids, “But Dad, it’s not my fault, he just went and hurt his own self for no reason! And he just did it to make me look bad!”
I always liked that story, except your brother was not nearly smart enough to engage in that kind of sociopathic manipulation. Your sister perhaps, your brother, NO. He couldn’t orchestrate an escape from a wet paper bag.
The next headline is, “Seattle Protesters Visit City Hall, Calling for Mayor to Resign.” This made me laugh, mostly because Mayor Jenny Durkan loves lawlessness, supports the protests, and has given them everything they could possibly want. Well, now they want you to resign! I’m good with that, I think we should comply immediately. Amusing, because a big problem with people like Jenny, they think they are great rebels, college kids fighting oppression. They don’t seem to realize that they are now, “The Man.” The Great Oppressor. It’s good to know these things before you wave your fist in the air and chant, “down with the man.” Just saying.
But what really rumpled my stiltskins, it’s 11:00 on a Tuesday night! City Hall is closed, the building is locked down. They aren’t “visiting,” like we made an appointment and are now having tea to discuss the mayor’s resignation. They broke into the building, likely aided and abetted by some sympathetic City Council member, who also doesn’t seem to realize it’s actually your head they want on a platter.
See, there's this thing called biology... 
A friend of mine commented that the left eat their own. The further left they go, the more they eat the ones who don’t want to go that far. She gave an example of J. K. Rowling who recently received a lot of heat for choosing feminism over transgenderism (which actually allows men to claim the rights of women). I guess that made her a pariah to the far left and they are vilifying her. So I’m not surprised to hear the cries for your mayor’s resignation. Just another example of left eating their own. I suppose to some degree the extremists on the other side do the same thing. Maybe its the nature of extremism.
(Apparently I was “unsubscribed” again. Don’t know how that happens. I finally figured it out.)
Becky
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Thanks, Becky. That unbidden, unsubscribe feature on WP is a real bugger. Funny you mentioned JK Rowling, I have a draft about that very thing and the way the left eats their own, but my tone was off, my heart is all wrong, so I declined to send it out. 🙂
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Woke culture does seem to behave like a dog spinning in circles, chasing its own tail, until it finally bites it. The end is never pleasant. 😉
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I am just delighted to hear there is an end! That’s the most hopeful thing I’ve heard in a while. 🙂
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Good thing you prefaced your stories with = “Satire is dead. Irony has fainted.” I would have thought them to be an SNL skit! How apropo VPub … “like a dog spinning in circles, chasing its own tail, until it finally bites it.”
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Honestly, one doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry sometimes, but at the moment I am just enjoying the
schadenfreude.
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The mob takes no prisoners
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That’s the truth, Julie! Many people have forgotten that you cannot surrender to a bully or a mob seeking peace. You have to put your foot down and stand up, because they take no prisoners.
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Standing with you my friend ☺️
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OF COURSE, they take prisoners! They restrict your rights until they get what they want. Ok, maybe their prisoners are hostages instead? I don’t know. Then, when they DO get what they want, they say it was done wrong.
Reminds me of a story. (And I know how you like stories…)
A very demanding man yells at his wife, “Wife! bring me my breakfast!”
A very subservient wife says, pleasantly, “What would you like, dear?”
“2 eggs, one scrambled, one sunny, bacon crisp, not burnt like you usually do it, hash browns brown on the outside but not crispy, 3/4 cup of orange juice and the Gevalia Coffee.”
“Yes dear, of course, dear,” and she goes to the kitchen to cook.
A half-hour later, she comes in with a tray and 2 eggs, 1 scrambled and one sunny, beautifully cooked bacon and hashbrowns, 3/4 cup of orange juice and coffee, and a vase with a lovely rose.
He takes one look and throws it on the floor. “You can’t do anything right!”
“What was wrong?”
“You idiot, you scrambled the wrong egg!”
She hit him with the frypan.
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LOL! That is great story and a good point, too.
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I get this. I find that visiting my boss’s office is much more productive when he’s out.
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The one positive of this madness has been seeing the eyes of self identified progressives grow wide like saucers just as the guillotine is about to drop. Especially the insufferable Mayor of Minneapolis who was ripped to shreds by the mob on video for not saying he’ll defund the police force. .
I know it’s wrong but I’ve been getting a perverse sense of pleasure out of this.
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Yep! Schadenfreude, that perverse pleasure we get watching people fall on their own petard. I suppose in some contexts it could be wrong, a sin perhaps? On the other hand, I think we could probably argue that it’s simply honoring our God given love of righteousness and justice. 🙂
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It’s always good to be able to view the horrendous happenings all around us with a bit of a sense of humor. Thank you, IB.
(Do you have a facebook account? My wife doesn’t like the difficulty of navigating WordPress and I think she would appreciate your writing.)
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Thank you for your kind words. I’m on facebook, Gabrielle Guthrie, with the same avatar, the girl with the blue dress. 🙂
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