Category: Politics, Religion & Money
ABBA Above All
This past week on the DVR I watched the PBS documentary The Eugenics Crusade, showing how the American Eugenics movement contributed to Hitler’s nightmare of a Master Race. Then I watched a PBS fundraiser feature, ABBA Forever: A Celebration. The two programs have a connection in the person of Frida, whose mother bore her as a German soldier’s “Lebensborn” baby, during the Nazi occupation of Norway.
Speaking of PBS, that’s where A Charlie Brown Christmas can be watched tonight. Quite a switch from decades of airing on commercial TV. And with that comment, this posts ticks three of my blog categories.
2001: A Christmas Odyssey
Update a few references from 2001, and you have Christmas, 2020 relevance. The writers include Stephen Colbert and Louis CK.
Sitting Down With a Stand-up Guy
A year ago, before the pandemic, Joe Pera sat down with Stephen Colbert for a low-key conversation. Two nice guys, both very creative, with different approaches to comedy. Joe is the opposite of raging screamer comics like Lewis Black.
Here’s a video Joe put on YouTube today.
Cognitive Dissonance in Action
It’s good to see reporters refusing to let Trump repeat lies to their faces, and it’s fun to watch his reactions.
My previous post was about the difficulty in reconciling Trump’s supporters to reality. Here’s a deeper and more academic dive into the topic.
The Unitary Movement
Newt Gingrich began the Republican descent into the party of culture wars during the 90’s, and Trump completed the transformation. I’m sure there must be white, college-educated professional men who know that Trump is a lying con man, but they liked his pro-business, anti-tax policies. I bet they secretly admire Trump’s swagger and his “grab ’em by the crotch” boasting.
Neither of the political extremes are going to accept any movement towards the other side. Trump’s hardcore base of working class supporters think of politics as Wrestlemania. So Democrats could likewise play rough and continue to call them willfully ignorant deplorable suckers, but that won’t help. What’s the alternative? “There, there, we know you’re disappointed. We’ll show you where you went wrong,” would be condescending. Maybe with Trump on the way out there are enough Republican moderates willing to risk coming out of hiding to make a difference.