hOnest aPe

Tired

I’m tired. And sick. Some might say I was sick and tired. I can’t deal with the millions of robotic minions of Fox News. Including my Father, Mother-In-Law, Grandmother-In-Law and most of the people I work with. It’s beaten me down so much to have these people around me, some of whom I used to think were smart people, repeating the nonsense and lies of a channel that isn’t remotely a news outlet.

Fox News uses any dirty tool it can think of to exploit people who don’t know enough to look up facts and find out the truth of things on their own. How can anyone who isn’t a complete moron believe in things like Obama’s Secret Negro Army and Death Panels? Or arguments like “Global Warming can’t exist because it’s so fucking cold out.” Seriously, I have lost a lot of respect for people I used to think were intelligent because they gobble this shit up. That’s bad enough, but then they have to push these clearly insane ideas on anyone who will listen.

I remember when Bush was the second coming of Christ. And then the conservatives and Fox turned on Bush when it became clear, even to them, that he was actually the second coming of Joey Tribianni. But wait a few months and, surprise, surprise, Bush was a great president again. The current Republican party and Fox News remind me greatly of the concept of doublethink and the Ministry of Truth from George Orwell’s 1984. Say one thing one day, the people believe you. Say a contradicting thing the next day, the people believe you. AND FORGET YOU EVER SAID ANYTHING CONTRARY.

Over on Andrew Sullivan’s blog, there’s a letter to the editor that has been getting a shit ton of attention over the last few days. I am going to reprint it here in its entirety because I think it’s worth reading. While not specific to Fox News, it sums up pretty accurately what I’m feeling about Fox and The current Republican Party.

“The past year has been a very difficult one for me, personally and professionally. I’ve been up a lot more than I’ve been down, and I’ve been angry and frustrated with life, as we all are at times. But I can’t remember the last time I felt such overwhelming rage toward a group of people as I have felt toward the Republican Party and the conservative movement since President Obama’s election.

I simply cannot grasp what motivates these people, what compels them to thwart even the smallest attempts to clean up the enormous destruction they wrought under Bush and Cheney. Irresponsible, hateful, mendacious, sleazy, destructive – these words do not even begin to describe them.

I am unemployed and have not found a new job after almost a year of searching. I have a mortgage. I also have a preexisting medical condition, thanks to emergency surgery I had to undergo nearly 18 months ago. My unemployment benefits expire in five months, my COBRA not long after. Like untold millions of Americans, I am preparing for the worst as the economy slogs through its agonizing turnaround.

I voted for Obama with proud but open eyes, knowing full well not just the magnitude of the tasks he faced, but the pure, unrestrained malevolence of his opposition. Health care reform will unquestionably help people like me. And now some low-rent hairdo, whose sole claim to fame is posing naked for some ladies’ magazine way back when, may happily destroy whatever chance this country has at moving in a more just, humane, and morally and fiscally responsible direction.

As you stated, the Republican Party of this new century is shot through with nihilists. Unabashed nihilists. But what leaves me shaking with anger damn near every day since President Obama’s inauguration is the pure smugness and nonchalance of their nihilism.

Palin, McConnell, DeMint, Boehner, Cantor, Rubio, Scott Brown and the rest of the Ailes- and Limbaugh-warped GOP: Would you trust any one of these goons to greet you at Wal-Mart, much less govern our country? The question answers itself. They literally care nothing for America. They have spent the past decade doubling the national debt, running up record deficits, indulging the depradations of Wall Street, expanding Medicare by a trillion dollars while refusing to cover the cost, needlessly and shamelessly cutting taxes by two trillion dollars while again refusing to cover the cost, degrading the Army and Marine Corps to the point where it will take them both at least a decade to recover, jailing and torturing detainees and lying about it, manipulating intelligence in order to invade Iraq out of some sick neocon thirst for vanity and glory. I could go on, but that would take hours, and only make me angrier.

Suffice to say that Republicans lecturing the country about fiscal responsibilty, economic recovery, governing – or anything else, for that matter – would be like Mick Jagger lecturing Mother Teresa about excessive promiscuity.

Karl Rove and Dick Cheney were thankfully not present at America’s founding. But their political descendants will certainly be present at America’s demise.”