Father figure
Last week a dickless potato made of cheap plastic dominated US headlines. After much ado about, uh, something, the potato eventually reclaimed its sexuality, and America was saved - that is, until yesterday, when without warning six Dr. Seuss books that no one had ever heard of were ripped from bookstore shelves. The nation once again found itself in a state of turmoil, and conservative news outlets pulled out all the stops to guide the greatest country in the world through this trying time.
Absurdity aside, both Hasbro and Dr. Seuss Enterprises are free to do as they please, and it's no secret that Fox & Friends are a bunch of whiny pisspants. But there is one aspect of all this hubbub that most Americans have ignored, and it’s this: there is not a single bigoted individual whose beliefs are going to change by banning books, renaming toys, or censoring artists. No one has ever uttered the words, "you know now that they took those statues down, I finally accept my son-in-law."
Most of what we are banning, censoring, and sanitizing could be tools to teach young Americans about the deeply rooted institutionalized racism in this country which remains prevalent to this day. Real change takes a generation, and if we can help our kids identify the how and the why, we have a better chance of making this a brighter, safer, more inclusive place to live.
I don't like Confederate statues, but I don't see their removal as progress either; all I see are white liberals patting themselves on the back and saying, "I made a difference" so they can sleep better at night. Fuck that. This current cultural shift is damn near pathological and will not end well for anyone. If anything, the MAGA crowd is only going to grow bolder and angrier, and we've all seen how those fine folks act when they don't get their way.
In other words, it’s business as usual in America. One Fish, Two Fish, Red Bitch, Blue Bitch.