With apologies to the cartoonist, I present an op ed cartoon stolen from friend of the blog Tengrain over at Mock Paper Scissors who apparently got it from Jimmy-T, and no telling where Jimmy-T got it from. But, no matter; it sums up our current political situation perfectly.
It brings to mind two things.
(1) She’s A Witch!
In Monty Python and the Holy Grail, some villagers bring a witch they’ve captured to Sir Bedevere for permission to burn her.
The parallels to the scene are just uncanny:
, just like the unfortunate woman in the scene, democracy tries to defend itself from the fiery blood lust of the MAGA mob:
- They dressed me like this! Democracy defends itself from the fiery blood lust of the MAGA mob by calmly and confidently pointing out that all doubts about the efficacy and veracity of our elections are entirely based on the wild accusations that the mob is making.
- She turned me into a newt! Um… uh… I got better. Our courts throw out every case brought against the 2020 election results because of a lack of evidence that the plaintiffs admit in a wide variety of venues, including to the courts themselves and each other.
- If she weighs as much as a duck, then she is made of wood, and, therefore, a witch! The MAGA mob is satisfied by the same illusion of truthiness that contorts logic and stands reality on its head to justify their destruction of our democracy.
If Trump ever compares our democracy to a duck, you know we’re in real trouble.
And (2) the Witch Hysteria
As noted in the 2021 post, The Medieval Witch Hysteria Teaches About Today’s Pandemic and Stolen Election Hysterias, there are many similarities between the MAGA anti-democracy hysteria of today and the European witch hysteria of the Late Middle Ages:
- Religion was an important galvanizing force of those suffering from both hysterias.
- Scapegoating an Other was an important factor in both hysterias.
- Those affected by both hysterias have been living for decades with extreme stress and experiencing continual fear and outrage.
- The world had changed so radically for both groups of hysterics that they had to take radical steps to feel as if their world hadn’t changed.
- Not everyone living in Medieval Europe was equally affected by the hysteria just as the hysterics surrounding the #COVID19 pandemic and the Big Lie have only affected a significant minority of our own population.
And, as noted then, it took almost four hundred years for the hysteria to fully die down, so we can expect a whole lotta more crazy outta our MAGA faithful before our democracy is saved.
Yeah, that op ed cartoon is certainly spot on. The only improvement could be by mixing in the Wizard of Oz hiding behind a curtain urging the mob on.
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Categories: Politics
The Psy of Life 
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” – Arthur C. Clarke
The key in that statement is “sufficiently advanced”. Any technology or system that the observer does not understand at the “how it actually works” level is sufficiently advanced. That now applies for a majority or people to most of the key devices and systems we now depend upon in our daily lives, including our voting systems. Amazingly, there really are people who have registered to vote and had to provide proof of citizenship and address who are able to believe that huge numbers of undocumented immigrants are able to register and vote. Magic is the only explanation. And voting machines are also magical, which means that the wizards who run them can make them do whatever they want. In the Valley Of The Ignorant And Fearful, the examples abound. Why hasn’t Joe Biden waved his magic wand and lowered prices of everything?
And then we get responses like these:
A plan in Missouri to permanently disenfranchise the cities and suburbs.
An end run around democracy: Red state Republicans hack the system | Salon.com
An effort to hold Biden’s presence on the ballot hostage to an undermining of a pro-choice amendment in Ohio.
Ohio GOP will only let Biden on the ballot if they can restrict abortion
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Howdy Bob!
One of the problems with the low-frequency low-information voter is that the conservative ones, at least, are also less trusting not only of their fellow citizens, but also of authority and institutions. If you don’t institutions, and you don’t understand the technology you’re using, then you are easily convinced by the simplistic conspiracy theories spun around the complex systems we rely upon.
The Valley of the Ignorant and Fearful is a good one.
Huzzah!
Jack
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I was thinking of the two aphorisms about the valley of the blind.
In the valley of the blind, the one eyed man is king.
or
In the valley of the blind the sighted man is mad.
In the story, “The Country Of The Blind” by H.G. Wells, the protagonist finds his way there and expects the first of those to be true, but learns painfully it is the second instead.
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It is certainly not without precedent; Alito referenced the 16th century English jurist Matthew Hale who had women executed for witchcraft in his Dobbs opinion. (while carefully eliding the ‘originalist’ point that abortion was not legally condemned in the 1700’s before ‘the quickening’ or when the fetus was felt to be moving…which is around 15 weeks. So even here he is lying about his beliefs. )
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Howdy Bruce!
When you know you’re right, as so many of the fervent do, everything is justified in order to implement your beliefs. Unfortunately, Alito is one of the more fervent and his wife sounds like she has some emotional regulation issues.
Huzzah!
Jack
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The “she’s a witch” statement is more appropriate than most people will think. Go over to Right Wing Watch and see some of the statements being made by some of his followers and you’ll find that they believe his opposition literally are witches, demon worshippers, are possessed by demons, etc.
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Howdy Grouch!
Thank for the referral to Right Wing Watch, by I will politely decline. My life is distressful enough. I don’t need to see it painted in living bits and bytes across the ether. I will be happy to take your word for it, though.
When I was in uni at the beginning of the 1980’s, there was a cliche of witches and a cliche of demon-wrestlers for Jesus. I think I was more mistified by the demon wrestlers. The extremist Christian whackos have taken over much of the Republican Party just like Goldwater warned us against all those years ago. Unfortunately, it’s going to take something like burning a witch at a stake for Trump to really turn us against MAGA. Otherwise, the NYT and other news organizations are just going to bothsides us for clicks, likes, and shares.
Huzzah!
Jack
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I understand completely why you’d prefer to avoid places like Right wing watch. There are days when it’s hard for me to stomach as well.They delve deep into the crazy that exists out there. It’s run by People for the American Way, BTW, so it isn’t a bunch of radical extremists.
I am also annoyed by this ‘both sides” crap that the media has engaged in. Yes, when it comes to things like political opinions coverage of both sides is necessary. But this isn’t political opinion any more, this is downright lunacy. What the media is doing is magnifying the extremists voice, giving them a national stage to spout their lies. I can’t imagine Walter Cronkite or Huntley & Brinkley back in the 1960s letting them get away with this crap. Wow, that dates myself, doesn’t it?
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We’re so dated, we could be engaged.
Jack
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