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Death by a Thousand Cuts
Are you familiar with the phrase used in the title? It comes from an ancient Chinese method used against criminals called Lingchi. It describes a kind of torture, actions that slowly and painfully lead eventually to the death of the victim.
Over the last several months, as I study the suffering that has been spreading across this country, I live in a personal state that shifts from bewilderment to dismay. There seems to be no end to the misery that has been inflicted on U.S. citizens, and to bring sanity to my perspective, I decided to tally several of the destructive policy actions taken by Biden’s administration and also note how their inaction has been just as damaging.
The despair of the American people has reached a new low, and there’s no sign of recovery in the near future. The actions (or inaction, as the case may be) of the Biden Administration demonstrate a widespread indifference to the impact of their actions on the populace. I think many of us choose to deal with the situations by looking at them as they occur, one instance at a time. I think the way the media broadcasts current events is designed to make sure that at no given time are we bombarded with an onslaught of bad news. That strategy is not new, but due to the multitude of attacks on our way of life, we are not inured to the growing pain. I don’t intend to increase the pain of our citizens by my observations, but if we are going to face the state of the country and seemingly endless suffering, it makes sense to take a good, hard look at the comprehensive effects on our lives.
It’s difficult to separate some of the devastating impacts because they are interrelated. But here is one way to look at the ongoing state of affairs:
Crime—on our streets, gun deaths (thus, gun control continues to raise its ugly head); border crime with the cartels and gangs; deaths from fentanyl; lawless prosecutors who release criminals onto the streets; raiding stores with little to no penalties . . .
Censorship—social media attacks; refusal to broadcast COVID and vaccine information; refusal to allow conservative ideas; ignoring most recent data on wearing masks; ramping up fear every time there is a rise in the cases; refusal to publicize reduced deaths and hospitalizations; ignoring the science. . .
Education—corrupting U.S. history at all levels; dumbing down student requirements for learning; still promoting Critical Race Theory; tarring parents of students as terrorists; demands of teachers’ unions; decisions of unions that have harmed students psychologically, physically, and educationally; demanding vaccines and masks for students (even though children are barely affected by COVID) . . .
Employment—small businesses’ difficulties in having a steady workforce; government paying people to stay home; effects of inflation on supplies, salaries, and the customer base . . .
Inflation—everything costs more—food, energy, housing, and costs continue to rise . . .
Damage to social mores—religion continues to be condemned and removed from everyday life; socialism and Marxist ideas are actively promoted; traditions are ridiculed; gender issues, including transgender issues, are corrupting our children. . .
Destruction of energy sources—shutting down pipelines; encouraging the opening of refineries with no guarantees for maintaining start-ups; regulations; heating prices escalating; brown-out occurrences; shortages of different types of energy sources . . .
* * * *
I could list several more issues; feel free to add your own. When we look at this small list, though, we can see that there is no aspect of our lives that is not touched. All the areas of our lives that provide us sustenance and comfort—food, shelter, safety and security, learning, religion—have been damaged or limited. Slowly but surely, our lives are being altered by events that are no longer in our control.
The true tragedy is that there are no indications that the Biden Administration is sympathetic to the wounds they are inflicting on our lives. We are essentially told that these outcomes will lead to better lives, a better planet, a safer environment. We will in some unpredictable future appreciate the sacrifices we are making.
Even though we are dying the death of a thousand cuts.
You may also have noticed the irony that the torture method is Chinese and is used against criminals.
Published in Culture
Did you notice the absence of “climate change” on my list? Oh, and that it requires emergency action, even though the heat occurring globally was even greater less than 15 years ago?
Afraid it’s all true. See my related post The Great Liquidation, also Starvation and Centralization.
The possibly-hopeful sign is that these malign policies have gone so far that people can actually personally experience their bad outcomes. As the proverb goes, “he who will not listen will have to feel.”
It is impossible to reconcile logically, but to the people currently running our government, all of these problems seem to be features and not bugs. Remembering that they have accomplished all of this destruction in about 11/2 years after inheriting a country that, although had suffered a body blow from COVID, was in fundamentally excellent shape to recover and move forward.
It is amazing how much damage they were able to do in so short a time! I don’t think the Right expected that they could be so successful, so quickly. We should have seen at least some of this coming, cdor!
Excellent posts, both, David. The disaster in Sri Lanka is especially a travesty; they could ill afford what has happened to them, although they did allow themselves to be taken in. Let’s hope other countries like theirs are not victimized so easily.
I laughed out loud at this, thinking, “Good luck Susan! Ha!”.
You fell short of this impossible goal, of course. But that’s a pretty good summary.
You’re right – it’s amazing how effective Biden has been. He’s the transformational historical figure that Obama wanted to be.
A very good metaphor, Susan. The frog in a pan of heating water also works, I think.
I know! I saw that on one of my edits and I said, “Sheesh, what am I doing?!” But it was a start, and the big part is the suffering of the country, which you realized. Maybe I’ll go back and edit that sentence . . . ;-)
Don’t underestimate the number of people who will think the fix is to elect more Democrats.
Like the alcoholic, the lost citizens must reach rock bottom and admit they have a problem before they will attempt any reform.
I’ve already seen the phrase “Tyranny of the Minority”. Those nasty repubs have blocked his efforts with the help of one or two Democrat traitors. Gotta have that filibuster-proof majority.
I wouldn’t doubt it, kedavis. Delusions abound, even within the suffering. I heard one Dem on TV last night who said you can’t blame Biden for everything . . .
Diversity and Inclusion: Appointments made and promoted by Biden normalize the discriminatory idea that merit is secondary to protected status. See, for example, Kamala Harris, Mayor Pete, Karine Jean-Pierre, and Justice Jackson-Brown. I could go on.
And as I’ve mentioned before, some people – including some of my relatives, and past neighbors when I lived in Arizona – will tell you with complete seriousness that the booming economy and jobs etc during the Trump years were actually “leftover Obama” and the current problems are really “leftover Trump.”
You could indeed! And their incompetence at least partly explains the disastrous outcomes. But only partly. . .
Not sure where you’re going with that. Is that assuming that, for example, to get a doubling of gasoline prices somehow requires cutting the supply by 50%? Because that’s sure not true. And even if it were, and even if oil production is down by “only” 20% or whatever, then add in cancelling the Keystone Pipeline, AND shutting down many power plants, etc, it doesn’t take much to get to an “aggregate” 50% or more.
I wasn’t referring to specific numbers or the economy only in regard to Hoyacon’s comment. Most of the Dept. heads are not qualified for their jobs for starters. They wouldn’t know how to push back on bad policy; they’re just trying to be obedient to the policy makers.
And the policy makers – most of them, anyway – are dunces too.
Yes. There seems to be no escape. We can only hope that we can cause them all grief with the November elections.
Oil prices are set in the commodity market, which is a futures market and is based on projections as to supply and demand in the future. When Biden puts out his typical “I’m the toughest dude in the room” statement that he’s going to end fossil fuel use and to do so he ends pipelines and land and sea leases immediately, the markets respond, also immediately, and prices begin rising…immediately.
As they did right after election day. Some people – I won’t mention names, but one of their initials were Blue Yeti – seemed to claim that rising gas/oil/etc prices weren’t really Biden’s fault since they were already rising when he took office. Yes, but they STARTED to rise right after ELECTION DAY.
You’re right Susan and it’s pretty d*mn depressing. However, I’m taking a hard look at what Republicans are saying and it doesn’t make me feel much better.
Each time I hear Kevin McCarthy, he seems to be John Boehner without the tan. It’s always something along the lines of “When we regain power, I’m going to call for committees to investigate this, blah, blah, blah.”
I’m just not hearing much in the way of concrete plans on what they’re going to do. Of course, even if they regain control of both houses, Biden will stop any meaningful proposals but my point is, I’m not hearing many meaningful proposals; only more of the same.
We hear every day about the coming Red Wave but unless the Republicans can come up with something better than, “Biden is a jerk”, I believe we’re just going to be on the receiving end of more cuts.
I’m with you, CA. McCarthy has never impressed me; I have the same reaction as you do. If we take both houses, and nothing consequential happens, I am going to have a major hissy fit. And I must say that I’m not thrilled about the idea of Republicans taking a lot of time on investigations, either. How about getting some real work done??!!
Taxes are done that way too . . .
I dunno, if they can put some prominent Dims behind bars where they belong, that sounds like important work.
Tough to see how that’s going to happen with the Garland DOJ in power…
Absolutely impossible.
Remember a couple months ago when Rick Scott put forth a set of goals and The Turtle immediately undercut him? McConnell refused to say anything about what the GOPe would do other than mentioning that disgusting word “bipartisan”. I have no use for a party that has such people in leadership positions.
For a while, Scott kept running ads on his proposal. I haven’t seen them lately.
Wonder what told him to stop, polls or McConnell.