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2016 and the River of Slime
Ghostbusters 2 was a lousy movie but watching the dumpster fire that is the 2016 primaries, I can’t stop thinking of that subterranean river of pink slime.
EGON: Negative human emotions are materializing in the form of a viscous, psychoreactive plasm with explosive supernormal potential.
MAYOR: Does anybody speak English here?
WINSTON: Yeah. Your Honor, see, what we’re trying to tell you is like, all the bad feelings, all the hate, the anger and vibes of this city is turning into the sludge! Now, I didn’t believe it at first either, but we just went for a swim in it and we ended up almost killing each other! …
MAYOR: What am I supposed to do? Go on television and tell ten million people they have to be nice to each other? Being miserable and treating other people like dirt is every New Yorker’s God-given right.
Trump is the consummate angry New Yorker. His supporters feed off his anger, and his already miserable opponents feed off their anger. Protestors call him Hitler and shut down his rallies while flipping middle fingers to the crowd. Attendees shout racial epithets and beat them up. His campaign manager manhandles reporters and other attendees, while violent detractors scuffle outside.
Can you believe those liberal [expletives] blocked a highway? We need to fight back!
Can you believe those fascist [expletives] are sucker-punching protestors? We need to fight back even harder!
Donald Trump presides over the conflagration, adding some lighter fluid here, tossing in some dry tinder there, stoking the fire every chance he gets. He must smile when he sees that political social media has devolved into nearly everyone attacking everyone else. (Last week, I crawled out of the slime flowing through Facebook and Twitter; I returned today to see it has only gotten worse.)
Many Trump fans have behaved horribly — as have many Trump haters. But instead of de-escalating, people on every side are nursing their petty grievances and using them as an excuse to be even nastier to their opponents. Each new offense justifies a harsher response. And now that minor political violence has become commonplace, expect it to get worse as each side raises the stakes. Trump has already threatened riots if he doesn’t get his way in Cleveland; It’s hard not to expect riots from some group if he does get his way.
There were a few candidates who tried to appeal to the better angels of our nature. They were summarily tossed into that rising river of slime. The only energy that matters in 2016 seems to be the negative kind. Donald Trump, whether you support him or oppose him, is at the center of it all, fueling the hate half of the time and feeding off of it the other half. He seems to bring out the worst in all of us. Watching cable news and social media, we seem to enjoy it.
A chicken-or-the-egg question for the Ricochetti: Is Trump responsible for the river of slime, is he just exploiting the anger that already exists, or is it a little of both?
Published in General
This election just needs a little mood music:
Trump is playing the game on the table.
Until the democrats suffer consequences for being basically a fat and lazy version of ISIS this doesn’t get better.
Being disruptive has to hurt.
I hate you for saying it was a lousy movie. Take it back. Take it back right now or eat dirt!
Damn it Jon,
We’re not finished yet!
Regards,
Jim
It’s a broad topic, but just to focus on one aspect: These left-wing tactics long predate Trump’s campaign. It’s a little rich to blame him for it. The fact that he’s pointing it out and expecting something to be done about it hardly makes him responsible for what happened in Chicago, say.
It’s pretty shocking to read George Will and Bernie Sanders with the exact same take on it: it’s all Trump’s fault.
There’s a major blame-the-victims dynamic going on here, from left, where you expect it, and right, where I wouldn’t.
So a major political group shuts down the leading Republican Presidential candidate, and Republicans blame the Republican?
They’re not going to stop with Trump, you know.
“Mr. Trump and the Republican leaders who support him and his hate-filled rhetoric should be on notice after tonight’s events. … To all of those who took to the streets of Chicago, we say thank you for standing up and saying enough is enough. To Donald Trump, and the GOP, we say, welcome to the general election.”
Once this election is over I would love a nickel for every journalist’s mea culpa as they gain a conscience and apologize for their ratings inspired coverage.
You’ll get almost enough for a chiclet.
You are dead to me Gabriel.
…………………………
Wha-a-a?? Son of Spengler was in a movie?!?
I don’t think the “2” in Ghostbusters 2 refers to the sequence so much as the extra 2 inches of nerd ‘fro.
Ah, the 80s. Days of Buster Poindexter and his influence on hair.
Both. For one thing Black Lives Matter did not cause Trump to paraliptically threaten riots if the RNC doesn’t change the rules to make it easier for him to win.
And then there’s the simple fact that we’re mysteriously not seeing sudden outbreaks of violence at Cruz rallies. And you can’t tell me that it’s because Black Lives Matter is treating Cruz with kid gloves.
I just checked Google, and I can’t find any evidence that they’ve targeting Cruz rallies at all. All I can find is Cruz blaming Trump for what happened in Chicago.
They’re targeting the front-runner. Don’t worry, they’ll get to Cruz if he becomes the front runner, just like they went after W.
I just watched the movie again the other night, right after the original. It’s slack. Has its moments, but it’s painfully aware it’s not the first one and can’t recapture the newness. I’m no fan of manic sequels that up the decibels to make you think you’re having exciting fun (See also, BTTF #2) but they really could have sped it up a bit.
At least BTTF #2 has President Donald Trump.
LOL. That’s too funny.
Didn’t you basically already blame him in the first paragraph? Seems kind of strange to go “It’s his fault”, and then end it with “But is it his fault?”
Me, I think you’re stretching. Trump didn’t cause anything. No one is feeding off of him. Trump is the product that the GOP made inevitable when they created a void. He, being a marketing guy, saw an unserved market and jumped in. You don’t have to believe that “Trump is angry, too”, but if you can’t see that people were already angry before he jumped in, then you’re gonna miss the most important lessons of this election season: pay attention to your supporters, do what they sent you to do, and take care of business, or those supporters will get fed up and fire your ***. And then they’ll get someone very different from you to do the job.
Well, this is my first sighting of Trump as victim. Wow.
Jon, let us make a list of the people who are allowed to be angry:
Blacks, Hispanics, Illegal Immigrants, Students, Women, LGTB(whatever other initials on this one), Asians, Palestinians, Muslims, anyone from another country than the US, Gaia, polar bears, Democrats, Progressives and Tesla drivers. Also Jews who hate Israel.
Folks who are a problem if they are angry:
Donald Trump and white males. And all the other Jews.
Just making sure who is the river of slime.
Everyone is angry. Everyone is allowed to be angry. But at some point, you have to ask what it accomplishes. Stoking grievance and victimization is hardly praiseworthy. That’s one of the most odious things about progressivism and identity politics.
If people want to wallow in victimhood, fine. But it only makes them miserable.
I watched the first Ghostbusters a couple of months back and was amazed how badly Murray phoned in his whole performance. By the time the sequel rolled around, it was like he held the audience in contempt.
I do not see wallowing, I see voters using the franchise to address issues.
What do you see?
Sounds like we have some problems to take out on the chessboard. After Rubio defeats Cruz thereon, should I offer such a challenge to Trump supporters, will any Trump supporters accept?