And the Mind Grows Dark

 

The antics of the Left used to be great fun, comic gold for us conservatives. But then those antics began to multiply and darken. So now they’re only depressing and I need to cut back, lest my own mind darkens, on my reading of the news, wherever it appears, including my beloved Ricochet.

“Let’s get rid of the police,” the idiot Left screams. “Let’s pay black people for being black,” they declaim. “Let’s get people fired for saying things that we don’t agree with,” they spout. “Let’s break some windows and steal some stuff,” the more acquisitive of the hard Left declares.

What is happening, Ricocheters?

The Left has become malignant rather than silly, hateful rather than inane. The little Nazis seem to be running amok in every city, and it’s putting me in a funk. (I didn’t think I’d ever use the N-word [as in Nazi] to describe a contemporary group, but it just seems damned appropriate these days. I’ll try to restrain myself.)

Bowing to pressure from the little Nazis (whoops, sorry), Lady Antebellum, the country singing group, is changing its name to Lady A. The Left doesn’t like the word “antebellum” and they don’t want anyone to hear it. Yes, it is merely the name for the pre-Civil War South, but when you’re trying to change history to your liking, certain words are verboten. From now on, the period before the Civil War is to be called something more to the taste of the Left, perhaps the Dark Ages or the Age of the Unwoke. Oh, Orwell, you were so prescient.

Nancy Pelosi is into erasing history too. She wants 11 statues in the Capitol building removed, all of whom were associated with the Confederate side of the Civil War. Orwell, are you looking down with a smug grin?

The television show Cops was canceled because it showed cops doing their duty, arresting people and wrestling combative criminals to the ground. I think the Left didn’t like the show because it failed to show cops as thugs, which is the only correct way the Left thinks they should be seen. Hence no more Cops.

On the campus of the University of Oregon, where I graduated long ago, two long-standing statues, The Pioneer and the Pioneer Mother, have been knocked off their pedestals. Marie and I used to walk by the statues in the evening and talk about our own ancestors’ westward journeys. The usual combination of townie lefties and collegiate twits have been protesting, with a bit of vandalism thrown in of course, for a few weeks in Eugene, So a few of this crowd were inspired to overturn the statues. Apparently the pioneers who trekked their way across the continent, tough men and women looking for a better life on the West Coast, are just too upsetting to the little Nazis. (Oh to hell with it.) White people, you know, doing great things, is just too much to bear.

I thought that humanity was better than this, and I don’t like to read about the exploits of the worst of humanity day after day.

Even the sight of Nancy Pelosi, wearing some kind of African cloth, prostrating herself at the Capitol’s Emancipation Hall (and having a hard time getting up) is more depressing than funny these days. I once would have laughed and laughed. Now it’s merely depressing. I’m in a funk and I don’t like it.

At one time, I would have found the six-block thing in Seattle humorous. A little gathering of twits and the deluded, all together in one place, planting little things in a mound of dirt to feed everyone, pretending they’re independent but actually living off the city and lefty donors— all of that was once worth at least a week’s worth of fodder for satire. Now it’s just depressing.

I think the episode that pushed me over the edge was that UCLA professor, a teacher for 39 years, who was suspended because he wouldn’t let black students off from final exams to, oh, protest and stuff. The poor sap forgot to kowtow.

These days, one needs to know how to abase oneself if someone on the left discovers that you used the wrong word in a tweet a few years back. But what these poor saps don’t understand is that kowtowing to the mob never appeases them. It just encourages them.

Back to my thesis. I would rather not have my mind cluttered with the dark deeds of the Left. They just sit up there and fester. So from now on, I’m going to read only two depressing posts a day. And then, as an antidote, I’m going to read stories of good dogs and cute pussycats. More good dogs and fewer human idiots. That’s the ticket.

Life is short, Ricocheters, and I’d rather finish it off with a serene mind. I can’t do that when my mind is darkened daily by reading of humanity’s worst side. I fully understand that some people thrive by contemplating the dark side of humanity. You’ll have to go on without me.

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  1. Old Bathos Member
    Old Bathos
    @OldBathos

    The left has eliminated the middle ground, the place where issues can be discussed, disagreements resolved with mutual respect. They want to force stark choices. They will probably regret that. 

    • #1
  2. KentForrester Coolidge
    KentForrester
    @KentForrester

    Old Bathos (View Comment):

    The left has eliminated the middle ground, the place where issues can be discussed, disagreements resolved with mutual respect. They want to force stark choices. They will probably regret that.

    One hopes so.

    • #2
  3. philo Member
    philo
    @philo

    KentForrester: Life is short, Ricocheters, and I’d rather finish it off with a serene mind.

    It appears you will still be allowed to do that this week. Be sure to tune in next Sunday to see if that is still true.

    • #3
  4. Samuel Block Support
    Samuel Block
    @SamuelBlock

    Or what if we just made dog and cat pictures obligatory for all depressing posts? I’ll vote for that. Maybe it could be secret code for “I found this post a little – or a lotta – depressing.

    • #4
  5. KentForrester Coolidge
    KentForrester
    @KentForrester

    Samuel Block (View Comment):

    Or what if we just made dog and cat pictures obligatory for all depressing posts? I’ll vote for that. Maybe it could be secret code for “I found this post a little – or a lotta – depressing.

    Sam, I probably should have stuck a photo of Bob into my post.

    • #5
  6. Bob Thompson Member
    Bob Thompson
    @BobThompson

    I wonder if there is a strategy being followed by Democrat controlled states to allow this unrestrained behavior and taking no action to stop at the state and local level in order entice President Trump into federal action. This will then set a modern precedent for federal action to be used if and when we have the next Democrat-Socialist in the White House.

    • #6
  7. philo Member
    philo
    @philo

    Bob Thompson (View Comment):

    I wonder if there is a strategy being followed by Democrat controlled states to allow this unrestrained behavior and taking no action to stop at the state and local level in order entice President Trump into federal action. This will then set a modern precedent for federal action to be used if and when we have the next Democrat-Socialist in the White House.

    See Instapundit:

    It seems the play among some Democrat governors and mayors was to refuse to call in the National Guard while also making their police departments stand down and give the rioters “space to destroy,” which would cause the situation to become so bad that Trump would be forced to act.

    And the act they anticipated the president to take was to seize in the U.S. military in to restore order. This would have then allowed them to play their “Trump the Dictator” narrative all the way to the election.

    But Trump didn’t do what they expected.

    • #7
  8. Lockdowns are Precious Inactive
    Lockdowns are Precious
    @Pseudodionysius

    I saw minds going dark and came running.

    • #8
  9. Full Size Tabby Member
    Full Size Tabby
    @FullSizeTabby

    KentForrester: The Left has become malignant rather than silly, hateful rather than inane.

    The Left has always been hateful. Hate is at the core of all Leftist philosophies. But that devoted hateful Left was previously small enough that the effects of its hate were somewhat limited, and we could laugh at it.

    • #9
  10. PHCheese Inactive
    PHCheese
    @PHCheese

    KentForrester (View Comment):

    Samuel Block (View Comment):

    Or what if we just made dog and cat pictures obligatory for all depressing posts? I’ll vote for that. Maybe it could be secret code for “I found this post a little – or a lotta – depressing.

    Sam, I probably should have stuck a photo of Bob into my post.

    Here is one of Jack

    • #10
  11. KentForrester Coolidge
    KentForrester
    @KentForrester

    PHCheese (View Comment):

    KentForrester (View Comment):

    Samuel Block (View Comment):

    Or what if we just made dog and cat pictures obligatory for all depressing posts? I’ll vote for that. Maybe it could be secret code for “I found this post a little – or a lotta – depressing.

    Sam, I probably should have stuck a photo of Bob into my post.

    Here is one of Jack

    Mr. Cheese, now that’s what I call one cute dog, though he seems to tilt when he sits.

    • #11
  12. Goldwaterwoman Thatcher
    Goldwaterwoman
    @goldwaterwoman

    KentForrester: Life is short, Ricocheters, and I’d rather finish it off with a serene mind. I can’t do that when my mind is darkened daily by reading of humanity’s worst side. I fully understand that some people thrive by contemplating the dark side of humanity. You’ll have to go on without me. 

    I know how you feel as it seems everywhere we look these days only finds some new sad tale of man’s inhumanity to man, either through the confusion handed down by various scientists over Covid-19 or violence in the streets and unnecessary deaths.  Last night I started watching Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles on Amazon Prime when, about halfway through, the misery of it all became too much. Who needs to seek more gloom when it’s all about us? I turned it off and searched for something light and funny.

    • #12
  13. Suspira Member
    Suspira
    @Suspira

    KentForrester: Lady Antebellum, the country singing group, is changing its name to Lady A

    They could have just changed the name to Lady Antibellum.

    • #13
  14. Flicker Coolidge
    Flicker
    @Flicker

    Suspira (View Comment):

    KentForrester: Lady Antebellum, the country singing group, is changing its name to Lady A

    They could have just changed the name to Lady Antibellum.

    Or Antibel for short.

    • #14
  15. PHCheese Inactive
    PHCheese
    @PHCheese

    KentForrester (View Comment):

    PHCheese (View Comment):

    KentForrester (View Comment):

    Samuel Block (View Comment):

    Or what if we just made dog and cat pictures obligatory for all depressing posts? I’ll vote for that. Maybe it could be secret code for “I found this post a little – or a lotta – depressing.

    Sam, I probably should have stuck a photo of Bob into my post.

    Here is one of Jack

    Mr. Cheese, now that’s what I call one cute dog, though he seems to tilt when he sits.

    Yes he is a young liberal, leans to left but I’m working on him.

    • #15
  16. Front Seat Cat Member
    Front Seat Cat
    @FrontSeatCat

    Kent – you forgot to mention no more Elmer Fudd hoisting a rifle or a hatchet (not kidding!)……..  Many are of the same state of mind.  My sister said the same, I feel the same. I watch five minutes of TV news in the AM, scan headlines, find a few to read and turn it off. I will say this. Your talent, dog photos, history lessons and laughter are needed. The culture is ignorant of history. 

    https://stmichaelnyc.org/fr-rutlers-column-1

    We all see it and know the truth – 

    • #16
  17. KentForrester Coolidge
    KentForrester
    @KentForrester

    Front Seat Cat (View Comment):

    Kent – you forgot to mention no more Elmer Fudd hoisting a rifle or a hatchet (not kidding!)…….. Many are of the same state of mind. My sister said the same, I feel the same. I watch five minutes of TV news in the AM, scan headlines, find a few to read and turn it off. I will say this. Your talent, dog photos, history lessons and laughter are needed. The culture is ignorant of history.

    https://stmichaelnyc.org/fr-rutlers-column-1

    We all see it and know the truth –

    Cat, you’re too kind.  That’s an interesting piece you directed us to.  I saw that note about Elmer Fudd.  What a world!

    • #17
  18. Brian Watt Inactive
    Brian Watt
    @BrianWatt

    “Now, of course, Björnstrand feels that there’s really almost no hope, and that we’re probably going back to a very savage, lawless, terrifying period. Findhorn people see it a little differently. They’re feeling that there’ll be these pockets of light springing up in different parts of the world, and that these will be, in a way, invisible planets on this planet, and that as we, or the world, grow colder, we can take invisible space journeys to these different planets, refuel for what it is we need to do on the planet itself, and come back. And it’s their feeling that there have to be centers now where people can come and reconstruct a new future for the world.

    And when I was talking to, uh, Gustav Björnstrand, he was saying that, actually, these centers are growing up everywhere now. And that what they’re trying to do, which is what Findhorn was trying to do, and, in a way, what I was trying to do. I mean, these things can’t be given names, but in a way, these are all attempts at creating a new kind of school or a new kind of monastery. And Björnstrand talks about the concept of “reserves”, islands of safety where history can be remembered and the human being can continue to function in order to maintain the species through a dark age. In other words, we’re talking about an underground, which did exist in a different way during the Dark Ages among the mystical orders of the church. And the purpose of this underground is to find out how to preserve the light, life, the culture, how to keep things living.” 

    Andre Gregory from the film, My Dinner with Andre.

     

    • #18
  19. ShaunaHunt Inactive
    ShaunaHunt
    @ShaunaHunt

    Bob would probably eat Midnight, but I’m posting a picture anyway. Because we need bunnies to brighten things, too.

    • #19
  20. ShaunaHunt Inactive
    ShaunaHunt
    @ShaunaHunt

    • #20
  21. RushBabe49 Thatcher
    RushBabe49
    @RushBabe49

    Glad to contribute a picture of the owner of our household.

    • #21
  22. Brian Watt Inactive
    Brian Watt
    @BrianWatt

    We are watching ignoramuses destroy our history and our culture. British activist “never met” Winston Churchill. There aren’t enough facepalms in the world for morons like this.

    • #22
  23. KentForrester Coolidge
    KentForrester
    @KentForrester

    RushBabe49 (View Comment):

    Glad to contribute a picture of the owner of our household.

    RushBabe, your cat looks exactly like our late cat Ebbie.

    • #23
  24. KentForrester Coolidge
    KentForrester
    @KentForrester

    Brian Watt (View Comment):

    We are watching ignoramuses destroy our history and our culture. British activist “never met” Winston Churchill. There aren’t enough facepalms in the world for morons like this.

    Wow.  That’s what I call uninformed.  BTW, that’s a cute avatar.  Is that your dog with the mask?

    • #24
  25. KentForrester Coolidge
    KentForrester
    @KentForrester

    ShaunaHunt (View Comment):

    Bob would probably eat Midnight, but I’m posting a picture anyway. Because we need bunnies to brighten things, too.

    Shauna, Bob is friends to all.  BTW, the photo is so dark that I can’t quite make out your bunny.  You’re right, though.  Bunnies are so cute they brighten up any room. 

    • #25
  26. Brian Watt Inactive
    Brian Watt
    @BrianWatt

    KentForrester (View Comment):

    Brian Watt (View Comment):

    We are watching ignoramuses destroy our history and our culture. British activist “never met” Winston Churchill. There aren’t enough facepalms in the world for morons like this.

    Wow. That’s what I call uninformed. BTW, that’s a cute avatar. Is that your dog with the mask?

    My dear departed Golden. It’s covering her muddy snout after she dug a hole in the backyard to bury a bone. 

    • #26
  27. ShaunaHunt Inactive
    ShaunaHunt
    @ShaunaHunt

    KentForrester (View Comment):

    ShaunaHunt (View Comment):

    Bob would probably eat Midnight, but I’m posting a picture anyway. Because we need bunnies to brighten things, too.

    Shauna, Bob is friends to all. BTW, the photo is so dark that I can’t quite make out your bunny. You’re right, though. Bunnies are so cute they brighten up any room.

    • #27
  28. RushBabe49 Thatcher
    RushBabe49
    @RushBabe49

    Uh-oh, both the bunny and the kitty are black!  Black Lives Matter!

    • #28
  29. Flicker Coolidge
    Flicker
    @Flicker

    RushBabe49 (View Comment):

    Uh-oh, both the bunny and the kitty are black! Black Lives Matter!

    Black Mammals Matter!

    • #29
  30. Samuel Block Support
    Samuel Block
    @SamuelBlock

    RushBabe49 (View Comment):

    Uh-oh, both the bunny and the kitty are black! Black Lives Matter!

    My girl couldn’t agree more.

    • #30
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