The Age of Bullshit

The Age of Bullshit

It’s hard to find truth in this world, my world, this shithole of conformity that squeezes every molecule of truth out of everything.  This colossal pile of shit is most evident in government, where devious lawyers convene to double talk their way into riches.  Information, which is supposedly the domain of the news, is sandwiched between one useless product after another, or more pernicious, the constant stream of bullshit we are bombarded by prevaricators, whores if you will of those unscrupulous bastards who will shit on the environment and call it fertilizer.   While there are too many mention, the drug pushers, not the honest dealers who trade in illegal substances but the bastards who with chemists find compounds to address the many and varied afflictions befalling humans, are perhaps the worst for they offer salvation with a cautionary provision, like curing an itch and a rash with a drug that may cause one to lapse into a coma.  Yet, in the grand scheme of things they at least pass the litmus test of possessing some redeeming value.  But the oil companies are perhaps the greatest collection of lying bullshitting bastards that the world has ever experienced.    One might add all energy companies both public and private, coal as well gas.  Energy people are like mold spores, if left untreated they sprout everywhere and grow and grow.  Take the latest rendition of bullshit coming from BP.  They have the audacity to get on television with their whores telling us, the general public, how great the gulf coast is doing.  The message in the message is simply, “Shit, we dumped gazillion gallons of crude in the coast but everything is ok.  Everything is just fine.”  Bullshit! 

How about the pipe line assholes?  They got a major spill, but they want to tell us that future pipelines will be safe.  Huh?  Or the coal guys claiming there is clean burning carbon?  It is fucking fantasy world of misbegotten thieves telling us bullshit.  Of course, our corporate news, in an effort to be balanced (right?), present opposing views as if they are fucking ostriches, head in the sand, or perhaps more accurately described as head up their asses, letting lying bastards share the same forum as meaningful watchdogs.  Worse, they sell air time to bastards who can hire attractive authoritative women to tell us how much they are doing for us.  It is a game that is designed for the limited mind, and unfortunately too many of us fall into this category.  Picture the gun totting idiot who believes he needs an arsenal to protect his home when in fact he is so disagreeable even his family doesn’t want to visit.  Of course, let’s not forget the NRA and its minions of cave men declaring the sanctity of the 2^nd amendment while blood flows from the halls of an elementary school and its chief asshole declares the way to solve this problem is to arm the senile and send them off to school, cataracts notwithstanding, to shoot and any interloper even the principal heading to the men’s room with an overactive prostrate.  And the news stations cover this jerk as if it is a legitimate story rather than sending someone to go to the press conference and nail his ass or at least break out in hysterical laughter at his absurd statements.  Of course, bullshitters, when pushed, just walk away or continue mouthing talking points like some toy doll with a string.  It is unbelievable how must crap is packaged and force fed either through commercials or through supposedly legitimate news outlets. 

               The talking heads are the worse sitting there in their Saville row suits reading the teleprompter, diction and inflection perfect, all prim and proper with not a scintilla of forthrightness, pretty people so confident so pristine in their absolute absurd role as purveyor of bullshit.  Then we need to shift our attention to the morning shows that have someone how discovered that if they babble like idiots, not to denigrate people of limited intelligence for they possess for more sincerity and integrity than these high paid clowns,  and chuckle like they are deranged to seem on common ground with the audience who will hopefully tune in and the station can reap its rewards.  On and on they go, I even heard one to declare that someone had an angel looking out for them.  Here we are in the 21^st century and some tv personality is promoting out right silliness.  People can believe angels, many do, but shouldn’t the news be fact based and made to simply convey what is real or as real as we can determine.  But alas the human species has long ago relied on mysticism to explain phenomenon that our limited capacity could not grasp.  Angels, fairies, and the host of other products of human imaginations linger in consciousness for reality still needs to be reduced to our limited capacity.

               Move on, to the opinion shows with their collection laughing hyenas, again not to denigrate a species that has made a remarkable work of survival, pontificating on any subject with thesis as vapid as their insincerity.  How they dissect positions with such acuity as to make one wonder how in the hell can anyone continue to exhaust a subject that really can be reduced to a single word, bullshit.  But this is the self-promoting, self-perpetuating wing of the news division.  The sole design of this unique and fatuous production is to reinforce polarity and confirm in the minds of those troglodytes (not to disparage those early cave dwellers who were quite remarkable in the evolutionary chain) who stand about bleating and explaining stuff that most of us have long ago eliminated from our thinking lives.  My personal favorites are the street preacher grasping with diction and sophistication to explain things in a fashion that a preschool child would find simplistic and the strident lesbian who feels compels to emote disdain as if she is the modern day Sphinx though I could solve her riddle, Shut the fuck up!  My missive will go unheeded though these pontificators will go on and on till someone shuts them off.

               In an aside, I should cast a disgusting glance at the current crop of Neanderthals (not to demean another in the human evolutionary cycle that made great strides in survival) who parade as conservatives when they are little more than know nothing bigots who disguise their prejudice behind their bogus claims of morality and patriotism.  The ones who are really grating possess a British accent and claim absolute superiority in all areas of public policy except in matters where their devious and criminal mogul tells them to shut up.  Then like a scared kitten who hears a loud boom, they hide. 

               This is the state of information in the age of bullshit.  Nothing is real; everything is the product of devious executives who sell more and more of shit we just don’t need and in some cases is detrimental to our well-being, even our survival.  These greedy bastards have slinked their way into the high offices of decision making where like “Jabba the Hutt” they preside over our information network regurgitating their own evil and nasty perspective (though they don’t even possess a scintilla of whatever it means to be real and true) and because they are so hideous as human beings they secure the services of ready-made personalities who like whores (not to demean those in that age old honorable profession who for whatever reason find themselves servicing the base needs of the human male and by the way that is another topic: the exploitation of women) don make-up and fancy apparel and read and follow orders and fill the quiet hours of desperation with senseless babble designed to get us, the viewers, to the next commercial message.  This world where the pursuit of truth has been abandoned in hysteria and hype, this world where sensationalism has replaced true reporting, this world where the tried and true is little more than the proven rating winner, this world where the masses are perceived and treated as mindless consumers, this world where the pollsters have dissected the human consciousness and feed the results to this grotesque collection of fools who confirmed Menken’s observation of many years ago, “No one in this world . . . has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people.  Nor has anyone every lost public office thereby.”

Papal Nonsense

The New Pope and Celebrity Junkies

The white smoke went up, the new pope stepped out on the balcony, and everybody gushed with praise.  The news personalities (they aren’t really reporters) began to babble away.  “He is a simple man.”  “Look a wooden cross.”  Then the spin masters of the church, the bishops and Vatican experts, spoke their scripts about how holy the new pontiff was offering insight into his humility and by inference the goodness of the church and all that jazz.  Then the pageantry followed that display of opulence that people love, colorful displays of excess, processions of medieval soldiers and all that goes along with an anachronism.  The faithful, who have been duped ever sense the Romans stole the church from the true Christians, flail about like koi in a too small pond, looking to grab whatever morsel falls from high.  For those who think this characterization is too cynical, too critical, consider this.

We have a church that ministers to millions in this 21^st century and yet its practices remain stuck in some time warp.  While it is progress to note that the practices of the Inquisition have long past, it must be remember these “holy men” were the dispensers of torture that only the sickest of our species still practice.  Today, the Catholic Church is an institution that enslaves its most devoted with cannon “laws” that are outdated and serve little but to make delusional old men think they are promoting the word of god. 

That said, let’s start with the news personalities who are all flushed with excitement over the election of the new pope though behind the scenes some executive is eyeballing the ratings dictating what shows up on the screen all the while selling space to those who would bloat us with useless food products or medicines to rid of us acne or keep men erect.  See how they solicit comments from the clergy and collect all that “expert” opinion, background if you will, that supposedly put things in “context.”  As they extol these “holy” men before us they never ask the questions that need to be asked and more importantly answered by those who claim authority in the church?  Let’s start with pedophiles.  When are those in authority in the church going to work with law enforcement to expose and bring to justice the creeps who have been masquerading as spiritual leaders when they are nothing but scum?  Is this too harsh of a question on this solemn of all occasions?  If not now when?    And the next question might be, how about the nuns?  When is the church going to stop enslaving women and chastising them for doing charitable work?  The last pope was highly critical of nuns taking an active role in charity work, real charity work, not that other stuff which was another safe haven for creeps.  While we are on the subject of women, what is the deal with this cannon law that only men can be priests?  Where did this law come from?  It certainly didn’t come from Jesus because two women in particular were very close to him, some say even closer than distorted apostolic history would have it.  Then there is this celibacy stuff.  OK, I can deal with religious types of all persuasion adhering to this sacrifice, but come on now.  History and practice have shown that it isn’t too big of deal, just look at other Christian religions, they seem to do OK with married clergy.  Certainly, other issues, like gay rights and birth control are matters that a 21^st century church should not only tolerate but embrace.

Sure, we have a new pope, but one has to wonder if anything will come from an institution so stuck in the arcane practices of a by-gone era.  Most likely this bastion of faith will continue on its trajectory.  If so, what is the big deal with this nonevent?  It seems to be but another empty pageantry signifying nothing.  So let the bishops gush, let the news personality fawn, let the faithful swooned, but me I want to see if any real change comes out of this hullaballoo. 

To my mind, I think quite frankly this particular sect of Christianity needs to get on with the business of Christian principles and I am not talking about what born again tv talking money grabbers refer to.  I am talking about charity and love and forgiveness.  I am thinking that if Jesus were around, he would be as pissed as when he went into the temple and saw all the money changers.  You will recall he drove those supposed priests out of the temple.