That Small Matter of Opinion And Fact

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Two Supreme Court rulings yesterday added more fuel to my conviction that the priorities of this nation remain seriously out of order.  It seems religious zealots hold inordinate sway in our national discourse.  They certainly infuse the ongoing discourses regarding climate change, gun violence and reproductive rights with an element of reactivity and paranoia.  I fundamentally believe in the value of the principle of the separation of church and state.  Unfortunately there are plenty of Americans who believe installing a theocracy would somehow be a 'step up' from our current already dysfunctional system.  Many of them are blind to the parallels between the distorted version of Islam that would deprive girls of a simple education and their own version of Christianity that they believe allows them to treat women like chattel.  Is it 2014 or 1514?

Americans do not seem capable of listening to one another any more.  Whatever capacity we once possessed to engage in civil discourse appears to have been replaced by an acrimonious environment in which the 'culture wars' rage unabated and people hang out in their own political camps.  I read an article this past weekend that underscores the apparent crystallization of this 'new normal'.  It seems deep denial is now the new normal.  The article in question can be found here.

The Iraq War has been a farce for many years.  I still recall seeing the headline in the San Francisco Chronicle in March, 2003 when the war began.  I almost laughed at the headline.  It read "War With Iraq".  I found it amusing only because the headline seemed to imply that Iraq was a worthy and formidable foe.  And although Saddam Hussein was rightly called a dictator what the United States unleashed before and after the declaration of 'Mission Accomplished' was enough to make any dictator who enjoys meting out a little bit of torture bow in respect.  Whether it was the disastrous suffering witnessed in places like Fallujah or the fact that tensions have again erupted very recently it seems Iraq will be a place of chaos and carnage for a while to come.  Dick "the unquenchable dick" Cheney's prediction that the United States would be viewed as welcome liberators did not come to pass.  But then again Dick seems to live in a world where reality can intrude about as easily as it can a padded room for the criminally insane.  Here is another article that examines the perspective of Minnesota veterans as Iraq has collapsed back into chaos.  The suffering and death of American military forces seems to have been for naught.

Yesterday I also happened to come across a New York Times article about the security contractor Blackwater.  And I was not surprised to discover just how corrupt the operations of this company have been.  For those who don't like to click...here is the juicy heart of that article:

After returning to Washington, the chief investigator wrote a scathing report to State Department officials documenting misconduct by Blackwater employees and warning that lax oversight of the company, which had a contract worth more than $1 billion to protect American diplomats, had created “an environment full of liability and negligence.”

Ah yes, negligence and corruption...these are the things that pollute the fabric of American society.  I wonder where this nation is ultimately going.  I sense the populace of this nation will only realize much later in hindsight just how extremely bizarre our nation has become.  We actually had one of the nation's two major political parties attempt to shut down federal government operations last autumn and then use this partial shutdown as a form of blackmail to force the repeal of the Affordable Care Act.  Yes indeed, the healthcare needs of frequently marginalized populations (such as the elderly, those with preexisting conditions and people of color) are so worthy of contempt that elected officials will take punitive actions to realize their own short-sighted goals even if these people's basic human needs must be sacrificed in the process.  How noble!

What I especially liked about the first article I referenced is how it zeroes in on the bizarre place America has found itself in today.  A decade of political polarization has caused our national discourse to devolve to the point where we stand out as really the only highly developed and economically powerful nation to still be forced to re-debate issues like the contribution of humanity to climate change.  Unequal weight is given to the feelings of religious zealots and the rapidly growing pile of analysis and reports made possible by well executed scientific inquiry.  We have become a nation of adults who act like five year olds.  Let me ask you a question: How does John Boehner's threat to sue President Obama serve the public interest in any way whatsoever.  Could Boehner possibly behave in a more childish way.  I struggle to imagine how he could.

I chose the title for my post today because here in America it seems opinion and fact are now given a more equal playing field in the realm of the media than ever before.  And yet such a level playing field is incredibly bizarre.  Opinions may be informed by facts but they are not facts.  To conflate opinions and facts is to do an immense disservice to yourself as well as others.