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History Repeats
Three weeks and, yep, the ankle still hurts. Talked with the Workman’s Comp folks about the therapy and (surprise, surprise, surprise) I’m still waiting.
So, I figured I’d check some “This Day In History” for you.
The 30’s Called, They Want Their Left-Wing Losers Back
AntiFa may be the latest in the loony Left’s roster of rent-a-rioters but they’re not a new invention like some of their faux-ideological cohorts in the horde of “useful idiots” worldwide.
These hyperviolent, masked, cowardly pea-brains are the ideological bastard great-grandchildren of the hyperviolent, cowardly pea-brains who lost the big argument of Who Can Run Germany Into The Ground Faster back in the 30’s before the Nazis consolidated their power and became the existential threat to all of humankind (yes, including themselves).
Right now, there are two apparent factions of AntiFa.
The shit-wit American branch who wear masks so they can sucker punch and pepper spray people with seeming impunity and the SA-style rubbish currently infesting Germany (again).
The Euro-sports hooligans decided to up their game a bit and claim political chops by graduating to 21st Century AntiFa. This is unsurprisingly similar to 20th Century AntiFa. Leftist punks trying to create a socialist “paradise” in which they are entitled to continue bumming around the streets, taking drugs, drinking heavily and being unabashedly violent.
Their limp-wristed American cousins aren’t quite as rough ‘n ready as their counterparts. That’s not to say that they’re not violent. They’re just not as burly and hooliganish as the twats in the Old Countries. The AmeriFa are more prone to feckless taunting and cowardly sneak attacks.
Either way, this attempt to replay the Culture Wars that destroyed the Weimar Republic is not going to succeed. This isn’t a goddamned rematch, peckerwoods! This is the modern world. Socialism doesn’t work, no matter what your teachers and professors have vomited into your mushy little brains. Evidence trumps rhetoric. Socialism results in disaster. Find a new game. Try optimism for a change. The past is past. Fucking leave it there.
The 80’s Called, They Want Their Anti-Russian Hysteria Back
President Reagan made an off-hand joke as part of a sound check way back when the USSR still existed. He said Russia because, for most of the rest of the world, they were synonymous. Despite the 15 Republics, everybody knew (including the other 14 Republics and any Soviet citizen whose ethnicity was associated therewith) that the Russians ran the show. The Russians were the big baddies who threatened Mutual Assured Destruction.
That was then, this is now. Now it’s Russia! Russia! Russia! and the people who were the ideological partners, useful idiots and willing conspirators with the former Soviet Union throughout the Cold War are now using Russia as their principal bogeyman.
Would that be because the Russians betrayed the Revolution? Were they hoping the USSR would hold on long enough for them to regain power and forfeit the Cold War to our arch-nemesis?
That would be my guess.
The 90’s were the first decade of a post-Soviet world. Reagan had created a tremendous Peace Dividend by his strategy of outspending the centralized economy of the Soviet system. A newly free Russian (as well as Armenian, Azerbaijani, Belarussian, Estonian, Georgian, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Latvian, Lithuanian, Moldavian, Tadjik, Ukranian, Uzbek) populace was struggling with the concept of freedom and what it meant for them going forward. Some didn’t do so well and some managed to breathe free and independent for the first time in decades.
Did the Clinton Administration help the dust to settle? No, they largely ignored the plight of the post-Soviet world and left all kinds of preventable shit to occur. As long as the Philanderer in Chief could toss a cruise missile at Baghdad or Somalia in order to keep his approval numbers from tanking, the rest of the world be damned.
That attitude led directly to 9/11 and the seemingly interminable wars in the Middle East and Afghanistan. Thanks, BillyJeff.
In the sudden silence that fell along with the Berlin Wall, all we can hear is the Democrats’ echo of “fuck the Russians for selling out our Socialist pipe-dream“.
No, Democrats, fuck you. Get some policies and campaign on those. Leave the Russians alone. They’ve got problems enough without being your bogeyman. If you can’t campaign on issues, then get the hell out of politics already. Nobody with a brain actually cares what you think anymore anyway.
Condemnation
Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it. ~George Santayana
Isn’t it funny how whenever I get a “good job” things go completely to shit for me? Yeah, I noticed that too.
I remember the past but I repeat it anyway. That’s operant conditioning for you.
What to do? Well, I was hoping to use the income from the “good job” to catch up on bills and fund some business initiatives. Well, not gonna happen. I’m not allowed to go back until after my next Workman’s Comp checkup on the 21st. By that time, I will have not earned a penny in 4 weeks.
No can do. Got bills to pay and things to do. More on that in future posts.
The past is a pretty fucked up place. If you’re a fan of science fiction, you’re well aware that attempts to go back and fix stuff usually makes matters worse. We are on a one way road to the future for better or worse, so let’s all do our part to make it better. Don’t vote Democrat. Don’t be a bitchy little rent-a-rioter. Just don’t. Let’s make a Star Trek world instead of a Mad Max world. Yes, I know Roddenberry was a hardcore socialist and he thought there wouldn’t be money in the future and all that nonsense, but the thing that makes Star Trek worth aspiring to was not the para-Socialist claptrap but the spirit of cooperation. The folks of the Federation wanted to get along with people, no matter how different. Didn’t always work out, but at least they tried. So, why can’t we?