La fires and empathy

     I watched this video of one of my favorite Social Commentators Ms. Ekpunobi. 

    I reject her premise that Americans are not empathetic. It’s been my experience that Americans are among the most empathetic people on the planet. When a tsunami hits some place in the pacific America parks an aircraft carrier and a hospital ship right off shore and deploys men and women and supplies and equipment within days. China and another nations with aircraft carriers are conspicuously absent. America has been accused of being the world police, poking our military noses into situations where we don’t belong. But when shit really hits the fan if we don’t show up we catch all the worst kind of hell. When the Carolina’s were destroyed by a hurricane Americans from ALL over the country descend on the region to help. I don’t see any other nation jumping in to help. Even when FEMA tries to turn volunteers back we dodge and keep poking by and pushing our way in. Even when FEMA was avoiding Trump neighborhoods. Even when Camela (Yeah I spelled it that way) ‘ever so magnanimously’ said the government would be willing to pay $750.00 for their loss, the rest of us were incensed but carried right on pushing and helping. I believe what she is seeing is that the holly-woke elite have burned up much of their social capital. Rachel Ziegler is the poster child for this push back. For decades holly-woke and by extension (guilt by association and geography) LA have been cramming their agenda down us non-elite’s throats. They have been throwing their considerable, woke at all costs, weight around. Incompetent Mayor. WOKE DEI fire department. Environmental policies that put smelt and mice before the people that the government is supposed to protect. So votes LA and San Francisco so votes California regardless… By way of movies and TV with more message than entertainment. By pushing environmental activism at all cost. By way of ‘movie stars’ becoming more political activists than entertainers. I personally have decided that I will no longer watch the new offering from Hollywood that has in its cast Robert De Niro. Nor will I be watching anything that has in the cast Julia Roberts of Jamie Lee Curtis to name but a very few. Yes this a statement of stick your head up, get it slapped. They have all thrown a weighted, cold, wet blanket of their guilt over the rest of us all with their activism. They should step back into ‘their lane’ show up, act, collect their considerable paycheck, go home and do NOT pretend to be better or smarter or more enlightened than the rest of us. As far as I know Mr. Clooney does NOT have any degree in any family of political studies. Nor does he have access to nor attend senate committee meetings on national security.

    A long time ago I saw a clip on some social media platform showing Mr. Brad Pitt being asked his views on some political issue. His response was something along the lines of ‘I am no expert on any of this why do you think that I should be answering this question.’ That has obviously changed. The Oscars and now it seems that all of the glad handing, backslapping awards shows have been turned into a paid for political programming action piece. I think it was Marlon Brando who kicked open that door down. But wait there's more. So what with all the preaching and the lies and, and, and I find myself having a very narrow vision of empathy for the holly-woke elites. the nameless huddled masses, I completely empathize with, and had I any means of helping I certainly would. But I live in biden's economy on social security, uber, plasma donations and slowly selling off my collections and possessions on eBay.

    I can certainly accept (and fall into this group) that Americans have become selectively empathetic. Just as much of the upper 1% have become selectively empathetic. We, the lower 99% are looked down on by the holly-woke elite. No matter how much we worship, love and adore them. The likes of George Clooney think us cave dwelling troglodytes incapable of making 'proper' voting choices for ourselves. And that he, Mr. Clooney, must step up to a microphone, any microphone, every microphone and lead us by the nose to the voting booth and hand hold us during the voting process to be sure that HIS candidateS are properly voted for.

    This LA fire is tragedy it is certainly that. A Colossal tragedy. And there are, as you say, thousands of nameless people impacted by this. And the tragedy of the fires and overwhelming loss is compounded because these nameless masses will be lumped in the wealthy, powerful and privileged. (guilt be association and geography) But it is my experience there have been lots of tragic and fires just as devastating and horrific in their loss of life and property that go largely unreported and unnoticed because no ‘stars’ homes were destroyed on the making of this news cycle. Santa Rosa, the Paradise fire ,the fire that devastated several tiny towns Phoenix, Talent in Southern Oregon, The Camp Fire in rural Northern California to name but a few. Likely you will not have heard of these fires. Every year or so there are just such firestorms somewhere in the Pacific Northwest that amount to but a tiny blip on the 24 hour news cycle. There will be loads of finger pointing to go around on this particular fire though. I do hope that something positive will come of this. 

                                                            I hope it but I doubt it.

    I think that the election has, or at least it should have, told the elites in holly-woke that the rest of us, NOT making millions of dollars for some small number of months of work, are tired of being preached AT. There is absolutely NO WAY that acting in a movie not even Tom Cruise's movies, is a more important or more difficult or should be paid SO much more than oil well work or coal mining or trying to put out a fire in a region that the firefighter can NOT afford to live in with NO water. And just as you say the nameless masses do not get the same airtime that Mr. Mel Gibson gets because his house was razed to the ground because they are just that, nameless. The thousands that you mention absolutely deserve the airtime and HELP and empathy from every corner. They absolutely do. I also do not say that the wealthy do not deserve empathy. But I truly feel that this empathy is legitimately mitigated by their activism. And no I do not know where the bar of ‘wealth’ can be set. Initially I did not feel too very much for Mr. Gibson’s loss (I see Mr. Gibson as the poster child for the wealthy because he has lots of airtime and because of his hair gel sound bite which was Absolute genius.) plight, because he truly can with A phone call have the replaceable bits of his home replaced, and he certainly has some other home, likely in Hawaii where he can live relatively un-impacted until his LA home is replaced, he was describing things of his that were lost. The thing that hit hardest was a mention of a rare book. That is a thing that is lost forever. Can’t be replicated. It is History, now gone forever. It’s not some modern art ‘master piece’ that absolutely CAN be replicated or replaced. If the Hollywood elites had remained anonymous like the rest of us poor slobs except for when their work was released. They would not have burnt up their social capital. (They should not really have social capital to burn, but that is rant for another time) But when they use their power and influence to push their unenlightened and dangerous agendas onto the rest of us they put themselves in this position. I think the Germans call this schadenfreude. I have NO empathy for their activism. Maybe they didn’t knowing do this to themselves but perhaps they will learn from this. Maybe they will Sit down Shut up and do what WE pay to do, act or sing or entertain or whatever but NOT preach AT us. And I am not talking about their plight with the paparazzi and how difficult it is to simply go shopping for groceries without being mobbed, or real life looks versus glammed up for the Red-Carpet camera looks. In my opinion that is why they get paid the Millions. I am talking about when George Clooney shoots off his mouth about how America should vote. Mr. Clooney had better NOT be privy to any sensitive or secret information that the rest of US are not privy to making his words more informed than the rest of us unwashed masses. But when he steps up to the microphone his vote by dint of his 'Star' power and popularity suddenly becomes multiplied by thousands. That is wrong, very very wrong. The left keeps screaming about how a vote for Trump was a nail in the coffin of democracy. But the idea that Mr. insert Actor Name here can influence an election is death to democracy but thousands of times worse. The American obsession with ‘movie stars’ is perhaps going to take a rest now.

                                                                I hope it but I doubt it.

    This fire and all of the ensuing fallout could/should be a catalyst for that change. The change that Americans voted for in November.                                                                         

                                                                I hope it, but I doubt it.

Race relations and Woke relations

     I watched this clip of a video on a wide variety of social media places. Because I was trying to determine if this was some sort of fuck-off deep-fake AI generated non-sense. But it does not appear to be. Which is FAR worse than if it had been a fakey bit of video. I edited it down from a source Lefties Loosing it I think. 

    I think that Ms. Larson must/should  have been fired or sent to a re-education camp even before the final syllable left her lips. And the look of utter disdain on her [I assume her/she] face at the end is Oh So Very telling of her view of humanity at large. I could not find a single instance of this clip anywhere as a stand alone piece. It is always part of a news report or something. I thing someone made a mad dash effort to have this expunged from the internet. But as we all know the internet is forever. And after watching it I believe that this clip will probably make Viral Video of 2025 when they make those lists.

    But enough about that. 

    How bad of a racist, misogynist, sexist, homophobe, transphobe or what ever -ist or -phobe do you have to be to reject help from a first responder for any -ist -phobe or what ever else reason that can be laid at the feet of a straight white man these days. Apparently the new way to say this is CIS-Gender. I only just now took the time to look this cis-gender thing up. And I must say that this Cis-Gender label sounds a bit more than a little pejorative. Although I will say that if this Fuck-Off showed up at my door and were I able to see and speak I would say let me die! NOW! Please Kill me! NOW!

 

    I have had a couple of instances where I was in need of help. I did NOT I repeat Did NOT see the color of their skin, the length of their hair [female reference] or care about who they take to bed or what ever else -ist or -phobic reaction that could possibly pop into your head in that situation. Those -ists and -phobes really do not meet people at the door in those situations. The only instance that I recall even a little of those rendering aid in my time of need was that a Sheriff was very rough with me. As it turns out the Sheriff's department gets involved when there is a death situation involved. And as it turns out I was being combative because I was in the throws of attempting suicide. Had the above Fuck-Off showed up I would not be typing this now. So thank you to the Sheriff that could see through my stuff and not be a racist or whatever.

    I have long thought that the "Will and Grace" show from 1998 was the first gay based TV show. (As it turns out I was right.) It was the first TV show that 'normalized' gayness to the TV audience. Going back a bit farther to 1980 and to the TV show "Bosom Buddies" was the first show that at some level 'normalized' transvestism or cross dressing or drag what could now be viewed as trans-gender. Of course it stopped WAY short of any of these issues. And of course that is looking back through the lens of  'If I knew then what I know now'. And again looking back still farther to 1959 to the Wonderful comedy "Some like it Hot". In 1959 "Some Like it Hot" was a VERY Difficult movie to get made. The making of "Some like it Hot" was the result of a confluence of many fortunate events. Read All About it here. Or watch about it here. It was based on a French movie from 1935 "Fanfare of Love". But movies are now replete with this sort of thing As seen in "Victor Victoria". But typically these movies based in France. France being the epicenter of all things 'Anything goes artistic' expression. Until along came "Mrs. Doubtfire". But of course that was based in San Francisco. So there is that.

     These were some subtle uses by Holly-woke to push unpopular agendas on the public. By first normalizing gayness on TV by way of the Will and Grace show; this paved the way for gay marriage. A long time ago Holly-woke learned that they could manipulate the public with movies. During World War II they put propaganda pieces in front of many movies. Sort of like the movies version of Stars and Stripes. Nazi Germany was famous for this sort of thing. Joseph Goebbels was the head of the propaganda branch of the Nazi movement. Now as we can OBVIOUSLY see holly-woke has dialed up the propaganda side of movies and TV to 11 in favor message over entertainment.

    I think I mentioned that my take on the movie "Everything Everywhere all at once" was perhaps the worst offender of all time, all at once, everywhere, for all time. It was a propaganda piece wrapped up in a shitty would science-fiction movie. No matter what this part of the Wiki page tries to spin this shit up to be with the heavy handed use of fancy terms such as a swirl of genre anarchy, nihilism, metatextually, bittersweet domestic drama, Afro-pessimism, inter-generational trauma, dadaist absurdism, modus operandi, omnicidal but it all boiled down to a point at the end of the movie where in the mother Michelle Yeoh must accept and introduce her daughter Stephanie Hsu and her girlfriend to her father James Hong. Who intern does without even blinking accept his grand-daughter and girlfriend. The whole SHITTY mess could have been avoided IF only mother had accepted her daughter for who she is at the outset of this inter-generational drama/trauma and audiencial trauma.

    The OVER ARCHING message; If you don't accept your lesbian daughter and be proud of her 'out as lesbian' and her lesbian girlfriend you could cause this universe and the entirety of multiverse to spontaneously unravel into a state of, and I don't even recall what that dismal fate was now it was such a shitty movie. I watched it only because I do like the Science fiction and I respectED Michelle Yoeh and Jamie Lee Curtis. No longer. I kept waiting for some sort of payoff for staying seated for such a long time. No reasonable payoff was forth coming. The phrase "That is 139 minutes I will never get back". But of course anything that has happened in time is time you will never get back. But there are some slices of time that are more regrettably lost than others. This is one of those regrettable slices of lost time.

    It was nominated for and won an absolute SHIT-TON of awards and fawning accolades. Apparently the budget was 17 $Million and it shows. But that is to be expected in today's holly-woke environment. The more woke you can make your movie the more awards your movie is likely Going to win. Paraphrasing the immortal words of  'Gunnery Sergeant Hartman' That was SO Ugly it became a 'Modern Art Masterpiece'.

     Perhaps that is about to change. 

                                                                  I hope it but I doubt it.