In my heart, I can't understand ignorance.

 

In my heart, I can't understand ignorance.  Maybe it's that I have a desire to understand as much as I can?  Who knows?  But as I write this, MAGA is denying that the Orange Snowflake's birthday parade was hardly attended, while 11 million people attended No Kings protests across the nation.

One of my Facebook friends, a TG person who doesn't want to acknowledge the truth that only photographs can show, is caught up in the false narrative that there weren't that many people attending the protests.  But then, she hasn't seen the "Gender Correction" letter being sent out for passport renewals.

- - - - - -

Ignorance is either a lack of opportunity to see an objective truth, or a choice to ignore an objective truth.  If one sees the objective truth and recognizes it as such, then the person is rational.  Choosing to ignore an objective truth is something else.  I'm not sure of what to call this.  Yet, who defines "Objective Truth?"  Years ago, broadcast TV had something known as the "Fairness Doctrine."  Sadly, Ronald Reagan killed that off, and along with it died objective news casting. Today, people pick their "news" sources based on their prejudices, and never hear opposing points of view that would test their views of reality.

Sadly, news organizations without a Fairness Doctrine will slant the news to serve the wishes of their owners.  All too often people on both sides of the political divide claim that the other side is reporting falsehoods. This has resulted in the political divide we have today - to such an extent that rational people should be thinking: Should we split up the United States along its political divides and limit the harm done to people on both sides of the divide?  Or, should we put guardrails on the 1st amendment to the constitution, and somehow make all organizations claiming to report the news report it objectively.

- - - - - -

I have a transgender acquaintance who still yearns for some of the conveniences of her biologically male past, such as being able to pee standing up.  Another transgender acquaintance I met through a (former?) reader of this blog is obviously TG.  That shouldn't be a problem, but this person moved to the back woods of Upstate NY and was rejected by her conservative church.  They both have the same flaw - they think that their (political) tribal membership card will continue to be accepted after transition.  I'm reminded of the Jews who supported Hitler, thinking that he'd take care of ALL who supported him.  Yes, they were taken care of, but not in the way they thought.

The above two people are choosing to be ignorant.  I expect that reality will soon hit them in the face.  It's a shame, as us aware people understand the consequences of the actions of people like those two, and we hate the upcoming suffering that their type is causing to happen.  As for me, I will try to get out of the way and report what is going on objectively as long as I can.
 

A Trump supporter posted a reply on Mario's Facebook page.

 

The other day, I posted an image similar to this with the phrase:

Lock him up!
Lock him up!
Lock him up!

And she responded, replying that Biden should be the one locked up.  Regardless of how one feels about Trump and Biden, I am disgusted by both parties' inability to discipline troublesome members when they break the law. I was one who said that Bill Clinton should have been impeached for committing perjury in regard to having sex with Monica Lewinsky.  I was also in favor of going after Bush #43 for unwarranted searches (actually, unwarranted, secret wiretaps) after 9/11.  Yet, I would have given him a hall pass on that if Congress had given him an express OK.  So when the GOP refused to discipline Trump, I was appalled.

Being a member of the LGBT community, I feel at risk by the laws being passed in our most conservative states.  The radical right would rather us not exist, and wants to deny us the medical treatment we need when it is called for, as well as denying us our basic civil rights.  Trump gave the radical right a hall pass to pass laws that would disenfranchise us in exchange for them looking the other way while he cut deals with unsavory characters and with foreign powers.  

The radical right wants to use our existence as if it were a waving red cape at a bull in a bullfight.  To preserve their power, the right's leaders are making us their focus of hatred.  Considering that my acquaintance likely uses Fox "News" as her only news source, I can't help but believe that a reasonably sane person can be corrupted by a steady diet of misinformation that reinforces her existing beliefs.  

I don't believe that our current president is guilty of a crime.  However, I do believe that the son is guilty of a crime for which he had a plea bargain deal, and should have been allowed to cop the plea.  Instead, we will have a trial where justice is not served.  The verdict passed on the son may (or may not) be just, and the trial will be used by the political right to smear our president.  So I closed out the conversational thread by saying that if there is evidence, the father should be tainted.  But if not, the political right should stop stirring up the base with falsehoods.

It saddens me that we no longer have the "fairness doctrine" to preserve objectivity in news reporting.  If this were in effect today, we wouldn't have a nation as polarized as we are now.