At a Loss for Words: Conversation in an Age of Rage, Carol Off – some quotes and some notes
“The word [‘freedom’] has been hijacked by those who seek liberation from their responsibility to others.” 5
“[T]he issue [of reproductive rights] has been reframed by the judiciary as an equal contest between the rights of a woman and the rights of the fetus she carries.” 6
Equal. That’s how little men think of us. They equate us with something not yet fully formed, let alone conscious.
“The pouring rain might have contributed to the obviously small crowd that attended his swearing-in ceremony, but Trump insisted that he had drawn a million and a half people. He called his inauguration the largest such event in history … he also claimed that the rain had stopped just as he began to speak. ‘It was amazing. And then it became really sunny. And then I walked off and it poured.’ This was demonstrably untrue.” 109
[And then an interview by Chuck Todd, host of NBC’s Meet the Press, with Kellyanne Conway. She mentions “alternative facts”.]
“Todd: They’re not facts. They’re falsehoods.”
“Conway: I don’t think you can prove those [crown size] numbers one way or another. There’s no way to quantify those numbers.” 111
No way to quantify numbers? WTF?
“Journalists initially had no idea how to cover this upside-down presidency. Trump and his White House circle didn’t just spin facts and exaggerate data. The president was chronically untruthful—a teller of fibs large and small—and those arund the president saw it as their job to enable him.” 113
“No lie was out of bounds for Trump. The weather, the course of hurricanes, the legitimacy of millions of voters, Barack Obama’s nationality, the threat posed by foreign powers. … Gradually, journalists ceased to have any expectation that he would tell the truth …” 113
Pity everyone else was so slow to adopt the same expectation.
“And he incited violence against journalists … There were bob threats on buildings of news organizations … Journalists were attacked on the job or had their equipment trashed at public events while Trump cheered on the violence. The authorities did little to help. In fact, they often piled on. … According to the US Press Freedom Tracker, several hundred media workers reported assaults in 2020, most of them committed by law enforcement. But the most extreme attacks on journalists came from people motivated and instructed by Donald Trump.” 116
Well, that explains it. Why the press didn’t call him out on his lies. Why they stopped reporting global warming. Etc.
Can’t find it now, but I (thought I) read about international biggies contributing to Trump’s campaign. See, right there. That’s the problem. Campaign contributions typically invoke a quid pro quo that poisons government. Not only should there be no campaign contributions from other countries, not only should there be a cap on contributions from within a country, there shouldn’t be any contributions allowed. In fact, there shouldn’t be campaigns. Not even lawn signs. Campaigns invite spectacle and misguided decision-making. Candidates should simply post their policies for all to read, along with their qualifications, experience, and past achievements. Full stop.
post overturning of Roe v Wade, repealing the right to abortion: “Anyone who can get pregnant must now face the reality that … you have a legal and moral duty to undergo pregnancy, delivery, and in all likelihood, two decades or more of caregiving, no matter the permanent and potentially devastating consequences for your body, your hear, your mind, your family, your ability to put food on the table, your plans, your aspirations, your lfie.” Jia Tolentino [quoted by Off, p250]
[re not paying taxes] “But many (though not all) people of substantial means feel little obligation to the community or country where they make their money, educate their children, get their health care, breathe clean air, drive on safe roads, and rely on the help of uncorrupted police services if someone threatens them. Or they insist that their contribution comes from creating wealth in the marketplace, no matter that the raw resources their companies are licensed to extract, or the land they build on, are not really their property, or that the infrastructure they rely on and the talent they employ is subsidized by taxpayers, or that the effluence and emissions from their enterprises affect us all.” 264
“… conservative agencies were pumping almost $600 million into … ‘a campaign to manipulate and mislead the public about the threat posed by climate change’ …” 292
“Ten men … have more wealth than the bottom three billion of Earth’s inhabitants. Elon Musk, the wealthiest man in the world, paid a ‘true tax rate’ of about 3 percent between 2014 and 2018 …” 297
