Tag: Musings

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I’ve been fascinated by the Kyle Rittenhouse trial

Shortly after the shooting happened I questioned the validity of the media reports about it. That’s nothing new, unfortunately I’ve come to believe that former President Trump was 100% correct about the media.

I’d begun to have my suspicions about the media during the Obama-Biden administration. There was something about the way the media painted everything Obama did or said as, every phrase falling from his lips being a pearl from on high. When the media went into overdrive to prop up Hillary Clinton in the run-up to the 2016 election I thought that something was seriously off.

This of course was at a time when I still had cable and could watch any of the media outlets. I think what caught my attention back then was that every media report used the same choice of words almost verbatim. When I couldn’t tell the difference between media outlets based on reporting I felt like we were living in some kind of pseudo USSR with state controlled news outlets.

Reading about the Kenosha shootings I thought from the initial descriptions that Rittenhouse had probably believed his life was in danger. The question for me was how would his lawyers prove it.

Then Candidate Biden described Rittenhouse as a white supremacist. The media picked up that clarion call, (or as they put it “Dog Whistle,) and started describing a 17 year old kid as some kind of wannabe Grand Dragon of the KKK.

A couple of things occurred to me at the time.

How will this kid ever get a fair trial?

Isn’t a statement like that from someone in Biden’s position, (a national figure at the time, but not The President, ) irresponsible, and does it open Biden to a potential. slander suit?

Look at what happened with Nick Sandman. CNN and other major media outlets paid a hefty price for their misreporting.

Now we’re well into Rittenhouse’s trial and thus far the prosecution has done more to prove the young man’s innocence than they’ve done to convict him. Many of their witnesses have testified that Rittenhouse was doing everything in his power to de-escalate the situation and also tried to run away before turning to shoot.

I do question Rittenhouse’s choice to be in the situation in the first place. But I too was idealistic and naive once, (Centuries ago.) So I can chalk it up to civic minded idealism. There are photos of Rittenhouse cleaning graffiti off walls earlier in the day. He was offering first aid for minor injuries to anyone that had been hurt.

Given the volatile situation in Kenosha at the time, I can even see carrying a weapon. That’s just prudent planning. But a better plan was to have bailed on the place at sunset.

The police in Kenosha had already demonstrated that they weren’t going to protect property so it’s likely that they weren’t going to do any other part of their duty, such as protecting the lives of people living in the community. It’s irrelevant that their local politicians may or may not, have given orders for the officers to keep their hands in their pockets. The fact is the police knew the difference between right and wrong and they chose to follow orders instead of doing their sworn duty.

Several media pundits have said that Rittenhouse shouldn’t have been there in the first place. These old eyes tend to agree. There’s a point when a situation, (be it a party, peaceful protest, or riot,) is so out of control that it’s time to leave.

That being said, knowing when to leave is something that is learned.

At 17 there were situations I found myself in where it was only obvious that I’d stayed too long, well after the fact. In my case it was usually with an ice pack on my face and various bandages scattered across my body.

I can say that I don’t react well to having weapons pulled on me.

Rittenhouse may be a better man than I was at that age. He shot 3 people and those that he shot were all threatening him. He shot the first person and apparently tried to turn himself into the police. But they didn’t take him in, they ignored him.

The first guy followed Rittenhouse into an area that was at least partially enclosed. Then he tried to take Rittenhouse’s gun. The completely obvious outcome of that action, was the first guy got shot.

The second guy went at Rittenhouse with a skateboard swinging it at Rittenhouse’s head like a club. He died too.

While Rittenhouse was laying on the ground after being knocked down. The third guy, pointed a loaded pistol at Rittenhouse, and told Rittenhouse, “I’m going to kill you.” He admitted that fact in court last week. He lost his biceps. This guy is lucky to be alive. A few inches more toward his body and he’d have died from a point blank chest wound.

Much has been made of Rittenhouse breaking down on the stand. It’s very unusual for a defendant in a murder trial to take the stand in the first place. Many pundits, sports stars, and Hollywood assholes have been harsh, saying that Rittenhouse was faking it.

I don’t think that.

I tend to believe that he was reliving the events in his minds eye and was re-experiencing all of it as he recounted the events. From his perspective, think what it would have been like to have gone to this familiar place and seen the destruction. To have gone there to do good, to clean up, to be with friends, to only want to do the right thing, and then to find yourself alone and people around you showing their most ugly horrific faces.

Imagine the confusion for an idealistic young man that putting out a fire in a dumpster would make people angry. But not only did it make these people angry, it made them violently angry at him.

That couldn’t have computed for him. The illogic, the irrationality in their behavior must have been very confusing. Then to look around and not be able to spot your friends, your support group, and realize that suddenly you were totally alone facing down a crazed violent mob.

What does that do to a young person? Then add to it killing people because you thought they were going to kill you. Then you get past that only to be held in jail, looking at prison, and you have a year of your life consumed with hateful criticism or lies, all leading up to sitting in front of a Judge and Jury who will decide your fate. Imagine knowing that even if you are acquitted you’ll never have a normal life again. Imagine the burden of three shootings on a young person.

But it gets worse, one of the people you shot survived and has reason to want to hurt you. That person knows where you and your family live, and knows your face. That person is free, they’ve had no charges filed against them. Even though they are a felon with a history of violence and they pointed a gun at you threatening to kill you…

What do you take away from that? Justice is unfair? Will I always be looking over my shoulder? The police are useless? The laws I’ve been raised to obey are toothless?

Now think of all of that crushing down on you while you’re testifying at a trial that could mean life in prison?

Kyle Rittenhouse had every reason in the world to cry. If he’d not broken down, the people who have said such shitty things about him crying, would have been painting him as some kind of sociopath.

There’s a whole lot wrong with a society that demonizes a child without facts and simultaneously paints him into a no-win situation.

I personally think the young man acted in self defense. Sadly, he’ll never be free of this. He’ll never be the same idealistic innocent he was when he walked into Kenosha to do good.

I hope that once acquitted, he can find a quiet peaceful place where he can make a happy life.

But first, I hope he has the strength to sue the absolute shit out of the media, The View, and President Biden for slander and makes a shit ton of money from the deal.

Kyle, if you happen to read this… What you did was not heroic, it was not patriotic, it wasn’t awesome, or anything people might try to tell you.

What you did was necessary and right to protect your life. But sir, it will leave scars. Those scars you’ll live with the rest of your days. Don’t run from them, accept them as terrible lessons you learned far too early in life.

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From here on out, all my clothing will be gray

It occurred to me as I was sorting my laundry that by separating the white clothing from the colored clothing I was engaging in systemic institutionalized racism.

Even the laundry detergent instructions engage in this kind of oppression.

I think too that all of my clothing should be uniform, a simple set of pants held up with a rope. After all, leather belts are not green, not PETA approved, and might be used to strap poor immigrants. Although I suppose a rope might be construed as another symbol of racism, given how ropes were used in the past.

I know, to avoid this, I’ll use a string or bit of twine.

My shirt will be a gray tunic not requiring any buttons. Plastics being bad and all. I guess I could carve buttons if I really needed them.

Since leather is murder and its production requires cows whose flatulence contribute to the destruction of the planet I’ll strap the bark of trees to my feet, or perhaps I’ll use some of the piles of used tires in dumps, cut to fit my feet, instead of shoes.

I can pad my footwear with 20 or 30 discarded masks that are prevalent in the streets, on trails, and in the forest these days. Since rope is a no-no perhaps I can use some bits of twine to affix my retreads to my feet as well. I’ll bet I could carve a Nike swoosh on the bottoms and retain stylishness.

The nasty chemicals required to make clothing dyes hurt the planet too, so by going gray I can stop climate change.

This ensemble will make getting dressed in the morning so much faster. I won’t have to pause to decide what I’d like to wear anymore. If there’s no choice then there’s no time wasted deciding.

Laundry will also be much simpler, with no sorting of clothing, everything can just be carried to the creek behind my dwelling and I can hope for some trickle of water to be running. There are plenty of nice flat rocks to beat my clothing on and then I can hang the clothing on some friendly trees until they’re dry.

There will be times in the winter when the creek is frozen, and times in the summer when the creek bed is dry, so obviously I won’t even have to wash clothing then. I can just rub some of the gray dirt surrounding my dwelling on any offensive stains and I’ll look fresh as a daisy.

I do hope no-one will be offended by my naked bathing in the creek (water dependent of course) Or when I’m lying out on a large flat rock allowing the sun to dry my skin.

I’d never thought that being “woke” could be so simple. Or that my life would be enriched by total convenience and simplicity just by going woke. This is going to be bliss.

I seem to recall China instituted a nice homogenous dress code and their people were very happy about it. I’m sure we’ll be just as happily un-racist in our future. Oh, there is the slight problem of our dwellings. Well, I’m sure that our government will provide us all with a nice uniform gray, EPA approved paint for the purposes of ensuring community equity and consistency.

Maybe they’ll distribute approved paint with our mandatory physicals just before we pay our mandatory tithes while swearing and/or demonstrating our loyalty to our masters.

Yeah, I woke up in a mood today! I don’t know why, perhaps I was having bad dreams or something.

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I used to think I wanted to “Shipjack” alien visitors.

Now, I’d just be content to hitch a ride off this rock to someplace else.

Anywhere else.

It’s not this planet that’s the problem. This world is a beautiful place. The indigenous flora and fauna are spectacular. Except for one species. Even amongst that species there are some very nice individuals. As a group though, the species, Homo sapiens sucks!

Yeah, we’re a bunch of semi intelligent, semi evolved apes. We’ve done some clever things. Our music, art, and literature, explore some interesting existential concepts. We have an interesting imagination and all. But when you come right down to it, we’re not as spectacular as we think we are.

We’ve barely left our world. We’re driven by silly tribalism, religion, and fear. If we were in a zoo we’d be seen as creatures too fascinated by our own poo, to see even a slightly larger picture. One thing we’d miss, might be that we were the subjects of clever psychological experiments.(Hat tip to Douglas Adams) Or perhaps miss the fact that we were in a zoo at all.

Give us shiny trinkets and we’ll be entertained for decades. Give us differences in religion, appearance, or politics, and we’ll entertain ourselves for centuries.

Perhaps it’s a function of growing older, lately I’m less and less concerned with trinkets, religion, politics, trends, or appearance.

All I find myself longing for is simplicity and peace. The view of cities from a distance makes me very glad that I’m not living in one. Being alone and disconnected from Facebook, Twitter, and all the rest of the social media platforms provides me more happiness than my participation in those systems ever did.

I’m no longer concerned with what people think of me, and am happy reading, working outside, or thinking my own thoughts. There are days now when I don’t speak more than a few words to anybody. I go for weeks without seeing anybody other than my dog and significant other.

When I scan the news, with few exceptions all I feel is pity, or sit shaking my head wondering how stupid can people be.

I would gladly pack a few belongings and board a starship to get away from my fellow Homo sapiens. I might occasionally long for the company of other humans if I left. I suspect however, that the next planet or beauty of the universe would be enough to make thinking about distant humanity not worth my time.

Lately I’ve found myself thinking along these lines…

All civilizations fall. If you change your focus just a little bit and look at our planet and all it’s inhabitants as a whole. Divisions disappear and you realize that our technology has unified us in what is essentially a single civilization.

Homo sapiens is not ready for that.

Instinctively Homo sapiens realizes this truth, and is actively destroying this planetary civilization whether they admit it or not.

One need only look at the growing tribalism worldwide. A tribalism that directly or indirectly states, “My beliefs must be ascendant above all others.” What comes next, we can extrapolate from history.

The “Dark Ages” lasted 500 years. During that time, almost everything that had been known was lost. Homo sapiens devolved back into small bands of people drawn together out of mutual need.

Imagine the collected works of Shakespeare used as firelighters, because no-one could read anymore. In 200 years or less, everything that we take for granted will likely become legends repeated around a fire pit.

Will the next dark age last only 500 years? I suppose that depends on how much is lost, what is remembered, and in what context. If some kind of “Green” religion took hold I could see the next dark age lasting 1000 years or more.

Imagine a religion that said something like, “Thou shalt only burn the oils rendered from the fat of thine sheep, for light in the darkness. All other light, save that of the sun, is an abomination before god,” or “Thou shalt only walk upon thine own feet. Any other conveyance is an abomination. Thou shall not sit upon thine animals, nor shall ye ride upon thy wagon, for this is a sin and thee will surely be damned to hell for all time.“

Adherents to a religion like that might take 2000 years to even begin rediscovering technology. If a belief like this were dominant, it’s reasonable to expect that heretics wouldn’t last long. It’s also reasonable to assume that any community with a different view would be burned to the ground. Such is the power of religious fervor.

Religion isn’t confined to God, Allah, Buddha, or any other pantheon of gods. Religion is about belief. Belief in anything.

Belief in and of itself isn’t the problem, it becomes a problem when a belief takes on a life of its own. When beliefs are practiced and never questioned you have a religion. The consensus of all knowledgable people once was that the Earth was flat, and the entire universe revolved around Earth.

Folks who questioned that “Fact” were murdered as heretics. Even when scholars had evidence to support that the Earth was round, and was not in fact the center of the universe, they were hesitant to discuss it with anybody.

Religious leaders in those times, insisted that the world was flat and cited their holy texts to prove it. But nowhere in those holy texts did their god ever say, “By the way, the world is flat and you’ll fall off the edge if you go too far.” Also, nowhere in those religious texts, does God discuss the blueprints for existence or the universe.

There’s the disconnect. Superstition became entwined with religion and the two formed a foundation for persecution and more importantly, a framework of control. Another example was the belief that if someone was sick, they were sick because of demons or evil spirits. Ever wonder how many epileptics were burned at the stake? Just sayin…

I suppose what’s tired me of humanity is that so many “well educated” people are so unlikely to ask questions. It’s not about the vaccines, or the death rate, versus the case rates. My tiredness isn’t about the politics and obvious efforts of politicians to aggrandize themselves by attempting to control all aspects of people’s lives. Those are factors, to be sure.

The main thing is that so many people refuse to see or interpret the facts before them. So many people have abdicated their personal responsibility to learn in favor of a 20 second blurb about the world around them from a talking head on a screen. They don’t question what they hear, then these folks call themselves “well informed”.

At a family event recently, one of my relatives was haranguing me about vaccines and COVID. I’d ignored him on the matter for three solid days.

Finally, I asked the questions, “Would you take your umbrella if there was a 2% chance of rain? If there was a 98% probability that you’d win the lottery wouldn’t you bet the farm on it?”

After several other family members present busted up laughing, the matter was closed. This particular family member stomped off and said nothing more about COVID. The sad part is that he is, or was, a scientist. In point of fact a lot of my knowledge of scientific proofs and objective evaluation of fact, I learned from him. I found it very disconcerting that he of all the relatives was not asking logical questions and thinking for himself.

He’s not a bad person, I choose to believe that his haranguing was coming from a place of care and concern for members of the family. That’s admirable, but his method was all wrong because he wasn’t providing proofs or facts. He was simply repeating the same message CNN had been spouting for more than a year.

Perhaps my expectations were too high. I’d expected a scientist to be armed with facts and proofs. I would actually have welcomed that. I’d have asked questions and asked to look at, and evaluate the data as he’d taught me to when I was a young man.

I suppose I’m still dealing with the shattering of my illusion that this family member was about the reality of scientific process.

Science can teach you a lot. Often, science will teach you that your preconceived notions about the world are wrong. Pure science challenges your beliefs. It doesn’t take sides and cares nothing for your feelings.

E=mc2 Works. The equation is dispassionate. It contains no inherent moral judgement. It’s up to the individual to decide if they will use the resulting energy for destruction, or to generate power that lights a city.

Superstition on the other hand is nothing but beliefs. In a revival tent, those that the faith healer can’t heal, didn’t believe hard enough. It’s the unhealed, who are at fault. They’re told to go home and pray on it then come back next week. “The donation box is by the door, leave as much as you can and god will know. Perhaps he’ll heal you next week.“

That’s the way this past couple of years appear to me. It’s like we’re all living in a revival tent.

The problem for me is that the revival tent has been growing around us for a decade. Science, truth, facts, are being replaced by beliefs and superstition. Unfortunately, I don’t think we’ve reached apogee in this phenomena yet.

I don’t want to be on this planet when we do.

Here’s a thought experiment.

Imagine yourself with your car, manufactured goods, and all your digital devices suddenly appearing on a street in Barcelona during the inquisition.

Witch! Demon! Unclean Spirt!

You’d be dragged in chains to the grand inquisitor before you even had a moment to take stock of what had happened to you. You’d be summarily executed too.

Imagine the same scenario, but this time you appear in 1947 near an army base. You’d find yourself in a military prison. You’d be under “protective custody” and interrogated about the technology you were carrying. The military would recognize your car, as a car, with internal combustion engine but 99% of the circuitry they couldn’t conceive of, nor could you explain. You’d die in prison as a national security asset or risk. Imagine trying to explain your navigation system, or iPhone or computer. Even a Chromebook has more computing power than all the computers extant on the planet at that time.

Now imagine that scenario but you move forward 100 years.

We like to think that the future is all bright and shiny. We’d like to think that appearing in Los Angeles in 2221 we’d be accepted as a quaint relic. Our antiquated technology would be museum pieces and we’d have to learn everything that happened in the intervening 100 years.

But suppose instead we succumb to superstition and abandon true science, individual thought, and freedom.

What would be the outcome?

Would it look like Spain during The Inquisition, or would it look like Kandahar today?

I don’t want to know. I sure don’t want to live it.

Which leads me back to wanting to hitchhike off this planet. I’ve lost faith in humanity.

I seriously think that at our current rate of decline, we’ll be using candles for light and fire pits for cooking inside 200 years.

If I could hitch hike, I figure a quick jaunt to Betelgeuse and back, should be just about right to miss all the messiness on Earth.

There I go, trusting in Einstein’s math (Science) that states time slows for a ship traveling at or beyond the speed of light relative to Earth.

For me, 5-10 years might pass. For Earth, maybe a few hundred years pass.

If I come back and the planet is still a hot mess, I could head out to Alpha Centauri with side trips to other star systems that are interesting.

Either way, I get to keep on learning new things.

I don’t want to live in a world where knowledge is suppressed based on its potential to upend politics, religion, superstition, or beliefs.

If I was to find a way to leave, I’d do my best to grab digital copies of our Science, Art, Music, Literature, and History. I’d stick it all on some kind of storage media and take it with me. I figure I could trade copies of my archives for food or transport while I was away. If I returned the Earth, I’d have an archive that could help fill in the blanks.

We all know history, is being rewritten. It might be nice to have a collection of unedited data for comparison sake 1000 years into the future. I’m under no illusion that our history as recorded is pristine. But for comparison it might be useful.