"Desperate Housewives" and 400%

I have to admit to being unsurprised by the rather blanket denial that Obama is facing an unusual amount of antipathy--a 400% rise in death threats, people bringing automatic weapons to his speeches, denial that he is an American citizen, being labeled a "terrorist" and so forth. None of this matters if you are on a certain side of the racial and political fence. My blunt opinion: if you don't see that something serious is happening, here...you are dealing with a serious schetoma, a blank spot in perception created by fear, conflicting beliefs or stress. And if something horrible DID happen, you'd lie to yourself and say "oh, my. I never saw THAT coming." This is so sad at a time when we need to have all our wits about us. One thing I have to make clear: anyone who cannot see something as clear as this fact cannot be trusted to interpret statistics on things like Global Warming and UHC. You may be honorable and intelligent, but you lack clarity.

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Remember that this problem lurks under conscious awareness. If you call this stuff to the attention of a Lucas or Joss Whedon, they fix it. They're good people. But the instant they go to sleep again...bang. And the basic state of humanity is to go to sleep.

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Watching "Desperate Housewives" on DVD I just saw the exact same thing I saw in "Firefly"--exclusion of non-white males from the breeding circle. The families on Wisteria Lane are all beautiful, sexy, lithe, nubile...and white (one Latino family...but Eva Longoria would have to be a little darker for me to place her in the Non-white category.) Finally, in about episode 5, they introduced a black character, played by Richard Roundtree. Look at this from the reproductive point of view: Roundtree was at least 60 years old when he did this. In other words: no sexual competition for white men. And then a black woman appeared: a prostitute, a literal street-walker. No romantic competition for white women. Ah, the circle is complete. People who can't see that this is a HUMAN problem, that tribalism is wound deeply into the warp and woof of our nature, will try to say "it's Hollywood" or "it's white people" or "it's men" or whatever. The same kind of denial that allows people to look at yahoos carrying automatic rifles at a Presidential speech and say it has nothing to do with the Birthers and the "secret Muslim" assholes. You don't want to believe it because it serves you not to. Because he's not your tribe. On the level of the unconscious "zero sum game" of race and politics, all the assassination jokes make perfect sense. The SURFACE is "Firefly": race doesn't matter! We're all equal in this wonderful, terrible future!

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But underneath, if you are watching, the exact same lizard-brain rises up: "if you are not my tribe, I don't care about your welfare. Your death may profit me and mine. You shall not compete with me for reproductive space." People won't cop to it, but that's what I actually see. It is the reason that the "if you remove minorities from the health care equation, we're doing fine!" argument makes sense to white Conservatives...and no one else. On a very basic level, we don't give a shit about the other tribe.

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The question then becomes how widely we define "tribe." By nationality? Class? Race? Gender? Religion? Income? Political party? And if they are of your tribe, what do we owe each other? Most agree that education is in the commons...but not all. The argument now is about health care. And make no mistake: there are good, honest, honorable reasons to disagree with UHC or any other proposal that any politician on either side of the aisle suggests. The people who say everyone Republican is a racist are just exactly as asinine as those on the Right who suggest every Democrat is a Communist, or whatever else the insult of the day might be.

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But in my opinion, refusal to look at a fact like that 400% increase in death threats gives aid and cover to the very worst elements of our society. Believing that this doesn't reflect an actual social problem is ignorance. Thinking that the attitudes behind this won't poison the political discourse, increase fear in otherwise rational people...you aren't doing yourself any good. Either you are deliberately obscuring the truth, or you actually can't see something that is hanging right in front of you. In that case, the temptation is to discount what you think about other subjects, since it seems that you are arguing backwards from a premise, the premise in this case being: "my side is just flat better." It can't hold more of negative X, even if it is clear that the other side has a surplus of negative Y. Your side is just better. Smarter. More Godly. Compassionate. Sexy. Whatever.

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Recognize this? Of COURSE Liberals have more communists and socialists than the Right. And the right has more Racists and cultural elitists than the Left. Everyone on either side understands this truth about the other. Try finding someone who will admit to BOTH. And of course men are controlling...but so are women. And whites would like to dominate other groups. As would Asians, or blacks. And Americans think they are the best country. As does Japan, China, and anyone else whose ego hasn't been crippled. It's just the way most of us operate as animals. Hell, I'm quite sure dogs think dogs are the best, and cats think cats are the best.

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That's all fine, unless YOU BUY INTO IT, or until it stops you from seeing the truth. Yes, I think the opposition to Obama is increased by racism. I think that only someone afraid that their arguments hold no real value could deny it: a fear that if THAT edge of the rug unravels, the whole thing will come apart.

Nonsense. Of COURSE there are valid arguments. The fact that I disagree with them doesn't mean that they aren't there, or even that they aren't correct. But there is a bloodthirsty little animal in human beings that would love for our enemies and adversaries to just be...gone. Whatever that takes. And it acts and speaks politely in public, even in conscious thought. And therefore will not believe the Birthers, the assault weapons, the "secret muslims", the assassination jokes, the "terrorist fist jab", postcards with watermelons on the White House lawn...why, NONE of this means anything at all! It's no worse than it's ever been, why, Bush put up with far worse!

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(400%...)

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ﾠBut the vixens of Wisteria Lane, and the slinky space cowboys aboard Serenity know this is bullshit. And the lizard brain grins its lazy, feral, hungry smile. And as they said in "Matrix" or the sacred scrolls of Tibet: while we sleep, the demons feed upon us. Right now, they're having a banquet.

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