Iron Filings – 87
Perhaps it's something of a joking matter, perhaps not. Every day when I look at the idiocy that's going on in this country I'll say to my wife, I just don't know that I have words anymore to castigate or describe those fools and sycophants and their felonious poohbah. That's usually followed by an "aargh!" or something a bit more obscene. The problem with that, however, is that when you stop the chronicling, the describing, the cataloging – when you fail to find the words – the attention starts to fade and you begin to think it's just not worth it letting those people live rent-free in your head. Yet, we can't let that happen. We can't pretend that this dismantling of the Constitution is no longer worth caring about or that it isn't of sufficient interest to be worth our attention. Suffer fools blindly and the next thing you know your neighbor's house is suddenly empty.
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Perhaps it has to do with education. We have a Gen Z out there that came of age at a time when such things as "civics" and even history classes were downgraded, a generation that hasn't really been taught the basics of the American infrastructure, especially how fragile it can be. That generation is old enough now to begin gaining power, a generation immersed in technology whose guiding ideology comes, not from an understanding of the foundations of their own culture, but from their millennial, and earlier, forebears: Move fast and break things.
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We hear a great deal these days about the harsh division between left and right on all manner of things: politics, crime, immigration, abortion, books, and so on. Along with that is the constant barrage of vindictive rhetoric on the part of the right/Republicans. Starting with the Office Holder, we have nothing but threats, ad hominems, ridicule, lies, and contumely, with all of that receiving tepid, if any, responses from leadership on the left. Again and again I'll hear people lament – Why don't our party leaders ever push back against that vindictive sleaze? I tend to blame Michelle Obama for this with her noble, if wildly misguided, advice: If they go low, we go high. I don't know that we need to increase the volume of shouting, but it's pretty clear that going high isn't working.
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Sometimes when I have a few minutes to burn I like to go on TikTok. There are lots of fun videos there along with dad jokes I burden my family with. But there's a lot of factual news as well. For example, I've found out: Elton John has died; Tom Hanks has died; Tom Cruise has died; all Walmart stores are closing in November; what "I know ball" means; Trump wants to re-name New York City; the sun is about to go out completely.
All of this shows just how lacking traditional media – newspapers, radio, television – are.
G.K. Wuori ©2025
Photoillustration by the author