This is why we want change.
Nobody can sacrifice in America. Screw the greater good, I've got mine and you're on your own. As for a shooting at Wal-Mart, when was the last time the east coast elite ventured into one, the intellectuals who keep telling us they know better when the truth is they've got less of a handle on America at large than the people walking the streets, trying to make ends meet.
Let's face it folks. In a week, max, this will be an old story. We get no change. WHY? Because people love their guns. They want to feel safe in their houses when the truth is family members end up shooting each other, or committing suicide.
And then there are the hunters. Okay, it's a sport. But if the NFL instituted new rules to cut down on CTE, can't we have new rules re gun ownership and hunting? Guns should go the way of the NFL. The NFL is gonna die. Parents don't let kids play. The only ones on the field are those who come from underprivileged circumstances and see this as a way to get ahead. Of course that's not completely true, but generally it is. That's right, we live in a gotcha culture. Unless your statement is 100% accurate, you're gonna be shouted down. America has become a land of facts, but the truth is society runs on emotions.
And what are the emotions of the many? You just can't get ahead. That's why they play the lottery. Forget the odds, that's their only chance of getting rich. And if you go to college, which you need to to become a receptionist, you end up with a ton of debt so you can't buy a house and...
Ever notice the media keeps running articles against self-driving cars? These are the same wankers against streaming music and digital books. Hell, I just bought a book yesterday, the Kindle version was only a buck less than the hardcover. I'd say the publishers have another thing (I know it's THINK, don't e-mail me!) coming, but they inhabit such a backwater most people don't care, they buy a book a year, if that. We had the same situation in music, and as soon as the public had an option to $15 CDs with one good track, they took it, they called it file-trading, Napster.
It's like the intelligentsia are against the future. They want to bring Tesla down. I'd say the problem is they didn't invent it, but the truth is they like life just the way it is, they want to play it safe, so they don't lose a thing.
This is how Trump won.
Oh come on, don't point to racism or some other b.s., the guy won because he was new and different and promised to upset the apple cart. What did the Democrats offer? The status quo. And that was only working for the entitled elites. The same elites freaking out about Sanders and Warren, they want to be in control, when the truth is they lost it years ago!
So you're a nobody in America, unnoticed, unable to get ahead, unable to get laid. There's no money for mental health, and you don't have insurance anyway. You can't afford it and don't even want to pay for Obamacare.
So you're looking for something to believe in. Call it Al-Qaeda. Call it the Incels. Call it white supremacy. I don't see anybody sacrificing to help these people, to get them on the right track. As for the guns they employ in mass shootings, cancel them, make them illegal. The government has the power, but it doesn't want to use it. And right wingers rule the Supreme Court and their interpretation of the 2nd Amendment is the people have to have guns to stand up to the government. This is like trying to use your IBM Selectric to fight the internet. It's 2019 folks. The danger is data, not guns for war. Hell, we use drones!
But all this digitization, these technical advancements, leave people overwhelmed. Which is why the old whites watch Fox and those who lean left can't stop trying to put their finger in the dike of the future. Yup, that's the problem, screen time! Yup, the anti-tech police believe they can fight mass shootings by banning 8chan. Can I remind you that after the music industry shut down Napster it was replaced with KaZaA and a host of other P2P services? Revenue didn't go up until you got ahead of the game, which in the case of music was Spotify.
You don't eradicate online, you replace. Find something more enticing. It can be done, never forget Facebook killed MySpace and Instagram has diminished Facebook and...
Give these guys on 8chan a chance of advancement job-wise, a chance to get laid, or counseling to achieve both and...they ain't gonna be wasting time looking how to blow things up. THEY WON'T HAVE ANY TIME!
Of course Trump is fanning the flames. But the story there is how the Republicans are afraid of him. Come on, break ranks, if Trump goes you're still in control, you've got Pence, but NO!!
That's right, people fire guns, and people make laws allowing people to get guns.
And then they throw their hands up, saying there are too many guns in America, you can never shut them down. The best solution for this is Chris Rock's, make the bullets damn expensive. Say a thousand bucks. Believe me, there will be no mass shootings by the underclass, they won't be able to afford it! But Hail Mary solutions...isn't that why they put down Sanders and Warren?
So if you're sitting at home, if you are not famous, you feel frustrated, powerless in this situation. You might as well sit on the couch and smoke dope. And I'm against dope-smoking, but I am for legalization. For a whole host of reasons. And one thing's for sure, no one is gonna vape and then go commit a mass murder!
So there's a school shooting in Florida and Laura Ingraham can't stop excoriating David Hogg. What's next, picking on babies?
And we always hear about the children, we only care about the children, then why are they separated from their parents at the border?
And that's the right's position. Bogeymen. Gay marriage. Illegal immigration. Dope. But even Republicans have gay children. And even Republicans have kids addicted and O.D.'ing on opioids. Yup, that's why we've suddenly got movement on opioids, the right's kids are affected.
And the only place people are really standing up to the opioid manufacturers is at museums, refusing to take Sackler money or giving the manufacturers' money back. And forget the cash, they've got so much, but what they're looking for is respectability, like Jeffrey Epstein, they want to be part of the rich and beautiful club. Which the hoi polloi cannot join.
Used to be all about rock stars. They challenged the status quo and did whatever they wanted, they had cash to cover the consequences of their behavior. But now, Bono becomes a VC. That's how you hang in Davos, you need more cash than you can ever make in the music industry.
The only people who laud performers are the ignorant young. Who are unaware of how the game is played. They don't know the game is rigged, run by people they don't know the names of.
Yup, this is another consequence of income inequality. No one with a brain wants to go into music, and the people who do are selling out constantly, to corporations, trying to make a few bucks.
You know what the status symbol is today? A PRIVATE PLANE! In almost all circumstances it makes no sense, you're better off with a NetJet account. But not only does it connote wealth and status, it allows you to give people rides and curry favor. It's like free records on steroids. And break the code and you're banned. You can't write a negative review and you can't call your benefactor out and if they get caught, you owe it to them to get them off, that's how the game works.
And instead of all the tax cuts for corporations and the rich, why not put it towards mental health problems, the homeless problem, try to pull these people up from the bottom. BUT NO! The Republicans keep on pointing at bogeymen, it's always somebody else's fault. And they play offense and the Democrats play defense and as soon as someone goes on offense, they're a pariah and must be shouted down. Tell me the solutions Biden is proffering again? What are his plans?
So there you have it folks. I'm lucky I live in California, which might as well be Russia to the Republicans, Gavin Newsom is worse than Putin in the eyes of the President. Newsom got new fuel standards agreed upon, close to the Obama rules as opposed to the pollute for all plan of the Administration. That's right, burn that coal, don't electrify cars, enact those tariffs. What did we learn decades ago? We live in a global economy! Oftentimes it does not make sense to make it here. And the truth is almost everything constructed here uses foreign parts. Trump keeps telling Tim Cook to build the new Mac Pro in America, but the truth is the old Mac Pro was hobbled by not being able to access enough high quality screws! I could go on, but please just see this as an illustration that there's a lot going on beneath the headlines, but in a tribal, cacophonic news world, who knows what the truth is unless you're reading all day long.
So you want a solution?
Start taking away the guns. And yes, take away their private health insurance too. How many people do you think need their guns? How many people have such great private health insurance they don't want to cough it up?
So kids get killed in Newtown and Parkland and we go into national mourning.
But if they kill some Latinos or poor people...forget about it. Because those who pull the strings don't care about them.
But they care when their teenage daughter gets pregnant, when their kid is shot or O.D.'s. Yup, that's self-centered America, it only matters if it happens to you. And the regular people are seen as chumps.
So, once again, we all feel powerless. We've lost belief in government. It's not only about holding Trump accountable for his lies, but letting the Democrats know it's not business as usual, and the rank and file are sick of being talked down to and ignored as people like Chuck Schumer, who uses a flip phone, I still can't get over that, deliver nothing.
One thing is for sure in America, we need change.
And we got it in Trump. But he's pushing us backward and antagonizing people all the while.
But the Democrats are afraid.
No, you bozos. EVERYTHING Bernie and Elizabeth are saying resonates with the hoi polloi, it's YOU, the media, the pundits, who it doesn't resonate with, dreaming about helicoptering to the Hamptons with someone rich, or taking their private jet to Cannes or the Caribbean.
Of course the shooters are bad actors.
But the truth is the elites are responsible. Trump first and foremost for stirring the pot, the Democrats for doing nothing, the well off who live behind walls and have contempt for the rest of the population.
Yup, we need to change our focus. If we want fewer mass shootings, we have to hold WASHINGTON, D.C. responsible!
That's the only way we're gonna get change.
I'm just looking for something to believe in, ironically just like these shooters.
Dick's Sporting Goods stopped selling guns and all the elites can talk about is their stock price, the hit to their earnings.
But what about morality, what about doing the right thing?
Wal-Mart needs to stop selling guns immediately. They need to be held responsible, they can afford it.
Like Republicans with abortions, guns should be hard to get.
But they've really got to go.
I can't believe in musicians, if you can even call them that.
I can't believe in Zuckerberg.
I can't believe in Sergei and Larry.
I can't believe in Gates.
I can't believe in McConnell.
I can't believe in Fox.
I can't believe in Biden.
I can't believe in Trump.
I can't believe in Remington.
I can't believe in Koch Brothers.
I can't believe in Wall Street.
I can't believe in Congress.
I can't believe in tariffs.
I can't believe in clean coal.
I can't believe in Rihanna.
I can't believe in Putin.
Just give me something to believe in, PLEASE!
--
Visit the archive:
lefsetz.com/wordpress/ --
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart:
ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj -Apple:
apple.co/2ndmpvp --
www.twitter.com/lefsetz --
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1 If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters,
Unsubscribe To change your email address
this link
