Getting realistic: The economy, Nazis, Spotify politics and the health benefits of cream cheese
The nutritional additive that makes everything better
I have a list of Twitter users I call “AR,” short for “Alt-Right,” which I open up when I want to better understand one bizarre current concept or another.
It rarely works, because the gush of half-baked ideas comes so thick and fast that my search target gets lost in the flood. It’s like cracking the door of a particularly boisterous insane asylum.
And I get distracted when perusing the AR list because most of the posts actually seem reasonable at first. I never learn.
After a few sentences they usually collapse into bilious silliness. I wind up amazed that such claptrap gets similar numbers of likes to pictures of cats and cleavage.
The AR Twitter list is locked so only I can see it. No one needs my stupid list. Citizens of questionable taste can find plenty of crackpot conspiracy theories to poison their points of view on their own. They’re welcome to that. But I don't want to be their waiter.
I think I keep the list off-limits for a similar reason that Neil Young, joined by Joni Mitchell, Nils Lofgren and others, have for pulling their work from Spotify.
It’s not quite accurate to call them censors. They’re no more guilty of censorship of Joe Rogan’s output than I am for hiding my list of his pals. They just don't want their own work carried on the same platform as his.
They can now avoid associating themselves with prevarications apparently so entertaining that some folks respond by acting against their own interest in self-preservation.
Neil Young is now old. He’s certainly old enough to understand that if his core occupation is tied up with Rogan’s, his life’s work becomes much less meaningful. Perhaps even similarly ridiculous.
Maybe no one else was thinking that. But he was. Self-respect is something smart people should realize is important by the time their joints are achy and their faces pruny.
Bigger deals than him have come to the same conclusion over the years. In 1942, the U.S. Catholic Church leadership finally turned against Father Charles Coughlin, whose often brilliant radio broadcasts and newsletters had become flavored with generous dollops of pro-Nazism.
Father Coughlin had as many as 10 million fans, but the cardinals eventually came to the conclusion that his baggage outweighed the popularity he was bringing to their business. As long as they tolerated his opinions, they were members of his bund.
We might all consider detaching ourselves from disturbing ideas we encounter that are likely untrue.
For example, I have recently been informed that the terms “cup of joe,” “blackball” and “hushpuppy” are of racist origin. No, they’re not.
These are perfectly good words that were giving people simple pleasure until killjoys decided to look for ways to make themselves semantic heroes.
They should call a slowdown to their lazy Eureka moments unearthing evil historical etymologies they assume are long-forgotten but are really just imaginary. Instead, they might encourage giving a rest to words that actually hurt people’s feelings right now, like “fat,” “ugly,” “stringbean,” “libtard,” “tranny,” “breeder,” “terrorist,” “redneck,” “Bubba” and half of the entries in the Urban Dictionary.
Recently, I have personally complained about the insistence that beans, potatoes and peanut butter are bad for the people who eat them.
Mostly, they’re fine. Healthy. They’re not perfect, but not nearly as scary as the TikTok, YouTube and Instagram recipes palmed off as low-carb health food that feature entire packages of cream cheese, bacon or Velveeta.
Finally, the folks on AR, and elsewhere, maintain that the economy stinks. It doesn’t. Real Gross Domestic Product – not swelled and distorted by inflation – was $23 trillion in 2021, surpassing the previous all-time high by $1.6 trillion.
That’s way better than the year before, when it had dropped 2.2%, the biggest slide since the Great Depression.
The leading economic indicators have been rising steadily since last spring. The indicators were a hair down in January, but get this: retail sales were up 13% year-over-year last month, and 3.8% over December. That’s right, January sales were higher than December’s.
December was, of course, hampered by Omicron. But still.
The economy doesn’t stink. Our lives stink. We’re sick of sickness and trying to ward it off.
March is likely to bring a further break in COVID-19 and an accompanying brick-and-mortar boom driven by pent-up demand.
The supply chain cramps may loosen enough for everyone to purchase their heart’s desires. Knock yourselves out.
Just take it easy on the cream cheese.
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