R.E.M. may be defunct but...

[shipperx]

Lately singing "it's the end of the world as we know it..."  seems a bit too en pointe.

My state has an inglorious history that for reasons I cannot fathom they seem intent on repeating because they elected a bunch of rightest fruitcakes and we're on a recession fueled backlash nationwide. 

Things that cause me to shake my head and dislike what's going on around me:

The embarassing draconion immigration law the state has passed

The detrimental societal repercussions of the repugnant draconian immigration law

The fact that the only thing people are really complaining about in the  draconian immigration law... are the bits that inconvenience teh white people

The repugnant racist party head in Montgomery (don't miss the aboriniges comment  in addition to 'empty the clip'  comment or the fact that the jackhole kept his job)

And while we're at it, let's not leave out Republican Presidential candidate Rick Perry and his hunting camp  (Dude, your family may have owned that camp 'for a while'  but that word has been socially taboo for over forty years and was truly offensive for...well... ever.   Since the Perrys began leasing it in the 1980s(!) and still left that name... I'm saying bullshit to you, sir.  Bull-shit.)

Then there's Hank Williams Jr comparing the President to Hitler

And of course local jackhole talk radio host  Finebaum had to weigh in defending the arse

And that  same radio station woke me the other morning playing this Hank William's Jr song asking callers whether it was racist

(The answer you're looking for to that radio question is 'hell yes it is.'... not that many of the callers thought so... which is why I despair of willfully ignorant segments of our society.  Because Southerners -- of which my family and I are... going back for a couple of hundred years -- are taught many things to say regarding the Civil War, things like it was due to economic issues or that fond rememberance is about heritage not slavery.  But boiling away the platitudes, it was an economy... built on slavery.  It was a heritage... built on slavery.  And you can't neatly divorce one from the other as if they were in no way related... because they were.  An old rant of mine on the subject)

I realize that economic problems regularly lead to the seeking of 'other' as scapegoat and retrenching into defensive postures (see WWII) but, sheesh.  It's the 21st century, it would be nice if we were slightly better by now.

Comments

[paratti.livejournal.com]

Is horrified even more by the fact I'm not surprised:(

Do you think that the USA will end up by splitting into possibly several countries in the coming years?

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

I'm hoping that time will do a lot of it. There are generational divides at work as well. Younger people have grown up on a more tolerant society so, while there is certainly racism in the younger generation as well, there's also greater sensitivity to it in many respects.

I place my hopes more in the future, alas, there are also some folks who will never change. :(