brain hurts
Dec. 27th, 2004 11:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gmonkey42Not because I saw something stupid - I did but it's a hard-to-explain work rant and I don't think I'll bother posting it - I've had a headache since Saturday evening. It was bad yesterday and I spent most of the day lying around reading. It's not as bad today but it's still there.
It took me two hours and fifteen minutes to drive to work this morning. I guess whenever it rains, people start deliberately ramming other cars or something, I don't know. You'd think people who drive in the Bay Area would be capable of driving in the rain without causing an accident that blocks two lanes and causes 10+ mile traffic jams but I guess not.
So. Christmas. I got had a good time and ate way too much chocolate; I think that has something to do with the headache. I got two commie liberal books: America (the book) by the Daily Show people and some other people and What's the Matter With Kansas, about why people in the midwest vote for conservatives even though it just keeps making their economic situation worse. The main point (so far, I'm about half-way through) is that conservatives have managed to separate in the minds of the people culture from economics. So it's possible to be a billionaire modern-day robber baron but still come off as being one of the People if you're anti-intellectual and distance yourself culturally from the snooty, latte-drinking liberal stereotype. I hope the second half of the book tells us how to combat this because I don't have any ideas. No matter how much liberals prove that our policies are better for lower- and middle-class people than conservatives' tax-breaks-for-the-rich, the people get hung up on abstract ideas like making it illegal to be gay or not to be a Christian and that's all that matters to them. They're fooled into thinking everything will be fine if we turn our culture into some imaginary 1950s suburban utopian thing, while continuing to let corporations run roughshod over workers' rights and the environment.
The book explains how these 'culture wars' are un-winnable; conservatives can control all three branches of government and still pass themselves off as the underdogs by pointing to the social liberalism of popular culture, which is actually a product not of the liberal media boogeyman but of the market. Studios, publishers and radio stations are businesses and they put out the products they do because that's what people buy, not because of some kind of liberal conspiracy. But I don't see how liberals are going to change anyone's mind: people don't trust us any more. Conservatism is anti-intellectual and anti-education and the more people are uneducated and more untrusting of people who are knowledgeable and rational, the harder it's going to get to make people see Bush and his ilk pulling the wool over everyone's eyes while they make off with our money and our rights. Sigh.
Back to presents: my brother got me Donkey Konga, a Gamecube game with bongo drums that you have to play; it's like DDR except with drums. I like it except a lot of the songs are lameass. I got him GTA: San Andreas. My mum got us both the South Park season 4 DVDs. That's the one with the Great Expectations episode! I love that one!
And there was Christmas cake. The English kind with marzipan. I love Christmas cake. We had Tofurkey for dinner and it was OK but not great. Next time, I think we'll stick to the usual homemade vegetarian stuff.
It took me two hours and fifteen minutes to drive to work this morning. I guess whenever it rains, people start deliberately ramming other cars or something, I don't know. You'd think people who drive in the Bay Area would be capable of driving in the rain without causing an accident that blocks two lanes and causes 10+ mile traffic jams but I guess not.
So. Christmas. I got had a good time and ate way too much chocolate; I think that has something to do with the headache. I got two commie liberal books: America (the book) by the Daily Show people and some other people and What's the Matter With Kansas, about why people in the midwest vote for conservatives even though it just keeps making their economic situation worse. The main point (so far, I'm about half-way through) is that conservatives have managed to separate in the minds of the people culture from economics. So it's possible to be a billionaire modern-day robber baron but still come off as being one of the People if you're anti-intellectual and distance yourself culturally from the snooty, latte-drinking liberal stereotype. I hope the second half of the book tells us how to combat this because I don't have any ideas. No matter how much liberals prove that our policies are better for lower- and middle-class people than conservatives' tax-breaks-for-the-rich, the people get hung up on abstract ideas like making it illegal to be gay or not to be a Christian and that's all that matters to them. They're fooled into thinking everything will be fine if we turn our culture into some imaginary 1950s suburban utopian thing, while continuing to let corporations run roughshod over workers' rights and the environment.
The book explains how these 'culture wars' are un-winnable; conservatives can control all three branches of government and still pass themselves off as the underdogs by pointing to the social liberalism of popular culture, which is actually a product not of the liberal media boogeyman but of the market. Studios, publishers and radio stations are businesses and they put out the products they do because that's what people buy, not because of some kind of liberal conspiracy. But I don't see how liberals are going to change anyone's mind: people don't trust us any more. Conservatism is anti-intellectual and anti-education and the more people are uneducated and more untrusting of people who are knowledgeable and rational, the harder it's going to get to make people see Bush and his ilk pulling the wool over everyone's eyes while they make off with our money and our rights. Sigh.
Back to presents: my brother got me Donkey Konga, a Gamecube game with bongo drums that you have to play; it's like DDR except with drums. I like it except a lot of the songs are lameass. I got him GTA: San Andreas. My mum got us both the South Park season 4 DVDs. That's the one with the Great Expectations episode! I love that one!
And there was Christmas cake. The English kind with marzipan. I love Christmas cake. We had Tofurkey for dinner and it was OK but not great. Next time, I think we'll stick to the usual homemade vegetarian stuff.
