Delusional Children

Climate Crisis, War Crimes, The Death of our Constitution, The Economy, Political Prostitution, Political Prisoners in America, and Iraq, Iraq, Iraq:

Perusing those links…….One would think that there was something deeply wrong, here in The Land of the Free…if one actually thought. Which apparently, those paid to do so, politicians, newsroom editors and pundits….don’t. Nothing penetrates The Bubble, or on the rare occasion it does, it is conscientiously dismissed and ignored, in favor of a mythic narrative that is self-reinforcing to the point of actual, clinical delusion. One would be led to question where the line of cognitive dissonance occurs with The Villagers, if one didn’t recognize that very little cognition is actually occurring.

Like little children who don’t want to go to school and actually learn the facts, like the Religious Right who deny science while being surrounded by its fruits, like folks afflicted with real mental delusions…nothing dissuades them from insisting on their mythological narrative. If they let actual facts into their Bubble, it would burst, leaving them bereft of the delusions and myths that they have built there dream world around.

As always Glenn Greenwald nails it

Things like war crimes, torture, aggressive and illegal wars, and the destruction of the rule of law are things that, by definition, don’t happen to or in the United States. Those are principles which only apply to the dark, dank, wicked places — not here. Thus, the Yoo memoranda and what they spawned are not a big deal because they don’t reflect anything fundamentally wrong and evil with our government, because, as America, we’re immune from anything like that ever happening. So even when conclusive evidence of those things emerges, there’s no reason to pay attention to it. They’re just isolated matters from the boring past, no reason to act as though there’s anything deeply wrong here and certainly no reason to distract us from the vapid, petty chatter in which they wallow.

And then there is the self-absorbed motivation to defend the establishment which they support. Both of them supported the Bush administration and advocated for the invasion of Iraq. Hence, the absolute last thing they want to face — just as is true for most of our political and media establishment — is that the things they cheered on have spawned grave atrocities and vast destruction.

It can never be the case that there is anything profoundly wrong — fundamentally wrong — with the American political establishment. Why not? Because the McArdles and Drezners both support it and are part of it, and they are Good and thus can’t possibly be responsible for things like “war crimes” or “torture regimes” or illegal wars of aggression. That’s why the political establishment is so desperate to stay in Iraq until we “win” and to convince everyone that the public supports them again. They are desperate to wash their hands of that which they enabled so they can pretend they never did.

Unfortunately, the only recourse we have is to keep pounding them, day after day, throwing facts up against the bubble until it penetrates. As long a those who control the discussion are in effect delusional, no progress will be made. It is up to those of us outside The Bubble to burst it, so our country, and indeed the world, can move forward without the endless delusional drivel that passes for our national conversation.

To that end I wish to re-emphasize that first link…Gore: Crisis of Citizenship Impedes Addressing Environmental Crises, by Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse