Posted by John Christian Plummer
Anchor babies and terror babies and Obama birther theories and Louie Gohmert's talkathon rages are nonsense. Sorry, they just are. I know there are some human lives hanging in the balance in these pretend issues. Real people who are American citizens in Arizona are being locked up. This is real. But when regarded in the context of life on earth, they are nonsense.
non·sense - noun
1. words or language having little or no sense or meaning.
2. conduct, action, etc., that is senseless, foolish, or absurd: to have tolerated enough nonsense.
3. impudent, insubordinate, or otherwise objectionable behavior: He doesn't have to take that nonsense from you.
4. something absurd or fatuous: the utter nonsense of such a suggestion.
5. anything of trifling importance or of little or no use.
Amazingly, this crap fits all definitions.
But let's step back for a second. Over one-thousand five-hundred human beings have been killed by flooding in Pakistan. Over seven million (yeah, million) need emergency services right now.
Fires are raging all over Russia due to record heat waves. Over 4,000 Russians are homeless as a result. Over 2 million acres of forest is destroyed. And now:
Fires have scorched forests contaminated with radiation from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, a Russian forestry official said on Wednesday,
The climate crisis is all-consuming, and yet so much our attention is consumed by crap like "terror babies." Here's the thing: pretend these racist wingnuts like Gohmert are right, and 1,000 jihadist babies will be born in this country. Follow that story out: the babies grow up to be adult jihadists who launch attacks on this country that kill fewer people than die slipping in their bathroom every year. But of course the adult jihadists do serve another function, and this is important: they prop up the ongoing boondoggle known as the military-industrial complex, or what Bob calls "white collar welfare."So the nonsense is employed in the service of making a lot of cents for a few hundred billionaire bomb-makers.Meanwhile, for billions of human beings, this environment is becoming hazardous to our health.I hope to find time to post more about what doesn't matter (i.e. anything to do with L. Lohan, Orly Taint, or anyone who was ever on or will be on a reality show (yeah, you, too, Snookie)) and what does matter: OUR INCREASING INABILITY TO SUSTAIN OUR WAY OF LIFE ON THE ONLY PLANET WE CAN LIVE ON.