Soooo much to unpack this week. A vaccine denying famous person names a running mate whose chief qualification seems to be a lot of money. A criminal trial date is set. A monetary bond amount is lowered. A herpetologist is called to remove a toady from a major newsroom following a revolt of the actual talent. Ships hitting bridges, mass shootings in Russia. And lots, lots, more.
How do our heads not explode from the overstimulation? At the risk of slipping into curmudgeonland, is it me, or were things quieter when there were only newspapers, AM radios, and three major TV networks? You had to want to be informed back then, and had to work at finding out what was really going on in the world.
Oh yeah, I forgot. You still have to do that. Then, you had to pursue the news, choose to subscribe to and read a newspaper, turn on the TV before Gunsmoke came on and pay attention to the middle-aged white guy talking at you in glorious black and white. Now, something that often calls itself news pursues you. Stuff (the polite word) comes flying at you from phone and elsewhere 24/7. No escape, and no filters for factuality or anything else. You have to work hard to find out what is really going on by creating and using your own filters. Being smart and well-educated (not necessarily the same thing) helps but is no guarantee.
My favorite is this one, though. The antichrist becomes a door-to-door bible salesman (aw come on, that’s what it feels like, and if this were a different century that’s what it would be like). That image alone is worth the time spent writing this diary. Picture it. Overly long red string tie, ill-fitting suit covered in road dust, the comb over blown asunder by the wind off the prairie. The beloved off-brand Orban becomes off-brand Elmer Gantry. That nickname doesn’t have the same zing to it, but it has the virtue of being accuracy adjacent. The Wikipedia entry for the 1927 Sinclair Lewis story is highly entertaining in its own right . Not only do you get a thumbnail of the story (womanizing grifter exploits evangelicals for fun and profit), the article covers the push from pulpits to jail the novel’s author for not being Christian enough, or something. Some things just never get old.