And if someone died—for real Twitter addicts, that’s Asshole Christmas. If you could make a facile point that reinforced your team’s political stance on the day someone collapsed in front of his wife and kids—you were a true hero, the Twitter version of a captured pilot resisting torture in a POW camp. Except your prison was your mother’s basement, or your half of a Brooklyn apartment covered with Cheetos.
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Samizdata quote of the dayAugust 31st, 2018 |
 6 comments to Samizdata quote of the day |
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Going to need some aloe vera laced with lidocaine for that one. Every four hours for the next couple of days. 😁
“Dear lord, social media has turned us into terrible people.”
No, it hasn’t. It has thrown light on the terrible people who were always around. And, yes, maybe given them too much influence. But there was a brisk trade in “I still hate Thatcher” T-shirts long before Twitter came along (and long after she’d been diagnosed with dementia).
Good article, though. Seems like a decent, thoughtful guy.
Sure, I mean he has a point. Give lots of nobodies a megaphone and you realize that half the population has an IQ below 100, and you quickly realize that people, shielded from the moderating factor of facing the people they deal with, quickly drop the veneer of decency and civilization. Really, it is a lot like road rage. Anonymous in your car dealing with another anonymous in another car, one can readily think the most vile thoughts that would never occur to you in different circumstances, something that occasionally flares into much worse with those especially deficient in impulse control.
But the flip side isn’t all that great either. All the endless tributes and hagiographies for this man? I mean I understand that he was very brave in the war and all, and they gave him a silver star for that. But he is just a politician, and not a very nice one at that. Obviously the death of anybody is a tragedy for their friends and family, but a million other people died that day, so why the big fuss about this member of the American royalty? Flags at half mast, lying in state, buildings named after him. And apparently the president wasn’t sufficiently sack clothed and ashed.
I’m sorry the dude died, especially for his family, and I agree that his daughter’s tribute was quite lovely. But frankly America is probably better off without him. After all, he is personally responsible for the current state of American healthcare, a vote that, most people would agree was done out of his spiteful dislike of the president rather than his duty to pass laws that benefited the country.
Honestly, the sickly sweet blather has left me a little nauseated, especially when it is compounded with ugly hypocrisy coming from the same people who said vile things about him when he was running for President. To hear the news coverage, you’d think Jesus had died or something.
He was an all around bad man. He may have been nice to his kid–I’m sure he showed her a good life on his loot.
Everything else about the “Songbird” stinks. I’d have dumped his carcase in a skip never mind Arlington.
His known crimes are bad enough. The possibly covered-up ones are potentially worse. Some allege that the USS Forrestal disaster–an aircraft carrier fire with 134 dead sailors– was caused by McCain trying to grandstand a wet start to his jet. We will doubtless never know the facts but it has a ring of his arrogance. He certainly was there and his family were high enough Navy brass to cover it up.
I made a point of NOT mentioning the death of John McCain on Twitter or Facebook or any form of Social Media.
Whatever else he was – John McCain was a patriot, who had suffered much and was loved by his family. His death (after long torment by brain cancer – which had a horrible effect on him) was a tragedy for his family and his real friends (rather than the fake “friends” who have used his death for their political agenda).
How much of the late John McCain’s behaviour (such as the absurd statement that the Democrats MUST be included in healthcare reform – which, of course, made repealing Obamacare, or any other real reform, impossible) was caused by his illness, I do not know. The man is the hands of God now – and he now sees clearly, whilst the rest of us (regardless of our political opinions) on this Earth see through darkened glass.
Mr Ecks is correct; McCain was a thoroughly bad man. He was directly responsible for the USS Forrestal disaster (the worst peacetime disaster in US naval history, with 34 dead and 100 injured), but until recently his role was covered up because of his prominent father. (The records were recently released.) He was no “hero” as a POW, but received special treatment because the PAVN leadership recognized his value since his father was an admiral. The man gained 10 pounds during captivity! How many other POWs could boast that? And he willingly told his captors everything he knew (hence the nickname “songbird”). He was not tortured by the PAVN (although he was thoroughly beaten by the peasants who captured him after his plane was shot down). He abandoned his crippled wife after he returned from Viet Nam (she had been severely injured in an automobile accident) to marry an heiress 18 years his junior. And he was corrupt; Google “the Keating Five”. His only real legislative accomplishment was passage of the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform Act (introduced as retribution for his loss of the Republican presidential nomination to George W. Bush in 2000), a thoroughly unconstitutional (despite the Supreme Court’s ruling) law which is terrible public policy to boot. Even as he lay dying his arrogance knew no bounds: his constituents were denied representation in the Senate because he refused to resign but never cast a single vote in his last 9+ months.
The US is well rid of him.