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Supreme Court Nomination
Sep. 25th, 2018 05:05 pmI like to think that I have a pretty realistic perspective on the depravity that humans are capable. However, just because I know _how_ depraved a human can be, does not necessarily mean that in any given group at any given time I have any kind of realistic sense of how depraved a _typical_ member of a group is.
For example, we have someone currently being considered for confirmation for the Supreme Court. We are pretty damn sure that he participated in setting the torture policies of the W. administration. And since he swore under oath for his previous confirmation (to his current job) that he had nothing to do with any of that, we are equally (exactly equally) certain that he has committed perjury. Participating in instituting a policy of torture and then lying about it under oath to the Senate, and then, further, not recusing himself when that policy led to a case in front of him at his new job gives us a relatively clear sense that this man is quite depraved.
But there are a variety of kinds of depravity, and they are not all closely related. Just because — as an example — one says it is completely okay to torture someone you suspect is on the opposing side of a conflict in order to gain some kind of information does not _necessarily_ mean that they, for example, engage in other arbitrarily chosen depraved activity, such as, for example, electrocuting family pets.
At this particular point in time, googling the nominee’s name and the word “train” produces a set of results. Some of the results are, while not _great_ for the nominee, not any more depraved than what I have mentioned above. Some of the results — and, in all likelihood, all of the results in a few days — are quite otherwise.
Here is a comparatively innocent example:
https://amp.usatoday.com/amp/1338577002
Here’s the kind of less innocent example that I suspect may come to dominate the future news cycle:
https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/policy-and-politics/2018/9/24/17896136/michael-avenatti-email-brett-kavanaugh-devils-triangle
One wonders how much of the media is going to have to figure out how to explain what this means to God-fearing middle America. Because clearly, they are the ones who need to understand.
In the mean time, I’m feeling very angry, in a way I haven’t felt in quite a long while, because I’m seeing things that make me think that _literally every_ Republican in DC engages in this behavior, or has in the past. Because “boys will be boys”. I mean, if they are going to “normalize” this by saying “who hasn’t” done this, and “we should all be afraid when allegations of this nature are flung about” then I’m forced to sit back and ask, wait a minute: does this mean this is the kind of thing _you_ did when you got drunk at parties in high school?
For example, we have someone currently being considered for confirmation for the Supreme Court. We are pretty damn sure that he participated in setting the torture policies of the W. administration. And since he swore under oath for his previous confirmation (to his current job) that he had nothing to do with any of that, we are equally (exactly equally) certain that he has committed perjury. Participating in instituting a policy of torture and then lying about it under oath to the Senate, and then, further, not recusing himself when that policy led to a case in front of him at his new job gives us a relatively clear sense that this man is quite depraved.
But there are a variety of kinds of depravity, and they are not all closely related. Just because — as an example — one says it is completely okay to torture someone you suspect is on the opposing side of a conflict in order to gain some kind of information does not _necessarily_ mean that they, for example, engage in other arbitrarily chosen depraved activity, such as, for example, electrocuting family pets.
At this particular point in time, googling the nominee’s name and the word “train” produces a set of results. Some of the results are, while not _great_ for the nominee, not any more depraved than what I have mentioned above. Some of the results — and, in all likelihood, all of the results in a few days — are quite otherwise.
Here is a comparatively innocent example:
https://amp.usatoday.com/amp/1338577002
Here’s the kind of less innocent example that I suspect may come to dominate the future news cycle:
https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/policy-and-politics/2018/9/24/17896136/michael-avenatti-email-brett-kavanaugh-devils-triangle
One wonders how much of the media is going to have to figure out how to explain what this means to God-fearing middle America. Because clearly, they are the ones who need to understand.
In the mean time, I’m feeling very angry, in a way I haven’t felt in quite a long while, because I’m seeing things that make me think that _literally every_ Republican in DC engages in this behavior, or has in the past. Because “boys will be boys”. I mean, if they are going to “normalize” this by saying “who hasn’t” done this, and “we should all be afraid when allegations of this nature are flung about” then I’m forced to sit back and ask, wait a minute: does this mean this is the kind of thing _you_ did when you got drunk at parties in high school?