The
Politics of Sadism
There is an ethical question that goes something like this: if there was
a way to cure all illnesses and sicknesses in the world, even cancer, but the
price to get this was the torture of a young innocent child, would you accept
it?
I think that most of us would say that it would be unacceptable. That we would not allow an innocent child to
be subjected to torture and torment even if it resulted in something that would
benefit everyone.
Now mind you I’m not saying that you would be the one to torture or
torment that innocent child. You
wouldn’t have to see it or even know who it was. Just to know that in order to get this
wonderful thing, that it would cost the pain and suffering of one innocent child.
I would like to think that most of us would say that this was
unacceptable.
And yet I also sadly suspect that many of us would still be perfectly
fine with it. Hell, some people would
even line up to be the tormenters.
That little feeling of delight in the misery of others is known as
sadism. It’s one of those sick things
that we really should not take pleasure in, and yet we do.
Sadism is also a powerful tool used in politics.
Take a group of people that you don’t like. That you hate. That you absolutely think that the world
would be better if they didn’t exist anymore.
Of course, you can’t kill them all, as much as you would like to. You can’t “Thanos Snap” them into dust. But you can make their very existence as
miserable as possible.
Take prisoners and force them to wear neon-pink jumpsuits with neon-pink
underwear. And not the boxers,
either. Briefs. Have them work cleaning up trash along the
highways in those neon-pink outfits.
Especially in those hot and unbearable summer days with the humidity
that is just this side of being pure liquid. No air conditioning. No TV.
Just water and peanut butter sandwiches for all the meals. Hey, why not, right? I mean, they’re prisoners. They’re criminal scum! They deserve misery and torment, right?
Too easy. Let’s try another group
of people that we don’t like.
Hey, how about all the people on welfare?
We don’t like them, do we? Just
ask the red-hat-wearing folk that listen to talk radio and watch Fox News and
the rest of the extremist conservative and fascist social media. Oh, “we” don’t like people who are on food
stamps or get unemployment or are on Medicaid!
They’re “moochers” and “leeches” and “fakers” and “lazy” who are living
the “high life” on our tax money. Oh,
wait... that should just be “our” money, right?
That’s how the red-hats have always seen it as being. Not “tax money” but “our money”.
Again, the red-hats can’t just exterminate people who need assistance, as
much as they wish they could; so, instead, they’ll do everything in their power
to make life miserable for people who need government assistance so they won’t
ask for it anymore.
First, let’s force them to take drug tests! After all, if a big private entity like a
corporation can require its employees to undergo drug testing, why not big
government? So every time those poor
people fill out forms, let’s have them also take drug tests! Hell, let’s have them take drug tests at
random. You want to keep getting that
money? You pee in the cup any time we
tell you to! Matter of fact, why not
right now? Get going!
Let’s also tell them just exactly what that welfare money can be used
for. Because “we all know” about the
family that buys filet mignon and lobster and champagne with food stamps,
right? “We all know” this to be true and
the red-hats will even tell you that they have “actually seen” them do it. Just like narcissist Donald Trump could
magically see all the Muslims in New Jersey cheering
the fall of the World Trade Center towers on 9/11. Because, you know, narcissists and sociopaths
and fascists have that special power to see things that other people can’t.
So, yeah, let’s tell them what kinds of food and drink that poor people
should be “allowed” to purchase. And
let’s put the burden on the overworked and underpaid store cashiers to
personally account for each purchase.
Hell, a
lot of them are also on assistance so they’ll know themselves how the
system should work.
Let’s put them to work too!
Red-hats love to attach work conditions to assistance. “What? You can’t work
because you can’t put the kids in day care?
Not our problem! Don’t have the
kids in the first place.”
That’s what the red-hats always say.
Oh, but wait, that’s not even the extent of sadism the red-hats have for
people on assistance! Some of them also
demand that people on assistance get a special check-out lane, and that they
should be forced to personally apologize to all the other shoppers and beg for
forgiveness for having to need government assistance. Considering that a good percentage of those
aforementioned cashiers are also on assistance, you can see why that idea will
never fly. But it keeps making the
rounds.
By the way, the red-hats have a very narrow view of what constitutes as
“welfare”. You know all the corporate
entities that get tax breaks and tax cuts and bailouts? Yeah, those aren’t considered “welfare”
according to the red-hats. You won’t see
the red-hats demand that farmers pee in a cup when
they get aid from Narcissist Trump’s tariff-fetish, or micromanage just how
the money is to be spent. It’s just the
“poor people” who are on “welfare” that get their sadism.
Thanks to the narcissist in the White House, we have a new target of
sadism: immigrants.
Well, not the people who are coming in on the corporate visas that the
sociopaths in Washington love to dole out like they were free samples of
Viagra. “We” don’t mind bringing in
people from India with three doctorates and a willingness to work cheaper than
American workers, and, thus force them to join the ranks of the “evil” welfare
recipients. And, no, “we” don’t have a
problem bringing in immigrants who are married to or related to the Narcissist-in-Chief.
It’s just everyone else that the red-hats hate and don’t want coming to
America. The dark-skinned people from
Haiti, and the brown-skinned people from Cuba, and the brown-skinned people
from Latin America and South America and… well, it’s pretty much anyone with
more melanin than a red-hat that they don’t want coming to America. “Nation of immigrants”? No, no, red-hats refuse to call themselves
that! They’re not “descendant of immigrants”! They’re “descendants of settlers”!
Anyway, now we have all these people who are coming to America because
they are escaping persecution, poverty, torment, drug gangs, third-world
dictators, and they are trying to seek asylum in America, and instead of coming
in they are being stopped at the border and not allowed in and are being forced
to stay in these “detention areas” that the red-hats refuse to call
“concentration camps” – even
though that quite literally is what it is.
We have children separated from their parents. Children sleeping on the floor. Children sleeping in cages. And we actually have government officials
telling a judge – as a matter of public record – that the United States
Government is
under no obligation to provide anything for the children they are holding in
these detention facilities. Not a
bed. Not soap. Not a toothbrush. Nothing.
And it’s not like things are better for those that are already in
America. People who are here “illegally”
are not allowed to get the very welfare programs that the red-hats already
despise (even
though the red-hats continue to spread the lie that they do). They can’t vote (even
though, again, the red-hats claim otherwise). And they are in continual threat of being
rounded up en masse at
the whims of a narcissistic and psychologically unstable President. Even those who are here legally are hesitant on
leaving the country for fear that they will be barred from returning.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg in the use of sadistic measures against
groups that the red-hats don’t like. You
want to stop certain groups from voting?
Change the voter registration law to demand a driver’s license only
instead of any kind of government ID for proof of eligibility. Can’t drive?
Too bad. You want to shut down
women’s clinics? Put restrictive medical
demands. Shut down adult entertainment
businesses and entertainers? Go after
the bank accounts and zone them into oblivion.
And that’s not to say that only red-hats engage in the politics of
sadism. Just ask the tobacco industry
and the firearms makers and the people that used to make lawn darts. But it seems like of late that the red-hats
have really embraced the idea of making other people suffer.
Let’s get brutally honest here... if you want to engage in acts of sadism
against those groups you hate and despise, that’s more reflective of the kind
of person you are than those you are targeting.
Just ask the Germans if you think history would look at you favorably
for your sadism. Don’t care about history? Well, they thought so too at the time. So did the Serbians in the 1990’s.
Now think about this: what would happen if *you* were in their situation? Would you accept ever-increasing levels of
sadism imposed on you? The American
farmers certainly didn’t expect to need government assistance after Narcissist
Trump got elected. Imagine if they were
treated the same way as the red-hats treat food stamp recipients. Pee in the cup, fill out the gazillion forms,
and find some kind of work in order to keep getting those tariff subsidies. You want us to bail out Wall Street? We get to tell you how to live your
lives. Don’t like it? Don’t be reckless in the first place!
Doesn’t feel good, does it? I truly
wish some of you would know what that is like.
Maybe the next financial collapse will give you that perspective. You can tell yourself that it won’t happen to
you, but this commentator knows from experience that it can.
I imagine a good percentage of the red-hats would claim to be Christian,
so I’m sure they would remember a little passage from the New Testament: “Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one
of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”
Tell me... which among you red-hat so-called “Christains” would be
sadistic to Jesus?
