America's Still Trapped In Suspended Animation (As The GOP Runs America)

 

 This is obviously a strange time to be alive. It's even stranger if you started a blog in 2005, called The Macho Response, that predicted the cultural shift we're now experiencing, including - and probably especially - the defeat of the Democratic party. In hindsight, it wasn't that hard to see coming, because TMR was analyzing the deeper reasons America's been failing, not just moaning how bad it is to be where we are. And those underlying forces - like a love for NewAge cultism - still aren't being anywhere near fully addressed. If they were, we wouldn't have the husband to a "reiki master" and homeopath in charge of Medicare. 

Oh well. At least cartoons, today, better reflect our cartoon lives.

  

While the "6-7" meme is cute (and definitely not some "Satanic Numerology bullshit") it's also illustrative, in the wake of "Rapture" claims and the shooting of Christian grifter Charlie Kirk, because it reflects how easy it still is - even in 2025 - for seemingly-educated and intelligent people to get swept away by low-calorie ideas. South Park's contrast (of kids enamored by "6-7," with something equally powerful but invalid that adults are into, like Peter Thiel and the Christian concept of an Anti-Christ) nails how dangerous this cavalier treatment of beliefs is: as school authorities are coming down on innocent kids over nothing, for religious reasons, the powerful also decide they also see threats to us all. 

The difference is, the kids know the idea they're playing with is nothing, while, by the time they become adults, they're treating all of it like it's very real. And - except for kids having fun for a while - no good is coming from any of it. As everyone takes action.

    

Today, contradictions, of all kinds, are starting to pile on top of one another. When Democrats were in power America saw encroaching fascism. Now, the GOP was complaining that people are shooting at them, before the Young Republicans were caught admitting they're Nazis who love them some Hitler. And this led to JD Vance - who, at the start of the administration, made it known he'd punish anyone being so antisemitic as to criticize Israel's genocide - now claiming these ultimate of antisemites on the right are just kids (in their 20s and 30s) having fun. 

You know, like 8-year olds, on South Park.

 

I'm Fucking Psychic Now

 

 Cabinet Magazine, 2001: 

"New Age is establishing itself as the hegemonic ideology of global capitalism" 

   

 Inc. Magazine, 2024: 

The Cult-Like Language That's Coursing Through Business

Michael Shamblin (center, above) son of deceased cult leader, Gwen Shamblin, 2024: 

'What were we doing? What was I thinking?' 

   

Everybody - in the future: 

“I Was Tired of Paying My Therapist to Learn About Cults”

 

They Made A Show About Me Before I Even Wrote One

It's like I was filming with my cell phone everywhere I go,...

I'm Not Getting Out Enough

Divorce, Cheating Girlfriends, Diarrea: "THAT IS LIFE!!!"

Along with a tendency for the insecurely ignorant to form cults - can't forget that: 

 "Go to HellRon, L. Ron!" 

 Brilliant,...

 

Crazytalk

Somebody at Slate thought this was a misleadingly eye-catching link for an economics story: 

 Austerity Is Ruining Everything That Makes Europe Better Than America 

It caught my eye because, unlike the folks at Slate, I can't think of much "that makes Europe better than America" and, having lived there, I'm still looking. 

I wonder why Slate would lie like that? Have they never seen Adult Swim? There's no Adult Swim in Europe. I know French music lovers who are just discovering The Wu-Tang Clan - in what way is being culturally 20 years behind somehow "better"? 

The lame parameters of Europe's established circle jerk, where any American who doesn't look like a relative of Tom Brokaw is deemed "authentic" - permitting everyone in agreement, internationally, to openly marginalize our country for almost anything - is bullshit. It's especially galling when Americans, like the folks at Slate, engage in it. "Better than America"? How?

 

If you ask me, Europeans generally don't know their heads from their asses and, if they did, they wouldn't have spent so much of history standing on each other's throats. (America's less than 300 years old and we're already over most of that shit, the slopes,...) To speak of "Everything That Makes Europe Better Than America" is to speak, mainly, of sloth. We don't have enough of it. If an American has what used to be referred to as "get up and go", Europe will declare them to have ADHD instead, prescribing a homeopathic preparation and lots of de-stressing "rest" (and wine) so such evil ideas will never invade their, oh, so rationally self-enforced, pursuit of eternal leisure ever again. Hell, by merely typing this blog I'm already engaged in a more active endeavor than the average Frenchman, so what the fuck? 

Why must I read this shit, much less, have to consider Americans writing it? Don't these people have editors? Has anyone at Slate actually been to Europe? Come on. 

 Oh - wait - I get it,...

Oh Hell Yeah - Now THAT's A Step In The Right Direction

Finally, We Can Breath Again: Superjail Is Back!

Here we go:

Unfortunately, this also means I won't be getting much sleep for a while,...

SUPERJAIL!!! (That's Entertainment)

Black Artists/White Audience: The Big Grey Area

When this whole cult clusterfuck busts wide open - and it will, because it's in the world of politics now, and I'm no longer the only dog in on the hunt - I'm expecting everyone I've discussed it with online (Orac, Ann Althouse, Glenn Reynolds, etc.) to step forward and admit I was there first, so I can be eligible for the Medal of Freedom or some shit. That so many others in the business of spreading information are ignoring the influence of NewAge on current events involving the Left (like they all did with the John Edwards scandal, which also has a deep NewAge component, through Rielle Hunter) all because it's in the realm of religion/spirituality is nothing less than criminal. At the very least, they're allowing others to steal my thunder:

"The latest episode of 'The Boondocks,' the satirical animated TV series that airs on the Cartoon Network's Adult Swim slate, takes brutal aim at Perry and his brand, which blends melodrama, raucous comedy and religious themes. Coming under intense ridicule is Perry's portrayal of Madea, the gun-toting, foul-mouthed grandmother at the center of many of his films.

In 'Pause,' an episode written by [creator Aaron] McGruder and executive producer Rodney Barnes that aired Sunday, a thinly disguised version of Perry named Winston Jerome is positioned as a closeted, cross-dressing cult leader whose love of the Christian faith is a mask for his true sexuality. Though the character bears little physical or vocal resemblance to Perry, the reference is obvious to those familiar with Perry's work. The dancing Ma Duke is a clear parody of Madea.

The Jerome character wears a pink sweater, is surrounded by bare-chested muscular men and constantly proclaims his love for Jesus even as he attempts to seduce Granddad ( John Witherspoon), the guardian of the two boys, Huey and Riley Freeman, at the center of the series. The fame-hungry Granddad is trying out for a part in Jerome's new play, 'Ma Duke Finds Herself a Man.'

Near the end of the episode, Jerome bluntly asks Granddad for sex; the old man responds, 'Do you mean to tell me that this whole cross-dressing Christian cult crap is just so you can sleep with men?' 'Uh, pretty much, yeah,' says Jerome.

The episode marks one of the sharpest public criticisms of Perry. Huey Freeman calls the script for 'Ma Duke' 'terrible.' The Perry brand has also been blasted by some critics and entertainers such as Spike Lee, who say Perry's projects perpetuate negative stereotypes, and present a narrow view of African American life.

McGruder and executives for Turner and Adult Swim declined to comment on the episode. Representatives for Perry did not return phone calls."

Anyway, here's a big shout out to Aaron McGruder - a Hip-Hop fan - for also speaking up:

We'll show them yet.

Brilliant: Let's "Break Bread" With Black Jesus!!!

When A Silly Cult Show Gets Into A Cult Seminar

This is another great episode of Adult Swim's "Superjail" - they're even (smarter than most by) correctly labeling NewAge cultism as "mumbo jumbo" - watch the whole thing. And click on this post's title to see how it works in the real world.

The First Day Of The Long Night

It seems like the only real pleasure I get from television anymore is staying up all night and watching Adult Swim. The Daily Show and The Colbert Report don't make me laugh. I hate the continuous commercials that are always telling me what to do (go green) like I live in the movie "1984". The movies and the news programs (if you can call them that) are also full of messages, so what's the point? There's no free thinking anymore, just cults and their followers, and I've got no place in any of that.

God, the post-hippie world is such a disappointment. Even after the invention and spread of computers, people have just grown stupid. I talk to them all the time, online, and what strikes me most is their selfishness. How they think it'll spawn anything but more selfishness is beyond me. So it can't last. Like Rome, they're bringing about the fall of society, and they won't realize what they've lost until it's gone. Then I'll have the last laugh, but I certainly won't think anything's funny. It'll just be a waste. The greatest country on Earth, felled by the willful immaturity of a generation that refused to grow up. Go on - dance your all-important dance, people - the music will stop soon enough.

People who know that race is superficial think electing a black president will stop our enemies. It doesn't get any more surreal than that. But that's cultism for you: I can't talk cultists out of their delusions. I was once married to a cultist who let herself be convinced she could walk through walls. When I told her to show me she just got mad - at me - this election is no different. Later, she let herself be convinced she could cure AIDS and cancer with her hands (Reiki). But when her cult friend with AIDS died she was too much of a coward to stay in the room. I didn't like the guy, so I, alone, watched the cultist die. My wife's mother had cancer and my wife found Dr. Robert Wohlfhart, a homeopathic cultist, to treat her mother in France. Her mother was in excruciating pain for, like, forever before she died. (The homeopathy and Reiki didn't work.) Then the "doctor" talked my wife into fucking him and turned her on to Kundalini Yoga and Ken Wilber. She didn't understand when I didn't understand. All that's come afterwards, to me, is a piece of that. Just the selfishness of others causing the death of all I held dear. But not killing me. Not a chance.

"We hold these truths to be self evident" is a phrase I think about, a lot, these days. I think I'm the last person of my generation who thinks what's self evident is important. Not what I "believe" is possible but what is and will be. Prediction: president Obama will meet Osama bin laden and it won't be pretty. Barack's just going to talk his head off - right into a basket. (The presidency, in real life, ain't an episode of The West Wing.) But it won't happen before the rest of you give in. What? You think Al Qaeda is going to be impressed by Burning Man? You're fools. And it doesn't pay to argue with fools. You're already the walking dead.

I've sometimes wondered how the world would end, and if it would happen in my time; if this generation would be up to the task of keeping America strong. I think I've got my answer. I had no idea, though, it would end like this.

Metalocalypse is on. Home Movies comes on after that. I love these shows.

I'ma enjoy 'em while I can.

And, no matter what happens, you should enjoy: