“I’ve been looking all over the place for a place for me. But it ain’t anywhere. It just ain’t anywhere.” — Syd Barrett
Sometimes somebody does something that makes them so vulnerable that you don’t know how to react. Pink Floyd did not officially release the above song until the last few years. They said it felt like releasing pictures of an aging actress in the buff. They were deeply personal songs from Barrett during one of the darkest times in his life. Someone so vulnerable induces more pity than anything else.
We’ve seen her before. She’s fairly prolific and if you do a quick Google search, you will see a lower quality video of Ms. Steinberg going nuts on June 22nd when she saw a pride flag in her hometown of Huntington Beach. So, when one is faced with something like this they have to decide whether to go down the sarcasm road or the serious road. I’ve decided to play it straight for today.
She talks about us losing rights. I’m not sure who us is or what rights we are all losing, but I can only imagine she is referring to freedom of speech and expression. This one is easy to dispense of. No one has a right to a platform. The only thing the first amendment says is that Congress shall make no law. It doesn’t say anything about Verizon dropping them or that they have an absolute right to broadcast garbage. That’s literally not how any of this works.
Interestingly enough, many in this crowd are calling for the wall between church and state to be broken down. So, we want the freedom of the press and freedom of speech to be expanded, but we also want freedom of religion (and freedom from religion) to be eroded. I’m going to have to pass on this opportunity to help.
There is far too much hatred in this world. I don’t hate Alison Steinberg. I really don’t know her at all outside of the extreme persona she has crafted for herself. It would be interesting for her to elaborate on who the powers that be are. We hear frequent mention of a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. So, wouldn’t that be us?
It’s hard to reconcile a few things. The marketplace of ideas is a delicate ecosystem. When you exile a part of that ecosystem it never quite goes away. However, if you artificially prop up a group of people peddling lies, hate, and conspiracy theories you are propping up those that would poison their own so they can have their steak and lobster tonight.
It is hard to objectively say the world is a better place with Fox, Newsmax, and OAN in it. I suppose others would say the same about MSNBC, CNN, and the like. If forced to choose between all or none I would probably choose none. Yet, this where we start getting into talk about proportionality and equivalency. I’m just not seeing it. Maybe that’s my failing. I just don’t know.
In the span of nine years we have lost three cats when they went outside. We can’t say for absolute fact that one of the wild animals that live in our neighborhood got them, but I think it’s a fairly good bet. These animals have a right to exist. They are acting on instinct and can’t be blamed or called immoral. I also don’t have to invite them into our backyard. They are wild animals. They aren’t going to suddenly become civilized because I was nice to them. OAN will always do what it does. It’s its nature. Being nice to them is not going to change that.
halloffameindex 