So Fox and Breitbart, etc., are mad at Bruce Springsteen, again.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

38. Good analysis. I've been thinking about this a lot lately.

It seems like violent and tribal impulses and a tendency to hold tight to what we believe, even in light of evidence to the contrary. linger in our brains. But we seemed to be taming them. We began to value characteristics that would bring society to a kinder and gentler place.

In the great works of literature and film, most of us pretty much agreed on who were the good guys and who the bad. And the good guys weren't the selfish or greedy ones, or the braggarts or bullies or sadists. We knew there was something wrong with the malicious liars, cheats, and fraudsters. It was not the intellectually lazy or willfully ignorant we wanted our children to emulate.

Sure, we didn't know exactly how to get there, and we had a long way to go toward being a truly civilized society, with liberty and justice, and a decent life for all. But the general consensus seemed to be that's where we ought to be headed.

And, yeah, there were always some who cheered the villains. Loads of people thought Tony Soprano was a hero. But for the most part, it seemed to me anyway, we looked up to the good guy, not the asshole.

And then, inexplicably, more and more people seemed to be saying, you know what? Fuck it. So what if lots of our fellow Americans get totally screwed. In fact, I hope they do. Fuck 'em. If we get the chance, let's put the villain in charge.

Let's elevate, to the most prominent and powerful position in the land, a greedy, foolish, selfish-aggrandizing, anti-intellectual bully and con man.

I mean, I do think that if not for people believing lies about Democrats, the Rs could never have won. But what disturbs me is that so many of them wanted to believe those lies, and have to be working at it pretty hard not to see through Trump's BS.