A friend forwarded a letter to me. I won't name the author, who (according to the letter) is an actor on a popular television series. He might be surprised to learn that his name is being used for propaganda.
Make no mistake, this type of message is propaganda. There's a patina of respectability because it claims to come from a known source. There's even a photo of the actor, so it must be genuine.
The refrain in this message is that the author is "tired." He's worked hard all his life. I'll give him that one. Acting is marketing oneself more than anything, and marketing is hard work.
Then the moaning begins. He's tired of the government taking his hard-earned money and giving it to lazy bums who don't work as hard as he does. He doesn't understand that some people are simply not capable of working as hard as he does. In fact, he's been lucky to avoid a long period of disability, which happens to half of all Americans, or a chronic illness.
He's tired of paying taxes to bail out people who tried to flip pricey houses. Actually, the big bailouts went to the big banks. He's also tired of the government programs that created the bubble. Actually, the banks paid Congress to deregulate them. The bubble happened because of too little government in one area, not too much.
He's tired of limousine liberals who trash America. Who loves his country more: someone who blindly favors one side over another and continually smears all government, or someone who points out the flaws in both sides in order to have a better country?
He's tired of hearing about Muslims who want peace, because the news is full of Muslims committing acts of violence. He might want to put some of that hard work into learning something about Islam and Arab countries before he makes such blanket statements.
He's tired of affirmative action. Apparently he doesn't see the discrimination going on all around him. It's easy to ignore the misfortunes of others when you are so fortunate.
He's tired of oil money going to establish mosques in America, when Christian churches aren't allowed in Muslim countries. Here's one idea: don't buy oil.
Wait, that won't work. He's tired of hearing about global warming, but he won't put some of his hard work into learning a little bit about climatology. Instead he will take the word of think tanks who create junk science with oil company money.
He's tired of paying to help junkies, who obviously meant to wind up destroying their lives when they took that first snort of cocaine. They aren't ill in any way, even mentally ill, so they don't need treatment. When you're lucky, you don't need drugs to cope with the world.
He's tired of illegal aliens. They should be hard-working, lucky anglophones like him before they can become citizens.
He's tired of unpatriotic people trashing the military for torturing terrorists. First, the CIA, not the military, did most of the torturing. Second, they had to make it up as they went along, because our government had nobody who knew how to torture. Third, the blame rests squarely on high-level people like Dick Cheney, who must be happy to see this kind of blame-shifting going on. There's more, but the message here is that questioning the government is unpatriotic. Unless the government is actually accomplishing something at home, then it's time to start impeachment proceedings.
He's tired of political parties blaming each other for everything; they're both bunches of liars and cheats. Except that the Democrats are much worse. At least he's fair and balanced.
He's tired of celebrities and politicians who get caught with their pants down and apologize gracelessly. Once again, I agree.
Heading for the big finish. He's tired of hearing people blame everyone but themselves for anything and everything, when they should blame themselves. This is the "personal responsibility" card. When you're lucky, you don't have problems, so all you do is take credit for your good luck. When you do have problems, you should magically solve them yourself, whether they're medical, legal, cultural, or economic. And "personal responsibility" always goes with "corporate irresponsibility," which means corporations are never held responsible for anything.
So, we have welfare queens, house flippers, limousine liberals, Muslims, minorities, more Muslims, tree huggers, junkies, Mexicans, hippies, and irresponsible people of every stripe, with a healthy sprinkling of Obama and big government. All we need are trial lawyers, communists, and the liberal media for a complete list of tried and true conservative targets.
I'm tired too. I'm tired of hearing how much conservatives hate everyone who isn't like them. I'm tired of the blind allegiance to conservative politicians who don't know how to do anything but throw sand in the motor. I'm tired of hearing the same old rhetoric that perpetuates problems instead of solving them. I'm tired of hearing opinions from people who don't know anything (and, much worse, don't want to know anything) about a topic. Finally, I'm tired of hearing litanies of complaints without a single suggestion about how to address them in a meaningful way.
What ya gonna do? If government isn't solving your problem (and odds are it isn't), get out and solve it yourself. Talk to people--the best cure for intolerance is spending time with your "enemy." Do some research--you may be surprised by how much the politicians on both sides are lying to you. Find or found a community group--you may be surprised at how many people are frustrated enough to get off their couches. Don't write to your congressman or run for office--it's a waste of time.