Month: August 2018

Rock Star, Mike Ness, And President Trump Have All The Wrong Things In Common…

~ thereluctantcommentator ~ Leave a comment

 

At a Social Distortion concert, the famous punk-rockabilly-band’s lead singer told the raucous crowd what he thought about America, and the current President. His right to free speech protects those thoughts – whatever they may be. A fan of the band responded by flipping off the lead singer for the remaining songs. In the words of another famous band: “THAT’S. WHEN. THINGS. GOT. OUT. OF. CON-TROL!” **shout out to Sublime** At this point, one person (lead singer, Mike Ness), has expressed negative feelings about the President, and another (the idiot fan), has decided that his free speech protest – which is clearly going to make a meaningful, positive, and lasting, change in the world, is to flip off the band for the remainder of their set – three songs.

So, at this point, Mike Ness does the only thing he can do. He ignores the (allegedly) silent, middle finger salute, like a grown up … calls out the fan for being an idiot, and uses the opportunity to explain how free speech works calls the fan forward and spits in his face. I mean, in all fairness, what else could he have done? **This is a rhetorical question, and for the purposes of making it seem credible, I’m going to really need you to ignore, entirely, the options which are “struck out,” above.** Surprisingly, the fan gets super pissed that the lead singer of the band that he came to see just spat on him,* and his silent protest very briefly escalates, such that the (slightly wet) fan is now screaming angrily at the singer – screaming which was undoubtedly inaudible, in the din of the music; this being a live concert, and all. Again, what was Mike Ness to do?! Only one choice, really – shrug it off and say, I probably shouldn’t have spat on that dude … take advantage of the fact that you know the crowd and security will try to restrain the fan, in the event of an altercation, and beat the hell out of the (probably former) fan (by this point).

All of this is the sort of escalation of political tensions that I have been writing about for a while now. It is the kind of thing that leads to an ever escalating “tit-for-tat,” until someone (or more likely, lots of someones) dies. It is all actually devastatingly predictable. However, what happens next, takes the cake, and is a symptom of how bad the cultural-cancer has become.

As the fan was being escorted out, and the lead singer had jumped back on stage to finish their last song or two – because, of course that’s what should reasonably happen, the lead singer calls the fan out: “stick around, I’m going to f*** you in the ass tonight.” He manages to repeat the line again, while forcing a few more f-bombs in there, and then finishes the song. If you are a conservative (in particular, a conservative evangelical), that has defended the president’s statement that you “just need to grab em’ by the p*ssy,” as locker room talk, you have no moral high ground here (sorry – the truth stings, sometimes). You have no right to be outraged at the idea that someone would threaten, joke about, or contemplate egregious acts of sexual assault on another person. You gave up that moral high ground. The statements of both the President AND Mike Ness, are locker room talk – the thing is, they are the words said in locker rooms by the intolerable pieces of trash that the rest of the guys in the room loathe. The guys that start fights, ruin good times, and get kicked off the team by the other guys in the locker room, the very first chance that they can. However, as a guy that has played a lot of sports, and spent a lot of time in locker-rooms before and after ice hockey games (a group of people that love salty language, if ever there was one), and neither I, nor any of my friends, have ever joked, or casually spoken, about assaulting attractive women. Similarly, I’ve personally screamed a litany of words at an opponent in the heat of the moment – but, I’ve never threatened to sodomize someone – nor has anyone on my side or against, ever threatened me, or any of my teammates in that way. It is not normal behavior. Meanwhile, if you are a liberal that defends Mike Ness’ response, then you, like Mike, and too many others on both sides of the aisle, have also lost the right to criticize the President and those that see the world in the same way that he does (a group to which I do not belong, for the record).

As far as I’m concerned, therein lies the saddest reality, yet: both the left and the right have lost the moral high ground – at least those with the soap boxes and bully pulpits. Presently speaking, there are only a handful of people fighting for that moral high ground, and they are getting enough traction to fills auditoriums and other venues, nationwide. Their high ground is not born out of an ideological agreement. Instead, it is the product of civility, and respect, despite disagreement. However, that movement continues to be drowned out by the din of the “Donald Trumps” and the “Mike Nesses” of the world. Make no mistake, if you’re not condemning their actions,++ and their conduct, then you are condoning it; you are complicit in the self-destruction of America.

 

*Which is interesting, in itself, considering that there are certain genres of music, including 1970’s gutter punk, when being spit on by the lead singer was considered as cool as getting an autograph. [shrugs]

++ For anyone thick enough, or partisan enough, to attempt to misconstrue my words here as meaning that if you support any of the President’s policies, you are complicit in the destruction of America, allow me to clear the matter up for you: left or right – we can disagree on policy. However, there is no need, or benefit, in calling someone a dog, or a loser, or in telling them that you are “going to f*ck [them] in the ass tonight.” It doesn’t help your argument, it doesn’t make you look cool, and it doesn’t advance your cause – a cause that might actually be worth advancing. Instead, it shows the people that aren’t overgrown school-yard bullies that you are a petulant, immature, blow-hard. More importantly, it encourages anyone that looks up to you, to think, “this is ok; this is acceptable.” The trouble is, it’s not.

Rock Star, Mike Ness, And President Trump Have All The Wrong Things In Common…

~ thereluctantcommentator ~ Leave a comment

 

At a Social Distortion concert, the famous punk-rockabilly-band’s lead singer told the raucous crowd what he thought about America, and the current President. His right to free speech protects those thoughts – whatever they may be. A fan of the band responded by flipping off the lead singer for the remaining songs. In the words of another famous band: “THAT’S. WHEN. THINGS. GOT. OUT. OF. CON-TROL!” **shout out to Sublime** At this point, one person (lead singer, Mike Ness), has expressed negative feelings about the President, and another (the idiot fan), has decided that his free speech protest – which is clearly going to make a meaningful, positive, and lasting, change in the world, is to flip off the band for the remainder of their set – three songs.

So, at this point, Mike Ness does the only thing he can do. He ignores the (allegedly) silent, middle finger salute, like a grown up … calls out the fan for being an idiot, and uses the opportunity to explain how free speech works calls the fan forward and spits in his face. I mean, in all fairness, what else could he have done? **This is a rhetorical question, and for the purposes of making it seem credible, I’m going to really need you to ignore, entirely, the options which are “struck out,” above.** Surprisingly, the fan gets super pissed that the lead singer of the band that he came to see just spat on him,* and his silent protest very briefly escalates, such that the (slightly wet) fan is now screaming angrily at the singer – screaming which was undoubtedly inaudible, in the din of the music; this being a live concert, and all. Again, what was Mike Ness to do?! Only one choice, really – shrug it off and say, I probably shouldn’t have spat on that dude … take advantage of the fact that you know the crowd and security will try to restrain the fan, in the event of an altercation, and beat the hell out of the (probably former) fan (by this point).

All of this is the sort of escalation of political tensions that I have been writing about for a while now. It is the kind of thing that leads to an ever escalating “tit-for-tat,” until someone (or more likely, lots of someones) dies. It is all actually devastatingly predictable. However, what happens next, takes the cake, and is a symptom of how bad the cultural-cancer has become.

As the fan was being escorted out, and the lead singer had jumped back on stage to finish their last song or two – because, of course that’s what should reasonably happen, the lead singer calls the fan out: “stick around, I’m going to f*** you in the ass tonight.” He manages to repeat the line again, while forcing a few more f-bombs in there, and then finishes the song. If you are a conservative (in particular, a conservative evangelical), that has defended the president’s statement that you “just need to grab em’ by the p*ssy,” as locker room talk, you have no moral high ground here (sorry – the truth stings, sometimes). You have no right to be outraged at the idea that someone would threaten, joke about, or contemplate egregious acts of sexual assault on another person. You gave up that moral high ground. The statements of both the President AND Mike Ness, are locker room talk – the thing is, they are the words said in locker rooms by the intolerable pieces of trash that the rest of the guys in the room loathe. The guys that start fights, ruin good times, and get kicked off the team by the other guys in the locker room, the very first chance that they can. However, as a guy that has played a lot of sports, and spent a lot of time in locker-rooms before and after ice hockey games (a group of people that love salty language, if ever there was one), and neither I, nor any of my friends, have ever joked, or casually spoken, about assaulting attractive women. Similarly, I’ve personally screamed a litany of words at an opponent in the heat of the moment – but, I’ve never threatened to sodomize someone – nor has anyone on my side or against, ever threatened me, or any of my teammates in that way. It is not normal behavior. Meanwhile, if you are a liberal that defends Mike Ness’ response, then you, like Mike, and too many others on both sides of the aisle, have also lost the right to criticize the President and those that see the world in the same way that he does (a group to which I do not belong, for the record).

As far as I’m concerned, therein lies the saddest reality, yet: both the left and the right have lost the moral high ground – at least those with the soap boxes and bully pulpits. Presently speaking, there are only a handful of people fighting for that moral high ground, and they are getting enough traction to fills auditoriums and other venues, nationwide. Their high ground is not born out of an ideological agreement. Instead, it is the product of civility, and respect, despite disagreement. However, that movement continues to be drowned out by the din of the “Donald Trumps” and the “Mike Nesses” of the world. Make no mistake, if you’re not condemning their actions,++ and their conduct, then you are condoning it; you are complicit in the self-destruction of America.

 

*Which is interesting, in itself, considering that there are certain genres of music, including 1970’s gutter punk, when being spit on by the lead singer was considered as cool as getting an autograph. [shrugs]

++ For anyone thick enough, or partisan enough, to attempt to misconstrue my words here as meaning that if you support any of the President’s policies, you are complicit in the destruction of America, allow me to clear the matter up for you: left or right – we can disagree on policy. However, there is no need, or benefit, in calling someone a dog, or a loser, or in telling them that you are “going to f*ck [them] in the ass tonight.” It doesn’t help your argument, it doesn’t make you look cool, and it doesn’t advance your cause – a cause that might actually be worth advancing. Instead, it shows the people that aren’t overgrown school-yard bullies that you are a petulant, immature, blow-hard. More importantly, it encourages anyone that looks up to you, to think, “this is ok; this is acceptable.” The trouble is, it’s not.