#tim barrus and Ross Douthat

[timbarrus]

The writing is brilliant even if I cannot agree with anything Ross Douthat says. I do not read people like me because there aren't any. What is the Other Side plotting. We need more toddlers who can plot. Hundreds of thousands of toddlers in toddler offices. I am from the Marx Institute of Leftist Fiddledeedee. And exactly who are these Leftist Suits Who Have Ruined America. Why aren't there any leftists at the NYT.  An island somewhere. You have everything else covered.

The leftists have left the hotel.

They are blamed shamelessly. But who are they. No one knows.

I need to understand so I might put this black spot on their permanent record. What are the humanities and why are they growing dark. Inquiry as punishment. That is some of us. Not all of us. The humanities originates in the Classical Greek paideia, a course of general education -- the Sophists -- in the mid-5th century bce. Young men for active citizenship in the polis, or city-state; and in Cicero’s humanitas, a program of training proper for orators, first set forth in De oratore (Of the Orator) in 55 bce. In the early Middle Ages the Church Fathers, including St. Augustine, himself a rhetorician, adapted paideia and humanitas—or the bonae (“good”), or liberales (“liberal”), arts, as they were also called—to a program of basic Christian education. We are being prepared for the meat grinder of the Stupid Machine. Where's it's always dark which is every color in the spectrum.

[timbarrus]

Take notes. I am a radical. Not a democrat. Not a republican. There are no independents. They employ the same political and cultural infrastructure -- how things work -- that the rest of us are compelled to use. Climate: Not a word. It's the Trump go to for climate change, a hoax. Americans are in denial. Why. Not a word about that. Save the American Dream. The American Dream is flat-out vanished. Is America is a corpse because it has a fetish for illusion. The American people still believe in the goodness of Gotham. Hollywood's Gotham is urban decay on steroids. Not one word about how Hollywood's cultural prostitution, carved from graves for advanced rot. Criminals rise to power. The word criminal is not to be found. There are metaphors for the word rapist. There are metaphors for the word crook. There are metaphors for the word deviant. You will not find the word deviant here because the republican (small d) party cannot bring itself to believe it's leader (ownership culture) is aberrational. Even the bad word sex is an economic negotiation. Or it's rape. You get to pick one. Not both. They take a deviant, and they normalize him as a leader who struggled. Another idea they avoid is based on the word individual. Individual is Americana. This is about the rise of Trump. And what did I learn. The word nothing has a metaphor, too. Vacuum. They are telling us America loves Trump. Genuflect. Now, the truth. Scratching heads. Suddenly, perplexed. More questions. No answers.

[timbarrus]

Take notes: I am a super cool parent and I have set no one adrift. I do not bite Barbie's head off. Who actually parents children in a politikal context. My three-year-old is a Nazi. She orders everyone around. Are you telling me that republicans have children. Who demonstrate the teachings of a lone homo sapiens who never had any children let alone a marriage. Yes, Jesus had many republican children. This was more difficult than walking on water. Weird. My three-year-old usually knows a fantasy when she sees it. I teach her that everyone who is republican is bad. Republicans smell as they do not bathe. Republicans give Barbie cigarette burns. Republicans are mean to dogs. You are Wonder Woman, you have Wonder Woman pajamas, and you have magic ropes to tie people up so republicans have to tell the truth which is what makes them all go blind, they run into things. Wonder Woman (or our image of her) was never subservient to a male. Any male. Men are bad. Repeat after me: Men Are Bad, Men are Bad, Men are Bad. Why. Don't ask questions. And don't marry one. Why. Because when you have children, they will probably be men children. Why. Because men children play with matches. Pick me up. No, you have to walk by yourself. Everytime I say that I have to slap myself. We all fall down somewhere in our lives, republican or Democrat. Bring in the next one. There are no prophets in the world dreaming of things to come. Those would be our kids.

[timbarrus]

Take notes. There is no god.

There is no Jesus. There is no heaven. There are no wing rentals for Victoria’s Secret Angels. There are no angels. There are no gates. There is no sane theology. There never was a virgin Mary. Jesus did not walk on water. When Ross writes the word religion, he means Catholicism. He means some form of institutional oversight. The gravitas of vacuum. Be very careful about doors being opened to you. Ross glosses over the whole Boys Being Raped thing. Like it happened but let’s get out of here. Ross cannot see that the relationship between the institution and its behavior is an interiority eager to disguise itself yet again and again. Ross is being provocative. But to what end. The end is called authority. They are worshipping jurisdiction. Our lives are juxtaposed by an authority whose purpose is regimentation. Let us away to stories and legends and myths and illusion. That’s really blood you were drinking and it was not grape juice from Ralph’s. High theatre. Performance art. Kings and princes were created by homo sapiens. It’s not exactly hard to prove. Show me. Don’t tell me. You have no proof that there is a god to subjugate anyone. The greatest fraud in human history. It’s a great story. But it is not real. I am frequently lectured to about faith, and if I cannot find mine, there has to be something bad inside me to get me to ask such questions like what is reality. Maybe I am a witch. I am not a witch.

I am a steadfast heretic.

[timbarrus]

There is a tinge of bitterness here. Let the old man go. Give him in a plaque on the wall. A ribbon. A bottle of Jack. Lunch. He could knight himself. Much ado about much ado. Why. How about because it would be nice. Aren't we the nice people. We want the rest of the world to bend the knee to us. We have no moral standing. They all know us too well. I am here to tell you that the world leaders of civility know in their gut we are the mad in the madhouse. There they go again. Biden is not a criminal. He's not a saint. But he's not a criminal. When Trump lets loose the dogs of war after Harris has been elected, it will be Biden who has to clean up the mess they make. No one will have the leisure to stay in their house for the next fifty years of Trump's rule. The nests they make. Civility is up for grabs, and it always has been. Because we do not know what it is. Institutions are never wrong. The New York Times knows what comes from the mouths of babes. It and it alone will define civility. If Trump wins, I'll show you incivility, and your little dog, too.

[timbarrus]

Conflict IS the Google algorithm. Take one subject or one issue. Google it. What will come back to you will be based in the extent to which conflict brings increased engagement. Do No Harm is not increased engagement. Obviously, advertisers love increased engagement. Or. Continued engagement. Conflict always wins because it has the numbers. Search Engine Optimization can be reset to reflect a teasing that says: Engagement brings itself to the table. We are animals whose brains want to know What Is Coming Next. Ask other search engines the same question you asked Gemini. Do not do this at home. Only professionals should drive it. The association between Wikipedia and Google is a piggyback where Wikipedia tells the whole truth, but the truth is that there is no such thing. Wikipedia remains at the top of SEO, and the typical user only goes so far as three entries, and  the number of users who go beyond to Page Two is less than one percent. Wikipedia and Google have the numbers because those numbers attract themselves. There is no such thing as competition when the snake is eating its tail. Now, compare. What is the tone of the Google entries. I am here to tell you that those entries will be fundamentally based in the values of conflict which are no values at all. But an algorithm does not know that because it does not discern human nuance all that well. Google will have the most ruthless, hateful, cruel, mean entries right upfront. It is its own god. The others, not so much.   

[timbarrus]

Nikki Haley engenders no confidence whatsoever.

[timbarrus]

It has already won. Sharknado conservatives have failed to contain it. We have paid. We pay again. Criminals rock and roll. Just another brick in the wall. It becomes politikal fetish memorabilia. No one is allowed to say fetish, so let me not say it, memorabilia. Who will govern us when the fetish takes a commercial break. How many millions did he steal. That much. Duh. It doesn't matter, it's a fetish. It's immune. Inanimate object worshiped for its supposed magical powers or because it is considered to be inhabited by a billionaire spirit. This would be the spirit of all our second selves. Our second selves just wanna have fun. Rule Number One: You must love reality TV and sign the NDA on your way out the door. Rule Number Two. All American homes will have a statue of the fetish in their garage in case the urge to pray to Rome wins out. Conservatives moan that it is not their fault. Yes, Ross. It is a conservative fault line. You guys did find It interesting. A curiosity. And then, you all went home. Reality TV won. Let's celebrate. If It loses, there will be fresh meat and blood in the streets. If It wins, there will be sharknado movies for you guys to review even as it eats anyone it doesn't like. That, too, is what a fetish does. When conservatives get together for refreshing cocktails, how long does it take for them to notice the orange elephant in the room. Oh, it's not really about the makeup. Yes, it is. Satire is protected speech. Thievery. It has already won.

[timbarrus]

There is a blacklist at the New York Times. It’s all hush hush. The comments section is the most profoundly chaotic, no fair sets of values attached or shared anywhere at your comment moderation desk. It feels indifferent to readers. I know staff has left because reading comments is simply traumatic. Facebook faces the same free speech conflicts, and it’s going to heat up. Thank you, Elon. I welcome his bull in the china shop esthetic milieu of sighing deeply. You bought it. Clean up the mess comment moderation has become. I love Twitter porn. What would I do without it. The economic powerhouse of porn has entrenched its racial equality complexity by front and center surfing its own existence by putting it in your face. Writing porn puts food on my table. So I do it under other names. I am blacklisted in porn. I am blacklisted by mainstream publishing. I’m dirt to you. Unless I am someone else and then, they love me. Blacklisting your own readers is so yesterday. Porn allows me to be whoever I want to be on any given day. I’m marginal. Opinionated. Mouthy. Poor. I don’t care anymore. Publishing is a dead end road. Access denied. At every turn. For decades. I’m trash. I know it. The New York Times wants it both ways. It only renders judgement. Yet its headlines are click bait. You can do better. You do not need a blacklist. Stop investigating yourself. Ross Douthat is on Maher laughing at the comments section. “So, you’ve been reading the comments, eh." Grin. It’s not funny. Comments are all some of us are allowed. We are reduced to the ephemeral. A blacklist is beneath you. You care more about names than content. Institutional journalism has yet to rock and roll. You do not need a blacklist — what, you think your moderators will cop to it — these are acquiring editors. Who are not paid like acquiring editors. Comments are a heartbeat. Nice piece, is not a comment. It’s a throw away. Begging at the Gates of Beautiful has no hope to it. You will be blacklisted because they want you to shut up. This will not be published, but with respect, I humbly ask, why are you here.

Tim Barrus

Appalachia

timotheebarrus@gmail.com

[timbarrus]

Tourism is demonic. Go see Key West. Go see Fisherman’s Wharf. Go see Orlando. Go see John Dutton in Hollywood. Go see Montana before it burns down. Go see Yosemite. How many places are left for the tourists to ruin.  

[timbarrus]

You and your gathering of how this can get fixed but there will be the swallowing.