#tim barrus opinion. opinion new york times

[timbarrus]

Take notes. The despair is real. The hate is real. And the revenge that drives the beast is real as well. We don't talk about jealousy too much. This is a Culture World War. You will be told that it's more complex than that, and it is. But not to the threatened species that is homo sapiens. They recognize complexity, and they emerge rattled. Knowing how things work, is work. Politics is television. They are one and the same. Throw in some dancing, an orchestra, and french fries. It's Your Dog And Pony Show. I want to know why Americans talk the talk, but there is no way we are going to walk that walk. What are the institutionalists going to do. When the Politik twists toward blue. Who do you think the Gestapo is looking for.

They are looking for you. Here's how it works. Elon gives Trump the names and the data. Anyone critical gets a visit in the middle of the bad spy night. If you think that the lower class (I am lower class) wants to punish the class that has always had their boot pressed up against our throats, that is because they always have their boot shoved up against out throats, and this is their punishment. It's a little bit about a lot of things. Cross cultural warzones. It's still punishment. What else do they have. American indifference and American compliance. Trump knows where you live. DOJ gets the order, and ICE gets a green light. Your children get a barracks and tin foil. You know where you are marching to. And you never said a word.

Like no. — Tim Barrus

[timbarrus]

Take notes. I love the shooting from the hip style of writing. I have never understood why Americans cannot fight back hard. The convicted felon spits in Washington, DC's face. That statement alone will be too strong for the comments police. The NYT is denigrating what they, themselves, have become. All the wringing of hands around what do we do next when he comes after us. There is no fight left in the American people so they have to focus on those bad brown people invaders and we will torture them to the best of our ability which is actually scraping another bottom of another barrel. "We are just doing our jobs," let's be real, the people who follow orders simply because the convicted felon said so, love their jobs. Kicking people out of their homes in the middle of the night is a solid rush. Everyone in ICE should be imprisoned. Americans are patently absurd and beneath contempt. Everyone is so invested in that tomorrow is today. You cower and shiver in subjugated fear. You get what you deserve and there is no real opposition. What about what you do not see because you are not allowed to see it. All the Old White Guy hatreds have done you in. You have done it to yourselves. It's Spring Time for Hitler. Americans will lap it up like dogs. A hateful species. Full stop. I am not allowed to say these things. I am not allowed a voice. It is uncivil to marginalize the already marginal. The NYT and the felon have a lot in common. I will not allow you to tape my mouth shut.

[timbarrus]

Take notes. I am not amused. The good. The bad. And the indifferent. A legal argument. It's usually a legal/religious debate. If you read closely, that would be David French debating David French. This is illegal. It is also illegal for any person to drool over all the money these corporations never have because they are always losing money. Fiddledeedee. Overreaction to the felon's throne. "He may well be," is a term that seems to pop up a lot. Let's go with what we know. We know that the felon is a felon. He's a felon, don't listen to the convicted felon. Increasingly amused by overreaction. A bit smug. Ever notice how these guys are telling us in no uncertain terms that such and such a barbarian is at the door. And the next day, they are telling us we are overreacting. This feels like a speech in a courtroom to me. It's kinda slick. Nothing about family, Jesus, pornography. Nothing that says: the government is corrupt. Nothing that says A Culture War is an ironic thing to pin your hopes and dreams on. Nothing that says corporate greed plays a role in this. CEO bows down says: my bad. Leave the room backing up. Bowing down. Bowing done. Let us talk of humiliation and the men who cling to it not unlike a weapon. I don't know how the Normals do it. I'm autistic. All the bowing down. Can someone explain all this bowing down in the throne room. Now, we call the felon unstable. Be very careful it's the unstable felon. Felon with nukes. The nuke felon. Nothing on that. Either.

[timbarrus]

I do not understand how anyone would bring a child into this sad and exhausted world. Some people have to have it all, when no one can have it all. The house. The cars. The kids. The job. The credit cards. Food. Food. Food. And school. And school times twenty. And school with its rituals. And church with its rituals. Why are we raising children in an indifferent society. Because the haves and the have nots have been fighting it out over equity for the last 150,000 years. In case you haven't heard: the planet is burning. Cultures are facing famine. Is this where I'm supposed to talk about war. People talk to me about progress in science. And. There is no and. Where is the human progress. How do children fit into the economic picture. File bankruptcy before you have sex. I had no idea the baby needed all that stuff. Relatives would give me that look: Where's your stuff. What stuff. The pressure was on. I know that pressure. I know it intimately. Women are baby machines, and so are men. Everything in your life takes a walk. I moved us into a five star hotel. They had stuff. I didn't have to buy a thing. But my life, and my kid's life, is utterly different. I do not get women. I do not understand them. I profoundly don't understand why they are only fulfilled if they have babies. Is that a crime to articulate. I loathe babies and children. I worked with disabled children for fifty years. At 5pm I could go home. Is that a crime to articulate. Ross Douthat loves children. I do not.

[timbarrus]

Take notes. "Our basic civility as a nation." There it is. The beating heart. The problem is that we have no idea what civility even means. I think it is one thing. Moderators think it's another. I think everyone should express themselves. Even if I do not agree with where they stand on individual liberties. I'm a big boy, and can read hate without jumping on board. Americans always think they are being subjected to advertising. Because they are. I cannot say what I am not allowed to say. Because it would cut away at their prearranged TV ideas like one naughty word is uncivil. In the face of government shut down, life and death stuff, moderators are looking for a naughty word. To wit: People burdened with HIV around the world are being killed by the Felon. Why do we use his name. Call him the felon. But no.

Moderation chips away at the gravitas of millions of people who are already dead. But they are foreign (as a verb) so we can kill them with impunity and wash our hands of them, and HIV. The felon is no judge. He is not god. He must be shunned. The systems that protect him will be reinforced. We must remove them. To survive. Meanwhile, we are waiting. We are waiting patiently. This dog and pony show you are so protective of will be challenged.

So where are the people outraged about the felon making HIV drugs essentially illegal. A bad word is not a problem. It does not matter if Americans worship a psychotic. It matters if he is killing people and he is. No HIV drugs, period. There must be some way that radicalism can fight back. As long as they use nice words my grandmother would approve of. This is your grandmother's newspaper. No bad words even if your life is over. You all will die from a thousand cuts. He is coming for you, and you think civility will save you. "Our basic civility as a nation." Grow up.

Why can’t we resurrect ACT UP. Act Up knows how to deal full head-on rebellion and they could out-TV-performances by the felon rapist who is killing millions with no HIV meds because he doesn’t like the color of their skin. No drugs no skin in the game. Wanna bet.

[timbarrus]

Take notes. I love this piece by Pam Paul. I am more than a little autistic. Neurodivergent doesn’t work for me. For me, neurodivergence must be like something you do to get inside someone’s brain. I do not get metaphors. I take what you have to say, literally. What people are saying is important because their awareness lends you something of a road map. For me, it’s a photograph. To make it out alive at the end of every day. It can’t be that bad (Oprah). Wanna bet. Half the time, especially if you are stuck in metaforland, I will not understand a thing you say. Pam Paul calls it masking. Smile constantly. There are too many metaphors in the word Alone. Alone is my friend. How are you today. Caffeinated. If you say to me: Oh, go stand in the middle of the road, I would stand in the middle of the road. I am being attacked 24/7. Especially in print. I know who does this like a bunch of junkyard dogs. Other writers. I did not murder an entire race of people. Far from it.

How are you today, I do not say Fine. Fine is a filament. A simple strand of hair. I am living in a landscape where I am losing my ability to comprehend what you articulate. Have a nice day. What is your gut telling you. Excuse me. I love you. I love you, too. What does this mean. I employ about ten masks. At a time. When you remove one from my face, I have others. I can hold an audience for no longer than fifteen minutes. Civil war. Civility. Shaking hands. See you later alligator. I see swamps. What’s wrong. Nothing.

[timbarrus]

Take notes. This piece is your garden variety photographic retouched post production brochure invigorated adventure with no regard whatsoever for the dramatic impact tourism has on the lives of the people who actually live in these places because you make it your business to filter out the realities of reality, the places you are visiting have sold their souls so you can take a selfie that you were there, and there, and there. As a photographer (Flaunt), I have been to all of these places which makes me a bonafide hypocrite prowling for images an editor somewhere back in the States will like. I'm out to haunt more beautiful places and this whole schemedic falls apart whenever I use some editor's eyes, and not my own.

How about some poverty porn of Lagos where children live in sewer ditches. Put that in Vogue and fly there. In Appalachia, we know who the tourists are. As they waddle down Main Street in their shorts and thongs, guzzling down a supersize ice cream cone. You get a nice big chocolate on your nice big fluffy pillow. I would argue that the world is not all that beautiful a place. There is a desperate edge to tourism in locations where tourism means that you get your very own dream job driving a bus with a microphone. You have now reached the historical parking lot George Washington parked his cars in. Interpreter of events that never happened. Tourists fresh off the bus in the middle of a hurricane. There was no electric to keep the ice cream cold. Stay home.

[timbarrus]

Tim Barrus: Resist

Take notes. The resistance itself inspires. The Normalizers will have their moment in the sun. Those who favored independence from Great Britain were Patriots. People who wanted a king had one. Loyalists. Americans who elected not to choose a side were called Neutrals. Complexity. Versus a cardboard version of Let's Be Neutral On (something like) Race And See If We Survive. We embrace racism vis-a-vis our collective votes. And that will be a new marching theme of old ideas. The Civil War and the Revolutionary War were the same war. The past informs us that choosing a side is dangerous. Great Leader is a convicted rapist and the rapist will lead the way to tranquility. The resistance has already formed.

The resistance is now creating paradigms that get our children out. Done deal. We call you the Normals and the Normals always head for the political status quo because they are normally fearful that someone is going to get their stuff. Protect your two car garage and your speakers at all costs. Martial law will be their excuse. And we all know what happens then. "Give me liberty or give me death." Choosing a side is inherently dangerous. People of all sides spread across the Colonies, the majority of people in the New England Colonies were Patriots. Loyalists in the Southern Colonies. Soapboxes were CNN. The wind hit hard when the merchant class was under the gun which is code for taxes. Farmers joined. The rapist is from the aristocracy. We know what that means, too.

[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 had to make a judgement call. I got my family out of North America. My decision was based in what the New York Times take is. In all the talk about vibes, the publication has one, too. It's dark. It's fearful. It's nervous. If it wasn't, something would be very wrong. Pollsters are beginning to look like stunned deer in headlights. One question dominates journalism. How Bad Is It Going To Be. What I hear in the voices of these conversations is a reckoning with defeat. Is there anyone at the New York Times who thinks he won't go after journalists. Journalists often feel immune to what to what is happening around them as they are there to cover it. A calm before the storm. No one has ever talked about a dynamic that is inherently stalking Trump. There is a psychotic link between suicide and homicide. It is not uncivil to say that because it is simply fact whether it is polite society or not. Trump is not stable. I have always seen him as being suicidal. Homicidal ideation is as toxic as suicidal ideation. He dreams of executions, and no one is pushing back because we cannot bring ourselves to believe it. Believe it. Ideation can swing like a pendulum back and forth. Them or me. Them or me. There is no us. There is no Other. There is no there there. The internal and the external is a contest between pitbulls in a cage. One of those caged dogs will win. And then both dogs will die. America is not immune. Trump is a junkyard dog. Let's fight. We remain transfixed.

[timbarrus]

I can't take this stuff seriously anymore. All I see are suits and suits and suits. The New York Times is the great-grandpa suits of suits. Your grandfather's paper is still your grandfather's paper. What one suit says to another suit. That's always news. Not a single new idea. Some of us like to play We Are Suits but I am a mid-western Barn Boy. Pelosi is who we should be electing. Roll out the problems of the suits into a big Cleopatra carpet. Now, unroll it. Suits be popping out. Give me Ceaser or give me death, Ezra. Threads. Seriously. Kamala is playing it safe. Ezra is as safe as you can get. I hear the echoes of a tin can. I am so not going to vote. Why. Simple. Kamala is a suit and so is her friend. You can dress a suit up with another new suit, but the suit is still a suit. Sometimes the suits wear controversial stuff like a nametag. The democrat suits are going to lose. I was all out for Kamala. Excited actually. But there was something wrong here. She's a suit. It hit me like god and a clap of thunder. Suit ideology. Suits like other suits. Last night, I threw my television out the window. I have to replace that window. I have overdosed. On suits. It's a bitter pill to swallow.

[timbarrus]

Take notes. "But voters still trust his positions more than his opponent’s."

Don't tell me. Show me.

I do not believe it. There's a different standard for showing, and clinging to a narrative that is dubious at best. How do we know that Americans trust Trump more. Where are the figures and whose data are we talking about. What did you know and when did you know it. Criminality is culture, too.

Americans will opt to grab at the simple solutions. They're busy. They live in terror of losing their jobs. They're hung over. Nervous. Their kids are failing. They're in debt. But they get to vote. Yet Americans want to be controlled.

They are already controlled. That is what advertising is. You being controlled. You being told there is a god and you must worship him the way we tell you to worship period. Let us away to art.

1969: They Shoot Horses, Don't They. Gig Young was Rocky Gravo, the evil ring master of ceremonies. Rocky can sell you anything. The Bob Barker of 1934. Just keep dancing. Just keep dancing. Just keep the people entertained with who dies first. Just keep the people on their toes with who dies last. Rocky Gravo has to prove that he is not ordinary. Rocky Gravo is ordinary. Look around the dance arena and you will see the people we never see at all. They blend into the walls. Rocky Gravo is dog eat dog. Complexity is not his problem.

Immigration is code for Let's Make Them Dance. Come on down.

[timbarrus]

He's going down. The crazy daisies will now be his status quo. He's not going to put himself in another debate with someone who just ragged him into a pool of make-up and sweat. But can she win the election remains the last pseudo-journalistic place to hide. But can she win. But can she win. She can win. She will win. And the maga maestro can join his mate, Putin, who will eventually have to face the reality that their fates are intertwined because they themselves have intertwined it. I don't believe in a god. But here in the trenches of America, I am fervently praying that Americans can still be smart. Cats and dogs are embarrassed and humiliated that they were a part of Trump's playbook. My dog would have eaten his playbook for lunch. And there's the problem. It's their problem. The courtiers, the lobbyists, the lawyers, the snakes. Trump's problem is that he's going to lean into it. There will be recipes. Into the mixing bowl, crack an egg, throw in some high heels and and some blondes. Finally. Someone. Stood. In. His. Way. It took a black woman to do it. Today, he's calling for civil war. Grandpa, we have to go home now. I will hold your hand. And we're walking. And,we're walking.

[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.“Curiouser and curiouser!” Cried Alice (she was surprised), that for the moment she quite forgot where she was living. Alice is separate from the newsroom. The Felon is separated from his subjects. I wonder how long it will take to get Trump University back together again. Let's have tea. Tuition will be high. The fundamental deviance of a fundamentally deviant cult that the American people embrace. No one did a thing when the Felon was elected. The American people celebrated. Cover your ears, now. The American people, themselves are deviants.

You have simply replaced one deviant paradigm for another. You have replaced capitalism with Curiouser and curiouser! Alice cried. We are Alice. Who has no idea where she is, or who she is. She sleeps. Apple fell on her head. We are Alice. The big fat queen wanted her head on a spike. We are Alice. The problem is that homo sapiens gatekeep tribalism after tribalism. Everyone has a relationship with the tribe, and who people mate with matters. We are Alice. She has amnesia because if she didn't, the whole idea of society, still based as the shining hill to live on so we don't have to see all the thems on your heathen way to work. Americans have no soul because they need stuff, and you can mess around with them for a short period of time so you forget life ever happened. It's diseased. And there is no hope for it. It gets worse, To wit: Who really believes we have the power to alter climate change. It's coming for the Rabbit.-- tim barrus

[timbarrus]

Take notes. This is not migration. This is diaspora. Migration is lame. Biology confirms it. Maps, wars, biology. Drives diaspora. What this says to governments of every kind is that they are ephemeral. We clearly suggest that your Great Culture can be undermined easily. Your staunch support of family, Americans, is self-deceiving, and beneath contempt, there is always a class in the world of caste and class, that is lower that you. Historically, they're easy to kick, and often the kick is from the lower middle class, with its concomitant risk of slipping. Then medicare, slaps you in the face. Frankly, I have been reading for years the same paradigm for ideas that don't fit. I was asked to join a team of artists who had a mission. To create big signs on ships everywhere in the world. "If you rape a Woman in Western Culture, you are going to prison.’ It was a shock to many men, and men drive diaspora. You cannot control wind or leaves. It appears random. No pitchforks. I will not read another same old thing. Why aren't journalists covering who are these supposed soldiers who shoot people, bust into their homes, aim guns at kids, arrest citizens who were born in the States, and have never spoken anything other than English. We call it terrorism. "Why Are You Doing This to Kids." I want to boys with guns to know we are watching you. Give it a name. Children killing children. Stuff you do not want to hear. The lie they are just doing jobs is to invite you to examine reality.