An unknown comic at a Trump campaign event made an unsuccessful attempt at humor that insulted a large group of potential voters. The president of the United States then used that comment to insult another large group of voters. Many of these voters will permit this type of rhetoric to influence their votes. I am critical of the joke as being in poor taste and extremely unfunny, but I do not see its relevance to the war in Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, or Burkina Faso, let alone the gang violence that is growing in our cities, or the size of our national debt, or a gazillion other things. I am more critical of a vote cast because of it, than I am of it.
You and I are living in dangerous times, but the threat that we face has virtually nothing to do with sanitation on a nearby island, or an unsuccessful joke by an unknown, wannabe comic. I argue that you and I should be more concerned with some of the other problems that are out there. I also suggest that we should be actively discussing what to do about each of them, rather than spending all of our time trying to prove that none of them are our fault. We desperately want to believe that we are right about whatever, and we focus all of our energy toward that goal, leaving very little, if any, energy for the real issues that threaten us.
I oversimplify when I call it wishful thinking, but whatever it is, it is going to kill us. In times past, it inconvenienced previous generations and led to industrialized warfare that killed lots of people. Today, it will eventually, once again, trigger war, but this time, the conflict will include nuclear weapons and that will change the chemistry of the air that we breathe and the fertility of the dirt under our feet. Potatoes will be impacted adversely and that will significantly change life as we know it now. Sanitation will be a problem, not for an island off the east coast of America, but for humanity in general. The garbage will not just be unhealthy, it will be toxic.
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