We watched the open phones segment today, oh boy!

SATURDAY, MAY 28, 2022

Even worse, we watched Wallace and Glaude: This morning, in the 7 A.M. hour, we did what we often do of a Saturday morning.

We watched the opening, "open phones" segment of C-Span's Washington Journal. The topic today was this:

What is the solution to young men and mass shootings?

Over the course of the hour, "we the people" telephoned in, responding to that highly salient question. We're prepared to acknowledge this reaction:

We fear for our country, such as it is, when we hear "us the people" puzzling such questions out.

We apologize for our language, but the astonishing dumbness of many comments seemed to rule the hour. If you think we must be referring to calls from red tribe members alone, we're willing to offer this:

Quite possibly, you haven't been watching C-Span's Washington Journal lately.

It's a sobering experience to hear "us the people" attempting to puzzle such matters out. Anthropologically, our species wasn't built for such tasks. As individuals, we simply aren't up to the challenge.

(This doesn't mean that we're bad people. It simply means that we aren't moral or intellectual giants—that we've been built in the way we actually are.)

For better or worse, you can hear the hour of calls simply by clicking this link. If you only have time to hear two calls, we'll suggest that you move ahead to the two calls which ended this sobering hour.

This morning, those phone calls poured in from us the (regular) people. Late yesterday afternoon, starting at 5:53 P.M., we watched a remarkable five-minute discussion between two of our own blue tribe's corporate media "elites."

At the end of Deadline: White House, Nicolle Wallace spoke with Professor Glaude. We'll start by stating this:

Princeton professor Eddie Glaude is a good, decent person. That said, his rhetoric yesterday afternoon was astoundingly harsh, borderline crazy, astoundingly ill-advised. Most simply:

If this version of Professor Glaude didn't exist, Fox News would have to invent it. 

We can find no transcript of yesterday's five-minute Q-and-A. Here's one part of what the professor said to the ever-simpering Wallace, who began her career by pimping the invasion of Iraq and anti-same-sex marriage ballot measures:

GLAUDE (5/27/22): Part of what I've been trying to wrap my mind around is the rot—the moral rot—at the heart of our political pathologies...We have retreated into our silos of selfishness, where greed drives our own self-interest...

It's easy for us to identify the Republican Party as the enemy, when the rot is at the heart of the nation. We have to do something much more fundamental if we're going to address this because the slaughter of innocents reflects how monstrous we are, because we keep turning our backs on them. We keep turning our backs every time it happens.

"Where does that healing start?" the simpering Wallace now asked.

"In the streets," the professor said. For the record, his streets include the byways and lanes of Princeton's ivy-strewn campus.

Professor Glaude can't seem to stop discussing how monstrous "we" are. His increasingly lurid rhetoric is a thing to behold—and to fear. 

If this version of Glaude didn't exist, Donald J. Trump would rush to invent it. Earth to the Princeton peacock, who is also a good, decent person:

Vast segments of the American people have not "retreated into silos of selfishness" where greed drives their self-interest. 

(In fairness, Glaude may be conflating the American people with his own "cable news" colleagues and friends.)

Vast segments of the population haven't turned their backs on the slaughter of innocents, thereby showing how monstrous they are. Like the overwrought preacher/professor himself, vast segments of the public simply don't know what to do about this horrible manifestation.

One deranged teen-aged boy (or man) conducted a vicious mass slaughter this week. The behavior of this one teenager can't sensibly be said to demonstrate "how monstrous" Glaude's undefined "we" really "are."

Few things could be more obvious, bne of our failing tribe's ranking professors is unable to figure that out! Concerning which, we'll say this:

Glaude has been authoring a "Loathe Americans First" rhetoric of a type we've rarely seen at this level. The overwrought man who is pushing this gospel recently tweeted this:

GLAUDE (5/26/22): I must admit that I was an emotional wreck on @Morning_Joe today.  Seeing those babies…hearing their stories…I am angry and saddened.

Glaude was an emotional wreck when he appeared on Morning Joe! Of course, so was the ranting Joe Scarborough himself, as we noted that day.

That tweet was supposed to humanize Glaude. We have a different reaction. To the Princeton peacock, we'll only say this:

Mother-frumper, take your ascot off the air until you're no longer a wreck! Go off somewhere and try to calm down. Try to get your thoughts in order, such as they actually are.

In truth, Wallace and Glaude (but especially Wallace) should have been pulled off the air a long time ago. The same is true of the screeching Scarborough—and, of course, of Mike Barnicle, the only person who can successfully pose as a man of the people while being married to a Bank of America vice chair.

Borrowing from Don Corleone, are these high-ranking media elites creating "the rhetoric we have chosen?" No, that isn't the case.

These are the tribal tribunes our corporate owners have chosen for us! They're creating a lurid, deeply unintelligent, politically poisonous rhetoric. Despite their fame and their undisclosed wealth, their judgment is very poor.

We'll continue to examine their rhetoric next week. For today, we'll leave you with this:

If Professor Glaude's rhetoric didn't exist, the NRA would invent it. Our nation's problems only deepen as these deeply unhelpful elites continue to open their mouths.