It's the Day's Day of Days! Because Ultra Galaxy Mega Monster Battle: Never Ending Odyssey.
As usual, Muir manages to get himself into a situation where his strawman throws an uppercut that knocks him to the canvas, and he responds by smashing his head on the ground one more time because he thinks it makes him stronger. It is readily obvious to any observer that Gunpowder is an authoritarian hellhole that engages in blatant and petty political persecution. And its response is not to deny it--but to state that they only do it because everyone else does it to them. By not allowing them to get away with anything they want. Like paying people off in complicated stupid ways that wind up committing fraud.
As I've said before, I find myself unable to nail down just what it is that Muir and his kind WANT. What is it that they want the government to be doing? We know what they DON'T want. But what do they want?
ReplyDeleteIt could be that I'm "progressive-projecting", here. Lefties and center-lefters tend to view government in terms of what we would like our elected officials to be doing on behalf of their constituents that benefits them in tangible, material ways. I admit I'm unable to internalize a view of government that does not include this. It's like a foreign language to me. I can't think in the terms they seem to be thinking in.
P.S. This goes beyond pikers like Muir. Like, top of my list is Steve Bannon. Unlike most of the rubes, grifters and suckers he exploits and ropes into the movement, he is an actual committed ideologue who wants to bring about a very specific kind of world order. I've read long pieces on the ideology he subscribes to, though it was long ago and I've forgotten most or the specifics.
DeleteBut even though I sort of know what he wants, I don't understand WHY he wants it. I don't understand what his reasons are for wanting to bring about the kind of society and global order he's striving for. Especially since, like William Barr, he himself would be unlikely to directly benefit either monetarily or with any sort of real power. If he stood to benefit in that sense, it would make more sense to me. But he isn't. He just wants to bring about this kind of society because he wants it. And my mind isn't able to process that.
Muir's pretty easy. He has an assortment of demands, but they all boil down to this--the government needs to step aside from not allowing people like him from doing what they want, and it has to stop helping people Muir doesn't like. Indeed, if they would start crushing those people, Muir would be tickled pink. Standard fascist bullshit.
DeleteYour Barrs and Bannons are a bit more complicated, but still pretty understandable. They think they'll be the guys helping to run the dictatorship, so yes, it will benefit them, and more importantly, it's helping their team wins. That's what reactionaries are about. Insisting that what has repeatedly failed will work now, because it has to, or their side loses.
Yeah, but regarding Muir and his ilk, that's what confuses me. Obviously Muir thinks the government is evil and fascist for not allowing him to do whatever he wants. But that's precisely what I don't understand --- what DOES he want to be doing? If he could have his way, and the evul fedgov would step aside and let him do whatever he wants, what exactly IS it that he wants to be doing right now?
DeleteThat's what I can't figure out.
I think I'd rather not know what he'd like to be doing. I'm guessing the answer is pretty demoralizing.
DeleteI think we see it in the strip--persecute minorities and leftists and be praised for it by all while constantly getting rewarded by everyone around him as a patriot.
DeleteOf course, this is clearly a pathetic fantasy that wouldn't happen even if Muir did get the government he wanted. Hell, it's the reason why a few months into Trump's presidency, he was already seeing the Right under siege. He wants the world of right wing glurge, where the vet speaks and everybody claps. And that world is fiction. Dull fiction. It can't exist.