Sol's Culture Wars

Violence would be first and last. Made, marketed, and consumed. Listing what is wrong with US life and culture in 2022 is much like pinning the tail on the proverbial donkey, you can't miss, there's so much screwed up crazy in every direction, to summarize our society's more profane tastes and ills into two wide columns: over-expressed and over-exposed. Nowhere left to go. Once you've screeched  off your generalized angst against the universe, or gravity, or the rich, or whatever, you come to realize no one is really listening anyway. Once you've twerked it out at the boss's party, then only twerking naked is left to try, thoughtless explicitness and garrish public exhibits render our imagination obsolete, no chance to envision it, too late, there it is in the flesh, in the real, skip the negligee, forget the foreplay, that's for folks who believe the myths of timeless romance, because only suckers don't know that life is too short for the long con, get ...

Sure, I'm getting old, and that may partially explain why music today typically sounds like "that same song." I intentionally use that phrase to annoy my teenage son when he has some tune playing in the house. "No, that's not the same song, dad, you just don't know the music!"  Okay, maybe not, what do I know about it? I grew up listening to James Brown, Stevie Wonder, Beatles, Cream, The Band, please! Don't try to talk about originality, none of my old favorite musicians ever sounded alike! Everyone actually wanted their own style and sound, imagine that!  Hendrix wasn't Led Zeppelin, Janis Joplin wasn't the Stones, Bill Withers wasn't David Bowie. Chaka Khan wasn't Joni Mitchell, and you so loved them all for their unique, inimacable styles. All the artists created their music to set apart from the rest, to develop a brand based on unfettered originality and innovation. The worst, most embarrassing thing was to be criticized for sou...

It does rhyme with a certain carrion consuming creature that's not on any favorites list. How do you measure the hot temper of this culture without using biased instruments of comparing that lack realtime relevance-- or, do we measure? Is there reason to care? Is culture always moving away from conformity by its nature? Is culture just keen illusion of savvy marketing, asshat brainwashing media platforms that lie with a barcode, and spin with a whim. Any given day you can count on being tricked by invisible blips of subliminal crap tuned to make you use more, spend, crave, also worry more.  Then, culture is just a business? Nothing personal? You're never alone but never caught up with the latest whatever it is that a few have already seen, then tossed aside. Meaning that, culture is a pointless ride? Or, a rude board game only the wealthiest play?  How do you feel hearing infants curse like drunken fools, and seeing kids flash gang signs, or twerk to a stripper's bass beat?...

(Opinion) The purchase of the recently declining Twitter platform by the world's richest person has the massive company's hard Left leaders shocked, dismayed, and dusting off their resumes. I'm wondering why.  Consider the buyer. Space X and Tesla's Elon Musk has already done some super great and benevolent stuff to improve the lives of millions of folks around the world. His tenacious independence, personal generosity, future vision, and uncanny ability to assemble stellar teams of achieving leaders is unprecedented and remarkable. So, exactly how is Musk bad news, and for who? If the Twitter leadership is dedicated to the core value of free speech in the public discourse, operating a platform that essentially represents the national town square, why are some folks panicked with worry? If Twitter leaders strive for an objective, fair, and open culture that encourages voices from all views and perspectives of social topics, what's the big concern?  But, this is the ...

It only takes a squabble turned to brawl, then a collosal and unexpected knockout to create a new national question and meme: why is the suddenly panicked Left so frightened of energetic billionaire Elon Musk? Everyone has their own theory. Maybe the answer is about him. Could it be Musk is everything the Left detests? For instance, he's quirky, and certainly hard to predict on substantive issues. Musk isn't reticent about being crafty, illusive, and enigmatic. The Left hates those attributes since they're not controllable. Musk has a resilient, uncanny self-confidence. Consider the massive scale of endeavors he is successfully moving forward. Multiple projects of cutting edge technology and high wire risk taking, with no guarantees about crashing down via the hard gravity of failure. Musk also demonstrates confidence in his teams of leaders and managers. He has built it all. The Left moans and shudders in the presence of self-confidence based on virtuous goals, or doing go...