Surfer's Knob and other threats

Mike Thompson on what should be a minor point, and is, but which illustrates a larger one.

Ted Nugent's sociopathic rants have been all over social media, and, as the cartoon suggests, there is no reason for it.

Nugent is, at best, a niche act; he's barely made the charts in the past 40 years.

Only old people would even know who he was, if all he had was his music.

A reasonable response to his nonsensical rants would be "Who the hell is that?" but our response, instead, is "OmigodOmigodOmigod!"

Similar to what happens when we find out that kids are chewing detergent pods or practicing sutra neti with condoms.

The intelligent response is "How many?" followed by "Prove it."

But instead, we respond "OmigodOmigodOmigod!" and flood the media with unverified nonsense.

It's nothing new, of course. There's always someone eager to leap on a fad, and I remember a brief kerfuffle over "surfer's knob," a growth caused by too much kneeling on surfboards back in the Beach Boys/Jan & Dean days.

They're real, but utterly insignificant. It was basically a collaboration between a doctor who craved publicity and a few national magazines that craved anything to do with surfing.

In the early 90s, I had an editor send me to do a story with a local group who led the midnight showings of "Rocky Horror" when that was a thing. I was surprised it had surfaced in our little town, but we had a branch of the state university system, so maybe.

Off I went and the first question I asked them was "How many times have you seen it?" because I knew the answers would likely be in the middle three figures.

But nobody in the troupe had seen it more than two dozen times. Still, they dressed photogenically and it was a fad and we ran the story, this being in the waning days of my wanting to be in the newsroom.

I've even seen a story from 1896, when bicycling was all the rage, about a husband who had taken up the fad and then run away with a freewheeling minister's daughter.

Had they met through a mutual interest in birdwatching, it would not have been more than a brief local item, but it was national news, or, at least, a national feature story, of some length and detail.

 

Wiley properly points out the futility of political parties trying to reach out to young people without cutting their allegiance to the old farts at the center of their operation.

A large part of it is trying to stage the spontaneous. When first Bill Clinton and then Barack Obama inspired a new generation, the Democrats tried to simply declare their chosen candidate (no names please) the Next Hip Thing, and it didn't work because that's not how it works.

And it won't get better for them: The Parkland Kids have no more memory of Bill Clinton than I do of Harry Truman, who likewise left office before my second birthday.

My father remarked that the steel industry had welcomed his generation -- the World War II vets -- but then pulled up the ladder and never groomed the subsequent cohorts, with the result that management all hit retirement age with no replacements.

For political parties, it's the Vietnam Generation that's now turning 70.

We joked, back in the day, that our children would rebel by cutting their hair, putting on ties and carrying briefcases, and it proved true enough. If you want to see where these Alex P. Keaton clones have landed, look at Congress and you'll see them all on one side of the aisle.

They are in their 40s, which, in Congress, makes you young.

And there are more under-40 Alex P. Keatons running around than there are people eating detergent and shoving condoms up their noses.

The March 24 crowds weren't all kids, but they were real, and the question is, with the Parkland Kids becoming an authentic major phenomenon, will they find a party that will not just "welcome" them but give them an actual place at the table?

Better start setting that table: We're already getting potential presidential candidates nosing around the Granite State and it's not even the midterms.

I'll let you know if anyone does more than offer new wine in old wineskins.

 

Meanwhile, where does Mildred Montag get her news? 

(Mike Lester)

(Jeff Stahler)

(Clay Bennett)

I put this triple juxtaposition in an order that lets it speak for itself.

I've also seen a couple of cartoons suggesting that the anchors who read Sinclair's by-now infamous statement are being held hostage, which is funny except that it's not a defense that worked at Nuremberg and it's not gonna swing much weight with me.

When Corporate began stripping our local mine for profit, forcing a shutdown a generation before the ore would have given out under sensible management, my dad quit and walked away.

Years later, I had a publisher do the same, when Corporate began to gut the newspaper where I worked.

In neither case was there any chance of halting the process, and, of course, HQ simply found someone who would perform the slaughter.

But there is no honor in collaboration, and I don't feel sorry for the Sinclair clone army.

All politics aside, they know they did not write those words. The plagiarism alone should shame them into silence.

Assuming they have the capacity to feel shame.

People trust them and people will believe them and one day we will shave their hair-sprayed tresses and heat the tar to boiling and I hope we don't have to go through a full cycle of Hell before that happens.

 

Meanwhile, Pat Bagley captures another frightening clone army, the Mildred Montags -- male and female -- who go along, who can readily be reached and influenced and who believe in the Tide Challenge and in the Sinclair War Against Fake News.

And that all is for the best in this best of all possible worlds.

Comments

[Woodrowfan]

Sinclair's contacts can make it very expensiv4e to quit, beyond just losing your paycheck..

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-03/sinclair-employees-say-their-contracts-make-it-too-expensive-to-quit?utm_source=google&utm_medium=bd&cmpId=google

[Mike Peterson]

For some reason, that link wouldn't work -- here's another version:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-03/sinclair-employees-say-their-contracts-make-it-too-expensive-to-quit?

I'd seen that rumored but not confirmed until now. I'd like to see someone challenge it, particularly if they quit as a result of being ordered to do something unethical. And I'll bet they could run one helluva good FundMe to pay for the attorneys.

Of course, someone with kids has to consider these things, but then again, someone with kids has to think of the moral example they set. I was never so proud of my dad than when he walked out of the steel industry, and I don't know how I'd have felt if he hadn't.