Monday, August 08, 2016

"not the end of the world"

Comma-splice-loving Charles Glasser writes on Facebook regarding Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton:

Truth be told, I'm just not that freaked out and worried. Clinton is a crony capitalist, not a raving Socialist. Trump is not Hitler or even Mussolini, he's more like Berlusconi.

Later on, in response to someone's comment, Glasser writes that Clinton and Trump are "not the end of the world." I don't see either Trump or Clinton as a savior, or even as someone who can pull the country out of its economic and social nosedive.* In fact, I see little hope for reform unless we're willing to blow everything up (starting with the IRS) and just rebuild. Glasser seems to be assuming that there are enough systemic checks and balances in place that neither candidate can do much damage over the course of eight years, which puts him in a very different ideological camp from those who are more passionately engaged in the debate over which worldview should reign supreme. Call him a member of the Indifferent Party.

Meanwhile, libertarian vlogger Styxhexenhammer666 (thank you, King Baeksu, for introducing me to this bloke) says he is also not a fan of either candidate, but unlike me, he's thought about what can be done to right the listing ship and actually has some proposals. In this video (I think I'm linking to the correct one), he expresses his thoughts on what Americans can do better. The guy struck me as a marginal fruit loop the first time I watched a video of his, but after having seen four or five of his talks, I've come to the conclusion that he knows his stuff and speaks reasonably. You just have to get past his bare-bones, low-tech vlogging style, his trapped-in-a-basement look, and his soporific monotone. His videos are actually packed with content and generally watchable, despite the occasional grammatical or lexical gaffe. He puts complex chains of ideas together well and rarely digresses. I started off bored and unimpressed, but the guy has grown on me.



*You think "nosedive" isn't the right word? Then I'd like to hear your word for a 20-trillion-dollar national debt and rapidly disintegrating social cohesion.




5 comments:

King Baeksu said...

Actually, "Styx" was supporting Trump until he endorsed Pence, who he thinks is too far to the right. In his view, Trump should have chosen someone more in the middle, in order to stay true to his anti-establishment "insurgency" campaign and attract former Sanders supporters. In my own opinion, Trump needed to shore up his base within the GOP, so the Pence selection makes sense.

You will note that Styx does all his vlogs, which range between ten and twenty minutes, in a single take and never seems to do edits or retakes. Pretty impressive, I'd have to say.

As I have argued elsewhere, Trump is the Internet candidate and he is killing $hillary in social-media activity. You should do a post on that angle at some point.

Kevin Kim said...

KB,

re: Trump as internet candidate

It's not a thought that's original to me, but you've been putting it out there for some time, so it's your baby. I expect to see some column-inches over at KingBaeksu.com... once I figure out how to access your content from that URL, which is currently guarded by a dancing cosmic arthropod. Is there an "enter site" button that I'm missing?

King Baeksu said...

"Is there an "enter site" button that I'm missing?"

Yes, there is.

I'm not a big social-media user myself, so perhaps you may have some insights that I don't.

Hence my suggestion.

Kevin Kim said...

Never mind—I just found it.

King Baeksu said...

My site is over a decade old and is decidedly retro. Hell, it doesn't even work with smartphones. I kind of like it that way!