How many of you know what ecosystem services are? How many of you can describe the carbon cycle? What about mRNA?
If you don’t know, then why are you so confident in your stance against science? Why support deforestation, water contamination, and the dismissal of climate change when you can’t even explain its most basic principles? Why reject vaccines without understanding how they work? You might not feel embarrassed, but you should feel curious. You should feel responsible.
But many refuse to question their beliefs. Why? Because admitting you were misled takes courage. Because learning something new means letting go of old lies.
That’s why Trump was right when he said he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and still have your support. He knows you won’t fact-check him. He knows he can lie, cheat, and destroy—and you’ll still follow.
And where has that blind loyalty led us?
• 280 million acres of forests set for destruction.
• Social programs gutted.
• Cancer research halted.
The sick left to die, the hungry left to starve, and the most vulnerable cast aside.
Is this the country you want? A nation that poisons its own water, strips its own land bare, abandons its own people? If this is the future you fight for, then at least own it.
But for those of you who do still have a conscience, it’s time to wake up. It’s time to fight back. The future doesn’t belong to those who stand by while greed poisons the land: It belongs to those who refuse to let it happen.
Demand better. Call out the lies. Stop letting these people destroy everything under the guise of “patriotism.” Patriotism isn’t blind obedience. It’s protecting your home, your people, your future.
Which side of history will you be on?
Ender Wiggin
Atascadero
This article appears in Mar 13-23, 2025.
It’s long been time to dump both parties and time to vote for candidates with sound environmental and economic policy proscriptions.
This current administration is laying off hundreds of thousands of governmental workers all because America is “broke.” America isn’t “broke,” in fact, our country is extremely rich. The problem is that America’s wealth sits in the hands of about 6 or 7 oligarchs, a few giant hedge funds, and with a few fabulously rich families.
Their rush to dismantle these public agencies isn’t for our benefit, instead, it is for theirs. Wealth creation has run its course and since America can’t compete economically with China, the only option left to keep what remains of our social safety net (including public education), is to tax the hell out of the rich and claw back the gains they’ve had the last 40 years. They know this and this explains their rush to dismantle these august institutions.
As they decry China’s rise, they dismantle the federal Department of Education. Does this make sense? Do we really want to make it impossible for the children of working class Americans to attend college? College graduates, especially in the STEM fields, are this country’s shock troops. These graduates will be this nation’s inventors, scientists, and CEOs. We need more of these, not less
As they intend to send federal dollars to states in the form of block grants, can we be assured the children in this nation’s poorer states, Alabama, Georgia, etc , receive the education they deserve? I’m willing to bet a small portion of these block grants actually end up in education funding. We may see a new wave of corruption at the state level as states with negligible budgets use this money for different ends.
These block grants will also most likely be given to charter (private) and religious (private) schools. These are Trump’s campaign contributors and expect payback. With respect to common sense men and women of faith, I personally don’t want my hard won tax dollars to be used to instill religious dogma on an entire generation of students rather than mathematic formulas or familiarity with the western literary canon.
Tax the rich, save our beautiful country and state.
*Edit: [policy] prescriptions.
Thank you for your great letter. I agree and have some additional facts.
I stand with Ukraine, Canada and Mexico, Europe and the rest of the Free Democratic World on Trump’s bullying tariff terrorism, with no plan, and “on” again “off” again…
Trump’s Administration has made America a Pariah by voting with Putin, Xi and all the dictators at last month’s UN Meeting!
Trump, Musk and Putin are no longer trying to hide that Trump really works for Putin. Trump is in the white house, doing just what Putin tells him to do.
Trump and his GOP sycophants in Congress have made America a Pariah in the eyes of the World, to please their Dear Leaders (owners), Musk and Putin.
Trump wants to be part of the gang of dictators that don’t care about anyone but themselves, even if they destroy the whole world.
This is how destructive narcissistic sociopaths are.
Trump owes both Musk and Putin, Big Time! Like mobsters, they own him!
Their aim is to collapse the U.S. Economy, Our Democracy and multicultural society.
I Stand with Ukraine, Canada, Mexico and the Free World in opposing Trump’s economic tariff terrorism and the gutting our government agencies and firing of their employees!
We must protect our democratic republic and never bow to a fascist king!
Carl Sagan can help explain why some of the maga followers cannot abandon their cult. They have been bamboozled.
“One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.”
― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
Scott:
Take a deep breath and relax, you have a serious case of TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome). Try to think beyond the personality and look at the SYSTEM. Trump’s appearance shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone slightly familiar with fascism. He may never admit it nor even know what it is, but he is a fascist.
This era’s fascists won’t make the same mistakes of the fascists of the early part of the 20th century did. They will not wear snazzy uniforms, they will not carry the Roman Fasces, they will not have or use party symbols. What they will do are the same things the earlier iteration did, they will scapegoat weak members of society (illegal immigrants and non-Caucasians), they will wrap themselves in the flag, they will profess a loyalty to the flag, they will beat the bible, they will exalt our military, they will espouse the importance of women baring children and keeping house, they will prosecute and jail intellectuals, they will purge universities of leftists, they will grab people off the street never to be seen again, they will emphasize machismo, they will concentrate power around a single (male) figure, and they will make war.
Fascism is capitalism in decay. Unable to compete in a now global marketplace, they use the state to ensure select people, corporations, and institutions thrive. They will attribute the success of the chosen on some sort of intrinsic quality the rest of us don’t have rather than admit they simply shovel state resources, our tax dollars, to them.
This can be seen in Trump’s administration and actions. They are attempting to rescue the credit rating of the U.S. by jettisoning those things that keep our society (barely) literate, that keep old folks (barely) fed, that provide (basic) medical care for our poor and elderly, that ensure the (processed) food we eat won’t kill us, that provide (underpaid) structural inspectors so that the bridges we drive over don’t collapse, that ensure that (old) planes we fly in don’t crumble mid flight, and that provide (meager) old age pension checks. Their actions won’t stop at simply firing federal employees, their goal is to eliminate the budgets that these institutions once received. They will be able to redirect this money to their own pockets through opaque contracts and, having proven to our national creditors they are willing to destroy each and every one of us, keeping interest rates low and national debt manageable.
About the only heavy industry left in American are the factories that turn out iron fragmentation bombs, landmines, missiles, machine guns, tanks, battleships, and body bags. Industry was happily sent abroad a few decades ago by my late parent’s generation. Yes, they feigned concerned for blue collar workers, but in the end, they could care less. Why? Because as those that lived in America’s heartland saw their local factories close, many of my late parent’s generation got paid. Their pensions went up, their white collar salaries increased, they had surplus income to invest and did so in the very companies that went overseas.
So here they are, in the mid and late 70’s, despised, hated, and rightly mocked. The biggest piece of fortune they had was being born at the close of WWII and into the postwar boom. As a member of that generation, you would have to seriously screw up not to come out on top by now. These people could fall on their faces repeatedly and still live in economic conditions that allowed them to buy a house for almost nothing. They could shoot cops, bomb banks, and burn flags, such as Bill Ayers of the Weather Underground and simply become a professor in the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, holding the titles of Distinguished Professor of Education and Senior University Scholar, and retire to accolades and laurels.
Today’s youth do no such thing, they are very worried about getting fired (if they are lucky to have a job). This is read by out of touch Boomers as being unconcerned. Today’s youth are very concerned, however, they don’t have liberty or economic conditions that allow them to take risks. So instead, they sit behind keyboards, as I do, and pen useless screeds. Much like pissing in the wind.
*Edit:
Bill Ayers, cofounder of Weather Underground, went into hiding for years for violent acts of domestic terrorism his group engaged in. Emerges as political darling of far left activists. NOT known to have personally burnt flags or shoot cops. His group did bomb banks though in acts of far left domestic terrorism.
I had his group confused with the Symbionese Liberation Army, whose members literally died in shootouts with police.
My point still stands, we live in a different world now where the slightest whiff of dissent from corporate or organizational values can ruin ones career. In the case of Bill Ayers, he is the perfect example how his generation, euphemistically speaking, practically burnt our country down, only to become celebrated academics, writers, pundits, and turned into victims rather than the terrorists many actually were. Mumia Abdul Jamar comes to mind, an individual who actually did shoot cops, gets on death row, has his sentence reduced, and becomes a noted reporter from behind prison walls.
Meanwhile, MILLIONS of Americans, living in a hollowed out economy, spend their entire lives toiling away for nothing, working hard, not breaking the law, unrecognized, only to be told those values are outdated and only held be “deplorables.” And liberals wonder why Trump won. Although a crook himself, he never looked down on these people because they didn’t share the same values as academics in ivory towers, obscure sexual minorities, or those that would lay around and prosper through a combination of crime, working off the books, dodging taxes, and receiving state benefits.
Believe it or not, there are still Americans that believe a day’s work is worth a day’s pay.
People who are worried the vaccine will change their DNA should welcome the opportunity.
Madam Slivinski:
Laugh all you want, but the US has a history of exposing Americans to disease or tricking Americans into receiving bogus treatment for disease. The US Army gave Native Americans blankets contaminated with smallpox, the US Public Health Service tricked African Americans into receiving what they thought was treatment for syphilis but was instead, nothing. The US government and its scientists conduct secret geo-engineering experiments over the SF Bay area, the US detonated atom bombs in the South Pacific and used indigenous Islanders as test subjects, the US offers military inductees the opportunity to leave rigorous basic training for a while if they volunteer to participate in biochemical experiments. Need I go on?
This isn’t to say mRNA vaccines are unsafe, I received mine. What I’m suggesting is that you might question authority figures when they tell you to take an experimental vaccine whose manufacturers demanded a release of liability from the government before releasing it to the public and rolled out without the normal, lengthy process of testing it.
There are valid reasons to be concerned.
Fly_meet_ointment – first, if you are going to address me, I would appreciate it if you made an effort to spell my name correctly, as I did with yours. Second, in my comment, I never made any reference to trickery and deceit used by our government and military regarding diseases and vaccines. I also never said anything about questioning authority figures regarding vaccines and I am not going to let you drag me down those rabbit holes because I definitely do not need you to mansplain American history to me. I simply think people who oppose vaccines because their political candidates, who are by no means authority figures on vaccines, told them that vaccines would change their DNA should welcome the opportunity to change the DNA responsible for the willful ignorance that lets them make their health and well-being decisions based on politics.
Madam:
Are you (or I) an expert in biochemistry? I doubt it, so your opinion on mRNA vaccines hold as much authority as bugs bunny.
Your comments are also sexist in attempting to dismiss my concerns as simply “mansplaining.” Doing so is a form of what you liberals and members of the PMC excel at, virtue signalling. How sweet the rarified air must be from on high, madam.
If you don’t like us common folk contributing to this obscure column, perhaps you should stick to reading or posting at The Atlantic Monthly, The New Republic, The NYTs, or whatever you read in the lofty tower of intellectual superiority you presume to inhabit.
At a more abstract level, your interest in the DNA of Trump supporters is a little concerning. It is similar to what the Nazis said about certain members of their society. They felt their Aryan ancestry was just a little bit better and had serious concerns about genetic “contamination” by certaun members of their society. Is this where your class of people are going when castigating the millions of Americans who voted for Trump? It’s easier to blame ones genetics for a difference of opinion rather than come up with a meaningful argument, right? It’s kind of lazy. Or are you just afraid you may not like what you hear? You may have to confront something you may deny. For example, you libs exported all our jobs and ruined our country. Let’s start there, shall we?
The divergence is between your supposed moral superiority and facts. If you were actually better than the rest of us, you would have taken a hit in your wallet but saved the lives of Americans you’ll never meet, you know, the ones living in Kentucky, the Ozarks, and Bakersfield. Instead you just blame the victims because for some strange reason, they have a right to their own beliefs and opinion, which, if you had your druthers, would eliminate (as you now try to with me in this column). Sorry, it won’t work. What you’ve become is a liberal authoritarian, madam.
Further, there are very Freudian implications about fears of “contamination.” It brings to mind a movie your generation is very familiar with, “Doctor Strangelove” and it’s rogue officer freaking out about “precious bodily fluids.” It’s interesting what it says about you.
And remember, professor, you might want to think twice about rounding up Trump voters and sending them to concentration camps as many of your class would really like to, last I heard, many of them take the 2nd Amendment pretty seriously and won’t go willingly.
If you’ll pardon me, I need to go make some pizza dough.
Fly_meet_ointment – after trying to decipher your rambling response to me, it dawned on me that you’re one of those people my parents always warned me about – that is, you seem normal at first but that illusion rapidly disappears. And when you start making references to “precious bodily fluids,” it gets a little creepy. But that’s simply my un-expert opinion.
You have made a lot of incorrect assumptions about me and you know what they say about people who assume, right? Anyway, once again I’m not going anywhere near the rabbit holes you’re going down because that’s a level of crazy I know nothing about and have no wish to engage. Then I read your last sentence in which, out of the blue, you say you need to go make some pizza dough. And then it all made sense. You must be a pizza cutter because you’re all edge and no point. Good luck with that.
And here I’m going to take some good advice from Mark Twain who advises to never argue with people like you because you’ll drag me down to your level then beat me with experience ✌🏼✌🏼✌🏼
I’ll post later, just got done shredding on my bike. Making pizza is a survival tactic, thanks to the economic policies of your party, I have to do everything I can to stretch my dollar.
If calling people like you out is “creepy,” I own it. And further, there’s nothing “rambling” about anything I said. I kept it simple so you could understand. Rather than look at my position, you simply write me off as “mansplaining” or “creepy.”
You can disparage Trump voters but no one can respond? Is that how it works? This is the Internet, it’s the Wild West.Thetes always comics books, madam, if this forum is too complicated for you.