Payback

You hear a lot of pseudo-smart analyses on TV. I’m thinking of Brian Williams’ comment after the murder of five police officers in Dallas that what happened there was ironic. Irony is saying something to convey a meaning that is the opposite of the literal meaning. Brian Williams doesn’t get what the word “irony” means. Three is too many syllables.  Another doofus is David Brooks. Today he blamed the unspeakable murders in France on “the dark side of globalization.” 

Yeah, right, I said ironically. I’m not going to defend unspeakable murders by ISIS males who can’t interest women. If I could push a button and erase all of them from the planet, I’d push the button. But these suicidal maniacs haven’t surfaced because of globalization. In part they represent their own personal frustrations. More important, they are reacting against a thousand years of imperialism. They come from cultures that have been subjugated so the North can get at their natural resources. That has been going on for centuries, and no end is in sight. The murderers—warped beyond the point where they murder children one at a time—want payback.  Why not admit it?

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