I collect anecdotes, articles, stories and books on a wide variety of subjects (I have a crazy reading list), and from time to time I begin to group themes together. A book I read many years ago Mutants, On Genetic Variety and the Human Body had an enormously rich subject base. One thread connected to height, which in absence of testosterone (lets say, by castration) can lead to people who effectively grow taller throughout life — A Capon vs a Rooster for animals, a Castrati versus an ordinary Tenor in humans. That connects to a magazine article in the New Yorker The Height Gap about how Americans aren’t getting taller, which in turn connects to an article at NIH about Girls given Injections to keep them short: How tall is too tall? On the ethics of oestrogen treatment for tall girls — something awful is going on in Norway, Iceland, Sweden… In my head this begins to connect to early menarche in US girls, accelerated epiphyseal fusion, lavender-induced ‘xenoestrogens’ in boys causing breast tissue growth, and then on to the NIH again with Genetic and Environmental Factors in Hypospadas — what gives men shorter cocks, with flattened heads and the opening positioned on the underside rather than the tip, and can drive towards smaller cocks and ‘microphallis’. Throw in Fast Food Nation and correlating the use of phthalate-soaked plastic instead of glass bottles in the 70’s which strangely linked exactly to exactly when American height stopped growing, men’s cocks seemed to have exponentially more developmental problems, American weight overall started skyrocketing (people in photos from the 70’s were skinny!) . Atrazine, of course, completes the picture Atrazine induces complete feminization and chemical castration in male African clawed frogs (Xenopus laevis) — it’s an extremely widely used herbicide. Introduced in the US in 1959, its use grew in the 60’s and it became widespread in the 70s’. When genital deformations became more common in men. When US humans stopped growing taller. When people started becoming much heavier. Coincidence, correlation, causation, I can’t say.
That’s a bit how my mind works.
On to Republicans and Conservatives, generically.
In collecting anecdotes, I began taking notice of people dying. Take for instance Mass Shootings in the US. Nobody likes mass shootings, of any party. But it’s a peculiarly extreme Republican that attempts to convince us that even with slaughter of entire elementary school groups in Connecticut, festivals in Las Vegas, a Church in Texas, a Church in Charleston, the list is endless, that we are to be convinced that more guns are the best solution while research shows the opposite. This leads unfortunately to the peculiarly extreme Republican become mainstream and advocating for more guns, leading to more death. Death at the hands of Police — even Police on Police — has a strangely muted response, especially of course Black people in the hands of Police. Children dying due to lack of medical care — well CHIP (Child Healthcare Insurance) was put in place under Clinton, but it expired under Trump (2017) and then reinstated (2018) after pretty much a lot of pressure. Killing of Adults by execution in the US accelerates under Republican administrations. War criminals are pardoned under republican administrations. This has led me to a view, which tires my friend in conversations, that the Republican party is the connecting factor in escalation of death in the US. I can’t cite everything but let’s see:
|
Death Age Group |
Republican Focal Points |
|
Infant Death
Early Childhood Death
Teenage Death
Early adulthood
Adulthood
Late Adulthood
Retirement & Elderly
|
- Halt of funding for planned parenthood and other pre-natal care organizations.
- Contraceptive access
- Supplemental nutrition.
- Federal Death Penalty
- State Death Penalty
- Overturning ACA.
- Fighting Medicaid.
- Critical infrastructure (Water, Electricity) deregulation.
- Advocating guns in response to Gun Violence.
- War crimes death.
- Workplace safety.
- Fighting Medicare.
- “Grandma can die for the freedom of her kids:” COVID and no masks, no distancing, no management.
- Refusal of refugees of war and violence
- Cutting benefits in Social Security for the Elderly
|
These are just some items I have collected notes and articles on. What triggered me on this is a nice summary article The GOP's Ayn Rand death cult: Trump's party is literally killing the American people from Salon, which is worth reading.
The killer line is
In addition, since 1980 public policies have reduced Americans' lifespans by 3.4 years as compared to the other "advanced" countries in the G7 (with data included through to 2018). America's public health problems considerably predate Trump's tenure in office — but his regime made them much worse.
So it’s not me stringing articles together from books and short-form writers, it’s a measurable outcome.
Shocking is barely the word.
I’m curious as to other opinions from Readers on how Republicans have become a “party of death”.