I’m a bad mood today. It would be bad enough watching the United States go to the dogs, but it’s worse than that — it’s going to the babies. Babies with police powers and occasionally nuclear weapons. Adult-sized babies who never learned how to play together in a sandbox and who wail that it’s infringing on their “freedoms” to make them behave like, say, civilized twelve-year-olds. (I do know some that age who know how to be polite and considerate. Proves the species hasn’t totally lost its mind. Yet.)
I’m watching the infantilization of America.
Just a few examples (paraphrased):
- “You can’t make me wear a mask!”
- “I didn’t break it!” (as said by Trump, Pompeo, et al. about Afghanistan)
- “The election was stolen!”
- “The game was rigged!”
- “Covid is a hoax!”
- “I won’t get a vaccine — but I want my horse paste!”
- “No girls allowed!” (to have control over their own bodies)
- “It’s not fair!”
We used to send people who talked (screamed) like this to their rooms for a time-out. Now we elect them to public office.
One reason Nancy Pelosi is so effective, and so hated / feared by Republicans, is that she is a mother and grandmother who doesn’t put up with childish nonsense — especially from supposed grown-ups who are supposed to be running the country. She knows they’re behaving like spoiled brats, and they know she knows, and they can’t stand it.
So how did we get to this state of advanced infanilization? We could call it second childhood, but while nations do have a limited lifespan, I don’t think we had to get to this point just yet. And while Trump bears a lot of the blame for making whining and whimpering and bullying seem like respectable public behavior, he didn’t do it all on his lonesome. Here are a few thoughts:
- Civility became mocked as “political correctness.”
- We killed public education because the “poorly educated” are more easily manipulated.
- Being an adult means taking responsibility for mistakes, and if politicians do that, they might get voted out of office. (Not necessarily true: Look at Mayor La Guardia.)
- Being an adult means having to share.
Feel free to add to the list.