This Modern World: Are you a Gloomy Gus ... or a Perky Pete?

[meegbear]

[laruemtt]

1. a realistic rita? n/t

[wtmusic]

2. I'd be a Perky Gus

if we could put Pete in prison for war crimes.

[baldguy]

3. Perky Pete needs a knuckle samwich.

[babylonsister]

4. Gloomy Guss here aka Realistic Ruth. nt

[Javaman]

5. Whatever Will nt

[Debs]

6. Decidedly Dour debs

I have the burden of that pesky reality thing going against me. The riechwing has really become the movement of reality denial. They just put their hands over their eyes and chant that they refuse to accept reality because they SO prefer that pretty story they made up in their heads. This has the added advantage that when the policies they base on their delusions have their inevitable catastrophic results they can just deny that too. Hey Iraq is great, I am going to vacation there next summer. The economy is going gangbusters even though no one I know can find a job with a living wage, and gas prices have me eating dog food. See reality cannot penetrate the atmosphere on Planet Wingnut so they are free from its constraints. I know of no way to reach such people.

[gratuitous]

7. Remember to the time just before the invasion of Iraq?

Back then, it was the cold-eyed realists who had sized up the situation, and reluctantly concluded that we had to invade Iraq. There was no other choice, sad to say. It was a grim task, forced on us by unavoidable circumstance, and anyone who had a differing opinion was a starry-eyed idealist, or naive, or just didn't understand the way the world worked. Sure, the cold-eyed realists also called "traitor," but that was for folks' own good: A shock of cold water to wake up a slumbering consciousness.

Now, the folks who look at Iraq and see the clusterfuck they feared come true (but wait, there's more!) and then some become the "Gloomy Guses" who just need a little "Perky Pete" to tide them over to the next opportunity. And of course, pointing out the messed up nature of Iraq is verboten, unless you were on record of being in favor of invading Iraq at the time of the invasion. "I told you so" is not allowed where the Bush administration is concerned.