As the Kavanaugh Turns
Sep. 28th, 2018 09:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mallorys_cameraI knew I shouldn’t watch As the Kavanaugh Turns, but I ended up watching it anyway.
Watched it with Ed who is very much the Centrist Democrat.
I figured we’d disagree about what we were watching.
But, in fact, we were pretty much on the same page. Which was reaffirming: I know I tend to interpret the political circus in an odd way, but if someone more mainstream sees it in the exact same way I see it...
Christine Blasey Ford: Extremely sympathetic.
But Kavanaugh salvaged the partisan moment. He behaved exactly as I would expect someone to behave whose life had been destroyed by an unjust accusation: He was furious; he was tearful.
If one was predisposed to believe Ford, one believed Ford; if one was predisposed to believe Kavanaugh, one believed Kavanaugh.
My own understanding—and I may be incorrect here—is that Ford's memory of the events was actually a repressed memory that reemerged in 2012. Inference on my part: In the story published by The Washington Post that first leaked Ford’s name, one line stood out to me: "Years later, after going through psychotherapy, Ford said, she came to understand the incident as a trauma with lasting impact on her life."
Sure sounds like recovered memory to me.
(Ford, by the way, provided only portions of her psychiatric records to WaPo, which sure seems preemptive from any defense point of view. If the FBI is ever allowed to do an investigation, I would like to see all those psychiatric records examined.)
Repressed memories are wonky things. I remain troubled by the lack of situational markers.
And the test I apply to situations like this one is this: What if the accusations were being made against someone I liked? Or what if Kavanaugh was black? Would I be so quick to condemn him on the basis of a recovered memory?
And the answer to that is, No.
Of course, Kavanaugh should have been disqualified long ago on the basis of that wonky disappearing credit card debt. And he should also be disqualified on the basis of what happened yesterday, not because of the sexual assault allegation but because it’s very clear that he hates Democrats. I might, too, in his situation. But he’s clearly no longer capable of rendering impartial and fair judicial decisions.
###
The sickening part was the subsequent communal bloodbath on social media.
The shrieking harpies on the Left went after Kavanaugh. The howling Maenads on the Right dismembered Ford.
"BTW, I raped your 15 year old daughter last night"
"WTF?"
"Hey, chill out. Here's your Tax Cut...
"Wow... Thanks!"
I really need to think about deleting my Facebook account.
The polarization is just so weird, and the only people profiting off it are the media outlets who are whipping people up into a frenzy. I keep flashing on those lines from The Z Blog: I slowly came to the conclusion that the whole Right-Left dynamic was just a myth… If the Right-Left construct is just a version of good cop/bad cop where the people in the media hustle the rest of us so they can live above their utility, then what’s really going on in the world?
Here’s what’s going on in the world: The rich get richer, and the poor get poorer.
And it really doesn’t matter what hype they’re dangling in front of you to get you to vote for them.
###
I had to watch all three episodes of PBS’s mediocre remake of Little Women to feel even remotely human again. And it’s rilly bad.
Watched it with Ed who is very much the Centrist Democrat.
I figured we’d disagree about what we were watching.
But, in fact, we were pretty much on the same page. Which was reaffirming: I know I tend to interpret the political circus in an odd way, but if someone more mainstream sees it in the exact same way I see it...
Christine Blasey Ford: Extremely sympathetic.
But Kavanaugh salvaged the partisan moment. He behaved exactly as I would expect someone to behave whose life had been destroyed by an unjust accusation: He was furious; he was tearful.
If one was predisposed to believe Ford, one believed Ford; if one was predisposed to believe Kavanaugh, one believed Kavanaugh.
My own understanding—and I may be incorrect here—is that Ford's memory of the events was actually a repressed memory that reemerged in 2012. Inference on my part: In the story published by The Washington Post that first leaked Ford’s name, one line stood out to me: "Years later, after going through psychotherapy, Ford said, she came to understand the incident as a trauma with lasting impact on her life."
Sure sounds like recovered memory to me.
(Ford, by the way, provided only portions of her psychiatric records to WaPo, which sure seems preemptive from any defense point of view. If the FBI is ever allowed to do an investigation, I would like to see all those psychiatric records examined.)
Repressed memories are wonky things. I remain troubled by the lack of situational markers.
And the test I apply to situations like this one is this: What if the accusations were being made against someone I liked? Or what if Kavanaugh was black? Would I be so quick to condemn him on the basis of a recovered memory?
And the answer to that is, No.
Of course, Kavanaugh should have been disqualified long ago on the basis of that wonky disappearing credit card debt. And he should also be disqualified on the basis of what happened yesterday, not because of the sexual assault allegation but because it’s very clear that he hates Democrats. I might, too, in his situation. But he’s clearly no longer capable of rendering impartial and fair judicial decisions.
###
The sickening part was the subsequent communal bloodbath on social media.
The shrieking harpies on the Left went after Kavanaugh. The howling Maenads on the Right dismembered Ford.
"BTW, I raped your 15 year old daughter last night"
"WTF?"
"Hey, chill out. Here's your Tax Cut...
"Wow... Thanks!"
I really need to think about deleting my Facebook account.
The polarization is just so weird, and the only people profiting off it are the media outlets who are whipping people up into a frenzy. I keep flashing on those lines from The Z Blog: I slowly came to the conclusion that the whole Right-Left dynamic was just a myth… If the Right-Left construct is just a version of good cop/bad cop where the people in the media hustle the rest of us so they can live above their utility, then what’s really going on in the world?
Here’s what’s going on in the world: The rich get richer, and the poor get poorer.
And it really doesn’t matter what hype they’re dangling in front of you to get you to vote for them.
###
I had to watch all three episodes of PBS’s mediocre remake of Little Women to feel even remotely human again. And it’s rilly bad.
no subject
Date: 2018-09-28 03:22 pm (UTC)We are living in strange times, P. I suppose all Americans have been able to say similar...but one does wonder about life spans and such...of political BEASTS that have been overfed and allowed to run roughshod over the landscaping.
no subject
Date: 2018-09-28 03:28 pm (UTC)I stopped watching TV news a couple of years ago. But I watched yesterday, and now I almost feel physically nausiated. Like I ate two pounds of chocolate fudge or something.