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"Hell is Repetition". Why I call Paul Krugman the "KrugmanBot3000". The Current Actual State of America.
Stephen King's character, Andre Linoge (Legion) in "Storm of the Century", said, "Hell is Repitition.".
I've been considering that a lot lately as the "news" uses the same terminology and phrases, over and over again, to convince people of The Big Lie. That America is okay and the economy is "robust", and Biden has an "Economic Miracle".
This is Soviet-style propaganda. Nazi-style propaganda. As the Nazis lost the war, they kept the public swimming in bad information about how things were progressing right up until the moment there was urban warfare in their streets and the Nazi Party was reduced to using child soldiers and giving them whatever weapons they could find laying around to make the Soviets fight for every block of Berlin.
I feel the same sort of thing is happening in America today with the state of the economy, the situation involving our social programs, and the War in Ukraine.
Hell is repetition. You repeat the "Big Lie" and eventually they come to accept it as gospel truth.
I've started referring to Paul Krugman in particular as "KrugmanBot3000" because his articles are all the same.
"Government debt doesn't matter. Everything is fine."
"<insert current Democrat president> is basically FDR."
"Don't worry about Social Security and Medicare. They'll wave a magic wand and fix the trillions of dollars they stole from it with fairy dust and unicorn farts during the Biden Economic Miracle"
"Workers are doing great. Especially the poor ones. They had raises." (The raise has been reversed by a factor of 2 by inflation, and Walmart closes stores and cuts hours.)
And it's so formulaic it's like listening to decades worth of ChaffBot Spew, but you know it's probably Paul Krugman (or at least was up until a point where they licensed his name and asked ChatGPT how to recycle garbage and verbiage) because he was writing things before ChaffBots.
At this point, really, who cares if the Google WEI Attestation stops Paywall Busters from working? You get this crap from the New York Times after you tear it down and go "My God, people pay to read this? This is CNN without ads for Amazon products and luxury vacations during the Economic Crisis most people are living through! How are they in business?"
It's one of life's great mysteries.
When we went to Indiana recently for a convention, we sat down and ate dinner at one of the wholesome fixtures, MCL Cafeteria. They're still pretty good, and have a predictable menu, although they are closing locations due to the fact that most Americans living in the "Biden Miracle" can't afford to shop at malls anymore, so the mall where they were shut down.
There are some freestanding MCLs that are doing better, but the population that frequents them and likes good food is, about 20 years older than my husband and me.
As I went through the line, selecting my liver and onions, mashed potatoes and gravy, brussels sprouts, whole wheat roll with honey butter, and iced tea (unsweet with a lemon), I noticed that one of the other patrons had an actual print copy of the New York Times on his tray.
I wonder what the future prospects are considering younger people don't get print news and can't pay for news, and only eat "What in the name of the Devil's asshole is quinoa?".
Not good, I suspect. I was born to the wrong generation. They had it so good, I have it so terrible. I will never own a house, I will never drive a new car. The Democrats are making it $5 a gallon to fill up the one I own while they make my husband marginally employed and dump the State prisons out on top of us.
What is the future of a country such as this?