The ridiculous uproar over comedian Kathy Griffin's beheaded Trump shenanigan — and the equally idiotic tumult over President Trump's "covfefe" error

© 2017 Peter Free

 

03 June 2017

 

 

America — land of the walking brain-dead?

 

Consider the uproar over comedian Kathy Griffin's simulated neck-cut Trump head.

 

Or the asinine glee that our media-ized culture displayed over President Trump's miscommunicated, misspelled or misthought "covfefe" tweet.

 

 

With regard to Griffin

 

There was this:

 

 

Kathy Griffin has had quite a week.

 

After posing for a photo with a rubber dime store Donald Trump mask dripping in corn syrup blood . . . the comedian suddenly found her own head on a platter.

 

Politicians condemned her. Venues canceled her shows.

 

Trump lashed out at her on Twitter and a “Trump family source” claimed Barron Trump believed the image was real.

 

CNN . . . gave her the boot. Even Griffin’s beloved gay BFF, Anderson Cooper, distanced himself and tweeted his disapproval of her actions.

 

 © 2017 Noah Michelson, You Can Hate What Kathy Griffin Did. Here’s Why You Should Defend Her Anyway, Huffington Post (02 June 2017) (excerpts)

 

 

It is (apparently) okay for Presidents Trump, Obama and Bush II to kill thousands of real people for no honestly good reason. But holding a pretended beheaded Trump noggin vigorously falls over Decency's bounds.

 

Tell me again, what's the First Amendment?

 

Why does it matter?

 

 

And "respecting" President Trump

 

This:

 

 

Discussions about how to pronounce the word [covfefe] ensued, jokes about various Trumpian scandals were made, and coffee was imbibed. The Daily Show even used the meme as inspiration for a short film . . .

 

But is covfefe Good or Bad? (Or just entertaining fodder for linguists?)

 

The world may never know, but moral objections clearly won’t stop its legacy. Even after many thought its moment had passed, the meme persisted.

 

© 2017 Aja Romano, Covfefe kerfuffles, partisan dogs, and Wonder Woman wars: the week in memes, explained, Vox (02 June 2017) (excerpts)

 

 

Yes, that's right.

 

Millions of folk (we can surmise) spent minutes to hours of their Days in America energetically engaging with a tweeted misspelling.

 

As if the same darn thing doesn't happen to virtually each one of us, every time we pick up an electronic writing device.

 

 

Do these random instances highlight the demeaning truth about "real" American values?

 

Are we just as easily distracted and moronically sheep-behaving, as we seem to be?

 

George Will recently wrote something pertinent to conservatism that is just as applicable to the entirety of American culture:

 

 

Today, conservatism is soiled by scowling primitives whose irritable gestures lack mental ingredients.

 

America needs a reminder of conservatism before vulgarians hijacked it, and a hint of how it became susceptible to hijacking.

 

Both are in Alvin S. Felzenberg’s “A Man and His Presidents: The Political Odyssey of William F. Buckley Jr.” . . . .

 

© 2017 George F. Will, Buckley captained conservatism before it was hijacked, Richmond Times-Dispatch (01 June 2017) (excerpts)

 

 

The moral? — It seemingly gets worse every day

 

I guess we will have to follow our inanely popular memes, as well as the money, to see how hypocritical and dangerously trivial a culture we are.

 

And sadly, it ain't Trump's fault.

 

He is just the canary's coal mine signal.