Happy Co-Dependence Day, America (Boiling Frogs)
https://continuousrev.blogspot.com/2023/07/happy-co-dependence-day-america-boiling.html
Happy Co-Dependence Day, America (Boiling Frogs)
by C.A. Matthews
The story goes that you can boil a live frog, but you have to go about it the right way or else the frog will jump out of the pot. So, you start with the frog not sitting in boiling water, but sitting in a nice, relaxing bath of lukewarm water instead. Then you slowly, slowly turn up the heat under the pot. Since the frog enjoys sitting in their mini-hot tub, they don’t react and just stay there, slowly falling asleep in the hot water until it’s too late. They boil alive.
Not a very pretty picture, is it?
The boiling frog analogy keeps coming to mind whenever I contemplate this past week’s 100 degree plus Fahrenheit temperatures and hazardous 300 air quality index forecasts in the continental US. Americans are definitely in the second frog scenario. We’re happy to sit and relax in our gradually warming hot tub until we’re boiled alive or choked on the dust and pollutants from firestorms. We’re not even trying to hop out of the pot.
Worst yet, we completely trust our boilers, that is, our corrupt status quo politicians. We let them do whatever they like—and they love to please their corporate masters. We all acknowledge that burning fossil fuels has caused this global warming that is, in turn, intensifying the forest fires in Canada and elsewhere.
But we boiling frogs are happy to let our rulers take lobbyists’ money and pass legislation to allow BP, Chevron, Exxon and all the rest to drill for more oil. We’re not fighting back. We’re not hopping out of the pot, even though they’re slowly killing us.
Americans are acting as foolishly as those fatalistic frogs sitting in a pot of boiling water.
What’s wrong with us, America? Did our so-called “Founding Fathers” raise a bunch of wimps? A bunch of collaborators with corporatists? A bunch of Stockholm Syndrome sufferers?
On July the Fourth, this our supposed “Independence Day,” we act like we’re okay with not being...well, independent.
Americans seem to enjoy force-fed propaganda from our government's own version of the dystopian novel 1984’s Ministry of Truth. We’re good listening to and accepting outright lies as long as we’re comfortable in our hot water bath that isn’t quite boiling—yet.
Whenever a politician on a cable news network says, “The economy is doing great!” we take him at his word although we’re struggling to pay bills. Like good little boiling frogs we’ll even consider voting for the idiot! No push back, no demand for him to stop gaslighting us—we’ve convinced ourselves that the status quo always knows what’s best for us, even when it knows jack-shit.
And trust the evil sycophants of the mainstream media to chime in and give their stamp of approval to every half-ass thing our billionaire-bought-and-owned public officials try to pull over on us. Just watch them as they never question these fallacious statements:
“War is peace!” the warmongers claim as the bodies of soldiers and innocent civilians pile up.
“We had to cancel the election/primary in order to save democracy!” the politicians state because they can’t risk an upstart entering the race who could overturn their apple cart of lobbyist money.
“The US has the best medical care in the world!” (That money can buy, that is. Big Pharma lobbyists gave Biden $41 million in 2020 to run for office. Don’t worry—they gave Trump $21 million!)
“What homelessness? What horrible rents?” say the status quo sycophants who have never been hungry or without a bed to sleep in and would never be caught associating with poor Americans who have experienced such a perilous situation.
These quasi-journalists can’t wait to soft pedal their interviews with bigwig politicos and make brownie points with the establishment so they, too, can become a permanent part of that bourgeoisie class. And boiling frogs—I mean, Americans—just keep eating these lies up.
What is wrong with us? Didn’t our ancestors 247 years ago tell British soldiers to get the hell off their land and let them be their own bosses? Americans of today seem to want others to do all the thinking for them, even if it means others’ thinking is boiling us alive. We apparently give no thought to how silly or mentally-incompetent we appear to others, either.
Observing videos of the protests and riots in France this past week, I’m impressed at how much the French don’t act like Americans. They don’t act like boiling frogs (no offense intended) waiting to be eaten. A young man of Algerian descent was killed by police in a suburb of Paris on Tuesday, and the response was explosive before the end of the week.
There are fires and protests in every major city in France. Cars burning. Mayor’s mansions burning. Town halls burning. Police stations burning—as well they should. Seventeen year old Nahel's cold-blooded murder by police was part of a well-established pattern. In recent times, French police have arrested and killed persons of color at an alarming percentage compared to the majority white populace. No one in leadership has addressed this terrible issue. Perhaps now they will.
Three years ago, Americans marched and shouted “Black lives matter!” for a couple of months after the death of George Floyd and then stopped. Why? There are just too many deaths to mourn and protest. After a while they all start to blur together, don’t they? We just send our thoughts and prayers now and get back to sitting in our pot-shaped hot tubs like good little frogs waiting for the water to boil.
Americans don’t stand up for themselves against the corrupt system. We don't want to cause our corporate masters any problems it seems. We don't burn nearly as many things as the French do, or the Belgians, or the Dutch, or the Swiss, or the...
Banks are burning in France.
Can you imagine Americans actually striking back at the bastards at BlackStone who have made it impossible for them to buy a home? I can hear the excuses now:
“Nah, we’re fine with the real estate investment mavens sticking it to us. We’ll just live in our mother’s basement for a few more years until our bankruptcy clears. Hopefully we’ll be able to save up enough money to afford a down payment on a tiny apartment. That is, if we don’t experience a medical emergency that wipes out all our savings before then.”
For pity’s sake, little froggies! Hop out of the pot before you boil and show some backbone!
Mercifully, not all Americans are afraid of their shadow. They do demonstrate courage. The brave protesters of Atlanta’s Cop City (Weelaunee Forest) aren’t acting like boiling frogs. They're in the streets and under the cops’ noses, making their point known. They won’t forget the senseless murder of Tortuguita, one of their own. And yes, the corporate-owned politicians (who have made millions of dollars off this Cop City scheme—don’t let them tell you otherwise) are instructing their bully boys in blue to arrest and charge the protesters with “domestic terrorism.”
Ha! What’s a charge of “domestic terrorism” to a warrior trying to save the planet from the “frog-boilers” of the police/military-industrial complex?
Americans have got to stop being such co-dependents before we cease to exist as a people. Face it—our government and its corporate henchmen don’t give a flying f*** about our collective health and well-being. They’re only in politics for the money. They figure they'll catch a ride on Bezos’ or Musk’s rocket later after they’ve completely destroyed the planet.
We’ve got to treat these villains like our ancestors treated the British soldiers on their soil: We fight them; we push back; we don’t take “no” for an answer. Take hints from the “domestic terrorists” at Cop City, the French, and others. It won’t be easy, but at least we will be choosing life over the slow boiling death these billionaire bastards have planned for us.
Happy Co-Dependence Day, America. Get yourselves out there and start acting like an American Revolutionary from 1776! Learn what true independence is all about. You know you want to, because now you realize you have to. There’s no excuse for us destroying our children’s future. It's time to free the frogs from the pot before it's too late.
Related Articles and Interesting Links:
Sabby Sabs: MACRON'S FRANCE ON FIRE https://www.youtube.com/live/g8oNhXo2PhM
Unbelievable Images of France Burning! youtu.be/2XV9MdrcNF8
‘Stop Cop City’ Week Of Action Day 5 https://popularresistance.org/stop-cop-city-week-of-action-day-5
Stop Cop City Week of Action Showed Movement’s Strength Amid Rampant Repression https://truthout.org/articles/stop-cop-city-week-of-action-showed-movements-strength-amid-rampant-repression
Mobilize the working class against French police murders and state repression! https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/07/01/mcrf-j01.html
Are Migrants Really Burning Down France? youtu.be/9p2HOVKvUIg
Cities burn across France as cops assault protests against police murder of youth https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/06/30/ivwt-j30.html
As Movements Like Stop Cop City Gain Power, Police Treat Free Speech as a Crime https://scheerpost.com/2023/06/29/as-movements-like-stop-cop-city-gain-power-police-treat-free-speech-as-a-crime/
FRANCE RIOTS: 40,000 Police Deployed by Macron, Cities on Fire
https://www.youtube.com/live/A8Brb73OpjE
New Docs Link CIA to Medical Torture of Indigenous Children and Black Prisoners https://scheerpost.com/2023/07/01/new-docs-link-cia-to-medical-torture-of-indigenous-children-and-black-prisoners/
UN Expert Demands Immediate Shutting Down of Guantanamo Prison, Apology to Inmates https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/06/27/un-expert-demands-immediate-shutting-down-of-guantanamo-prison-apology-to-inmates/
Mexico Refuses To Bow To US Sanction Threats https://popularresistance.org/mexico-refuses-to-bow-to-us-sanction-threats/
PSOE-Podemos enforcement of EU “Let them drown” policy kills another 37 migrants in Spain https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/06/28/knlq-j28.html
Supreme Court Keeps Navajo Nation Waiting For Water https://popularresistance.org/supreme-court-keeps-navajo-nation-waiting-for-water/
Breaking: Supreme Court Ends Affirmative Action for Colleges
https://scheerpost.com/2023/06/29/breaking-supreme-court-ends-affirmative-action-for-colleges/
Systemic Racism and the US War Machine https://scheerpost.com/2023/06/29/systemic-racism-and-the-us-war-machine/
US Supreme Court Strikes Down Student Debt Relief https://popularresistance.org/us-supreme-court-strikes-down-student-debt-relief/
We can use stem cells to make embryos. How far should we go? https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/04/07/1071121/stem-cells-make-embryos-how-far-should-we-go/
The Latest Honest Government Ad: Labor (The Shit-Lite Party) youtu.be/fHB0vDhdM3c
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Is the Maddow graphic re Russia and TGIFriday's for real? Not doubting you at all; would simply like confirmation. She has been a Russia-hater forever.
I gagged when I saw Rachel Maddog. She's even worse than Rush on the left side. I detest her and MSNBC as much as Fox and hannity. And yes we are mostly a group of frogs boiling. I'm not sure what temp frogs succumb to but we're now within a degree or two. Americans should be doing what the French are doing but are instead licking their asses like my cat. When they run out of toilet paper things will get nasty, but by then it will be too late. Just a question out of curiosity - how many people have you tried to "wake up" and how many have you succeed with? My rate is 0. The usual response is "I don't want to hear it" . Just live on rainbows and happy thoughts. Without a large number of people actively engaged in making a change there is no hope. I replied to Bill Wolfe's comment and his response of "F@@@ all the cowards" was really telling. Caitlins substack is full of people who all essentially agree with her views but are at the same time almost completely separated in what to do. Write your elected officials? Waste of time. Write the newspaper? Won't get published or even acknowledged.
Our political system has failed. Our justice system is completely corrupt. Our economic system is manipulated to the demise of the majority. And the media supports it. There's no truth to be found except by the reality of what's happening all around us.
Keep up the good work. Your writing style should get through to people. Go team orca!