THOSE "BUTTONS"

A few folks have been wondering what those things are that have suddenly appeared at the bottom of my posts on this blog. It's a device Blogspot introduced to make it possible for people to share a post they like in various contemporary ways (e mail, twitter, etc.) which I don't even really understand in my post-brain-op, techno-challenged condition.

But I accidentally pushed the wrong one I guess that put it on my blog, and when I asked my older son to help me remove it, he suggested I keep it because he feels it's not a bad thing to have available to those who read this blog.

I'm not crazy about the way it looks, but don't really know how to take it off anyway. And respect my son Miles' opinion on these matters (he's one of my several techno gurus whose advise I follow and whose help has made this blog possible, since even before brain surgery I didn't and don't get half the technological challenges doing this blog encompasses).

Meanwhile, the world goes on in its own crazy challenges to understand it. And speaking of brains and the way they work, as I realized after the operation when I not only couldn't understand the levels of irony and nuanced meaning in a typical Daily Show with John Stewart, and it actually hurt my brain to try and understand it all, I never lost the capacity to easily understand Faux "News" broadcasts and commentaries even though they made no logical sense, because they were so simplistic and obvious they didn't challenge my brain at all even in it's terribly diminished state in those early post-op days and weeks and months, or still for that matter.

And as my friend Freddie pointed out to me when he hipped me to the Olberman commentary I posted a link to yesterday, most of us "liberals" and "lefties" and Democratic centrists etc. don't watch MSNBC or listen to Rachel Maddow et. al. on a daily or even necessarily a regular basis because we don't need to have our perspective and beliefs reinforced all the time etc. as the "dittoheads" and others on the right need to do in order to not just get the daily message the right is pushing for that day but to have an argument to defend it.

That's why Fox News has the numbers. Without a daily dose of rightwing vitriol and talking points, most of the rightwing leaders' supporters wouldn't have a clue how to defend their positions against the reason and logic and complexity of reality and those not-on-the-right who have the brain power to distinguish between the various arguments and perspectives and come to their own conclusions.

Just look at an array of so-called "leftist" takes on any current event and you will see how independent Democrats and "liberals" and "progressives" are, as opposed to the word-or-phrase-of-the-day lockstep conformity on the right. And all rightwing comments on this post will be ignored, it's too beautiful a summer day back in Jersey to even engage with them.