Beck has prophesied darkly to his millions of followers that we are
reaching “a point where the people will have exhausted all their
options. When that happens, look out.” One night on Fox, discussing the
case of a man who killed 10 people, Beck suggested such things were
inevitable. “If you’re a conservative, you are called a racist, you
want to starve children,” he said. “And every time they do speak out,
they are shut down by political correctness. How do you not have those
people turn into that guy?”
Yeah, they’ve exhausted all their options. They HAD to go shooting up the place. It’s not like they could register people to vote, and organize drives to the polls, and win elections. That’s totally not an option for right-wingers in America anymore. I feel so bad for them. They’re so stifled.
It’s not like, for example, taking them all at their word that they really want to re-educate America about its origins, they could tutor children in history (shudder, but bear with me) or teach them to read. I mean, there aren’t any schools in need of that kind of help around here, at all. There aren’t dozens of libraries running after-school programs that could use volunteers. Nope, all those options have been exhausted.
It’s not like, for example, taking them at their word that they want to return America to its origins as a Christian nation (again, take a breath here) they could go visit the sick and feed the hungry. There isn’t a church on every street corner just gagging for people to bring in food for the pantry and to sign up to volunteer at the local nursing home and hell, maybe just greet people at services on Sunday because that’s the only time some ever leave their apartments and come on, you can’t have exhausted all those options, too.
It’s not like, for example, taking them at their word that they’re fighting for the little guy against big business (please don’t e-mail me) they could take part in “buy local” efforts and work to increase awareness of transportation costs and food subsidies and all the ways industry fucks us over without our even knowing it when we really ought to be getting our cucumbers from the farmstand on the corner. Nah, all those options? Exhausted.
No, there’s pretty much nothing left to do except listen to a yelly narcissistic fuck on TV and then start shooting. Because we have discovered there’s good money to be made in telling people with pent-up rageaholic asshole issues that there’s nothing they can do. That they’re helpless in this life, that there’s no point in trying to change anything, that nothing they can try will make any difference at all. And I don’t often feel sorry for wingnuts, because I’m not an abnormally bright girl so if I can figure this out how hard can it be, but really, I don’t wish this kind of paralyzing impotent anger on anyone. It devours you from the inside out.
Truth is, people’s options are nowhere near exhausted. It’s just that people like Beck and his employers have not yet figured out how to make money telling you where you can volunteer for your local food pantry, whereas there’s always a quick buck in stockpiling gold and ammo for the coming race war.
A.