Every day I become more embarrassed to be a member of the human species - today's edition

All the items currently consuming the oxygen on Twitter, on television and in the pundit-sphere bear an ironic twist.

Probably most glaringly, the egg on the face of Buzzfeed in the wake of the realization that the Trump-told-Cohen-to-lie story has prompted the Very Stable Genius's camp to extend kudos to the Mueller team. Seriously.

(Side note about this: So far, I haven't touched that one, but it's about time for some observations on the advance of journalism's death rattle. Stay tuned.)

Sebastian Gorka's reaction to CNN's Jim Acosta approaching him and making the snide remark about "real journalists" while Gorka was standing inside the entrance to the White House briefing room waiting to meet with Trump - loudly calling him a dickhead and following up with sound ripping-into - is understandable. Acosta's had it coming for a long time. But, of course, we say that every time he gets upbraided in person, don't we? But Gorka is hardly an exemplary figure in the defense-of-core-values business. A tricky call for him. How to settle on a term that wouldn't arguably be applicable to himself?

How about this one?

In a statement on the Senate floor yesterday, Mazie Hirono (D., Hawaii) doubled down on her attacks against the Catholic group the Knights of Columbus and accused her colleague Senator Ben Sasse (R., Neb.) of “embrac[ing] the alt-right position” by offering a resolution rebuking the use of unconstitutional religious tests.

“If my colleague, the junior Senator from Nebraska, wants to embrace the alt-right’s position by offering this resolution, that is his business,” Hirono said on the floor.

This accusation is as irresponsible as it is unfounded. Sasse has been one of the most outspokenRepublican senators against the alt-right, and his response to the white-supremacy rally in Charlottesville was perhaps the most powerful and clear given by any conservative politician.

What’s more, the resolution he offered on Wednesday night — and that the Senate agreed to by unanimous consent — had nothing whatsoever to do with the alt-right. It reaffirmed the constitutional clause forbidding the use of religious tests for public officeholders. Hirono stated in her remarks that Sasse’s resolution was unnecessary “because no religious test is being applied to nominees for Federal office.” 

But Hirono herself is the very reason that Sasse offered the resolution in the first place — and her defensive statement clearly shows that she knows it. The resolution was prompted by Hirono’s recent questioning, along with Senator Kamala Harris (D., Calif.), of a Catholic judicial nominee, Brian Buescher, over his membership in the Knights of Columbus.

Here's one with a the-Left-eats-its-own angle: a gender-fluid comedian gets kicked offstage because he - it? - had the temerity to wear dreadlocks while white.

The co-op explained on Facebook (translation courtesy of The Daily Wire, as is the quote above):

The co-op harvest is a safe space, free from oppression reports. We do not tolerate any discrimination or harassment within our spaces. In view of some recent events, the co-op would like to explain its positions [regarding why a white male with dreadlocks was denied a performance].

…cultural ownership is the fact that a person from a dominant culture is suitable for symbols, clothing, or hairstyles of people from historically dominated cultures. It is a privilege to be able to wear dreads as a white person, and that this is seen … as being edgy, while a black person will be denied access to job opportunities or spaces (accommodation, schools, evenings, sports competitions, etc). In fact, black people too often face the need to change their hair and deny their culture if they want to be employable and be able to survive.

As noted by TDW:

The post goes on to say that after “decades of colonialism, slavery, and cultural genocide” in which people of color were not allowed to style their hair in certain ways and dress as they wanted, “it is a slap in the face” that “another group can take [those styles] without problems or consequences.”

They further claim that while “a person’s intention may not be racist … cultural ownership is a vehicle for racism,” and that anyone who displays such “cultural ownership” shouldn’t have the spotlight at the co-op.

A consideration of the sum total of these occurrences invites that parlor game in which you imagine inviting someone with whom you were close sixty years ago - a parent, perhaps - to spend a few hours with you in January 2019. Said person would surely react, "The entire species has lost its mind!"

As I said in a post a few days ago,

Nobody uses terms like "immutable" and "eternal" anymore, do they? No, now it's all relative and situational. Various "communities" have their own "needs" and sets of issues. Indeed, we're to the point that they have their own "truths."

 There's no sense of a foundation to it all anymore, is there?

There's no adult America that is assured enough of its own resilience to absorb the insanity that now passes for routine interaction among us.

It behooves us to keep an eye on the proceedings, but means of turning this around that had a chance of working in any previous time aren't going to cut it now.

It's very late in the day.