Oddbean new post about login | logout “Kay, listen up. This world we’re in, it’s *debased*. America’s been rotted from the inside. First it was immigrants. You might think I’m a racist, but I’m not. It’s not immigrants I object to. It’s illegals. You want to come to America, you come in the front door, on the terms your gracious hosts here are offering. You don’t skip the line or break in through the window. 17/
"That’s what a criminal does. You let in a criminal, let ’em become citizens, soon enough they’re voting for other criminals. “You know just what I’m talking about, don’t kid yourself. The money we’re spending now? This Green New Deal? This Jobs Guarantee? These fuckin’ solar panels? Bill’s gonna come due on this. There’s no such thing as a free lunch. 18/
Chinese hoaxed us into believing in this climate garbage, then they got us to go into hock to them up to our eyeballs to buy their shiny crap, and then they’re gonna charge us interest, and our kids, and their kids, and their kids. Mortgaging their future? Shit, what future? They’re headed for debt bondage for eternity. Biblical. It’s Biblical. “All this mumbo jumbo about ‘money users’ and ‘money creators’—it’s just word games. 19/
"There’s two kinds of people in this world, and it’s not ‘money users’ and ‘money creators’—it’s ‘makers’ and ‘takers.’ The makers create all the wealth, the takers elect politicians who confiscate it and *redistribute* it.” “Redistribute” came out like another f-bomb. This was crazy, but it wasn’t unfamiliar. I’d heard versions of this conversation around Gramps’s place ever since I came to live with him, when I was eight. More, I’d heard *these specific words* before. 20/
I pressed my recollections, tried to put a face to the words. All the faces in Gramps’s living room had a sameness, a whiteness, matching haircuts and the same Maga hats, faded and frayed. Who had said those words? I could bring the face to mind now, the rest of the face that went with those blue watery eyes peering out of the ghillie suit. Now, the name. Mark. Not Mark. Mike. Mike! Mike, uh. “Mike Kennedy?” eof/