Mike Luckovich for March 20, 2024

Biden treats illegal’s better then, then Americans.

Hey, sane people. Please don’t feed the trolls!

Preferring to communicate via phone doesn’t seem to me to have any correlation at all with participation in democracy. Plus or minus.

Lemmings!

Looking at TikTok?

It’s sad when the phone is smarter than the person.

One of my first computers (IBM650) had vacuum tubes. I was teaching programming when the concept of “User Interface” was being bruited, because we needed to accommodate new non-programming people called “users”, who didn’t need or want to know what was happening under the covers.

Now I have a smartphone whose UI is wildly inconsistent, illogical, and frankly, a PITA-cubed. I use my phone for telephony (which it does passably well), hands-free mapping in the car, and taking pictures and notes. (It has a stylus and excellent script-reading. No thumb-typing.) Yet every day I wade through a sea of stupefied morons, eyes focused at 10 inches, crossing streets nowhere near crosswalks, driving in traffic, blocking lanes in stores, and totally oblivious to everyone around them, much less to their own safety. Many are wearing earbuds, so even a polite, “Ahem” has no effect. Personally, I think the worst effect is to our national literacy; why learn spelling or grammar or the crafting of coherent sentences when you are communicating with your thumbs over such a limited medium? “TL;DR” will be the epitaph of the written English language.

Already, more people have my phone number and email address than I want to talk to. I sure as hell am not joining any “social media”, despite the entreaties of friends, relatives, and colleagues who have slurped that Kool-Aid.

I participate in a few professional and aviation discussion groups of colleagues. Commenting on political cartoons is the extent of my engagement in politics, besides voting early and faithfully. As far as I’m concerned, “social media” is:

a) Emerson: “… the hobgoblin of little minds.”

b) Marx: “… the opiate of the masses.”

c) Aviatrexx: “… a colossal waste of time.”

Getting their news from Facebook, X, and TikTok videos. I would venture these people also: 1) get their “nutrition” from Balance of Nature, 2) treat their “pain” with Relief Factor, and 3) buy gold and silver because the world is coming to an end.

Ironically, decades ago as social media was being developed, it was heralded as a great tool for democracy. The idea that anyone could contribute, discuss and debate an infinite variety of issues. Hopefully resulting in more informed and educated voters. This was sadly, grossly, shortsighted. It assumed society had a foundation of educational standards. Skills such as investigative research, skeptical analysis, logic and reason. Misinformation, misdirection, and outright lies prolificated. And like a cancer, grew and threatened the very lives of participants. Proven medical science was disparaged. Confidence in elections and in traditional American political processes destroyed. Creators of these electronic social networks became wealthy beyond the dreams of avarice, but neglected placing guard rails in their formats allowing for debunking of malicious falsehoods. When I was a youth, before wifi tech, free speech was tempered with the antedotal proverb that shouting “fire” in a crowded theater when there was none, was not protected speech. There were consequences both to the public, and justice metted out to the instigator. It does not bode well these days for society where any sociopath or moron can claim to be an expert without credentials or actual facts.

One of the few rewards of getting old is wisdom which means letting go of the past and accepting the present. You and I will not be around to see the consequences of whatever we are bemoaning today.I am not a religious person but the Serenity Prayer says it all for me.

A quote from the movie, “A Bugs Life”…“You let one ant stand up to us and they all might stand up. Those puny little ants outnumber us one hundred to one. If we let them ever figure that out , there goes our way of life. It’s not about food, it’s about keeping those ants in line”. Might be time to let the ants know “we’re not gonna take it anymore”!

Took a second then I looked at the people looking at their phones. Good one.

Sadly yes. SO MANY people these days let social media do their thinking for them.

Joe1962: You are entitled to your own opinion but not to your own facts. Please provide the facts supporting your opinion. NOTE: An opinion is not equal to a fact.

Usually dictatorships emerge in societies wallowing in misery, economic breakdown, and starvation. Here we have a portion of the population waddling to fascism because… egg prices went up?

Good cartoon about Democrats! Now do one about Republicans!

I’ve aleady gone through how Hitler took over Germany, and I’ll explain it to anyone who wants to know. There’re videos on You Tube for those who don’t want to read about it.

Excellent cartoon. Only the kool-aid drinkers will make it partisan.

I can prove that smart phones really are the “mark of the beast”!

I’m an optomist. Got it from my Grandpa. We are resilient. We’d probably survive it. But we shouldn’t have to.

No constructive approach to governing. No appeal to our better angels. Wants the economy to crash to boost his chances. Wants the border to continue to fester for the same reason. Diverts our attention to the dark side, goosing the amygdala, stimulating the catecholamines and all that.

Spoke to someone over the weekend who though our descent into this dark world is inevitable. I thought not. Though I may be naive, I trust more of us will get this right than not.

8 years later and I’m still amazed at how many stupid people think Trump is the answer.

Exactly, Mr. Luckovich.

LOL. The major complaint of presidents of both parties is they are hamstrung at trying to get anything done. You can shout all you want about dictators, but Congress makes it impossible. Stretching Executive Orders to limits never seen before is still a far cry from dictatorship. The only way we will ever be ruled by a dictator is if we are defeated by a foreign power.

Yeah-good luck with that Mike. My trust in the inherent good sense of most Americans has taken a severe beating.

Look its the republican traitor party.

Remember that original Twilight Zone episode “To Serve Man”? “It’s a cookbook!”

Emedia is electronic heroin and we’re all junkies including our kids.

You can lead people to a wifi signal but you can’t make them think.

This is so, so good

Entering Democrat madness.