The Great Debasing of Americans (by Americans)

I didn’t really catch on to the Great Debasing of Americans (by Americans) until I landed in a domicile that offered free cable television. I hadn’t had cable in over 20 years, but a friend gave me a big flatscreen and I hooked it up…and Jesus

As I surfed the channels, I noticed a pattern right away: many of the shows, whether reality-based or dramas, showed Americans being debased by some asshole boss/expert or the cops or their so-called friends and family. The debasement was subtle or loud, but usually loud. It came in the chef shows. The bar rescue shows. The wedding shows. The cops kicking ass shows. The wives of (insert city here) shows. The homestead shows. The losers at sea fishing shows. The pitch-me-your-bullshit-idea shows.

The latter is what the Great Debaser Donald Trump rode to not being elected by a popular vote majority in the 2016 election. (Remember he lost by three million votes.)

Trump has ratcheted up his Debasing via twitter and speeches to a heretofore unknown cesspool level in American history. He took to the gutter and slimed it into a vile rock and roll. He debases: Immigrants. LGBTQ. Liberals. Reporters in wheelchairs. Female (Democratic) governors. Blacks. Parents of a young man killed int the service of his country. Female reporters. The land. The ocean. Obama. Canada.

Why didn’t many Americans reject the Great Debasing in Chief and the debasing of Americans for sport and entertainment in general? How did it come to this?

Easy. It makes a lot more money than being a nation of Uplifting. Uplifting people doesn’t sell nearly as well or deliver the high ratings. Debasing does.

Cue the Pixies song “Debaser.” This is our real national anthem. Make sure you grovel when you listen to it here:

When someone is debased long enough or debases others for a long time, they will go insane. They will root for more debasement and relish in others getting debased. They love watching it on TV. They think it’s not them being debased as they watch. They are wrong. They are complicit. I’m not sure you really ever come back from that. There seems no way to break this spell in my country.

Steve Wonder’s “Higher Ground” just came on the radio as I was writing this. How to proceed as a nation is contained within that song. It’s all right there. Higher ground, let’s get there and get out of the gutter.