After Ohio train wreck, Biden orders door-to-door checks

[calimary]

29. Yep. I think that's when the shit started.

That damn reagan legitimized greed, wealth worship, and worldly gain by any means. He made it okay. He made it almost sanctified. Money became a kind of god, and a frenzy followed.

Sometimes I think reagan was so deeply loved and revered by so many because he defied and turned on its head ANY concepts or teachings that elevated the greater good over the self. Screw you. What can I get for me? What do I get out of it? What’s in it for me. There was no longer an “us”. It stopped prioritizing “we”. All that mattered was me, me, and me. And if you or anybody else winds up benefiting too, well, that’s nice. That’s just a happy accident. But it’s still an accident and in no way the main point or the #1 goal.

The key was: selfishness is okay! It’s actually desirable! It’s the conjoined twin, along with greed - which we were famously told in the movie “Wall Street” was GOOD. And for every little kid whose parents and teachers tried to teach and reinforce selflessness, charity, helping those less fortunate and focusing NOT on me-myself-and-I, but rather in you, us, we, gaining and prospering together, collaborating to benefit the greater good - when that kid didn’t want to share his/her toys and was told he/she still had to - THAT must have been a REVELATION! reagan says I don’t have to! Cuz what I want for ME is more important. Indeed, MOST important -even ALL important.

I think that was, and still nostalgically is, the key to reagan’s appeal. He said it was okay to be greedy, to want and get by any means necessary. And to aim to have the most and best and certainly better and splashier and more expensive and highly-coveted than anything your friend/neighbor/coworker got. That collaborative, congenial, how can WE benefit together stuff was for suckers. So yesterday.

The more I think about him, the more convinced I become that he succeeded as wildly as he did because he tapped into the inner demons of our nature, the instinct to defy any teachings or moralities that prioritize humility, collegiality, service to others, and the greater good.

The bastard! And we’re still not completely over the grip of his spell. He made it okay. Everything anyone tried to teach you or role model for you about benefiting the greater good (because that way, EVERYBODY wins, not just exclusively you), reagan came along like the serpent in the Garden of Eden, and slick-talked you into the what my dad used to call “IGMFU”: “I Got Mine, F-U!” reagan elevated that into a sacrament.

Fucking bastard.