Tucker's Latest

[anthony]

https://liberty.us12.list-manage.com/track/click?u=853c77097e3fa259c91c76af6&id=c54a80a766&e=4d3600002a

[william.scherk]

The writer is a gentleman called Jeffrey Tucker, and he had a lovely vacation in some peaceable and attractive Mexican places.

Quote

It took two weeks in Mexico, away from the daily grind in the US, to gain full consciousness about how insufferable and hateful American culture has become. Here I was in beautiful Mexico, experiencing daily life in both resorts and cities, eating glorious and healthy food, enjoying the lovely hospitality of the people, participating in a vibrant commercial life, seeing how people delight in the daily task of living, growing, making life better each day. I saw smiles everywhere, experienced courtesy and kindness everywhere, thrilled in the happy project of beautifying life through manners, decency, and love.

Then I decided to check out the US news to prepare for my return. What I found was the opposite of what I experienced in Mexico. In the US, to be disgruntled, angry, and nasty is a way of life. Official culture is mean. It is whiney. It is everywhere infused with bitter ideological hectoring. Fake news, fake issues, fake outrage, and fake solutions, all backed by a dogged desire to see no other point of view but one’s own and to turn everyone against everyone else, as if suspicion, propaganda, and hate were the real objectives of life on earth.

This struck me as a little bit absurd in a way.  Not that taking a vacation cannot give you perspective on the land you have briefly abandoned, and all its features of public life -- but that an asymmetric basis of comparison can lead to a false premise.

Let's say Tucker had experienced a vacation in some semi-exotic place ... say Quebec City. Would he find 'glorious and healthy food,' enjoy lovely hospitality, see people delight in the daily task of living ...?  Maybe.  Would he delve into the local and provincial news (in French)? 

Or let's say he took a relaxing vacation in, say, Branson Missouri or the Great Smoky Mountains. Would he there find and enjoy the various glories of a vacationland?  Would he delve deep into the savage politics and social problems in Missouri?

As for the fabulous Mexican way of life -- or the wee slice of it he absorbed while away -- did he delve into local, state and national news? Did he tally any violence,  pain, contentiousness, persistent problems, the hideous extent of corruption, venality and impunity?

Well, maybe not. He may not even have a phrase of Spanish to his name.

Not that it isn't an interesting rant.  Here he is on Twitter this week:

Edited June 14, 2018 by william.scherk
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[Peter]

Who's playing in Branson at this time? I actually researched it a couple of years ago, and Branson looked affordable and do-able. At that time, I thought it was better than going to Vegas.