For some time I’ve been avoiding national news as much as possible. I catch the headlines in newsletters, in local newscasts, and on late-night TV. But I don’t spend much time with the national newscasts at dinnertime, or the Sunday morning talk shows (I used to watch every one of them, every week). The news frustrates, infuriates, and depresses me. I don’t need that.
But late Sunday night, Sept. 12, I happened to turn on a rerun of that morning’s Meet the Press. And I had it on just long enough to hear George Will say, “There is a pandemic of mindless truculence in the country.”
Pow. A perfect summation. I jotted it down immediately, wishing I had his command of the language.
I’ve always admired his way with words, just as I admired William F. Buckley, Jr.’s before him. He’s a smart conservative, a principled conservative, what Republicans used to be back when I was one of them. And in double-checking my notes, I read that he left the Republican Party when they nominated Trump. Smart move, Mr. Will.
“Mindless truculence,” he called it. Can you think of a better way to describe what’s happening in our country today? If only he’d also articulated a cure …
Spot on! And this description isn’t specifically about the COVID pandemic.
Nope, it’s a broad statement about our society in general. And I couldn’t agree more. What’s happening verges on frightening.
perfectly stated
Truculence, great word! Mindless? No, i think maybe hateful or groundless, or even stubborn might be a better adjective. But I too greatly admire George Will!
Throw in all the adjectives, just to be certain we’ve covered all the mindless, hateful, groundless, stupid truculence out there. Wouldn’t want to miss anybody.
TFG’s name only appears only once in this post and comments. Strangely, spookily, when I used CTRL-F to find occurrences of his name, it said it was there twice, but landed only on the one appearance, highlighting it once yellow, once orange in my Chrome browser. Beelzebub!
So I won’t add his name here, HOWEVER, I blame this wave of truculence completely on him. He skillfully utilized all the negative feelings in the hearts and guts of his followers. Just like any effective schoolyard bully. It’s his superpower. He supercharged the ignorant masses. He literally used hatred and rage to enter the White House. His ongoing “big lie” keeps the cauldron boiling until 2024, when we have to deal with again.
… deal with HIM again …
I hated to use the name. I think the keyboard burned my fingers when I typed it. But I wasn’t familiar with the TFG initials.
I agree with you 100%. It’s truly frightening what one dangerously unbalanced man has done to this country. He legitimized the worst among us, and I don’t know how we put them back under their rocks. Any effort to remove or diminish him will just make him a martyr.