What Your Position on Aaron Bushnell Says about Your Social Class
(John Hagee says Bushnell was mentally ill and possessed by demons)
I have noticed that an elevated sensitivity to injustice and cruelty is usually the sign of above average intelligence. Probably for the same reason comedians are often prone to despair (if you are smart enough to see the humor in the human condition, you are smart enough to see the horror in it), smart people, being more capable of placing themselves in the shoes of others, are more prone to involving themselves in causes of compassion. They are able to imagine more vividly how extreme cruelty feels to a victim and so their empathetic capacity carries stronger emotive power.
I once knew an intelligent Jewish woman in New York City who was extreme in her hatred of cruelty to animals. She was an active member of PETA and had several rescue dogs in her house at any given time. Once, on a trip to DC, she wanted to stop into the PETA offices to visit friends there, so we did. For the 45 minutes or so we were there, as she did her thing, I was able just to sit back and observe the dynamics of the place. Allison had filled me in on the office politics before we got there, so I knew that the organization suffered from the kind of complex dysfunction only a small group of very smart people can achieve. The atmosphere fairly crackled with high IQ; as far as I could tell, everyone’s hatred of animal cruelty was deep and utterly sincere.
I maintain there is a positive correlation between intelligence and sensitivity to cruelty and suffering.
Since there is a positive correlation between intelligence and income, and a positive correlation between income and class, we should expect, then, indifference to suffering to be more frequently encountered among the proles than among the upper class.
Does observation support this claim? Ask yourself: in which milieu are you more likely to see a dog chained to a stake without shelter in the dead of winter? As with all things concerning human behavior, of course, there are always plenty of exceptions, but, as a general rule, the cruelty to the dog is more likely to be found in a lower class neighborhood. A lot more likely.
The United States is causing—and has caused—enormous suffering in the world. If you as an American are indifferent to that, you are low class.
The form to order your Thank You Aaron Bushnell yard sign is ready. It took me a little longer than I expected.1 And, there is still stuff I need to do on that page, but it works, and it’s secure. So, send us your address and we’ll send you a free yard sign that looks like this:
I could order the first run of signs today with one more subscription upgrade. If the subscription cost is more than what you can comfortably swing, there are more affordable options on the order page (and we get the money faster). But, even if you can’t afford to spend any money, still, order a sign.2
Making Aaron Bushnell’s sacrifice have the impact he intended—not betraying his trust in us that we are good and decent people—is what’s most important.
So publicly signal your higher social status and distinguish yourself from the indifference of your prole neighbors by putting up a sign for Aaron Bushnell. After all, he put up his life for you. And what could be better than honoring our hero and looking down on your neighbors at the same time?
Before the SPLC wiped me out, I always had a subscription to Adobe’s Creative Suite or one of its previous iterations. So I always had a good web-authoring tool and could create and publish a form online while I was brushing my teeth in the morning. This form I had to code manually in, basically, Notepad. It’s like if you were a house builder and you always had power tools and trucks to deliver materials and so on and then there is an apocalypse and you have to build the next house with hand tools and a wheelbarrow. Yeah, you can get it built, but it might come as a surprise to you just how time-saving those power tools were.
Those of you who’ve already sent your addresses by email don’t need to do anything—your sign will be on its way to you the minute we get them from the printer.
John Hagee is mentally I’ll and possessed by demons. Sir Thomas Beecham the great conductor was once asked if he had heard any Schoenberg. No he said but I stepped in some. My reaction to John Hagee is the same.
Anyone or any organisation that asks for money “to do God’s work” is either deluded or damnable. The nearest Jesus came to money was the coin with Caesar’s head on it and his response was “pay to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” Jesus came to save Israel but they did not listen and their religious leaders murdered him slyly using the Roman authorities to cover their crime of deicide. His message of redemption and salvation was then made available for all. A few decades later the Romans wiped out Israel and spread the remaining Jews throughout the empire where in small numbers they could do less harm to others and themselves. Reestablishing the state of Israel in the 20th century is a serious mistake but don’t take my word for that. Lord Rothschild in the early part of the century tried to warn the Zionists that it was not a good idea with no good outcome for the Jewish people as a whole. My fear is that he will be proved right given the latest mass murder by the state of Israel against the Palestinians and the backlash internationally and Particularly in the Middle East that is already gathering momentum.