My day in two parts:
Part 1. I just finished reading 1984. I was struck by this passage midway through the book: “In a way, the world-view of the Party imposed itself most successfully on people incapable of understanding it. They could be made to accept the most flagrant violations of reality, because they never fully grasped the enormity of what was demanded of them, and were not sufficiently interested in public events to notice what was happening. By lack of understanding they remained sane. They simply swallowed everything, and what they swallowed did them no harm, because it left no residue behind, just as a grain of corn will pass undigested through the body of a bird.”
Part II. I belong to a health club that has along the front windows twenty-five treadmills. The only one open was under a giant TV that was tuned to FOX news. When no one else is there I ask for the remote because CNN is available. Alas, not yesterday. I walk fast at the steepest grade on the treadmill for thirty minutes, then cool down for five more. Yesterday Trump was fielding questions from reporters. Regardless of what questions were asked his answers focussed on the assurance that Iran was absolutely going to attack us first, that none of this would have happened had the Democrats not rigged the election in 2020. And so on. Then the FOX news “hosts” took over in the studio, praising his leadership, courage, and wisdom. They showed a tweet by Tim Walz: “No New Wars.” The rest of the time, even during the cool-down, they centered on his “failed vice-presidency” and that all the damage in Minnesota was his fault.
I couldn’t tell where Part 1 left off and Part 2 began.