One of the posts I have most frequently referred to was this, in which I predicted that if Donald Trump was elected President, the entire culture would coarsen, become more uncivil, and, in essence, “rot from the head down.” And I was right, though I did not predict that that the Left’s anger at Hillary’s shock defeat and its eight year determination to destroy Trump “by any means necessary” would play such a large role in the process. After all, it was a Democratic member of the House (and a woman!) who said, “Let’s impeach the motherfucker!” It was another one who urged “the resistance” to make themselves obnoxious by confronting members of Trump’s administration on the street. Robert DeNiro, an anti-Trump fanatic, has been the most publicly vulgar celebrity by far and far more MAGA cap wearers have been the victims of assaults and confrontations than purveyors of it: people like Jussie Smollett have had to manufacture pro-Trump attacks.
Then again, the Right is responsible for a popular coded chant that means, “Fuck Joe Biden.”
Whatever the reason, The Coarsening, as it would be called if this were a horror movie, has come. I just did an ethics program for a federal agency that asked me to concentrate on civility, because it was deteriorating there.
All of which brings me to my trip to Walgreen’s today.
First, I found myself trapped on a side street because a UPS driver had parked right in the middle of the road, blocking traffic from both ends. The truck just sat there with the flashers blinking. I waited, and waited, and finally put my car in park and got out to see what was going on. Suddenly the driver dashed from the truck with two packages, ran up to a house on the street, dropped them and ran back.
“You know, there was room to park by the curb without blocking traffic!” I said to him. The required response was “I’m sorry.” What he said was, “Don’t have a heart attack, grandpa!” I felt like Henry Fonda in “On Golden Pond.” After he drove off, a middle aged lady driving one of the cars that was blocked on the other side of the street called me an asshole out her window as she passed.
Wait, what did I do?
Next, I had to get in a turn lane to get on the main street on the way to Walgreen’s. A car from another side street pulled out right in front of me, blocking that lane but not having room to reach the center lane. It just sat there, in no lane at all. I honked at him. He gave me the finger out his window. When I reached the intersection, the car in front of me didn’t turn despite a green light. I could see: he was texting. I honked him, so HE gave me the finger.
Finally getting onto the street I needed to reach, I was stuck behind a woman going at least ten miles under the speed limit. Guess why.
Yup, she was intently watching her phone screen.
Standing in an endless line at the pharmacy, I sought some diversionary companionship. I’m an interesting guy, you know. Nobody was paying attention to anything put their phones, and all of theme were masked. I could have been Abraham Lincoln, and these zombies wouldn’t have interacted with me. No eyes, no mouths. Perfect isolation.
Later, I walked Spuds. This time I saw, again, no Trump campaign signs, but the first nasty, in-your-face Harris signs and Trump Derangement signs. Have these kinds of things been used against any other Presidential candidate? I don’t think so. One that I was dying to ask the lawn owner about was “Harris-Walz: Obviously.” For some reason it reminded me of the woman I worked with at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce who told me that”obviously” dinosaurs weren’t real because Noah could have never fit them on the Ark.
Another sign across the street from that one had a cartoon of an angry woman with the legend, “Grab him by the ballot!” with “ballot” being the stand-in for “pussy.” It’s fascinating, isn’t it? These people won’t acknowledge Harris’s public statements, but attach significance to randomly recorded private conversations Trump had years ago with no substance at all except locker room crudeness.
This is not a healthy culture right now. I don’t know what is going to cure it. As the culture coarsens, life gets progressively more unpleasant for everyone.
[WordPress thinks I need to tag this post “cycling.”]
Ethics Alarms 
Just watch tv to see how low we have gone. Watch Yellowstone. Did you ever think you would hear a woman say, “You’re a fucking cunt” on tv, in your home, in front of your kids? This country has degenerated into a nation of crude assholes. It is sad and appalling.
Jack wrote, “This is not a healthy culture right now. I don’t know what is going to cure it.”
I completely agree.
Jonathan Turley aptly calls our time “The Age of Rage”.
Our deteriorating society and culture are the primary reason I picked that as the topic of my blog, “Society’s Building Blocks: Critically Thinking About Things That Change Our Society”. I think Jordan Peterson has some really interesting (at least interesting to me) and provocative things to say about our society and culture.
“Let’s Go Brandon” and “Grab him by the ballot!”.
The first represents by its origin mockery of the left’s bald denial of what is visible plainly sight in open day. The second represents the left’s vacuous fractal negative spin on anything Trump.
Both rotate around a black hole cheapening human interaction when real people encounter each other after having conditioned their brains on 24/7 media anger drip.
The best thing that could happen to us would be something like an entire season of category 4 hurricanes hitting everywhere just long enough to clean up a bit and get hit again. No electricity for prolonged periods of time will force a huge reset.
I’ve actually noticed the exact opposite reaction to the “age of rage” down here in the Deep South. People are scrupulously polite to one another, being far more considerate of others than I think they would have been 10 years ago, and going out of normal ranges to chit chat politely with strangers in public. Culture is weird.
Yes, D.C. is the southern terminus of the ACELA Corridor. Moving somewhere less nasty might be an option.
Does this have anything to do with the fact that over half the states are now Constitutional Carry? An armed society is a polite society.
Well, if it is any consolation, this is not the first Age of Rage our nation has been involved in.
I recently read “Adams vs. Jefferson: The Tumultuous Election of 1800,” and that election was about as nasty as anything we’ve had today. One of the Federalist’s leading stars, Alexander Hamilton, published a diatribe against President Adams, who was running for reelection as the Federalist candidate.
As you’re no doubt aware, Jefferson and Burr tied in the Electoral College and it went to the House (but the House that had been elected in 1798). Think of the current House having to decide between Harris and Walz for president…
It gets weirder: The House had a decided Federalist majority, but the Republicans (Jefferson’s party, that became the Democrats eventually), held the majority in exactly half the state delegations. So the Republicans voted for Jefferson (8 states), the Federalists for Burr (6 states), and two states were evenly divided. This went on for about 3 weeks — the Republicans certainly wanted it resolved by Inauguration Day, March 4. If it was not, Adam’s term would expire and there would be no president until the new Congress convened in December.
At one point Jefferson warned Adams of the possibility of militia marching on Washington if he was not elected. There was also talk of crafting a new constitution.
In the end, it appears Jefferson made a deal to get elected. Adams was so disheartened he left Washington before the Inauguration.
But. In one of the great stories of the U.S., they patched up their friendship about 10 years later, and ended up dying on the very same day, July 4, 1826 — the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
—————-
Jonathan Turley refers to Biden as the most anti-free speech president since Adams, and the election of 1800 as an election on free speech. Free speech is on the ballot again this year (oh, if only Trump would effectively address the issue), and we will see what happens.
I was always taught growing up that you had to mind your p’s and q’s because if you said the wrong thing someone might get angry enough to beat you up or kill you. Of course I took the wrong lesson from that, which was that if someone offended you they were also fair game for getting attacked. Unfortunately, the fact is that you are probably not physically capable of giving someone a beat down that will put them in the hospital. Like it or not, that usually makes a lasting impression. Maybe that’s where our society is headed next, where people start fighting it out. I forget where it is in The Godfather saga, but Don Vito Corleone says something to the effect of people who go through the world quarreling in games and trying to bully those whose capabilities they do not know are really just asking to be killed, and there’s always someone willing to oblige them.
The one guy references Yellowstone. Yes, it is loaded with foul language, but the brawl between the bikers and the ranch hands in the one episode is probably one of the best fight scenes ever staged. The aftermath, where the bikers return thinking they are going to take revenge by burning the field and are confronted by John Dutton and four of his guys armed with assault rifles and made to dig their own graves, is the ultimate “you mess with us, we’re going to mess with you” scene.
I believe it is unfair to say that this coarsening began with Trump. Long before DJT arrived on the scene we had Howard Stern, the shock jock. The Greaseman in DC followed Stern. I remember trying to get my transistor radio to pick up these show from DC. He was all the rage among those of us in junior high circa 1969.
We have become coarser because we have been told we must believe in our own greatness. “I’m OK You’re OK” was a best seller around that same time which validated ones belief that morality was highly subjective. The age of permissiveness devolved into an age unmitigated narcissism. This is especially prevalent in communities of power and wealth.
The more power someone has and the more money they make the less likely they are to believe that rules that help form a polite society apply to them. Consideration for others takes a back seat to my desire for self-satisfaction. Yes, in public around their peers they will present a proper form, but to the rest of the world many will behave poorly.
The coarsening of society is a result of an entitled society and that the rest of the world around them be damned unless they can financially profit from them.
Come on, CM…you’re really comparing a national public figure and Presidential candidate, then President, with a radio shock jock? Why not go back to Lenny Bruce, then? or “Hustler”? Or Samuel L. Jackson? Media figures aren’t leaders, and even now their influence pales compared to a President.
Jack, I think someone might be entitled to opine “Media figures are leaders and are even called ‘influencers. And the influence of Presidents pales in comparison.”
Since the ascendance of William Jefferson Clinton, who looks to Presidents as inspirational role models and leaders?
One of several reasons I mark Clinton as one of our most destructive leaders.
Jack
I am simply saying that the coarsening is a gradual process. My parents would not allow us to watch Don Rickles whose whole schtick was to ridicule others. George Carlin popularized the seven words during the age of permissiveness. The shock jocks railed against the stodgy and uptight. We were taught to not trust anyone over 30. What that meant was we the young should decide what is good and right and leave the past behind.
What we are witnessing is the outgrowth of the ME generation who ultimately propagated the existence of later generations. Children today are not being taught by Trump. Their parents were not taught or influenced by Trump’s behaviors nor were their parents. Does most of the viciousness or coarseness in society emanates from Trump? I hardly think so. To blame him for what America has become is like blaming Richard Burton for creating high rates of divorce.
I will state that even the Let’s go Brandon is far less coarse than you suggest. In fact, it is a replacement for the much coarser statement from which it is derived. That suggests the users do not want to use the more vulgar statement. Unfortunately, yelling Down with Biden will not be heard.
Agreed. It’s entropy: social norms for etiquette and civility will naturally erode and decline in a democracy, which makes it all the more important that leaders and legitimate role models hold the line. Once, movies couldn’t use the words “damn” and “hell.” Men used to wear suits and ties to baseball games. Ronald Reagan never appeared as POTUS without a suit and tie (while Jimmy Carter liked to dress like a farmer—when he was a President. Don’t get me started.) My father once flipped out when I said that something “sucked” in a discussion at the dinner table–I seldom saw him so angry.
Carlin’s routine wasn’t vulgar, it was legitimate social commentary (as was Bruce’s routines). The problem with all such norms is that it’s so easy to make them look foolish: the Harvard dining hall dress code that was in place when I was a freshman—it had been in place for hundreds or years—requiring jackets and ties was suspended after three months, never to return. Why? Because students started wearing jackets and ties with no shirts and shorts, and in one case, just underwear. Of course, dress codes are meant to show respect to everyone else: they are symbolic, but when they become literal their fall apart.
#1 on George Washington’s “110 Rules of Civility and Deportment” is “Every action done in company ought to be with some sign of respect to those that are present.” Anyone tuning in to Howard Stern isn’t looking for respect. (I detest Stern, and always have.)
Excellent response. I agree with your assessment of Carlin. Stern was only attractive when I was 13 or 14.
While it may seem like I too often defend Trump, I do so when I think we are assigning guilt to him when 99.99% of the guilt should be shouldered by others and that he is a mere reflection of the majority of Americans.
Unlike my wife who is an ardent Trump fan – this is because she was friends with Trump’s valet Tony many years ago and he commented positively about him – I too am often put off by his use of unfavorable adjectives to describe his competitors and his rhetorical skills. However, I cannot argue that it appears to be effective. Without the media working to undermine him at every turn I would be his favorability numbers would be higher.
I favor his policies of smaller government with fewer regulations I see that as the most direct means to creating new opportunities. While I am not in favor of actually putting tariffs on foreign made goods, I am in favor of our government making the playing field competitive and if tariffs can be used to exact concessions from others I am OK with that. Moreover, his promised tariffs could be avoided by manufacturing the goods here. In contrast, hikes in the corporate tax rate will drive manufacturing to lower tax nations. The Harris campaign likes to say that tariffs add costs to our consumers. Does she not realize that increased corporate taxes and higher capital gains taxes do the same and effectively lower U.S. household incomes. She is either stupid or believes her voters are. Finally, I want a President who will actually do what they promised to do and I want one that our allies can rely on and our adversaries fear.
Part of our problem is that we have become focused on the candidate or party and not the policies. We vote for the telegenic over the less attractive even if that person is nuts. This is why is Gavin Newsome always trotted out as a presidential possibility when his policies have been in large part responsible for the extent of damage from wildfires, exorbitant home prices, homelessness and its attendant social consequences and his behaviors during Covid lockdowns where he was not subject to the rules he promulgated for everyone else.
In suburban Boston, the Harris-Walz signs are popping like weeds. I did see like 2-3 Trump signs, brave souls! I also have a “Grab him by the ballot” sign in my neighborhood. I guffawed when I saw it on my evening walk. I thought, really, they’re doing this, how lame. On a positive note, the density of BLM signs has gone down, it’s old hat now. Haven’t seen a “In this house, we believe science…” either in awhile.
“Grab him by the ballot!”
There are several variations of that sign and message, one of which features a smiling, tiara-topped, ~1950s housewifey Caucasian X-Chromosomal Unit, which I can’t figure out for the life of me.
PWS
And now Mr. Waltz is flipping off a crowd of voters. This would end a campaign in a reasonable country. Nation of assholes indeed.
https://x.com/TrumpWarRoom/status/1840420197120799158
Stay classy, Democrats. But Trump is the vulgarian whose conduct renders him unfit to be President….
Yeah, Projection running on the Democratic ballot, coming up on the inside.
Now remember, he was being booed in the People’s Republic of Ann Arbor. It doesn’t bode well if he is being booed at a University that debates which form of Communism is better and boasts student groups for Trotskyists, Leninists, Stalinists (really), generic Marxists, and (my favorite) the Maoist Internationalist Movement. I love MIM notes, they are hilarious.