The privy of the universe

 

There were two mass shootings in California in the past few days by gunmen who happened to be of that “model minority” group, Asian. Since the victims in the first shooting in Monterey Park were also Asian, there was speculation that the shooter would be charged with a “hate crime.” The names of the victims as well as the shooter seems to indicate they were of the same Asian "ethnicity," so maybe like the 2007 Virginia Tech mass shooter he felt he was being shunned? In the end, are not all mass shootings somehow motivated by “hate” against someone or something? 

In the second shooting at a mushroom farm in Half Moon Bay, the names of most of the victims were withheld since they were migrants, and there was difficulty in notifying next of kin; we can assume then that most of the victims were Hispanic (workers at the farm were identified as such), which I would say qualifies as a “hate crime," and the mugshot of the shooter, Chunli Zhao, certainly appears to be someone with hate in his heart.

Despite the fact that unlike the Monterey Park shooting where there were more wounded than killed, seven of the eight victims in Half Moon Bay shootings died, which suggests a high level of brutality by  Zhao, who unlike the Monterey Park killer was confident enough of his “justifications” not to kill his own self. We are told that Zhao is being “cooperative,” and “no danger to the public.” How nice. Maybe he felt “justified” in a country where Hispanics are demonized and dehumanized by many—which for those in Mexico and Central America ravaged by the corruption of American society, whether by the insatiable desire for drugs, or its gang cultures, is typical of the ignorance they face in this country.

I was in a Home Depot recently in the expectation that I might find some rubber ear plugs that I might find useful while riding the bus or the library. I figured that the power tools section would be the most “logical” place to find what I was looking for, and indeed I did find them (my college degree is good for something, I suppose). 

But as I was turning to head to the checkout counters, I saw at the end of the aisle a white security guard—the one I had passed on my way to the tools section—standing there facing the main aisle, but his eyes pointed at me sideways. As I walked past him I said “sneaky bastard,” and he responded “I have to be”; at least he was honest about being a bastard.

I then said “racist” because he obviously thought because I looked “ethnic” that was what made me automatically “suspicious.” Well, it's true, isn't it? Even doing what for other people would be "normal" is just cause for "suspicion" if that is what you want to see, right? The security guard acted as if this was a “tired” accusation, but to me it isn’t “tired” enough, because people just don’t want to talk about it.

Unlike most people I did my time in the military and tried to “improve” myself by obtaining a university degree. And yet all most people see is a car prowler, shoplifter or generally pointless. In a convenience store I am always asked if the cup of coffee “is all,” as if the clerk missed something while he was spying on me. Yes, you fucking moron; after Covid was used as an excuse to double the price of everything in the store, I learned the difference between what I “want” and what I “need”—and all I “need” is a cup of coffee.  

If I could read people’s minds, what would I discover?  In many, probably something they will lie about. Some people's actions, of course, speak a thousand words. Today I was headed to work after picking up some packages in Capitol Hill; on my way I encountered a Hispanic woman riding one of those street rental electric scooters, exchanging words with a white man with two large dogs. Apparently he was ostracizing her about riding on the sidewalk, when there was only a narrow road with no bike path. 

I noted that he was blocking the whole sidewalk deliberately, because as I approached behind him I told him he was being a rude doing so. His response indicated he was just a racist, bullying jerk; he didn't ask for my opinion he said, but he had given the woman his opinion, so I had a right to give him mine. He started mouthing off, I called him a Nazi Freak, and he came up beside me and tried to elbow me off the sidewalk. 

I think he got scared when my eyes lit up and I advanced toward him as he backed away. He didn't know who I was; I might be one of those "gangsters" Donald Trump calls most of the people crossing the border. I yelled out "Nazi Freak" after this coward who was a foot taller than I was while cars were honking at him as he walked across the street in front of through traffic.

On the same day of the Home Depot incident I saw a crew of Hispanic roofers working in the rain; you think “real Americans” wouldn’t just take the day off? Maybe not being “lazy” and doing things the right way is a “skill” many “real Americans” don’t have anymore (I don’t count diva Latinas who think they have something to “sell” to obtain fake social status). There is a section of Springbrook Creek in King County that the white people who used to be contracted to clear the banks for flood mitigation never went further than a low bridge 20 yards from the road, and what was beyond the bridge looked impossible to cut through because of decades of disregard. 

But in December the county contracted a Hispanic crew that not only went past the bridge, but wiped-out the bushes for miles as far as the eye could see and beyond. And you are telling me that isn’t a “skill” that is sorely lacking in this country? You don't need "skills" to work in the library lazily shelving books, but the white and Asian people who work there sure want you to think only "smart" people can  do that.

It can be a frustrating thing to be constantly aware of the fact that when most people deign to give you a thought at all, it is as a different species of “human” that somehow negatively impacts "culture" and society. I find this so “hilarious”; we live in a world where one group of people is completely self-absorbed and believes they can tread on other people's rights, and another where criminal and anti-social behavior generally is “defended” as merely being “rebellious.” While people who "look" like me are spied on (or despised), people who don’t want to be accused of “racism” against another group just wave it off as “OK” when someone walks out setting off the exit alarms as long as they are not threatening anybody' life.

It is a fucked-up world we live in. Many people just want to live the “sweet life,” one of indolence and pleasure; some people do this in office jobs where the principle occupation is feeling "special" about themselves, or not working at all, sponging off other people or the “system,” or engaging in extracurricular “business.”  

In the Fellini film La Dolce Vita, Marcello’s only hope for redemption from being corrupted by the wastrels of "high society" is Steiner’s cultured influence and encouragement for the book Marcello wants to write; but when Steiner kills himself and his two children, Marcello is done too, because the murder-suicide was Steiner’s way of telling him that he had determined that this world was no longer a fit place to live for cultured people and one he didn’t want his children to exist in. 

Sometimes I feel that this is where this world is headed, with people who don't know what "living" is to make this a better world--or at least keep it livable. As Voltaire once observed, when the beings God created decided they wanted to eat something sweet like cake instead of boring ambrosia (which was expectorated from the pores), that's when they had to start shitting, and not knowing where to relieve themselves, they were directed to a planet called Earth that was the privy of the universe.