Don't know what to think? Ask your favourite
surfer…
A gift, this afternoon, in the form of a seven-hundred
essay on America’s civil unrest from the still-best
surfer in the world, Ventura’s Danny Reynolds.
Reynolds, a former world number four (2011) famous for his “go
for broke” style of surfing, squares up to the hydra-headed
movements, Marxism, Anarchism, Racism and so forth, that have
turned parts of the country that saved the world from European
fascism seventy-five years ago, into lawless Mogadishus.
“I’ve decided to take this moment to open up a conversation,”
writes Reynolds, a thirty-four-year-old millionaire and daddy of
three, who goes on to say that social media has “gone mad” and that
“misinformation is spreading like a disease.”
Then, a plaintive wail,
Can anyone tell me what the hell is actually going on out
there? Is it a coincidence that all this chaos is
happening during an election year? I can’t help to think about how
supposed Russian operatives used social media to create division
and chaos in America during our last presidential
election.
It’s really not that hard, Anyone can invent a fictional
story around an event or a person, connect a few dots, post on
youtube or facebook or a meme on instagram or twitter and someone
will believe it. Post something real enticing and it just might go
viral.
Evidence?
Shit even the president doesn’t care to fact check before
posting.
Social media is an open stage for spreading false
narratives.
Are things more bizarre and unfathomably scripted than we
can imagine? Are we pawns in a massive scheme?
Or is it mostly straightforward… to use the current
situation as a reference – an unfortunate set of events…
coronavirus spread to a human in a wet market in China and is
highly infectious so it spread like wildfire into a global pandemic
and then two months later a fucking heartless person with a badge
got recorded abusing his power and ultimately killing a black man
over a misdemeanour which triggered global protests and a movement
for equality and police reform which will ultimately be a positive
change?
I know the reality lies somewhere in-between… I wish to
believe that for the most part politicians are good people that
look out for the greater good, and create policies that benefit
everyone from the disenfranchised to the wealthy.
But that’s a fairy tale,
It’s all a fucking mess man.
I sympathize with the black community, who have been
suffering from systemic racism since being stolen from their homes
and shipped to America as slaves 100’s of years ago. Some basic
reading if you need a reminder –
Slave
patrols.
Jim Crow
laws.
Slave patrols to traffic
stops.
I sympathize with police. Policing is the last line of work
I would want to do – confronting people every day who are breaking
the law. Enforcing minor infractions would just be sad. Dealing
with people committing real infractions would be sketchy, being a
police officer dealing with sketchy situations day in and day out
has to warp your perspective on how to treat people
fairly.
There’s people everywhere with poor judgement and no moral
compass, angry fearful self absorbed egotistical mean and
judgmental people. How people with those traits can become our
leaders and law enforcers I don’t know.
I don’t have any answers, I try to think logically,
rationally, critically, vote, support businesses that support
causes I believe in, treat everyone with respect, teach my kids
good values… but it doesn’t feel like enough…
Pandemic, protests, lies, rallies, conspiracies, corruption,
environment, justice…
How is it going to end?
And can we discuss these issues without everyone shitting
their pants in anger?
(Click here for a sizzling little sesh with
Matt McCabe, “metabolism of a rat”, and Reynolds, “still fairly
nimble for 200 pounds and never stretching.”)
