My Blog Week: April 25 to May 1

A Word on the Week

Ain’t That Dandy?

One of the little freaks of the week was the dandelion moment between the president and his wife—where on the way to the helicopter, Joe Biden stooped to pick a seedhead, and handed it to Jill. Apparently, hosts on Fox and Worse, notably a Newsmax presenter named Grant Stinchfield, found the gesture a deception, one their personal eyes could not be fooled by.

It’s curious to me that among all the comments I read, no one seemed to recall being taught to make a wish, and blow the seeds to the wind. You’d think the Excitable Right would seize on a chance to accuse the president of “practicing magic”, or believing in “pagan superstition”. But even members of the public coming to the president’s defense seemed unaware of the old practice. Has dandelion folklore gone by the wayside, twenty-one years into the latest century?

Meanwhile, the cure for unrequited speculation is to regard people as human beings, and ask them what you want to know. Biden, through his press secretary, would probably explain the Meaning of the Dandelion. Someone with a lurid or insulting fantasy about another may want it to be true; he may prefer his fantasy to any facts that could destroy the state of reverie for him. He may decide the other person’s denial is a lie, which amounts to a second allegation. If he rejects what the person says, seeks nothing of available evidence to determine a preponderance, and returns to his fantasy, that at the least stands as proof of his active preference.

A fantasy about a well-known figure, yet a stranger to the Newsmax gentleman, faking a “sweet gesture” for suspected reasons not disclosed, does serve to demonstrate that you can’t control the terms of battle with an opponent who ignores you. One-sided escalation doesn’t really go higher, it goes further afield. The lunacy becomes more apparent, and all the arduous struggle is of the hostile side against themselves.

Even Strung-Along MAGAs might have difficulty, in this barrage of government benefits they want (that Biden’s first 100 days have been) riding the Silly Train onwards. A lot of the fantasies are as self-revealing, as to what these people wish for, and enjoy thinking about, as any enemy of theirs could wish…

While choosing, far more sensibly, to get on with job and let the crazies stew in their own juices.