Will Kerlick, Ignorance, and Me

Every now and again, I receive emails from a guy named Bob Lefsetz. Bob writes with passion about a wide variety of topics, from the music industry to popular culture to skiing, and while I don't connect with everything he writes about -- who would? -- it's usually an interesting excursion nevertheless.

One of the things I like most is that Bob posts email responses from his readers, of whom there are many. It's a nice reminder of the heterogeneous nature of the population, and it's a chance to be exposed to worldviews that don't match your own, which serves to educate you about the views of others, as well as a chance to reflect on personal perspectives. But every now and again, I run across a missive from someone who offers me nothing but amazement and depression.

This week, that person is Will Kerlick. Will's response to Bob's posting about Bruce Springsteen cancelling a concert in North Carolina over a restrictive set of anti-LGBTQI legislation started off by saying "I love Bruce," a vague and intellectually bankrupt starter's pistol of a statement similar to my late uncle's use of "I love n---ers" as an opening salvo of invective clad with the cloak of "real talk." After a few other choice sentences (including the use of "pussy shit" and "sissy nannies"), Will offered up a clean summation of his attitudes thusly:

"The leftist liberal movement is destroying our country. Idk maybe you do want a country with no guns, half the pop on welfare, no pledge of allegiances, woman terminating their children in the third trimester, terrorists reigning terror without being called radical because we're politically correct, and a shrinking military that can't match up to other superpowers in 5 years at this rate, but I don't. You live in a dreamworld like Springsteen. I'm a realist. This world isn't all cupcakes and unicorns."

First, it's important to give props where props should be -- that's a stunning collection of bumper-sticker-level ignorance, like a multivitamin of duh. But at heart, it's an affirmation of something I know about many Americans, but something that I don't want to face -- wildly divergent realities of what America was, is, and should be. I assume that Will believes all the above things to be true, but I can't help but wonder:

-- Is there a rightest liberal movement? How about a leftist conservative movement? Can I join both? Where are the forms to fill out? Are they online?

-- Is our country in danger of being destroyed by things other than poverty and malnutrition and teratogens and climate change and so forth? Or are we just talking about "your" country?

-- Are there more than six Americans out of a nation of over 317 million who truly want a country with no guns? Is there even one American who wants over 158 million welfare recipients?

-- Do you know that the vast majority of both medical and surgical abortions are not performed after twelve weeks, and that third trimester abortions (of fetuses rather than "children") are never performed unless the life of the mother is at acute risk? And that the best way to reduce the number of abortions is to provide comprehensive sex education and improve access to contraception?

-- Can you define "politically correct" without sounding racist or sexist?

-- In 2016, there is no other global superpower than America, and we could cut our military in half and still outspend and outkill dozens of industrialized nations combined.

I could go on, but at least Will and I agree about one thing -- the world isn't all cupcakes and unicorns. But instead of working towards helping our veterans (as Will believes Bruce Springsteen should do, as if he hasn't done that literally and metaphorically in his career already), the legislature of North Carolina chose to invest taxpayer time and money on a non-issue, much like the Michigan legislature recently passed unconstitutional sodomy laws rather than working to repair our pockmarked and desiccated highway infrastructure. Those are the real agents of destruction, not cupcakes with unicorns on them, and I wish people like Will Kerlick could see what I so clearly see.

Then again, I'm sure Will thought "Born In The U.S.A." was a positive conservative anthem. Is it too late to go back to my dreamworld?