Unbidden Bits—April 9, 2023

How many more Republican governors and so-called conservative Supreme Court justices, I wonder, will the American Psychiatric Association have to observe before adding self-righteousness to the DSM as a class B antisocial personality disorder?

6 thoughts on “Unbidden Bits—April 9, 2023

  1. bystander April 9, 2023 / 1:07 pm

    Depends on how conservative the APA? I’m remembering a lot of old school white dudes from back in the day who were pretty self-righteous themselves. They might not recognize an anomaly.

    I got behind a bit here. Responded again two posts back but it disappeared into the ether. Decided it was insufficiently profound to resurrect. Maybe only to affirm that an early (very early?) emotional independence from my parents was sanity saving, in retrospect.

    As for Spring, sitting in Williams, AZ (having just come through Flagstaff on the way to Lake Havasu City). there still be a goodly amount of snow in these parts, and snow melt/runoff/atmospheric rive has created a veritable kayack-able lake in every low spot. Love the scent of the pines – which crowds out the RV toilet that chose to fail.

    As for the DSM 5 (6? 7? 8? I’ve lost track), I’m pretty sure PTSD still exists, which will be me, politically, before much longer.

    • William Timberman April 9, 2023 / 1:33 pm

      Sounds like a smashing Spring break. The missing response does seem weird. If you’re talking about a comment on the “Agency” post, one does appear on the site, along with my reply to it. Were you attempting to post a second comment? If so, I just checked, and it never showed up in the feed.

      I’m 69 miles south of Flagstaff, 3,500 ft.. lower down the hill, so I don’t keep snow tires or chains around. Had an appointment up on top during the worst of this year’s blizzard, and wound up having to Zoom it. Inconvenient, but not as inconvenient as living in a state run by lunatics and fascists.

      And yeah, the APA…. Almost two centuries of earnest study, and they still don’t seem to understand us any better than we understand ourselves. Meaning woe is us, I guess, woe to the depth and breadth and height our souls can reach, when feeling out of sight for the ends of being and ideal grace. (Apologies to EBB.)

      • bystander April 9, 2023 / 2:10 pm

        Yeah; it was a response to your reply that vaporized. Likely, error on my end. I’d started the reply but didn’t finish it until the next day…. and, poof! Probably timed out.

        69 mi south ….. does reduce the likelihood of snow, for sure. And, you’re right about social media and anonymity.

        When we sold the farm and moved – to what we thought – was the edge of a city in northern CO that would feel comfortable and afford the kinds of services our advancing age might require… well, the services are there, but the comfort really isn’t. Lunatics and fascists are best avoided but I’m not sure Limousine Liberals and White Moderates – no matter how well educated – are an upgrade from farmers of any political bent who are pretty focused on the dirt under their feet.

  2. William Timberman April 9, 2023 / 3:16 pm

    Liberals are an acquired taste, I grant you, but “liberal” isn’t a curse-word. Calling yourself a liberal is at worst a confession of human frailty, a kind of timid defense of your refusal to grow up. The most compelling condemnation of liberals, meaning liberals in the pejorative sense common in today’s politics, is that their passion to appear innocent is prima facie evidence of their bad faith. No adult can ever honestly claim to be innocent, nor point to a list of good works real or imagined as proof of a right to exist unmolested by the torments of those around them.

    Honest sons and daughters of the soil—the people you describe as focused on the dirt under their feet—sense this instinctively about liberals, that no matter what happens, they want to be able to claim that their hands are clean. It’s a telling point, but to be honest, I often find these farmerfolk and their instincts just as annoying. Common sense is all well and good, but in an age which requires an intimacy with uncommon sense if any of us are to survive into the next century, watching them check to see if people have mud between their toes before deigning to listen to them can be extremely frustrating.

    • bystander April 9, 2023 / 4:38 pm

      “No adult can ever honestly claim to be innocent, nor point to a list of good works real or imagined as proof of a right to exist unmolested by the torments of those around them.”

      Absolutely true. No argument from this corner. As for the farmer folk and dirt under their feet….. most of ’em are able to recognize when they’re standing in cow shit and call it such. It’s not so much their – oft referred – common sense I appreciate as it is their frankness. Be they right, wrong, or indifferent, they call their position without the obfuscation anticipating any need for an escape hatch.

      • William Timberman April 9, 2023 / 4:43 pm

        Absolutely that, even when I don’t like what I’m hearing—especially when I don’t like what I’m hearing.

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