Opinion: Poor choices can be entertaining

Do you ever get to the point where you feel like sitting back and watching the show while people suffer the consequences of their bad choices? I do, and I remember the biblical story about Jonah having the same impulse. It’s human nature.

There’s one show I won’t be watching, though. I can’t think of a worse waste of time than watching the Jan. 6th Congressional clown show. Congresscritters are wallowing in their self-importance while the disasters they’ve unleashed on us are making it hard to afford to fuel our cars; making it harder for us to afford food and everything else.

I’m not saying there’s anything they could do about it at this point -- the damage has been done. Anything they did now would make it worse. But to try to distract the public with this theater and pretend it’s important? Unconscionable politics.

Two years ago I warned of inflation on the horizon, due to the stimulus checks and wanton government spending. Some people took this as a cue to tell me how wrong I was instead of heeding the warning as an opportunity to do things to protect themselves. They decided a better use of their time was to attack the messenger.

I wonder if they’ve learned anything since.

Then, you have groups parroting the claim that guns are society’s biggest problem. Some area teenagers emphatically demonstrated it’s not the tool; it’s the people who choose to violate another human so badly they end up dead.

I guess the anti-gun activists would say it’s a good thing those teens didn’t have guns because it would have been worse if they had.

As with any claim I make, you are free to listen, or not.

I’m not telling you what to think. Instead, I hope I set your brain gears in motion so you can think your own thoughts -- thoughts based in reality, not on wishful thinking and bad assumptions.

One bad assumption I see is the assumption that political government is the proper tool for solving problems. If you can get people to accept this groundless claim, you can keep them from even considering actual solutions. There’s a problem? What legislation or rules can be imposed to fix it? You won’t find a solution there. This assumption will keep people looking in the wrong place. This is choosing to fail even before you’ve begun. Poor choices have bad, but entertaining, consequences.

Farwell’s Kent McManigal champions liberty. Contact him at:

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