The Toilet Drama

I have to say that I find it deeply offensive that the whole country is talking obsessively about toilets, presidential candidates find it necessary to state their position on toilets, boycotts are declared over toilets, yet nobody has much to say about the fact that the state of Illinois is still living without a budget and the education grants of the poorest students are still being withheld.

One would think that the very real suffering of the young people whose college is about to be shut down or the indigent retirees thrown out of their retirement homes would merit a boycott, but no, only the ridiculous toilet drama does. There is no evidence that anybody in this country has been prevented from peeing, of course. Yet the toilet drama is still proving a lot more important to the believers in social justice than the collapse of the government in Illinois.

And then we wonder why so many people in this country are angry and are voting their rage. Just compare the extent of coverage in the media of the Illinois budget fight or a similar situation in Pennsylvania with the attention the toilet scandal gets and you’ll have the answer.

4 thoughts on “The Toilet Drama

  1. “As Trump’s surprise candidacy disrupts everything it touches, it is now exploding into the academic realm, launching a yuuuuge new wave of what you might call Trump Studies. From philosophy to law to computer science and history, researchers are finding they can’t look away from Donald J. Trump. For some, like Mercieca, the astonishing popularity of the celebrity real estate developer is the perfect tent pole to hang their existing research on. For others, his candidacy is like an experiment on a national scale, blowing up conventional wisdom about how American politics and society work.”

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  2. I’m not offended by the discussion or boycott per se (NC’s new laws do have some potentially brutal effects on gay people and I do understand that toilet usage is important to navigating public spaces.) But I did have some similar thoughts as you on this.

    In particular, I thought about abortion laws. Abortion rights have been completely eroded in this country. In some places like Kansas and Mississippi, abortion has become de facto illiegal. And other than some protests by feminists, there hasn’t been a public outcry or any statewide boycotts. Nobody joins women in fighting these battles.

    And even as they are left alone on the abotion issue, feminists are joining with transgender people and with gay people to protest NC’s laws. But that support never comes back to women politically. Ultimately (and this is cynical), I think it’s because gay people and transgender people don’t have to worry about getting pregnant: only straight women need to worry about unexpected pregnancy. And so, reproductive rights remain a “minor issue” that nearly everybody overlooks. It’s maddening.

    For my part, I’ve decided that women’s issues are going to be at or near the top of my “political priority list.” Gay people can get married now; transgender people have made great strides. Are things perfect? Not by a long shot. But now it’s time to focus on women’s issues for a while now. Reproductive health and wage discrimination need national attention.

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    1. “For my part, I’ve decided that women’s issues are going to be at or near the top of my “political priority list.” Gay people can get married now; transgender people have made great strides. Are things perfect? Not by a long shot. But now it’s time to focus on women’s issues for a while now. Reproductive health and wage discrimination need national attention.”

      • I agree 100%. Great victories have been achieved in terms of gay rights, and I celebrate that. But there are now really urgent issues in terms of women’s rights, and I believe we should concentrate on them.

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