Sputterpub's Blog

I’ve mentioned it recently, but I really must insist: No. We can’t let this one get by us. “Rich” does not equal “job creator.” We all know that the big companies, already enjoying tax subsidies, have cut the number of people they employ. The rich create jobs for undocumented workers in their homes and gardens, and plenty of consultants and advisors who help them avoid even the reduced taxes they owe, but they are not goosing the economy.

Shall we now read about job creator parties in the newspaper? Check out what the job creators wear to opening nights at the symphony? Will little girls chant a modified choosing rhyme: job creator, poor man, beggarman, thief, doctor, lawyer, Indian chief?

We can’t stop the tide of language evolution, but maybe we can reject the sand shanties of really bad framing.

Stop it:

The rich don’t create jobs.

What made America great was not family values.

Our best and our brightest do not serve in the military or the schools or the hospitals.

Quality time is not more important than quantity.

The check is not in the mail.

Those chemicals are harmful.

My Berkeley cottage is one of five small homes on the property. We’re legally a condominium development but we’re so small we run it informally. No one pays dues. I guess I’m the “HOA,” because I handle the common bills and keep a spreadsheet and circulate it for reimbursement once a quarter.

You’d think with such a small group we’d have no hassles. I’d have to disabuse you. Some of us scuffle at times. But mostly we co-exist and get along.

Legally we’re entitled to five garbage cans and five recycling containers. But that would be crazy. There’s no place to store ten rolling bins. No one wants to pay fives times what one costs. So we share.

Which brings me to today’s subject. We have one of those split rolling recycling bins. The brown half of the top opens for paper and cardboard, and the blue half is for bottles and cans. The brown side is always overstuffed at the end of the week and the blue side never gets filled. But the can design is nice.

I do not understand why some people don’t flatten their boxes before putting them in the recycling container. My friends say it’s because they’re lazy, but I don’t think that’s it. The container is too narrow to take a unbent pizza box or wine carton. The resident who is hogging all the container room is NOT simply tossing the box; he or she attempts to strong-arm the cardboard structure into a shape that can be jammed in the bin. That attempt takes more energy and produces more frustration than deconstruction of the box.

Boxes are born flat. They readily return to their two-dimensional roots, even if their constructor has overapplied glue to their seams. It’s way easier to flatten a cardboard box and bend it than to try to jam it whole into a small aperture.

My recycling foes are not lazy. They’re somehow, in some way, angry … at the disposal process? Their stubborn shove is a form of tantrum about something. Passive aggressive. I think their time would be better spent collapsing the box and dealing with whatever the problem is.

… there may be a smoke machine. I could end this post with that. Or I could wait until a sweet everyday example comes to me, so I can make a small point that reverberates. But I’m feeling declarative this morning.

We have this concept in our culture, that if something is said often or widely, there must be some truth to it. We need to change that “must” to “may” or even “might possibly.”

Ben Franklin was a good guy. He happened to enjoy France and its people. He spent so much time there that some of our citizens began rumoring that he was really in league with the French. Assertions were made questioning his loyalty to his home country, implications of treasonous behavior. There was never anything to the rumors. But they created an impression in his time, that maybe he was a bad guy.

Shall we discuss Weapons of Mass Destruction? Want to get into some of the enduring and powerful misinformation about the Cold War?

Even now, as we’re getting introduced to the latest load – “we don’t want to raise taxes on the job creators” – we’re seeing some folks gather the idea that there must be something to it. Excuse me. Job creators? When? Where? Why are these words allowed? Why don’t we all rise up and laugh the claimants back into their seats?

We shouldn’t tolerate this, any more than misinformation on pharmaceutical labels. We shouldn’t allow ridiculous ad suggestions (Currently, Cheerios is asserting that the cereal is made from “carefully selected oats.” I watched a Ford ad last month, and nearly lost my seltzer when it that stated “the most important decision you may make is what car you drive.”)

I am NOT suggesting more regulation. I want people to police this. We’ve been bombarded by dishonest nonsense for so long that it’s like we’ve been beaten numb and dumb into silence. It’s time for us to say and act “not.”

If something gets repeated that much, it’s because it isn’t true. The speakers want it to be true but they’re a little insecure. So they keep saying it. That’s stupid. That’s boring. Let’s make it ineffective too.