Tuesday Top of Mind 2/18/25- ripping the wings off of butterflies and laughing about it

There is something laddish about going into government computers and programs and ripping out the guts. And leaving a big mess.

Of course, this time the mess equates to the suffering of many, many people.

It brings to mind the episode of Star Trek the Next Generation called The Naked Now. An affected by the virus that makes everyone act as if they are drunk leads Wesley Crusher to disable the engines just as the Enterprise is in dire straits.

Sound familiar?

It takes Data, the android, who is also affected, to rise to a goad to put the pieces that Wesley has destroyed back in working order.

If that isn’t a metaphor for today’s US I don’t know what is.

A kid gets drunk. Are you with me? Not unlike the teenage and young 20s young men who are playing havoc in our systems. Reminder, the frontal lobe doesn’t finish developing until age 25 or so. Of course, they are charged with this task by an older man who just wants to break things.

Not a perfect metaphor.

A kid disables the engine, leading to peril. If it hasn’t happened yet, see the plane crashes since inauguration day, it will soon.

An android, one who is a valuable member of the crew but one at first who was looked upon with derision and scorn and fear, is the one to right the ship. Oh, and did I mention that he struggles with identity through so much of the series? There is definitely a trans allegory there.

But, I fear, that we will no one who has been othered around to help. Because they have been deported or are living in fear.

They are pulling the wings off the butterfly that is the U.S. And laughing maniacally while doing so.

I wouldn’t be able to plot this and no one would read it because it is so implausible.

But here we are.

Our international reputation is shredding, not unlike the wings of the butterfly.

There is no one coming to save us.

People are suffering. Including people who voted for this madness.

I am trying to find sympathy for them.

I have no sympathy for the government.

But I have a real fear of our standing in the world and the utter trainwreck that Democrats have to right after this. Because it is always up to the Democrats to fix what the Republicans broke while giving billions and billions of dollars to those who do not need it.