Opinion | America can no longer identify the bad guys

There was a time when we knew who the bad guys were. 

They did the bad things. They mistreated the people. They stole. They lied. They took advantage of the poor, the vulnerable and the weak. They used the children as pawns. They were the greedy, the liars, the ultra-wealthy taking advantage of the average folk. 

In the movies, they wore black. In real life, they were the people who did all the things your parents warned you not to do. 

That’s how we used to tell the bad from the good. Today, we’ve flipped that upside down. 

That much was obvious Sunday evening at the Super Bowl, as a large portion of the crowd present in New Orleans booed singer Taylor Swift and gave a somewhat warm greeting to President Donald Trump. 

We’ve lost the ability to identify decency and goodness. 

Taking the lessons you learned from your parents, or the ones you learned in pretty much any church, I’d like for someone to explain how Swift is the bad guy worthy of boos, and Trump the good guy. Anyone. 

You can’t do it. And you know it. 

Swift, at the absolute worst, should inspire indifference. A singer who has done nothing controversial or demeaning to anyone, who donates to all sorts of charities, is loved by girls all over the world and seems to take seriously her role as a model for their potential. That’s not a person worthy of boos. 

Trump, on the other hand, has barely spent a full minute over the last eight years without insulting or belittling someone. Often for no reason other than the fact he has the power to do so and avoid accountability, or the thorough tail kicking that would have ordinarily been handed to an uppity New York City rich guy who shot his mouth off. 

I’m not sure when we lost the desire to be good. To respect decency and instead embrace cruelty and mean-spiritedness. But we have. 

And even worse: such abhorrent behavior is now viewed by many as a sign of strength. While conversely, showing compassion and respect for others is a weakness. 

I’ve actually had people argue with me that my refusal to accept their disrespect of others – and my criticism of their harsh, ugly words – is somehow a sign of intolerance on my part. You get that? Failing to respect their intolerance is a sign of intolerance. 

Who were y’all’s parents? 

Let me state this plainly, since it apparently needs to be said: standing up for the vulnerable, protecting the rights of all people and shutting down hurtful, disgusting insults of the marginalized is strength. Participating in such vile and belittling acts is a sign of ignorance and a lack of self-confidence. 

Speaking of ignorance, I’m also confused by the country’s embrace of stupidity and purposefully stupid people. Particularly those people who are pretending to be stupid in the hopes of fitting in with a stupid crowd. 

We have a lot of that taking place in Alabama right now. And it’s costing us dearly. 

Our congressional delegation, for example, are not wholly stupid people. I know this to be true. They are mostly highly successful and accomplished. They know things. They understand how things work. 

However, they have gone out of their way in recent months to endear themselves to Team Stupid, as they’ve lauded Trump’s and co-president Elon Musk’s every decision on their Sherman-like march through the federal government. These are people, save for one, who understand the important functions of government, particularly in areas of funding for international aid and job-supporting industries in their home state. 

Yet, as we sit tonight, funding for some of the most critical components of this state are in jeopardy. And with threats to defense spending looming, more are certainly on the way. 

This is not to say, mind you, that our federal government couldn’t stand a bit of a trim. There is, as we all know, bloat and wasteful spending that occurs, and that has occurred for decades, including for the four years Trump was president previously. (I like how we just all pretend that four years didn’t happen when discussing all of this waste and fraud.)

But given that much of that spending props up programs that literally supply food to starving children and the elderly, it’s probably best we don’t execute cuts by a blowtorch wielded by a 19-year-old named “Big Balls.” 

It’s also probably wise that the cuts follow the established laws and respect the safeguards put in place to protect personal and financial information. I feel fairly certain that had Joe Biden employed George Soros to violate the law to even look through sensitive treasury records, our Alabama lawmakers would have been fairly outspoken. And none of them, much less the smart ones, would have been standing in the corner pretending that they don’t understand the deep, harmful ramifications of what’s happening. 

But then, maybe again, it all goes back to this newfound love of cruelty and awfulness. It seems to give some people such immeasurable joy to learn that others are suffering because of these cuts and stopped payments. Whether it be poor people losing their heating payment subsidies or hungry kids in other countries losing the food that used to come via USAID, there is much, much glee in maga world over all of this. 

That’s what happens when you can no longer identify the bad guys.