On making rhinestones instead of diamonds

I'm surprised at anyone who can claim tolerance of varying views while pulling this mess. This is a person who's done well for herself and is doing good for others while holding to conservative values, and she's displayed admirable strength by thriving in an environment where such values are thrown aside even by those meant to embody them. (Oh, and wear a mask, key-keeper - you know this lady called COVID slaps back.) If Karen is a name that has come to represent intolerance, then yes, the name very much applies to the backlash that causes a respected organization to retract kind words because they were meant for a jurist Clan Karen doesn't agree with.

This reaction is the product of a community that values hiding its natural personality the same way it does natural hair color and cup size, and for all its virtue signaling, still values the trappings of wealth over self-development. (Seriously, this nonsense was almost funny when it came out - now it's just a disappointing duplicate.) But hey, keep selling that bit of corruption standard and ignore the patchy carpet in the background - you know, do you and all that.

Is this community a reflection of 'the soul of the nation?' Is this what's at stake in a few days, this thing that counts on the inability to tell plastic from reality in order to keep its image as something worthy of envy? I'd thought people were capable of better than this. Enshrining this artifice as anything more than mere entertainment is a spectacle on the level of a car crash, especially considering it's committing the contemptible deed of passing these rhinestone values on to the next generation.

Bit of a digression - I don't listen to rap nearly as much anymore, but the performers I used to listen to gave the impression of having more independent voices. It sounds like there's at least one newer-to-me performer keeping his own voice instead of handing it over to someone who exemplified cancel culture long before the term was developed. Or am I thinking about another late-night talk show host who canceled a comedian for making a cancer joke because the host is too self-centered to realize that there's more than one person who lost a parent to cancer? (What can I say, I remember the funny one better than the hysterical one.)

However, I'll end this bit with slightly more cheerful, if belated, news. Looks like them hornets over there have succumbed to some literal suckage. Looking forward to seeing them cooked.