"Joy and pleasure are as real as pain and sorrow and one must learn what they have to teach. . . ." -- Sean Russell, from Gatherer of Clouds

"If you're not having fun, you're not doing it right." -- Helyn D. Goldenberg

"I love you and I'm not afraid." -- Evanescence, "My Last Breath"

“If I hear ‘not allowed’ much oftener,” said Sam, “I’m going to get angry.” -- J.R.R. Tolkien, from Lord of the Rings

Monday, June 19, 2017

How Trump Got Elected, #432

Because his supporters are idiots.

You've no doubt heard or read about the two trumpanzees who disrupted a performance of Shaekspeare's Julius Caesar by the New York Public Theater that depicted Caesar as -- well, he looks a lot like Trump. (Here's a bit of background on the attention-starved miscreants.)

And here's Raw Story with commentary on the reactions:

According to the Boston Globe, theater companies across the country that perform Shakespeare are getting death threats over a New York Public Theater play in Central Park that depicts the death of Ceasar — but who looks like President Donald Trump.

The senders of these death threats are “outraged over the Public Theater’s controversial staging” of Shakespeare’s “Caesar” that features the infamous stabbing scene with a character inspired by Trump — but they appear to have gotten the locations a little off.

One such theater is Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, Massachusetts, who have been “inundated with a flood of venomous e-mails, phone messages, and social media posts condemning them for the Central Park production.”

One sender told the management of the Lenox theater that they wish “the worst possible life you could have and hope you all get sick and die.” Another told them their “play depicting the murder of our President is nothing but pure hatred.”

The Lenox Shakespeare company is far from the only Shakespeare-performing theater who’ve gotten these kinds of threats. Raphael Parry, the director of Shakespeare Dallas in Texas, told the Globe that his theater “has received about 80 messages, including threats of rape, death, and wishes that the theater’s staff is ‘sent to ISIS to be killed with real knives.'” Theaters in Washington, D.C. and elsewhere in New York said they’ve received threats as well.

So these idiots look up "Shakespeare in the Park" on the Internet and call the first company that comes up on the list. These are people who voted based on slogans. Nasty slogans.

The directors quoted have some interesting theories as to why this is happening, but I have a slightly different take: these are the people who voted for Trump because they feel powerless. Well, there, they've done something, so they don't feel quite so powerless any more.

Meanwhile, the Senate Republicans are working behind closed doors to take away their health insurance.

(I wonder if Chicago's resident Shakespeare company has gotten any calls.)

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