Perjorative

Jo Keats, Park County Public Affairs Director & Public Information Officer, OBJECTS!!! (Not in her official role, but as an interested citizen.)

Molly Ivins, journalist, political commentator, and syndicated columnist for much of the latter part of the last century, spoke about humor and the good fight. She said:

“So keep fighting for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don’t forget to have fun doin’ it. Be outrageous… rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. And when you get through celebrating the sheer joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after how much fun it was!” – Molly Ivins

Amen!

But, along comes Park County’s Public Affairs Director and Public Information Officer, Joannah Keats, who commented on my last post not as a public employee, but as an interested citizen, a video titled, “Dave Wissel – Lookit’ You Go!” expressing her thoughts that “[She] appreciated [my] blog posts providing [my] political perspective on the happenings in the county. The AI videos are not as compelling, and are much more pejorative than helpful in aiding to the discourse.”

My first thought upon reading this was, of course, that the only discourse I aid is my own, and I do that happily, more happily in fact now that I’ve got a handle on AI and can provide happy music and silly visuals to enhance whatever serious subject I’m addressing. The videos are invaluable in providing a satirical look at county government, keying on the MAGA Republican “ruling class” in Park County who take themselves way too seriously.

My comment on the post in response to hers was: “Thank you, JK, for your comment. I believe I’ve been publicly opining on county happenings for about eight years, first in The Flume, then on this blog, now with a little twist featuring music and AI. I’ve found, in all those years, that nothing much in the county ever changes in response to the written word. The insularity of the Park County “ruling class” is not breached by words or, unfortunately, real live opposition in numbers, Democrats, who still run “paper candidates” in elections. Ashley Girodo was the exception, of course. But I don’t see that happening again for some time. So, after all those years, someone like me necessarily circles the wagons and, for my own peace of mind and to continue opining on, as you say, the happenings in the county, I now provide a happy medium–catchy tunes and absurdism at its best, the silly videos that do communicate a very serious message that most folks are able to glean with very little help. So, if you find my current mode of “political perspective on the happenings in the county” (again, your words) “perjorative,” I won’t apologize for that. I’m not naive, and understand there have to be many who share your viewpoint. And, in fact, a whole bunch of folks who don’t share your viewpoint. I do believe that through the medium I work nowadays, I had some little (maybe a lot) of influence on how the Republican primary went this year. So, again, thank you for your comment. Hope all is well up there on Castello Avenue.”

Okay. Yeah, maybe I was a little too eager to pat myself on the back for influencing the most recent Park County MAGA Republican primary, at which all the Wissel and Mitchell hand-picked MAGA candidates lost to their betters. And, alright, the comment about Democrats only running “paper candidates” might prove inaccurate, with Democrat Truman Esmond vying for the District 3 Commissioner seat against Tyrene Cook, the Republican, and Robb Green’s good fight against Amy Mitchell, and Jack Hansell’s efforts against Jason Gemmer in 2024.

But, given all that, c’mon: You can’t tell me that at least one of these scenes didn’t bring a smile to your face:

Come to think of it, yes, echoing part of Molly Ivins’ discourse, “…The other kind [of humor] holds people up to public contempt and ridicule — that’s what I do. Satire is traditionally the weapon of the powerless against the powerful…” I’d adjust that comment slightly by not using the words contempt and ridicule, but the word scrutiny, and pointing out the silliness of public figures and politicians who really do take themselves too seriously, nurse their biases regardless of how they might affect the citizens of Park County, and the blatant parochialism they absurdly refer to as the pioneer spirit, as if Park County must isolate itself from the rest of the world for its own good.

I don’t know Jo Keats. I don’t know if she’s a closet Democrat, a MAGA Republican, or something in between. I do know that if she doesn’t understand the point of my video satires–the very serious issues embedded in those videos–and if she doesn’t appreciate the opportunity to laugh, to smile, to tap your toe to something that without the satire might better be suited to a funeral dirge, she probably takes herself too seriously.

“So keep fighting for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don’t forget to have fun doin’ it. Be outrageous… rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. And when you get through celebrating the sheer joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after how much fun it was!” – Molly Ivins