Platypus Thoughts

Big news today: Netflix is taking over Warner Bros. Also big news today: Paramount+ is taking over Warner Bros. Either way (or no way) this comes to pass, the bottom line is we, the consumers, will not benefit from this Pac-Man fight to be the biggest gorilla in the entertainment industry. TV and movies will not improve. News will not be more balanced. And both TV and streaming fees will increase. 

At one time in our history, there was a push against monopolies. It was believed that healthy competition served the general populace. The Sherman Act of 1890 prohibited “anticompetitive agreements and unilateral conduct that monopolizes or attempts to monopolize the relevant market.” The Act was to be enforced by the Department of Justice. Both the Sherman Antitrust Act and the Department of Justice are a joke today. 

But the failure of the Sherman Act and the decimation of the DOJ are not the big news. The big news is who will own Bugs Bunny. Frankly, my dear, this is not the important news today – or perhaps any day (although Looney Tunes does seem a more relevant descriptor of our government with each passing news cycle).

Limiting my scope to this country (as the turmoil in the whole world is too overwhelming to contemplate), the important news – for us – is that people in our towns are being persecuted for not being white or speaking English, people in our neighborhoods are going hungry while farmers can’t sell their crops, our friends can’t get healthcare and, if they do, they can’t find a doctor, and many of our fellow Americans are homeless (call it unhoused if you must obfuscate). 

Our government, led by a self-aggrandizing terrorist, is not only isolating itself from the rest of the world (unless we can own it, control it, or at least build a hotel and golf course on it), our government is isolating itself from the very principles of it’s foundation: the goals of the Preamble to our Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and much – but certainly not all! – of the legislation passed by our Congress since the founding of our country. 

The takeover of our country by un-American terrorists is the important news. The declining ability of Americans to make a living or get an education or see a doctor or find a safe place to live, the evisceration of American history, the push to make “real” Americans conform to the ideal of one group of people – this is the important news. This is where we should be raising our voices and our fists. 

Instead we are sidetracked by “important” news like the WWF bout over Warner Bros. How soon until the screen fades to black and we get the “That’s all, Folks!” sign off?