Squidfry 03.03.22: False Equivalency

FALSE EQUIVALENCY… Like all good people, Squid is outraged over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Note, Squid said “all good people.” The not-so-good people seem to think Vladimir Putin is a “genius.” Squid thinks Vlad is about as genius as a brainless jellyfish.

Squid ran across someone also in a state of outrage, in this case about past events. Former Pacific Grove police officer Michael Gonzalez on Feb. 22 filed a $1 million lawsuit against the city for allegedly violating his First Amendment rights. Gonzalez is the guy who, among other things, posted to social media “Fuck Black Lives Matter” in 2020. He was terminated on Jan. 13, 2021.

“Like millions of Americans, Mr. Gonzalez was horrified, appalled and outraged by the killing of George Floyd by a police officer,” the complaint states. Next paragraph: “Like millions of Americans, Mr. Gonzalez was horrified, appalled and outraged by the violence, looting, lawlessness and anarchism displayed” by Black Lives Matter protests.

Squid doesn’t have the energy to get outraged about everything, lest Squid exhaust Squidself, and by the time Squid got to his false equivalency on page 18, Squid was already tired – but Squid was appalled that the murder of a Black man by a white cop is held in equal consideration with a false narrative about constitutionally-protected protests. That’s some jellyfish thinking right there.

OUT OF TOUCH… One of Squid’s pet obsessions is time machines – which unfortunately do not exist – and if a time machine could also be a hot tub, now you’re talking Squid’s language. And if there is a time and place Squid could choose to travel to and stay, it would be to the late 1960s in California, when even local journalists could afford to buy a respectable home.

But, Squid has observed, those who came of age during that time often have no sense for how good they had it. It’s on Squid’s mind because during a Feb. 23 meeting of the Monterey City Council about a rental registry (story, p. 14), local realtor Tom Rowley called in to say that after he finished studying at the Naval Postgraduate School and got orders to go to Vietnam, he and his wife bought a house in Monterey. When he got orders to go to Alameda, Rowley said, they then also bought a condo there. “I just give this as an example of the movement of renters into owners,” Rowley said.

Ummm, maybe not the best example? According to realtor.com, the median listing home price in Monterey right now is $1.1 million, and in Alameda it’s about $1.3 million.

Unless the value of Squid’s shell collection appreciates by more than $1 million, that’s far out of reach for any cephalopod, as well as the vast majority of working people.