Today In Irresponsibility, Dishonesty, And The Absence Of Integrity and Maturity

One is young and dumb...the other's definitely not young

Despite several attempts by the Right-Wing Echo Chamber to lionize Kyle Rittenhouse, he’s no one’s hero. What he was doing wandering around Kenosha, WI, carrying a loaded AR-15 is anyone’s guess. Mine is that he was playing Good Guy With A Gun, even though he’d had precious little training and even less experience handling a deadly weapon.

Oh, and he wan’’t yet 18.

Rittenhouse doesn’t even live in Kenosha, yet he was there that night as a “volunteer” to protect the businesses of people he didn’t even know. So when he fired upon and killed two innocent bystanders, was it self-defense? Or wanton criminal stupidity?

The sad thing about Rittenhouse’s trial is that many still financially and emotionally support him. I can’t help but wonder if the families and loved ones are getting the same sort of support? Their names are seldom mentioned, and the Far-Right hasn’t canonized them, so I’m guessing the answer is a solid “no.”

Rittenhouse wasn’t even the owner of the AR-15 he was carrying. Yet he carried it with him throughout the night- up to, through, and after killing his victims. If he felt he might need a weapon of war to protect himself from woke Liberals, then why was he there in the first place?

There’s no happy ending in this story for Rittenhouse. Regardless of the outcome of his trial, he’ll have to live with the knowledge that he’s directly responsible for the deaths of two innocent human beings. No amount of crocodile tears on the witness stand will change that. His immature G.I. Joe fantasy resulted in the senseless deaths of two and the wounding of one. Whether you call it murder or something else, Kyle Rittenhouse took two lives he had no right to take. He will never be the same, nor will the families and loved ones of those he killed.

I don’t know how you can even begin to make that right. I do know that Rittenhouse is what happens when untrained, immature, wannabe soldiers carry weapons. I learned at an early age that if you’re going to carry a firearm, you’d best be prepared to use it. If you’re unprepared for that eventuality, you have no business carrying it.

Kyle Rittenhouse had no business carrying an AR-15 on that terrible night in Kenosha. If there’s any justice in this world, he’ll spend his life behind bars. But, as we all know, when it comes to Proudly Closed-minded Gun Control Foes who kill, justice is a commodity often in very short supply.

Aaron Rodgers used to be someone I considered worthy of respect- for his physical abilities and athletic talent. But, until recently, I never realized that he’s also a liar and an immature child unwilling to accept responsibility for his actions. I had no idea that he’s Alex Jones in shoulder pads.

Rodgers didn’t just make “some comments that people might have felt were misleading.” He lied. Period. End of story. He deliberately evaded giving a “yes” or “no” answer when asked back in August if he was vaccinated. None of the reporters present thought to press him further; perhaps no one felt compelled to call him out. Maybe there wasn’t sufficient reason to suspect that Rodgers had just lied to them. In retrospect, that was a huge mistake.

Fast forward to last week, when Rodgers tested positive for COVID-19. We discovered that “I’m immunized” was intended to camouflage the truth that he wasn’t vaccinated. Instead, he’d taken Ivermectin, a medication that isn’t an FDA-sanctioned COVID-19 vaccine and is typically used to de-worm livestock. The bottom line is that he lied when he said he was “immunized.” The truth is that he was neither “immunized” nor vaccinated. Nevertheless, he believed that he was somehow above the NFL’s rules to protect everyone connected with the league.

Then, instead of admitting that he lied, he went off about how he wasn’t going to allow himself to become a victim of a “woke mob.” He spoke of how he believes in bodily autonomy as if that had somehow ever been in question.

It wasn’t, because “bodily autonomy” was never the issue. What WAS in question was his dishonesty and lack of integrity in thinking that the rules the NFL expected other players to adhere to somehow didn’t apply to him.

Not just “no,” but “HELL, NO!!” Aaron Rodgers doesn’t get to portray himself as the “victim” in this scenario. No one is persecuting him, nor is he in ANY sense victimized. And as for his half-assed non-apology apologia,

to anybody who felt misled by those comments I take full responsibility,

it’s utter bullshit. Nowhere in that word salad is an admission of dishonesty, an indication of remorse, or even the recognition that he did anything wrong.

Rodgers made a mistake. He lied about his vaccination status, and then, when circumstances outed him, he doubled down on his lie, blaming the “woke mob” and “cancel culture.” It was a weak and pathetic attempt to evade responsibility for his own screw-up. In the end, it just made him look…well, weak and pathetic.

Rodgers screwed up. He lied. Then he lied about lying in the first place. And then he blamed it on the “woke mob” and “cancel culture.” If he’d admitted his mistake, owned it, and- most important- apologized and shown genuine remorse, he might not be looking like such a jackass now.

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Both Kyle Rittenhouse and Aaron Rodgers are heavily invested in evading responsibility for their actions. No, Rodgers didn’t kill anyone- that we know of. However, he could easily have carried the virus and asymptomatically passed it to someone else.

So, yeah, it’s quite possible that he COULD have killed someone through being too ignorant and self-absorbed to follow the rules laid out by the NFL.

Both Rodgers and Rittenhouse deserve to face the consequences appropriate to their actions. Both should be hit hard in the court of public opinion for appealing to the Right-wing Echo Chamber and the purveyors of grievance politics to bail them out. Rodgers can rail against the “woke mob” and “cancel culture” all he wants, but what he’s facing is “consequence culture.” He deserves whatever after-effects accrue to him for his smug dishonesty and appalling lack of integrity and maturity.

As for Kyle Rittenhouse, the sooner he’s put behind bars for the rest of his life, the better. He’s fortunate the death penalty isn’t part of the conversation. The same can’t be said for Rittenhouse’s victims.

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