Local Opinion: Watch out for irony, karma and hypocrisy

Irony, karma and hypocrisy can bring richness to our existence.

Irony can just be a twist on what is expected. For example, a past CEO of Crayola was color blind. A street sign for Electric Avenue has a No Outlet sign under it. A sign outside a school said Speelling Bee Tonight. A fire station burns down. A state trooper gets a DUI and loses his license. Some ironies are more cruel. The first person to survive going over Niagara Falls in a barrel died slipping on a banana peel.

Karma is when fate deals out justice to someone who deserves the outcome they get. We all know people who have tailgated cars they think are going too slow. The lead car may be going the speed limit, but the impatient tailgater has to show his disgust by roaring around the slower car at an exaggerated speed to make an obnoxious point. A little farther down the road, the speeder is pulled over by the blinking blue lights.

We have all been guilty of hypocrisy, or doing what we criticize in others. It may be complaints about bad drivers, but bending all the traffic laws ourselves.

Some people complain about too many regulations, but are very controlling of others. Others complain about socialism. An older person once stood up in a political town hall and said that they did not want the government interfering in their health care, as they enjoyed all the benefits of Medicare, plus Social Security, fire and police protection, paid for by taxes to benefit the population.

Some complain about welfare handouts. If people prefer not to work to game the system, that is problematic, but there are huge subsidies to wealthy organizations. Chief among them are utilities, military contracting, and oil and gas companies. Billions of dollars sometimes are doled out unnecessarily and wastefully. The hypocrisy lies with complaining about something that benefits the hypocrite.

Now for some political hypocrisy.

In 2016, Donald Trump stated: “The mob takes the Fifth. If you’re innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?”

“Have you seen what’s going on with Congress? Fifth Amendment, Fifth Amendment, Fifth Amendment. Horrible.”

Trump pleaded the Fifth Amendment repeatedly in a recent deposition for the New York Attorney General. Of course, that was excusable because any investigation into him is a Witch Hunt and Fake News.

In another situation, in July 2020, Trump sent a tweet regarding protesters demonstrating against racial injustice in Portland, Oregon, and threatened prison time for them all.

“Anarchists, Agitators or Protesters who vandalize or damage our Federal Courthouse in Portland, or any Federal Buildings in any of our Cities or States, will be prosecuted under our recently re-enacted Statues & Monuments Act. MINIMUM TEN YEARS IN PRISON!”

Strangely, that did not apply to the vandalizing and damage done to the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The irony is rich and the hypocrisy deep.

For an example of staggering hypocrisy and potential karma, consider Merrick Garland. He was nominated by Barack Obama in March 2016 for a Supreme Court position, seven months before the election. Mitch McConnell decided to not give Garland a hearing. Why? 2016 was an election year.

Amy Coney Barrett, a Trump-endorsed Supreme Court candidate, was given a quick hearing in 2020, an election year, and confirmed Oct. 26, only days before the election.

That was pure hypocrisy. Garland was confirmed in a 76-23 vote to the office of U.S. Attorney General in 2021. Would it not be a large dose of karma if Garland brought down retribution upon any lawbreaking former antagonists in his new position? Life is not always fair, but that might be as close as it gets to a satisfying outcome.

Keep watching for the ironies of life and avoid hypocrisy because karma might come your way.