Tumbling Down

I guess this blog is becoming rants I wanted to post on Facebook, but changed my mind. I don't know what the right balance is between speaking my mind on issues that bother me (and talking to my friends and family has a greater chance of making an impact than random strangers), and holding my tongue, not rocking the boat, and letting people continue to like me. I really want to be liked, and I don't want to have the reputation of being the angry activist. But at the same time, I have a powerful urge to rip a few new assholes. I hate the world we live in, and I hate that its trajectory is sending us further down the tube. I want to live in a world I can feel good about, with people who I feel have my back. And I'm not getting that. Vive la revolucion.

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I'm really sorry.

I don't want to sound like a broken record who only ever spins the same song, that you're all tired of hearing (and half of you never liked in the first place). And believe me, I wouldn't do it if the situation weren't dire.

I don't enjoy politics, but it's not really something you can avoid, without burying your head in the sand. To the extent that I follow any of it, I'm non-partisan. Politics shouldn't be a sporting match, where both teams are the same, but the fans of each are mortal enemies of the fans of the other. But that's kind of what it's devolved into.

And I don't want to sound like a conspiracy theorist, either, but splitting the status quo in half to induce infighting and distract from any real progress that would threaten those at the top is a proven strategy.

I don't consider myself a liberal OR a conservative. But I'm a LOT more sympathetic to the liberal platform. Believe me, I have my complaints. But they're manageable complaints, compared to what the conservative platform is doing. Whatever their flaws may be, the liberal platform embraces diversity, justice, and freedom. Conservatives stand for judgment, conformity, and repression.

If you vote Republican, you are making the world a worse place. You're making MY life more of a struggle than it already is. It doesn't matter if you have a good heart, and good intentions. Maybe your faith in the Republican party is misguided. I'm not judging YOU. I'm judging the decision that is yours to make, whether or not to hand power to a party that is destroying our country, and making its people suffer.

I can't tell you how many times I hear about a new bill that's trying to be passed, that curtails our essential liberties in a mean-spirited way - and no surprise, it's the Republicans backing it. It's always couched in the language of "purity" and "family values" - which is Orwellian doublespeak for people who like to cut off their own children for who they can't help being.

I'm sure I'll make even more enemies for saying it's religion's fault. I don't blame the fictional character of Jesus Christ - he seemed like a pretty chill dude. He was a pacifist. He married a prostitute. He was a sage and I admire sages. But the people that follow in his footsteps couldn't be more different. I don't care about your theology, I care about the real world impact it has today.

So people live differently than you. So what? This is America. Aren't we a free country? Get your nose out of other people's business. It's not your responsibility to "save their souls". I don't understand it, because I feel like I have internalized this stereotype of the liberal platform supporting nanny state politics - but it's the conservatives who are engaging in this strategy now.

The latest in a long line of examples is Wisconsin trying to ban nudism in its state. By dropping the modifier "indecent", and not just outlawing its exposure in public, but outlawing the human body itself. What kind of nightmare dystopia are we living in? Why are conservatives trying to dictate others' lifestyle choices, and enforce the way other people raise their own kids?

It kills me. I only hope that statement doesn't become literal. Because every person that votes Republican - you are making me want to kill myself. Because I was born in the wrong world, and I'm losing patience with this one. I struggle to justify my own existence beyond a selfish desire, because I don't fit in here. I want to believe that, in a free society, I can be weird and just pursue what makes me happy. But Republicans are interfering with that every step of the way.

Liberals aren't blameless, but right now they're like the distant storm clouds (that may or may not ever break) while conservatives are the leopards eating my face. And the most insidious thing about politics is that in order to get the leopards off my face, it won't take one good Samaritan who can handle leopards. A majority of the population has to care enough about my existence to vote to get the leopards off my face. That's never going to happen. But while I sit here dying of a leopard attack, it adds insult to injury knowing that people I love are supporting the people who released the leopards in the first place.

Can you see it from my perspective?

I doubt anyone will even bother to read any of this. What's the point?