The alarming rise of open hatred in this country, especially hatred wrapped in a red, white and blue bunting, is something we should all question.
Yes, there’s a large part of America that wants to be all white. They are even afraid of their own shadows because they seem unsettling dark. They want to vilify those who are even the slightest bit different than them, preferring to view the United States as a Baskin & Robbins where only 31 flavors of vanilla is served.
Nope, not even French vanilla. That’s too far afield for this new breed of racist and hater who seems to think Donald Trump, a billionaire narcissist of the first order, is the second coming.
He is, in some respects. He is the second coming of our despicable history of racism and fear. He plays to people’s anger and fears to get support. He doesn’t inspire people; rather he brings them right down with him to a world where everyone who is not lily-white should be suspect.
Reminds me of someone else in history. Hhm. Not-see? Yes, rhymes nicely, doesn’t it? Maybe his followers will dump their hipster-hick beards and sport a nicely cropped mustache instead.
The truth is, we all discriminate in some respects. Thankfully, I escaped my home in Renton and went to a liberal arts college where I learned an awful lot. For the first time, I was able to look beyond the color of one’s skin or their sexual orientation. Color, as we all know, is determined by a single gene. It doesn’t determine the quality of our character, it doesn’t make us poor, and it doesn’t make us a terrorist.
Terrorists, by the way, come in all colors. Remember Timothy McVeigh? A lily-white hater who killed a bunch of people, including innocent children in a day care facility, all for the grins and giggles of being a white supremacist and wanting to overthrow the government.
The Don would love him. McVeigh would have been a great follower, believing that all government is intrinsically evil.
Funny how a guy who says government is so bad wants to be part of it, especially being president, for they in truth have little power. If he and his followers were really serious about making America great again, they would vote out every single member of Congress and start over. We could, arguably, do the same with state legislatures if we really want to get jiggy about change.
But to blindly follow a guy who seeks to separate us? The blind leading the blind, I suppose.
Me? I’m not perfect. I do discriminate. I discriminate against assholes and idiots. I freely admit it. If I ask you a question about something and you quote a born again preacher, FOX News, Glenn Beck or any dubious source on the Internet that carries faux news, I will discriminate against you.
I can’t help it! I have no choice but to smite your ignorant ass. Now, that’s not to say I don’t listen to other people’s opinions, stances or beliefs. I have learned a lot from the people I have come across over the years who have different beliefs than I. It’s what makes the world go round, and besides that, very interesting. If you can support your stance with actual sourced facts instead of popularized bullshit posted on Facebook, I will listen to. What’s more, I will engage in a lively debate with other facts that may run counter to yours. Perhaps we will change each other’s minds, perhaps we will find the truth lies somewhere in the middle, or maybe we will simply agree to disagree.
I am good with that. In fact, I have many friends whose political beliefs run entirely counter to mine. They probably will vote for Trump even, if they get a chance. That’s fine with me, largely because I know they are true of heart and find grains of truth in The Don’s message.
Yay! As Evelyn Beatrice Hall (or Voltaire) once said, “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”
This is a foundation of our democracy that we can disagree with each other, sometimes passionately and unapologetically, and still get along in life.
But if you’re an asshole or just plain stupid, sorry, I’m back to smiting your ass. As they say, you can fix ignorance, but you can’t fix stupid. Stupid people don’t want to learn; they don’t want to expand their base of knowledge. They are happy right where they are, come hell or high water, right or wrong.
And good for you. But don’t expect me to give you quarter. I will engage you briefly to test you to see if you’re ignorant, stupid or just an asshole. If I get some good feedback, I will engage you some more. Sometimes, I might just mind-fu** you for a while because it amuses me. Eventually though, I will lose interest and go on my way, hoping to engage in some other, more meaningful dialogue.
Now, before you get all uppity, I am not better than anyone else. I am simply more aware these days of my own shortcomings. In my younger days I could put up with stupid people and assholes because I had all the time in the world. And in this idealistic period of my life, I thought I might be able to enlighten others a bit.
But I’ve come to realize that this is simply not possible. I can’t fix you and you can’t lower my expectations or intelligence. It’s just the way the world works. We are all on our own particular journey and time being what it is, I have better things to do with it these days.
That doesn’t mean I can’t be your friend. But it does mean we will stay away from a lot of topics that I find fascinating and love to discuss with others.
I guess I should be grateful that my own fears these days aren’t terrorists or people of color. It’s that we as a nation are becoming dumber, not smarter, and that so-called smart phones are really dumb phones, because that’s what we are becoming. Knowledge and understanding take care of things that are fear based; you come to understand that we’re not all that different in this world of ours. We are all just trying to get by as best we can. I’m good with that. In fact, I’ve managed to find some peace in it.
In the Emerald City, left with my very discriminating taste,
– Robb