It has to stop

Been quiet these days. I have had a lot to say, but you know how it is, out here beating the bush, trying to make it in a world that has gone to shyte. But I do want to talk about some things, and honestly, I am at the point where I am losing the ability to even care.

In the last several months I have noticed many different trends, and honestly, they are all pretty lousy. I have seen liberals fighting among each other, I see one group pointing the finger of blame that Clinton lost, while I see the other group saying if you are still supporting the Democratic Party, you aren't a real liberal. For what it is worth, you can still be a liberal, and fight for the Democratic Party. You can fight to get it out of the centrist neoliberal mindset it is in. You can support Democratic candidates in their efforts, as long as they support real liberal values and ideals. We all should, because a third party, a viable third party is not going to come around anytime soon, Americans just do not have the strength of will to pull it off at this time.

I see people screaming “Trump is not my president!” Sadly, he will be. You didn't vote for him, I didn't vote for him, 2.8 million more people voted against him, than voted for him. But at a state level, it was not meant to be, he won. As we all know, to the victor go the spoils, and he was the victor. He is going to be our president, and every day that we say “Nope, not my president,” is just another day that we play into the hands of those who seek to continue the status quo, we have to acknowledge he is our president, and then fight him and those who we see as the enemy.

We need to take the higher road. We cannot continue to insult each other, or others who do not agree with us. It is only going to hurt advancement. Rather than make the case for our causes, we are only going to drive people away, by insulting or chiding people. We are supposed to be better than that, yet here we stand, if you didn't support Clinton, you are now the enemy. Millennials, yeah, you are the problem, you are lazy. Some liberals are taking a page out of the conservative playbook. Really step back and look at what you are doing, same goes for you progressives who are talking down to other liberals. We are burning each other to the ground, and rather than change things for the better for all people in the world, we are making it easier to burn the world to the ground.

On a side note, there was a story that appeared earlier in the week about Trump, some prostitutes, urination, and blackmail. Now, I know a lot of people who ran with that story, with no real proof. It is no different than running with the stories that got us into Iraq, it is not different than the willful saber rattling towards Russia, or any other high profile event that led us into war (here's looking at the Gulf of Tonkin event). Liberals and Progressives are the people of cold hard facts, of proof, or we were. The proof is in the pudding, the evidence laid bare for all the world to see. We act on said evidence, we don't speculate, and if we do, we give our opinion on it, but also acknowledge that we don't have all the facts, and that we are reserving judgment until all the facts are in. We allow those others to make fools out of themselves by repeating the same tired lies and misinformation, while we debunk it. We are now running wild with it all.

The sad thing is, it shows just how far we have all fallen in this world. It is a symptom of the way things are. I am sure that we all sit back and look, we wonder why we are acting this way, yet we seem to be unable to stop ourselves. We continue to attack each other because we are angry, yet we are angry at the wrong people. Rather than step back and listen, something that never happened in the primaries, we cordoned ourselves off from dissenting voices, safe in our little safe zone bubbles. Progressives retreated to mostly progressive groups, Clinton supporters to their mostly pro-Clinton groups, Trump supporters with Trump supporters. When someone disagrees, regardless of the facts or points they mention, we jump on them, we brow beat them, and we insult them. I can only shake my head.

Look, as far as many people are concerned the DNC tarnished its reputation. The fact is, they have every right to believe it. As far as I can tell, there were shenanigans during the primaries, there were things that happened that should not have happened. When these shenanigans were brought to light, the DNC deflected and denied. The head of the DNC resigned directly before the convention over these things. The DNC was sued over it, and their response was “So what?” If it was untrue, I would think they would have sought to fight these rumors, not ignore them. If they are true, which I believe they are, why try and ignore it. While I believe that silence is not always compliance, I believe it gives the appearance of compliance. By ignoring it, the DNC admitted it was true, it did not simply go away. They made a huge blunder, in a no win situation, that they created.

So here we sit today, just a week before Trump officially becomes president. With this golden shower bit, which is rumored to have been started by an alt-right group, we have lost credibility, because people ran with it before the facts were truly known. Now, when Trump really does something, we are going to have a more difficult time fingering him for it. God knows that these next four years are going to be full of things to bust him on. But now, its going to be more difficult, because we allowed our disdain to rule us. We took another hit to credibility, when we pride ourselves on being credibile. We have made it easier for people to label “fake news,” in a time when all politicians are railing against “fake news.” We have essentially given more reason to continue to strip our rights away. At this point, Trump pointed at CNN, no bastion for solid news these days, and he fingered them as a “fake news” organization, then refused to answer any questions they had for him. Now we are stuck, if he doesn't like the way an organization reports on him, he tags the label fake news, and then he won't deal with them.

So, four years of potential material to use against conservative politicians will be largely ignored. Now, I am off, I need to find some money. And no, it wouldn't be any better if Clinton was going to become our president. If anything, it would be more of the same.