It definitely sucks to be a History major. We always bemoan how people don't get the big picture, trot out that famous quote, "Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it," etc. But, seriously, in this current "historical moment," you have to be REALLY dense to not see how badly this will turn out. For one thing, with the advent of social media, even history neophytes were trotting out the Hitler comparisons, warning people that this is almost exactly how it started in Germany, etc.
When Bush II was installed as President, I knew something bad would happen/that we would be "punished." While I am not a religious person, I do believe in karma, balance, what goes around comes around, etc., and I ranted and raved to anyone who would listen after the 2000 fiasco that the U.S. would "pay" - that you couldn't do something so outrageous and fucked up and WRONG and not expect to pay some kind of price. And then, not even 8 months after he was sworn in, the towers fell. Would 9/11 still have happened had Gore rightfully been the one in office? We'll never know, of course, but even beyond that, the buffoonish presidency, the devastated economy, we paid plenty for allowing Dubya the keys to the White House.
And now they could go to Trump. Yes, I say COULD. I have to hope the disaster can be averted. Because the punishment we endured under Bush will be NOTHING compared to the karmic payback for allowing into office someone so completely unfit, so grotesquely monstrous, etc. And it's laughable to hear people say, "Well,we'll just fight him every step of the way!" Please. Through Congress? Both houses now controlled by the GOP. Through the courts? Don't make me laugh. If you don't stop him now, you sure as hell won't stop him later and you're dangerously naive to think so.
People are actually trying to act like it's just another transition, that the sun still rose and we'll survive, blah blah blah. Pray tell me, what you're basing that on? What, exactly, in Trump's history makes you think he is open to being anything other than a childish, hate-filled, petty, narcissistic bully? Just TRY to imagine what would happen, as an admittedly extreme example, if ISIS or someone manages to kidnap someone from his family and beheads them on live TV? Think the Middle East won't be scorched into a nuclear wasteland that triggers all sorts of retaliatory shit and a World War III? Hell, they won't even have to kidnap a family member - they just have to make fun of him on TV.
You think that we've withstood worse in a leader? That's simply not true. By any stretch of the imagination. While Bush was a disaster, at least he had previously governed (so to speak), at least he paid lip service to some of the American ideals, at least he didn't have a history of off the hook bat-shit crazy and offensive remarks. He didn't mock the disabled. He didn't suggest people kill his opponent. Hell, even HE didn't lie as much as Trump does. He wasn't a sexual predator, who had possibly raped a 13 year old. He didn't wonder why we don't use our nuclear weapons more often. I could go on and on.
And then there are all those "normal" people who have now crawled out from under their rocks to admit they voted for Trump and are now posting smug, condescending crap about how the "liberals" don't get it, and why don't you try "listening" to Trump's supporters to "understand"? Are you serious? I HAVE been listening to them for the past year. Listening to them say stuff like "Kill the nigger!" And "Jail that cunt!" And yes, I know that's not ALL of his supporters, but the guy encouraged that kind of behavior; he enabled it. And YOUR vote for him validated it. And when you try and bullshit me and others by saying, "Well, I voted for him for small government and Christian values, etc." then that only shows how very deluded you are.
Any cursory examination of historical economic trends under Republican vs. Democratic presidencies proves the economy does better under the Democrats. And you voted for Trump for family/Christian values? Are you fucking KIDDING me? He is an admitted sexual predator. He spews hate, intolerance, etc. like it's nobody's business. So yeah, I've listened to him, and I've listened to his supporters, and you're full of shit, plain and simple. At the very least, you are dangerously incapable of any critical thinking whatsoever.
Want a glimpse of American under Trump? Here's just a FEW of the things that have already happened since the election:
- Scrawled in NC: "Black Lives Don't Matter - and Neither Do Your Votes"
- He's vetting cabinet members who called Hillary a cunt in public
- A Wal-Mart customer yanked the hajib off a young woman and said it's no longer allowed and she should go hang herself with it
- "Kill Obama!" was yelled at a Trump post election rally and on one was phased.
- Black students were attacked and beaten on the way to school while their attackers yelled "Trump won, you niggers!"
- At Texas State University, pro Trump "tar and feather" vigilantes are forming to punish people who promote diversity
- A black girl getting on a bus was told after the election "Shouldn't you be sitting in the back now?"
Yeah, let's listen to the other side. This is just a sampling, and will only get worse. So spare me your kumbaya and get over it crap. Spare me your outrageous false equivalency bullshit about how now we know how you felt when Obama won.
And spare me to all the people opiated by the oligarchy into saying "Well, we'll just have to be vigilant and work hard during the next four years. Look who's on The Voice Tonight! Go Raiders!" Fuck that. Get out in the streets. Stop this from happening. I know it's easy for me to say from thousands of miles away, but by god I'd be out there if I were in the states now.
And I WILL be home around Dec. 22nd and looking to do whatever I can to stop this. Because, again, as a History major, I know this will end VERY badly if we don't stop it now. And it won't be any fun to say "I told you" if/when most everyone we know/love is in a camp or dead. :(
In closing, I'll share this thing making the rounds and which you may have already seen:
If you voted for Donald Trump, MAYBE you aren't a racist or homophobic or anti-woman. But there is a reason people throw that at you, and it has little to do with anything you personally did to them.
It is because your vote empowered those who will attack them.
When you voted for Trump, you validated and empowered the great many who have rallied around him through racial or gendered hate. Your vote gave them the power to erupt into public manifestations of their racial or anti-LGBTQ violence, and we see hundreds of stories from just the last two days.
Beatings of gay men, high school kids shouting racist slurs at their black and Hispanic classmates, and the assault of Muslim women for wearing an hijab.
These are all happening with startling frequency.
The reason why you are called a racist isn't because you did those things. It is because you decided, in your vote, that those things are okay. You decided this hate was more acceptable than emails. That you were willing to allow these racist attacks so you could get a tax cut. That this was acceptable so you could get a better job a few extra bucks (which is NOT going to happen, BTW). That demanding change in Washington is worth the safety of millions of Americans who don't look like you.
You are being called a racist and homophobic because your vote prioritized your pocketbook over their safety. And they don't mean to say you are the same as those who are doing it. They are saying that you have chosen to silently accept it rather than to do something about it.
"Now, we must all fear evil men. But there is another kind of evil which we must fear most, and that is the indifference of good men"... The problem you face is that, right now, you are the indifferent. And that is evil in itself.
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