Exhaling Out the Last Four Years

I feel lighter than I have in…four years. And I’m trying to be ready to just dismiss all the conspiracy theorist, Cult 45 nutbags, and stop allowing them to bait me, to stop trying engage them with logic they clearly don’t care about. Because for the next four years at least, I no longer HAVE to acknowledge them. They can scream their displeasure into the void for all I care. That said…

I keep seeing comments and posts from conservatives, Trumpers specifically, talking about all the awful hateful things they hope for Biden voters now, how they hope we lose our pensions or our homes, or whatever, now that Biden’s in office. These are the same people that expected us to accept Trump as president. They spent four years calling us snowflakes, libtards, and saying fuck our feelings. But as shortly as a few days, ago after the attack at the Capitol, many of them were calling for unity, and yet now I’ve already seen the phrase “not my president” in regards to Biden. The thing about Biden is, you don’t have to like him, but he’s not going to waste 4 years of his presidency trying to only help himself, trying to rile up his base, or pad his pockets and the pockets of his lobbyist friends. Biden’s going to implement programs that are going to benefit the environment, education, international policy, and everybody, Democrat and Republican alike, and try to undo some of the damage Trump has done to our country and its reputation in the world stage. But the fact that there is so many supposedly grown ass self-proclaimed Christian adults walking around telling people that they wish bad things for them is disgusting, and it’s ubiquitous. I’ll admit, I initially felt that way when Trump got elected. I was angry, but NOT because he was a Republican. It was his character, or lack thereof, because I knew what it would mean for the US, specifically minorities, if he got elected. And here four years later we’re ALL reaping what Trump voters sowed.

But honestly, I’m just glad that he’s finally gone, and I want all of us to move forward and benefit from Biden’s tenure. The worst part is no matter what good Biden does in office, these people will never see it, because they’ve never been capable of admitting the damage that Trump did. You know what I wish? Now the only people I wish to suffer for what happened the last four years are Trump and his predatory enablers in Congress. And what I want for them is ACCOUNTABILITY with the law, in full view of the public. I want accountability for the media that fed lies that encouraged and resulted in the capital insurrection. Finally I suggest if you have any friends that are saying hateful things like this that you reevaluate your friendship with them, because clearly they’re bitter and mean spirited. It’s highly probable that after they cool off in a few weeks or months they might go back to being the semi-normal people you thought you knew and they’ll try to downplay their role in this divisiveness. I can’t speak for you but while I won’t say I wish them hardship, I sure as shit am not going to forget how they acted, and what they allowed to happen.

*Edit: I have nothing but respect for people who can grow and learn and realize when they’ve made a mistake. For anybody looking to leave hate and extremism behind, here’s a resource a friend shared with me.

https://www.lifeafterhate.org/exitusa

Victims, aren’t we all? a/k/a “Why-are-you-so-mean-to-us-We’re-entitled-to-our opinions!”

Trump supporters for real need to stop acting like they are the victims of their own CHOICE to support an awful human being.

“No one wants to date us! Waaaaahhhh”

“We get dirty looks for wearing our red hats in public…waahhhhh!” (originally a typo had that saying “red hates,” instead of hats, and maybe I should have left it because it was ALSO accurate.)

“Liberals are so judgmental! Waaaaaahhh!”

“No one wants to be our friend! Waaaah”

In essence, the people who coined the term “snowflake” are, not surprisingly, the worst snowflakes of all.  They want, demand, their “freedom” to refuse service to gays, refuse help to refugees, force prayer in schools, deny certain healthcare to women, and the list goes on.  But then, when people don’t want to associate with them, because these things, these “opinions,” are abhorrent to us, they cry about how judgmental liberals are.

Here’s another common claim that gets bandied about:

Because they believe they have the right to vote YOUR rights away and still call you “friend.”  After all, they are “entitled” to their opinion.

But thankfully, there are plenty of people with common sense who realize, yes, you ARE entitled to your opinion…and we’re entitled to think your opinion makes you look like an asshole. Now reap the consequences. And they fixed the meme for us.

Before I go, because this could get extensive if I let it, let me just say one more thing.  Before the rise of Trumpism, never have I EVER cut ties with someone over who they voted for.  I hated Mitt Romney (who would have guessed he’d be the only Republican with sack enough to vote FOR conviction in Trumps’s impeachment, and I’m sure he had his reasons,) but I never argued with friends or family who voted for him.  I never “unfriended” Bush supporters.  But this is NOT politics as usual.  This is hate and lies allowed to permeate our daily existence.  Support of Trump IS support of belligerent defense of ignorance and hate, of bullying, of corruption and obstruction, and deliberate attempts to grind minorities under a white jack boot.  And if you support that, I don’t support you.  IF that hurts your feelings, own it.  You chose it, and by refusing to speak out for what’s right, you choose it every day.  Don’t give me some bullshit about Obama or Hillary.  Nothing excuses what is happening now.  Whether you are full on drinking the kool-aid and support racist policies and OBVIOUS, pathological lying, or are simply okay with these things “because the economy,” own your choice and own its consequences. 

To break it down as simply as I know how, if you supported a President Puppy Kicker, liberals would be perfectly within our rights to say, “That’s fucked up.  Go play in traffic,” and probably no one would bat an eye. But refugees and the poor are accorded less grace by Trumpers than furry animals, so there’s that.  I wonder now though if Trump claimed to kick puppies, how many of his supporters would say “But the economy is so ‘good’ and it serves the puppy right for coming here anyhow.”

Stop deluding yourself that he cares about farmers, the working class, the veterans. He doesn’t.  Because even IF Trump were boosting the economy, (and when all things are considered, he is most definitely not helping anyone but the already rich and powerful, while his supporters cheer him on like THEY won the lottery) NOTHING excuses how he behaves.   And NOTHING excuses lying, cheating, and stealing, and hurting others to get what you want. I thought that was something all our parents taught us as children.  I’ll even bet most of us teach THEIR kids this, (Republicans included, while voting out the other side of their mouths.) It’s a shame so many people have chosen to forget.

But some of us remember, and if we don’t want to be your friend because you don’t, go cry to someone else.  And die mad about it.

 

Tuesday afternoon rant

Every day Facebook reminds me what a depressing place this country is becoming lately.  New bullshit every day.

And yet in the comments sections of practically any political post (and plenty of non-political posts too) remarks from the ignorant, the deluded, the angry, and the downright degenerate faction of the country, that portion that is disproportionately vocal to the sane people, but (hopefully) isn’t as big as it seems. (It’s still big enough to make me depressed there are this many assholes in the world.) So pretty much, the more stuff changes, the more it stays the same.
Today’s rant is brought to you by the “It  has nothing to do with race; Obama was an awful president/Trump is a way better President” comment crew.

Lyin’ ass motherfuckers … Which policies of Obama’s specifically didn’t you like? Was it how he wanted everyone to have healthcare and take care of the earth? Gee, what a dick *eye roll*.  Lemme guess. That’s code for  you were mad caring about others and the environment might cost you more? *bigger eyeroll* And now that Trump is President you claim the rest of us should “accept” it and respect the office.  *eyes roll out of head and down the street*

First of all, the right bitched and moaned the ENTIRE time Obama was president. You didn’t accept or respect him. There were plenty of the n-word and lynching references being thrown around, cries to impeach, and it’s on record how McTurtle (McConnell) filibustered Obama’s supreme court nominee. So stop being fucking hypocrites. Secondly, Obama was a LAW SCHOLAR. Trump is a FAILED business man. Obama was articulate, impartial, and smart. Even tempered. Social minded. Just because he gave attention to the racial divide in America doesn’t mean he was putting down white people . Trump is reactionary, immature, petty, ignorant of policy, and (it seems) half illiterate. And Trump has been named (literally tagged in graffiti) and referenced in various incidences of racial hatred since his election. He has emboldened race hate. His lies can be directly fact checked (and HAVE been. He is reported to have already uttered over 3000 lies since his campaign, Maybe since Fox didn’t report it you all missed it.) You are fully entitled not to like Obama, but don’t even try to pretend Trump can hold a candle to him. Don’t pretend he isn’t a dumpster fire set on catching fire to everything around him if it gets him more money or power. Don’t pretend Trump cares about you. If you believe that, you’re a bigger fool than you sound (and you sound plenty foolish when you say dumb shit like this). And we are just as entitled to NOT like Trump because of the way HE runs this country, (we can actually cite specific examples and their fallout too, unlike most of you when you complain about Obama) which is quickly turning into a cesspool that feeds on and is a monument to Evangelical white male fragility.

I understand SOME of you are too proud to renege or backpedal (although best believe backpedaling is one of the things Trump does best.) I understand you would hate to have been “wrong” or admit that the man you backed so loudly and proudly is a charlatan. But do the rest of us a favor, if you insist on dying on this battle field, take that “Trump is a way better President than Obama was” shit and tell it to one of your fellow Trumpers. They are the ONLY people who believe it. The rest of us, (including and not limited to people watching from other countries) are sick of your denial, sick of your bullshit, sick of your President, and frankly no longer have the energy to argue abject reality with people who choose to remain deliberately ignorant.  But thank you all for having the courage to band together and vote your heart, even if it is simply to fuck up an entire half century of social progress.

Conspiracy Theory Monday, or: How the Gov’t Actually Controls Us

Whelp, the gun control debate is open and heated again in the wake of yet ANOTHER school shooting.  There have actually been MANY shootings since the last time I wrote about all the shootings, but let’s just set that aside for a moment.

In response to one of my FB posts about this most recent spate of shootings and the ensuing discussions of whether to blame guns, mental illness, or violent video games *eye roll*, I received the below “comment.” Not only did it have little or nothing to do with my original post, but there it was, so obviously copied and pasted, all by itself, as if it was somehow a valid rebuttal to anything I said.

A LITTLE GUN HISTORY

In 1929, the Soviet Union established gun control. From 1929 to 1953, about 20 million dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.

In 1911, Turkey established gun control. From 1915 to 1917, 1.5 million Armenians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.

Germany established gun control in 1938 and from 1939 to 1945, a total of 13 million Jews and others who were unable to defend themselves were rounded up and exterminated.

China established gun control in 1935. From 1948 to 1952, 20 million political dissidents, unable to defend themselves were rounded up and exterminated.

Guatemala established gun control in 1964. From 1964 to 1981, 100,000 Mayan Indians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.

Uganda established gun control in 1970. From 1971 to 1979, 300,000 Christians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.

Cambodia established gun control in 1956. From 1975 to 1977, one million educated people, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.

56 million defenseless people rounded up and exterminated in the 20th Century because of gun control:

You won’t see this data on the US evening news, or hear politicians disseminating this information.

Guns in the hands of honest citizens save lives and property and, yes, gun-control laws adversely affect only the law-abiding citizens.

Take note my fellow Americans, before it’s too late!

The next time someone talks in favor of gun control, please remind them of this history lesson.

With guns, we are “citizens”. Without them, we are “subjects”.

During WWII the Japanese decided not to invade America because they knew most Americans were ARMED!

If you value your freedom, please spread this antigun-control message to all of your friends.

SWITZERLAND ISSUES EVERY HOUSEHOLD A GUN!
SWITZERLAND’S GOVERNMENT TRAINS EVERY ADULT THEY ISSUE A RIFLE.
SWITZERLAND HAS THE LOWEST GUN RELATED CRIME RATE OF ANY CIVILIZED COUNTRY IN THE WORLD!!!
IT’S A NO BRAINER!
DON’T LET OUR GOVERNMENT WASTE MILLIONS OF OUR TAX DOLLARS IN AN EFFORT TO MAKE ALL LAW ABIDING CITIZENS AN EASY TARGET.

Spread the word everywhere you can that you are a firm believer in the 2nd Amendment!

It’s time to speak loud before they try to silence and disarm us.

You’re not imagining it, history shows that governments always manipulate tragedies to attempt to disarm the people.

Now this piece of…fluff…has been making the rounds since the nineties, and it is little more than scaremongering on the part of gun nuts, who have been convinced for YEARS that Obama and Democrats and whoever else want to “take their guns.”  Never mind it hasn’t happened yet.  This bit of specifically harvested, cherry picked factoids with little to no historical context is still circulating, with people citing it as proof that the government is set on taking over.  Sounds paranoid, right?  There’s more of that around than you think.  I live in a rural area that is fairly, by the standards of where I USED to live, safe…but you have never met a more paranoid population, clutching tightly to the idea of their guns as some safety totem… because you never know when someone might break into your trailer.   I’m not saying it can’t happen, but these people would surely die of fright if they had to spend a week in Baltimore, or even drive on 695 is all I’m sayin’.  Most of them do not know danger with any regularity.
But anyway, let’s take a closer look at the main theme of the piece, even though its individual elements have already been addressed and largely put into context (thanks SNOPES, you save me time typing.)
Basically, in periods of social or economic instability, this is when a country is most susceptible to the rise of a dictator.  Hitler’s ascension to power in Germany was a prime example.

Meanwhile, we have President Cheeto-dick in office wreaking absolute havoc on all manner of common sense regs on the environment, healthcare, gun regs, basically anything he lay his grubby hands to, especially if it undoes an Obama-era policy.  This is a DISASTER…and yet, his supporters not only still refuse to see it, they call the rest of us delusional.  (A fine example of the Dunning Kruger effect if ever I’ve seen one.)  Did we have racial tensions before? Of course, but Trump has seemed to take savage glee in stirring them all up and pandering to the ever-growing and more vocal streak of white nationalism in this country, as well as to the judgy Evangelical set who are bent on writing laws for all of us.  In effect, we have started going backwards in social progress.

It may sound like I am just ripping on Trump…and I also have a point, so bear with me…

The US government is NOT worried about a bunch of militant nationalists or red necks with guns and their “militia.”  Okay?  Let me repeat it.  They are not afraid of US citizens and their guns. IF they wanted to “take over”, they could just lay tanks or bombs on us.  They actually have…a well-regulated army.
No, if the government, or certain PEOPLE in the government wanted to take control, they’d do it the way it is happening now.  What we have in office is a literal recipe for disaster …and it seems to be working.  So here it is, ARQ’s take on the:

The Trump admin recipe for Takeover:

Start with struggling middle class and add one part old-angry white guy who can’t say the n-word anymore.

Stir in a heaping cup of militant patriotism  and a few dashes of irrational misplaced anger at kneeling football players.

Shake that shit up!

Next, take away health care access and any federal aid that  “those lazy bums” might be using to, you know, eat and stuff. Take away money from middle class, (in the form of sneaky new tax laws) but don’t forget to tell the middle class the poor people are using their money.

Sprinkle in some self-righteous gay hate and unrealistic fear of “being persecuted” for being Christian, (all while claiming this is a Christian country.)

And finally, remove regs barring mentally ill people from obtaining “legal” firearms.

Now, add heat and agitate the fuck out of it, then watch it explode, like a lit pipe in like a meth lab.

Then swoop in and heroically pick of the pieces, writing any policy you want because people are too shell shocked to fight you.

The End…

no, really.  It will prob be the end of the “United” States as we know it.

Sound paranoid? Any more paranoid than thinking our government is bent on taking our guns so they can commit genocide?  Doubt it.  After all, how would they make money off of us if we were dead?

“Divisive” Politics

I have a lot to say.  Well, I have a lot on my mind, especially with this latest revelation, bringing us one step closer to imminent Trump-ocalypse; a leaked audio of a deeply disturbing variety.

Just as expected, Trumps supporters are falling all over themselves trying to soft-peddle and down play what essentially amounts to Trump caught on a live mic bragging about using his social position to sexually assault women with ease and impunity.

Frankly it’s astonishing the number of people dumb enough to equate forcible sexual assault with someone’s chosen participation in leisurely kink or porn consumption.  You are making the rest of us more stupid simply by breathing our air. Go away.

It’s like I said to someone earlier today, I don’t even know how to relate to some of these people anymore.   Like, I am not trying to be a dick, but when, in the face of behavior like this, people are still making excuses, still defending this “candidate,” still insisting Hillary is “just as bad,” I just don’t know how their inner logic works.  So instead of going into all of that, trying to lay out arguments and reason with these people and understand them, I’ll just get straight to the point.

People talk about how “divisive” this election is, how divisive bipartisan politics have become, as if it’s some great conspiracy to “distract us from more important things.“

First of all, it will always BE divisive, so long as you have a group who feel that their “traditional family values” and religion should dictate legislation for EVERYONE. When you attack people on a fundamental level for who they are and threaten their identity and bodily autonomy  by forcing them to live by your “values”, it makes for “divisive” politics.  When you have a group that uses legislation to attack minorities and queer folk, penalize immigrants, citizens, atheists, Muslims, control  woman’s bodies in regards to reproductive decisions (or any decision), you are creating a very antagonistic and divisive situation.  You are attacking people’s fundamental state of being.

Now, you have a Trump, a man who has taken all of these divisive sentiments and magnified them. He disdains blacks, he disdains Mexicans, he disdains immigrants, he disdains (and abuses) women. And he’s making campaign promised based on these divisive ideas.  He is unashamed to say it! He is actually galvanizing all of the hateful people in this country, making them less afraid to be loud, self-righteous bigots .

What defense will the rest of us have from discrimination and injustice and hate if the person in our nation’s highest office can say these things with impunity?

So, yeah, this election is “divisive.”  It’s divisive as shit, and the more people who try to close their eyes and ears to the hate being heaped on the rest of us, the more divisive it’s gonna be.

The Privilege of Selfishness

Sitting safely behind your computer screen, pissed about someone sitting for an anthem, while simultaneously supporting the vote to block refugees from other countries who are just trying to escape terrorists and war…

The epitome of American and white privilege.

The other day a friend posted about an alleged Bureau of Land Management decision to slaughter over 65000 wild horses to make more room for cattle. Whether or not this is true, what struck a nerve for me (that is putting it waaaaay lightly) was the person who commented on the post bitching about how our government should be spending money to save those horses “instead of the Muslim scumbags” coming over from Syria, because the horses “actually deserve it.”

Let that sink in for a moment.

America, a “proud Christian nation.”  Does the previous comment sound like something you’d want to be associated with as an American?  Does it sound very “Christian?”  Disgusting, is what it is.  I love animals, I do, but clearly this person’s love for animals is not as strong as their hate for other people.

How very progressive…Nope. No problem here.

Bear with me, because I am coming back around to Koepernick.  You may not like how he protested, but it’s his right as an American and he isn’t hurting anyone.  I wish the same Americans pissed about a man sitting during a frickin’ song, signing petitions to get the player kicked off the team, put half as much energy into speaking out against the George Zimmermans and the Brock Turners of this nation.  Maybe some of them do, but for most of them, I doubt it.  And the rest of us who can see past our own fucking noses can’t even speak out against the Zimmermans and Turners for you without having to hear all the apologist ( and at its core, racist/sexist ) victim blaming and being called “libtards” or some other equally uninspired epithet.  The bottom line is Americans are becoming selfish (or maybe they are just more vocal about being selfish now that they have that great orange baboon’s ass for a mascot.)

photo source Union Thugs

You may not like how Koepernick protested, and that’s your right… but it’s his right, as an American, to do it, and he isn’t hurting anyone.  Unlike Brock Turner or George Zimmerman.

I suggest you people (you know who the fuck you are, because even you don’t believe your pseudo-patriotism, deep down) get your priorities straight and get your fucking head on straight.   People need to stop acting like America is the only civilized nation, the only “great” nation, because to others outside looking in, we look like a bunch of gun-toting bullies.

I’m not gonna lie.  I love the idea of America, what it represents, but right now, we are moving farther away from that ideal, not closer, and it’s only when we defend the rights of those fundamentally different from us that we realize that ideal.

Related Links:
The American Reality Vs. The American Ideal

 

*As always, please feel free to comment, but please peep the comment policy. 😉

 

 

Why Trump is not “The Lesser Evil”

To people who consider Trump “the lesser of two evils…”

Let me say this passage was initally written in response to a friend’s “reasons” for supporting Trump over Hillary.  Some of the statements address remarks that she made specifically, so, I may paraphrase some of my friend’s remarks to provide context, but I feel like even without specific context, my reactions are applicable to common reasons you hear Trump supporters express.

Here goes…

I understand you don’t trust Hillary.  I don’t 100% trust her myself.  She’s a politician, for one, and sometimes she seems sneaky.  But that said, I don’t see how Trump is the “lesser of the two evils” by any stretch of the imagination.

It just seems like Democrats want to railroad Trump, but forget every single one of Hillary’s transgressions for the last 40 years.

I think this is a gross generalization born of emotion, not fact. Democrats don’t need to railroad Trump because to us, he does a fine job himself.  Every time he opens his mouth, he betrays his bigotry, playing to other people’s hatred.

Well, what about Saul Alinsky, the child rapist that she laughed about getting off because she made the girl question her own story?  That girl was 12!

You talk about Hillary “laughing” about a man getting away with a pedophilic crime, yet you’re willing to support a man who likely commited one ? It makes no sense. At any rate, that statement is not strictly factual either. Hillary defended him, because that’s what a defense attorney’s JOB is. She did not volunteer to be the his lawyer, she was appointed. Even if she made a plea or helped get him acquitted, I doubt she found anything funny about it. She didn’t try to smear the victim, but again, as a lawyer, it is her job to question the veracity of the accuser.  Yet Republicans are willing to believe this portrait of her as a soulless advocate for a pedophile just to justify voting Trump, who may actually BE a pedophile, and has had more than one allegation of sexual assault.

What about when she called black men “Superpredators?”

The black “superpredator” thing is funny to me because it’s something Republicans seize on while simultaneously defending and making excuses for officers like the ones who murdered Alton Sterling.  Even people who claim not to be racist make apologist remarks, saying that if these black men didn’t “live the life they do” or they “weren’t criminals” they wouldn’t be dead.

Also, this statement, that was like 20 years ago. Is a person not allowed to grow in 20 years? I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt, I am not the person I was in my 20’s. I was a lot more Conservative in my 20’s.  In fact, I used to be one of the those apologists. I didn’t know better. I certainly do now.

Well, what about taking money while Secretary of State for the Clinton foundation, from countries that kill gays and Christians and oppress women and then doing favors for them?

Firstly, all of a sudden, Republicans, as a party, care about gays? This is news to me.  I guess they care more when they are using them as an excuse to justify hating Hillary, than when they are trying to keep them from getting married or eating in restaurants run by Christian people.  And women.  They care about women?  The same women whose healthcare they don’t want to pay for and whose bodies they think they have the right to legislate?  Trump actually mentioned how women who get illegal abortions should be punished.  I know on the surface, it seems benign enough.  You break a law, you get punished.  Only to me it’s more akin to saving a person who attempts to commit suicide only to charge them for the “crime.”  Now you have people who continue to attempt to strip Planned Parenthood, to take away many preventative options for health and unwanted pregnancy  (options they may not personally need, so they assume no one should need them,) and then take away options for dealing with said unwanted pregnancy, all the while bitching about “supporting poor welfare bums with too many kids.”  Well, fuck those people very much.

Additionally, I wonder how many abortions Trump has personally paid for over the course of his life and how many illegitimate Trump spawn are running around out there.  Just speculating…

As to the favors to these “gay and women hating” countries, do you honestly think Hillary is the only politician that makes deals with the devil? Shit, Reagan helped fund the Taliban! Every single one of them make questionable deals, often based more on economic reasons than moral ones . Every.  One.   And Trump would be no different.

In fact he’d proabbly be worse. For me the bottom line is that Trump is inciting more violence and race hate (something the Republicans accuse Obama of again and again,) all the while voting in policies that uphold social race and sex disparities.  Some people think Trump will be good for the country because he’ll “run it like a business.” Trump is not even a good businessman, so if he ran the country like he runs his businesses, we’ll be in the toilet in short order. Nevermind the fact that a fundamental point to remember about business is that most businesses do not really care about their employees, they care about the bottom dollar. If America is run like a true business, most of us middle and low class scum (speaking of things candidates said a long time ago) are expendable assets.

I say all this as respectfully as possible, but regardless of how you feel about Hillary’s classified documents issue, the government is not pressing charges. In the case of the alleged rape of the minor (Trump), the statute of limitations for criminal charges is passed, but child rape is a crime of morality I can not overlook. If it’s a choice between a hate preaching pedo and someone who was  wreckless with classified documents , I’ll take the second. Every time.

Readers, please feel free to comment respectfully.  Trolling (especially by Conservatives :p) will not be tolerated.

See the below article for all sorts of other facts and shit…

Related Articles: (edit: added 9/17) 
The Moron’s Case For Hillary Clinton…because some of you really are that stupid.

The Bern VS Corporate Socialism

omg yasss…

Can we please start putting the blame where it belongs? Most of the poor aren’t lazy welfare bums. Being poor isn’t fun, and if some poor people “game” the system, it’s because you have to be SO poor to qualify for help that if you make a tiny bit “too much” money or you work a few extra hours to get ahead, you are actually penalized for it by losing benefits, thus you can actually still be too poor to live properly but “not poor enough” to get any help.

 

Being barely above poverty level ourselves, I can say I am extremely grateful for the Medicaid expansion under Obamacare (sorry if that pisses off some people). The poor are not the problem. The problem is not “liberals and socialists.” The problem is that the capitalism (the “innovation that made America great?”) Ayn Rand wrote about is now out of control in this country.  The American Dream is defunct.  Big businesses, including drug companies and insurance companies, charge insane markups on necessary commodities and the rest of us have no choice but to pay them or go into hock trying.  People die for not being able to afford proper healthcare.

The American Dream is a national ethos of the United States, the set of ideals (Democracy, Rights, Liberty, Opportunity, and Equality) in which freedom includes the opportunity for prosperity and success, and an upward social mobility for the family and children, achieved through hard work in a society with few barriers. In the definition of the American Dream by James Truslow Adamsin 1931, “life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement” regardless of social class or circumstances of birth.  (source)

It’s cute that some people still believe this is possible for everyone.  In my personal experience, it’s the put-upon white “middle class” that are the worst about this.   They aren’t rich enough to live in comfortable denial like the 1%, but they have had just enough white privilege in their lives (which they almost never acknowledge as such) to not be aware how hard it is for other people.  The crux of the issue is the last phrase… “regardless of social class or circumstances of birth.”
I say this in full realization that I, myself, was born into a white middle class.  All my life I had the idea of go to college—> get good job—> live comfortably pounded into my head.   I used to also believe that welfare was for lazy bums and Ebony magazine was “racist.”

And then I had all the self-righteousness of my twenties knocked out of me when my husband and I lost just about everything in 2009.  At the time, I had a double BS…and couldn’t find anyone willing to pay me more than eight dollars an hour, even for work related to my hard-earned degrees.  I was bouncing back and forth between waitressing jobs, but my husband was working, making great money, at a powerplant.  And then it all imploded.
I know how fast it can happen, and it can and does happen to people who work hard, “climb the social ladder,” and then get jackbooted off the ladder by some higher-up who wants to hire a newbie they can mold for half the salary.  A friend once asked me, why shouldn’t an employer want to pay someone less to do the same job?  It makes fiscal sense for their business.  Maybe it does, but that basically means also acknowledging that company loyalty and “working your way up” mean nothing, and loyalty to employees is often non-existant.

In many ways, we are moving backwards in this country.  The very unapologetic racism of Donald Trump, an actual “serious” candidate for our nation’s highest office, is evidence of that.  He has given back the voice to the bigots of this country.  Now they are still bigots, but unapologetically so, and they call the rest of us “bleeding heart liberals” and the like.  They don’t even feel the need to hide their hate anymore.  They don’t care about the poor, refugees, minorities, or anyone else that affect their bottom line or would require they no longer have the social upper-hand in this country.  Frankly, it’s embarrassing.

Anyway, I’m almost sure some angry right winger will stumble across this and want to argue, tell me I know nothing, decry my “silly liberaism.”  I really no longer care what these people have to say.  I am sick of the “whataboutme?” attitude in this country.  I am sick of the mean-spiritedness and lack of compassion and empathy.   This is me venting about it.  Please feel free to comment, just don’t expect a reply.  I haven’t the energy to argue today.  Rather, I guess now that this is out of my system, I have better things to do.

Peace.

See? We already ARE socialists…just not the right kind.