Agent of Change

What I am thinking about today: 10/23

What I am thinking about today:

For the longest time, I have meditated on the question, “What do we owe each other?” This seems like a complex question, and delves to the heart of community, society, and kindness. Now, I am going to start asking, “What do I have to do for me?” Not in a selfish way, but what I do I need to do in order to hit Maslow’s highest plateau of self-actualization. It would be easy to point at time in the past when I was insanely productive, in a relationship that felt effortless, or was incredibly fulfilled by work, but those things are all transitory. It’s a mix of finding the best self-care, being productive on what I feel is important, and communal responsibility. This will keep my mind occupied more than it probably should.

I’m thinking that waking up and getting out of bed was the incorrect choice today. Not because it’s a bad day, just that I am exhausted. OK, and they have put me on yet another client at the office job, but only for a few days because they under-estimated the demand for phone reps.

A friend of someone I used to know is posting pages of books she reads with relevant passages highlighted. I think I will start doing that, as it’s a cool way to spread the ideas and prose I am reading.

I have been reading articles about how American discourse has been made angrier, and they lay the blame at the feet of Trump. I will say that Trump’s bully-boy, tough guy, lowest common denominator pandering to the worst of his base isn’t helping, but I still say that in politics, it all goes back to the end of the Fairness Doctrine in the 80’s. That ushered in an era of political talk radio that was more akin to Sports radio. This then bled into a politicized form of TV news so that other than a ridiculously few examples, cable news is just people who disagree with each other shouting and name calling. Of COURSE this would eventually become how we do politics because for over 30 years, this is how we are shown to discuss important issues about how to solve shared problems.

Much love to friends old and new, and I hope that today, you are able to put aside some time for a single moment of bliss during your hectic day.

Fight me. Fight everyone!

Trump has been quoted recently as telling people working in the White House to think of the Presidency as a TV show where they vanquish their enemies. Support him or not, you have to admit that he’s at least honest about that.  The things he has done since taking office have all been about taking things away from people.

That is why, when my right wing friends say “Is there anything Trump could do to win you over,” I think of that quote. I have come to realize that there are people I just have a fundamental disagreement with and will never EVER see the world their way.  I used to be friends with someone who said on a routine and regular basis “If we can’t be friends, we must be enemies, and I destroy my enemies.”  In my observations, as time has gone on, the number of friends diminishes and the number of enemies will constantly increase, and the only person who gets destroyed is the person sowing enemies

The people in power, in my opinion, are put there to help us, not to fight us. They are to work toward making lives better, both for the people they govern as well as the lives they can assist around the world.  It can be through making it easier for people to learn the skills needed for the jobs of the future, finding ways to assist those who can’t function in the modern society as easily as others or simply by showing kindness as a possible and preferred solution.

When you wake up every day looking for a fight, you’re going to find one. When you wake up every day looking for a way to help people, you’ll find that as well.  The world is what it is.  You can’t change it very much, so you have to change how you interact with it.

Y’all Need To Find Something To Do

As I am working a lot more than normal (how is that possible, you may ask, and all I have to say is, I always find a way), but personal internet time is severely limited. When I am not working, I usually only have about an hour or two, and to unwind, I have been watching old episodes of MST3K and laughing pretty damn hard.

I have put up a couple of things on Twitter, since I can just drop them and not think about it afterward or be compelled to dig into what others are saying. I listen to a little bit of news on the BBC on my way to work or home so I don’t feel totally isolated.

I checked on Facebook yesterday when I had a spare minute, and one of the posts I had had generated over 200 responses. I won’t get into them other than to say, y’all need to find better things to do that yell at each other and call each other names on social media.  No one’s mind will be changed.  No one will “win” an argument.  No one is keeping score.  You won’t “own” anyone and your clever cruel remarks will fall on deaf ears.

No one will listen to you.

Let me repeat that again for the people in the back: NO ONE WILL LISTEN TO YOU.

If you and your buddies are having fun poking the people on the other side, you are the problem. Period.  Full stop.

I hear constantly “Why won’t liberals/conservatives listen to me!” Maybe because you call them libtards, hillbillies, snowflakes, dotards, and on and on and on.  I’d also like to let you know that when you start talking like that, you really aren’t saying anything anyone will listen to because you are just parroting what you heard.  Recently, someone sent me a nastygram calling me a “Beta cuck libtard snowflake SJW”.  Rather than hurting me, it made me think that the person hadn’t had an original thought in their life and we just vomiting up what they read somewhere and thought “heh, I’ll show those people who make me feel bad!”

My mind has been changed by my experiences and by learning, never by someone shouting at me and calling me names. All that gets you is blocked.

I say it all the time:  If you hurt me, even a little bit, you can fuck the fuck off.

And if I can pull that trigger on someone I have known for almost 20 years or in-laws, I have no problem doing it to random internet hatetroll.

In a perfect world, I’d ask you to quit talking and posting and listen. Listen to what people you disagree with say.  Ask them how they came to where they are in life.  Try to understand the fear that drives them to hate.

But, instead, I’ll just say that y’all need to find better things to do, so here’s a list:

• Take a hike on the nature trails in your area.
• Visit an art gallery or a museum and think about what was going through the mind of the artist as they created.
• Read a book just for fun, some genre you enjoy like a mystery or action novel. Then find one in a used book store from 40 year ago in the same genre to see how writing has changed.
• Try to find the best pizza in your city.
• Listen to my podcasts, ya bastards.
• Watch a foreign film. Yes, Godzilla counts.
• Get involved in a toy drive or something for Christmas and see how you can do little things that really help people who need it.
• I have four podcasts going, listen to them and then buy from our sponsors.
• Make a list of how your life has improved in the last year, and if the list is too short, get to work fixing things.

Then again, you aren’t going to listen to me either. Everyone is just talking at us, not to us, and we may expect everyone to hear us, we don’t want to listen to what anyone else has to say.

Must love to friends old and new and again, y’all need to find something else to do.