Mood: ‘I’ve No More Fucks To Give’ by Thomas Benjamin Wild, Esq.
Not My Usual Blog
I really prefer to be more positive. Unfortunately, I am also aware of the truth of Human Nature, and it is not a good Nature, given its head. Wars. Murder. Forced non-consensual sex. Bullying. Knock-out ‘games’. Recording altercations on mobile phones without an effort stop them. On-line and phone scams to take retirement funds from the elderly. I can go on and on. Honestly, all of this, though concerning to me always, does not fully depress me, because I also know the good humanity can do and has done. Because of the proclivity towards hate and violence, that divine ability to choose not to manifest hate and violence is absolutely incredible, because there is a lot of the former.
What Is THE Main Thing That Can help?
(Add soul-sucking to the above, too, I think)
This is my own opinion, now. If you do not agree, that is fine. You can still choose to be kinder, no matter your own beliefs.
Politics in the last 20 years or so has become progressively more divisive. The last time things have been this historically bad were the 1850s-early 1860s and we all know how that ended.
I grew up in a more Right-leaning household and that definitively influenced my Party following. Then came The Bushes. My ‘faith’ was somewhat restored after 9/11 and the seeming reunification of the country…then came the fallout from that event. How could it get worse than that, one might wonder? Only every single President since, in my opinion.
Since Bush, Jr. I have been a declared Independent. As well, I have, as many people put it, ‘wasted my vote’ by voting my concscience and not voting for either Republican or Democrat, as they have none of them proven themselves true. I will admit the closest to get my Party vote was Trump as he was no politician, but….just no!
The economy did great under Trump, but the Country’s soul was further rendered inept. Then Biden tripled that ineptness.
I am certainly ‘glossing’ over issues, but needs must as I only have so much time on these blogs AND there are only so many mega-gigabytes of space on this site! However, just looking at what caused the greatest outcries from the last Administrations and how those same things, ‘smoking guns’ or similar ones, have been overlooked by the present Administration, though par for the course of every Side of the Aisle, is as amusing as it is terrifying.
So, it is understandable why discussions that start out as, or wanting to start out as, such quickly devolve into hateful ad hominem attacks on the the arguers, but why do we need to do that? Some topics, such as gun control and First Amendment rights (in America) are highly volatile topics, but we all have (or so I hope) the brain capacity to disagree without casting aspersions on one another. We do, but almost always ignore it and chose to be assholes.
Can We Be Better People?
I hope we can be better people, I know for a good portion of human history, as somewhat stated before, has been for the betterment of humankind. Why can we not strive for that, especially in arguments, through logic and actual discussion? Those two quotes above are somewhat diametrically opposed but with actual proof to bring to a discussion can be true. I am not entirely sure that statistics can be considered ‘proof’ as it seems you can find any statistic to fit your side of a discussion.
As I write, it occurs to me the genesis for this blog comes from another blog I’ve seen and began to read. It was a politically motivated one and as always happens in ‘social’ media both sides turned into raging assholes. Facebook, Twitter, it never matters; you don’t have to face someone and spew hatred and derogate them to their face, so you go for it. Fucking cowards.
Well, there you go. Obviously this gets under my skin and I get angry and spew words of defame. I make my own point.
I have watched the last two Administrations closely. There is not a lot of good to say about either of them as far as being divisive goes. It surely helps having most of the news media on one Side, but there it is so obvious that they are shills for their Party just as Fox is for theirs. As well, I have watched a few different YouTube channels that are also strictly Left or Right channels that cover what idiots there are in Congress and news channels and they are both absolutely correct, but neither Side sees their own shortcomings. Maddening.
Now, I am well aware of my own shortcomings, and I have learned that my temper gets on a short fuse when I lose someone or on the anniversaries of their passing. I minimize my interactions at these times, even though my temper tends to be aimed at myself when I knock over something and things of that sort. Still, it is being aware of that temper and not giving it its head. I choose to do that. As far as dealing with political and ‘woke’ shit on-line and in ‘social’ media, I choose not to. Not because I can’t handle myself, but I have absolutely had it with those who can’t and become everything they say they hate about the Other Side and those they don’t agree with. I simply do not need that kind of mental aberration.
So, can we be better people? Of course!
All that is required is that you think as rationally as you can. I’ve done that silly shit where I think “Oh, yeah, this next post to that schmuck will destroy them!” and then gleefully demean them. It does nothing other than put out fire with accelerant. This eventually, I realized, did absolutely no good, not me, not to the other person, not to the argument/discussion at hand. Nothing got resolved other than an ego bolstered by being an ass. Definitely a pyrrhic ‘victory’.
Of course, I have seen that providing actual facts by words spoken by this person or that that can be absolutely verified will invariably cause the person preventing incorrect to become deeply defensive and ‘say’ abhorrent things. Still, it begs the question I’d love an answer to: why cannot we be civil and make such discussions opportunities to learn what we may be ignorant about?
Now It’s Time For Some Positivity
I take a lot of breaks when writing when there is an emotional investment in it. Sometimes, as in writing my book, the time is taken to ensure that the emotions come out as poignant as I can make them; other time, such as writing this blog, to make sure I keep it as free of negative emotion as I can. On one of those breaks I was looking about YouTube for some brain-numbing stuff but came across the following:
How is that for Positivity? People fund this guy’s ability to help the homeless over and above giving them $ or a burger. Makes no difference who the person is, they get whatever help they need. This is what we always need more of these days, all days.
I am not entirely certain I’ve gotten my point across in this blog. I needed it out of my head and maybe someone can begin a dialogue as to how we can be more civil to one another.
