I sat down with the intention to write about how much more civil politics were played before Trump. Then I browsed on X for a bit and threw that topic out the window when two others popped up that felt more … pressing. Not that any of this is pertinent, given that we’re stuck dealing with it all and having to work our way through it in some form or another. The point is, I had one idea, two more came up, and now I’m just fired up about all of the things we have to deal with on a societal level from one day to the next while working to pay the bills, keeping up with meaningful relationships, and trying to maintain some semblance of peace.
Fuck it, let me just lay out all three:
1. I don’t know about elsewhere in the world, but here in the United States, once upon a time, mudslinging in politics was generally contained to thinly-veiled slander and libel in half-truths and falsehoods in advertising, and flying accusations during debates. Then Trump came along and ripped off the bounds of civility, moving to rhetoric that was directly abusive and threatening. Since then, there has been a no-holds-barred approach to political discourse, where reason has been thrown out the window in favor of the loudest voices, where volume and vulgarity attract crowds of people with zero self-awareness and who are all too happy to be carried away by the emotions raised as a result of this inflammatory approach. And while I might argue MAGA is the worst of this, this behavior is present on all sides. I see this shit on X all the time—I touched on it a bit earlier—and it’s made its way to Threads. There’s no reason, no conversation—or, rather, very little of it. If I stray a little too far from my carefully curated timeline, I end up in Trollsville where there is no civility, where posts are outright xenophobic and replies go straight to hateful.
It’s fucking exhausting, but welcome to the new world we live in, I guess.
2. What the fuck is it with all the dumb motherfuckers out there? There is so much freely available information on the internet on just about any topic you can think of, and most of it’s bullshit. And while this is generally problematic, I find the bigger issue to be the complete lack of critical thinking that is exercised when approaching any of this freely available information. I think if people were more vigilant in how they consumed content, there’d be less bullshit available because the bullshit mongers would be called out for their bullshit and shut down accordingly. But NOPE, someone talks out of their ass, posts it to a blog or a podcast, and people arrive to eat it all up with barely any questioning of the veracity of the information being provided.
I once came across someone’s post where they said they were committing to a regular workout routine and clean eating for a month to gain a six pack. You dumb bitch, that’s not how your body works, but of course you wouldn’t know that because you don’t critically examine the information you’re consuming and believe every fitness influencer that says you can build that kind of body in as short amount of time. They’re going to get to week four and not see the kind of changes they expected—perhaps even seeing a trend in the opposite direction—get disappointed and quit because their expectations were shattered.
And this is just one example in a sea of them, specifically in the fitness industry. It seems every discipline has a swath of misinformation drowning out the real shit, filled with influencers of all kinds pouring whatever nonsense out of their mouths that will sell, and an army of research-lazy consumers ready to drink it all, because they’ve traded their thinking capacity for gullibility.
3. Christianity has taken one hell of a left turn where even pastors are at odds with the messaging being delivered is not being well-received by their congregations. Right-wing conservative parishioners are dismissing the teachings of Jesus as “liberal” and “weak.” Well, what the fuck did you all think was going to happen when you supported a violent and inflammatory politician and made him the face of your movement? I would find this irony hilarious had it not become as dangerous as it has, with Christian Nationalist politicians pushing the boundaries of the separation of Church and State, and the lives that are coming to harm as a result. To make matters more bizarre, all of the propaganda coming out of Evangelical circles are a complete misrepresentation of what’s actually written in the book they claim to follow. In my above-mentioned romp through X, I came across an image portraying a hyper-masculine Jesus with one arm griping a devil-looking fellow I can only assume is Satan while raising a giant cross in the other hand as if to crush the devil with it. Now, you might argue there’s some symbolism there, but the concept is laughable when you consider that the Evangelical church carries no nuance in its approach to, well, evangelism. To say they misunderstand the mission and ministry of Jesus would be simply dishonest—it’s more accurate to say they either don’t care to understand, or they didn’t even read about it. Jesus spent 40 days in the desert, and was tempted by the devil; in each and every dealing, Jesus responded naught with violence but with a firm rebuke using references to the scriptures. In his weakest moments, Jesus held his ground peacefully. And the “Christians” of today call it “weak.”
Anyway, Merry Christmas! Here’s a poster of @shameless from her set Under the Christmas Tree:
