Feeling political schizophrenia

I am of two minds lately, and they don’t get along.

In fact, I feel like I have a cartoon angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other and they are duking it out via proxy… namely me.

So now I shall attempt to transcribe the words of each side, contrapuntally.


Devil : You know your problem, Trump supporters and other social conservatives? It’s that you are too fucking stupid to understand society. It doesn’t matter what is true or good or right, all that matters is what fits into your tiny pea brain. Anything too big to fit – and that’s almost everything – you judges as being bad and mean and not true because otherwise, you would have to admit just how fucking STUPID you are. That’s why you need everything cut into easy to digest chunks for you by Fox News and conservative talk radio. You’re too goddamned weak to deal with the truth and so you are eager to make a fool out of yourself by believing the most ridiculous bullshit as long as it keeps you from having to think about things. Because that makes your thinky parts hurt!

Angel : But really, we’re all human. None of us is perfect. And you are in real pain. You have been fucked over by rich bastards like Trump. So it’s no wonder that  eager to latch on to whoever seems to offer you a shred of hope, and in language you can easily understand.  And those same rich sons of bitches have paid a lot of money to make sure you blame everybody but them. They pulled a big con job on you, and like all victims of con artists, you are afraid to admit that you got conned because it’s just too embarrasing. That’s totally understandable. And I know how hard it is for you to stand up to true power – the kind that scares you.

Devil : Yeah, ’cause you’re a bunch of whiny little pussies. Oh sure, you talk the big talk about being a defender of freedom and Mom and apple pie, but when it comes to challenging true power, the kind that can actually hurt you, you bend over and spread’m like a five dollar whore. And that’s true whether the power is your father in law, your boss, or your President. And there’s been people like you who support evil things out of sheer cowardice all through history. In the time of slavery, you would have been the Head Slave who felt himself to be better than the other slaves because YOU didn’t have to be whipped into doing the right thing and you NEVER made your owner mad, and you got pats on the head and extra food for that. In the time of monarchy, you would have been a fierce loyalist for the same reasons. Every time in history that an evil regime was overthrown, it was the liberals who did it and the conservative who were fighting them to maintain the status quo. Because you are all authoritarian cowards at heart and can’t imagine challenging real power.

Angel : But people have lives, Devil. They have jobs and kids and bills to pay. It’s all well and good to challenge power when you are young and idealistic and have nothing to lose, but once you have kids you have to think about them first. And really, who are we, the liberal intelligentsia, to demand that people think like us? Are we too stupid to realize that not everyone should (or can) think like us?

What is really important to remember in these trying times is that when people are angry, they say things they don’t really mean just to hurt the people they are angry at. The current political climate is so overheated that the actual issues don’t even matter any more because what people say is motivated far more strongly by the desire to huirt the other side than any true search for the truth. We all need to calm down, remember that we’re all human beings trying our best to cope, and start over.

Devil : Fuck THAT. Some people are just plain wrong and to compromise with them is to comprimise yourself. These drooling Trump droids are propping up someone who is not just the worst President of anything ever, but is dangerously close to being the worst President possible.  It’s hard to imagine anyone who would do a worse job of it. Or how. And real people are being hurt. Minorities and women don’t feel safe, the American economy is circling the bowl, the social safety net is being ripped apart by some of the very people who need it the most, and the USA stands on the brink of all out war with Russia and China, both of whom have nukes. All the while, the barbarians are at the gate, ready to tear society to pieces because they have reverted to the mindset of toddlers and can’t see any reason why anyone should ever have the right to make them do something they don’t want to do ever. And these people have to be stopped or the USA will fall and drag the rest of the world down with it.

Angel : But is open antagonism the best way to achieve that? Wouldn’t it be far more effective to sit down with people and talk over our concerns and fears, and find some common ground? If we do that with an open heart and an open mind, we may find that we have a lot more in common than we thought, and we can unite the people to fight against the real enemy, the billionaires, and with both sides united, the people would take back their government and there wouldn’t be a damned thing that the billionaires could do about it. The billionaires want us to fight each other because it keeps us weak and easy to manipulate. In such a situation, the most revolutionary thing people can do is to get together and cooperate.


So that’s how it’s been in my head lately. The angry side *the devil) has been getting stronger lately and it’s getting harder and harder to remember that people are not their politics and that angry people say things they don’t mean and that the Trump supporters are not the enemy, they are the victims… and it’s up to us to rescue them.

And that can only be done through love and understanding.

And yet, I am so goddamned angry.

It’s a tough time to be alive.

I will talk to you nice people again tomorrow.

 

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