Why I’m Here

 

Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world. — Nelson Mandela

I’m a writer who recently became a stay at home mom. Thanks, I hate it. It’s been a months-long battle with feeling useless. I’ve sat here day after day getting sucked more and more into the bizarre tornado of American politics. With five days until the midterm elections, I decided it was time to stop yelling at the entire internet and do something about it.

 

Trump’s dangerous rhetoric has hijacked our once semi-normal media in the last three years, but things reached a fever pitch in September, at least for me. I hate to even mention the “K” word, but it marked a turning point for me. His ultimate nomination, , the three-ring circus that was his senate hearing, and the barking carnies masquerading as the Republican party all made me throw in the towel and say, “Fuck this shit.”

 

One thing I won’t ever do is lie to you, so I’ll let you know that from the start, I firmly believed the main reason Trump was elected was because he is an “everything apologist.” You know, like a rape apologist, except for literally everything terrible—racism, bullying, bigotry, violence, so on and so forth.

 

In the past three years, I have been utterly shocked by the outpouring of ugly from both strangers and family alike. Many of you understand the strangely deep and palpable feeling of betrayal and shame (or “what-the-fuckism”) when yet another factually incorrect, racist—or whatever—meme or article is shared by someone you thought you knew. Trump handed these people a bullhorn to share their messages of hate and intolerance.

 

You see, before this election (and even still), I have a tendency to be idealistic, naïve, and trusting. When Trump was elected, once I’d stopped sobbing, I said “Well…they’re going to have to send him to charm school before his inauguration…right?”

 

Wrong. Fake news. If they did, a refund is called for. Not only has the hate, intolerance, and ignorance continued, it got worse—it’s getting worse. For each person that Trump handed that hate bullhorn to, they handed one right back to him and he just gets louder and more omnipresent.

 

Trump’s constant lying has also lit the proverbial fire under my ass. It’s not like this is news to me, he has been lying before he was even elected. It’s the breakneck speed of his lies, their brazen nature, and their inherent hypocrisy in the weeks before midterm elections that has truly frightened me.

Sure, let an old man mumble racist, xenophobic, hysterical things to himself. This is America. If he wants to be demented that is his right as a citizen. BUT—this is not an elderly man throwing bread at ducks and cursing the dang libruls. Sure sounds like him, but this is the President of the United States of America, and people are listening, not shuffling by him as quickly as possible while trying to avoid eye contact.

Not only are they not avoiding his gaze, they are rabidly lapping up every single thing that comes out of his mouth as though he is the messiah. Some actually believe that he is the second coming of Jesus. Don’t worry we’ll get there.

The hypocrisy and double standards are out of control. I mean, I could filibuster on this topic longer than Ted Cruz reading Green Eggs and Ham to filibuster the passing of the ACA. I’ll give you one simple analogy: Imagine if Obama had three ex-wives, multiple proudly proven instances of adultery, and a “Grab ’em by the pussy” philosophy on women. Imagine if Obama had boasted about the loopholes he used to back out of millions owed in taxes and liberals applauded him for it. I could go on, and I will, just not right now.

 

You know enough about my politics now, so let’s talk about the website and well, why I’m here. As a stay at home mom, I was finding myself on Facebook…a lot. And I found many, many posts like the ones I mentioned earlier that were either blatant lies, or thinly veiled attempts at racism (or sometimes not veiled at all!). This has been going on since the campaign, but I’ve noticed it’s gotten much worse in terms of factual correctness and general human decency. As a writer, propaganda is very alarming. If Nazi Germany taught us anything (ya think it would’ve but I’m beginning to wonder), it’s that one man can wield all that power if people are deceived in the way they want to be.

 

I’m not going to point any fingers, but I’m looking at you, baby boomers. Many of you seem to share anything you see about the supreme leader. Here’s a non-political example of this kind of behavior. Your age group is *kind of* notorious for sharing pictures of individuals who are injured or disabled imploring people to “share for a prayer.” Are you insane? Do you really believe sharing a photo on Facebook will magically heal someone? What happened to praying silently? Do you think the creator of these memes actually have permission to exploit this person’s photo? They just want likes and shares on their posts because it makes their page show up more on social media.

 

What the hell am I even talking about? What is most important about the above questions is simple. If you are one of these “Share this image with ten people and Jesus will heal your warts” people, have you ever considered these questions? Or do you just share to show everyone how superior you are? These are the same people who see the “facts” or “news” on memes that use a similar scare and/or guilt tactic on individuals. Only this isn’t to get more likes on Facebook—it’s far more insidious. This is for the most revered seat in the government, and control over checks and balances of a government in peril.

 

It’s fear-mongering propaganda, and the internet is rife with it. I’m here to debunk it. If I can change even one mind, this will all have been worth it. Every meme I post or article I share will be one that I found in the wild, by people that I actually know. To find out why, check out my post called, “It Would Be Nice, But They’re Not All Trolls.”