I’ve said a thousand times I would come back here and relaunch this blog. And not done so.
This blog started as something funny….someplace to take the piss. It was in reaction to a society that was being influenced by reality TV and consumerist culture, a world that instead of choosing style over substance, which is bad enough, chose flashes of nothingness over style.
But, the past few years have been filled with anger. I haven’t come back here to write all that much, because all I would have to share is that anger.
I’ve blocked friends, friends who I once cherished and respected, over their newfound fascism, racism and hatred. I’ve watched people who I knew to be intelligent fall prey to stupidity, inanity and conspiracy. And more than a few friends have blocked ME for calling them out on it.
A few weeks ago, as the war in Afghanistan was coming to a close, and we were all glued to our news sources worried if our troops, diplomats and allies would make it out safely, a woman I’ve known for over 20 years blocked me. I’ll call her “Smash” here, because that was our nickname for her back in the day. I’ve known her since the days of internet dial up and AOL chat rooms, and for a very long time we only called each other by online names, even in real life, because that is where we met. In an AOL Chat Room devoted to people in our local area.
We’ve been friends through divorces (mine), parental deaths (her father), love sought, love lost and love sought again. We’ve known each other a long time and experienced a lot of the world together. But that was all thrown away, because political and ideological sides have been drawn in the world these days, and I had the audacity to call her on her bullshit. Isn’t that what friends are supposed to do? Call each other out? Show honesty?
Apparently not.
See, the news broke that our state of New Jersey would take on 9,000 Afghan refugees, and house them at the joint military base McGuire-Dix-Lakewood. I spent my teenage years there (my father was stationed there in the Army), and Smash’s current boyfriend works there. So, in the comment section of the news story posted to Facebook by the local national news affiliate, Smash voiced her displeasure at the idea. Are we checking the refugee’s to make sure they are not terrorists? Many people have family that work on the base, and they shouldn’t be put in danger by a terrorist threat. Or a suicide bomber.
I called her out on that.
The fact that these people are brown, and Muslim doesn’t also equate to them being terrorists. These people put their lives on the line, the lives of their families, and lost everything to help America. To help the United States wage a war that had nothing to do with them. They did so out of a sense of duty and honor to our creed, our code, our way of life. And now that we have used them all up, a certain contingent of people (eg: white) in America is worried that they might be terrorists.
That idea is not only racist, it is against everything our country stands for. “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” the Statue of Liberty reads. What happened to that? Where did THAT go? Does she, or any of you for that matter, feel the same way about the tens of thousands of refugees coming from Russia and Ukraine? New Jersey and the surrounding states get a lot of THEM. Are they ok but the Afghans are not? Why? Because they are white? Because they are Christian? And where exactly in the Bible does it say to only help Christians? Go look it up and tell me. I’ll wait.
That didn’t sit well with her. Because she was worried about the man she loves, she felt, her racism shouldn’t be called racism, because, of course, she wasn’t racist. She was just worried about American lives.
And she blocked me.
Oh well.
So I’m back here, on this blog. And this is the world we live in. A world in which the same people who think a privately owned bakery should be allowed to refuse to make a cake for LGBTQ customers because “Freedom”, also somehow think a privately owned restaurant refusing to cater to them over a pandemic vaccine is “Nazi Germany”. And they will say this to you with a straight face.
A world in which hordes of people, who have access to the internet and Google, and therefore pretty much the collective knowledge of humankind….. think the Earth is flat.
A world in which millions of people think Trump is still President, even though things like “math” and their own bought, paid for and run election audits say differently. In fact, their very own audit found MORE VOTES FOR THE OTHER GUY.
A world in which Black Lives Matter protesters are called “terrorists”, while January 6th protesters who literally stormed the capital, broke things and threatened lives, are called “patriots”.
A world in which 25 years ago, holding the exact same beliefs I currently hold, I would be called a “moderate”. But, in 2021 I’m called a left-wing pinko commie, by people who aren’t well read enough to know what “communism” or “socialism” actually are. And who aren’t well read enough to see that I belong in neither bucket.
I’m back here.
And all I have is anger.
Maybe I will find something funny here and there…but it’s mostly going to be anger.
Maybe this blog will take off again. Maybe it will only be read by 3 close friends and the bot that Google uses to index pages for their search engine. Franly, I don’t give a fuck.
Cause I’m back.
And I’m pissed.
And I’ve got shit to say.
And I don’t care if you like it or not.