Unpopular opinion but I feel the need to say this as election year draws closer and Democratic candidates are being announced:
in 2020, the ONLY GOAL is getting that orange sludge out of office.
That’s it. That is endgame for 2020. If you stick your head up your ass so far as to think anything is more important than that at this point, get an emergency head-ass-ectomy REAL fucking quick because we CANNOT pull another 2016.
I don’t care if the Dem nominee is someone you hate, if you’ve voted Green Party for 34 years, if your goddamn mother is on the ticket. If mama isn’t the official presidential candidate from the Democratic Party, then you DO NOT VOTE FOR HER.
2020 is about blocking another four years of nightmare hell. 2020 is about caring about other people’s realities over your “conscience” (read: online woke points). It’s about standing up for every person hurt, every person harassed, every person KILLED by the hate this piece of radioactive bile spews from every disgusting orifice.
ESPECIALLY my fellow white people better take this message to fucking heart, because WE are the ones who fucked this up, ESPECIALLY my fellow white women. You are not allowed to “vote your conscience.” You are not allowed to “weigh the options.” You are suddenly a single-issue voter, and that issue is Trump Is Evil. You are voting to evict, voting to BLOCK. If the Democratic candidate is less than ideal, you suck it the fuck up for 2020. This election is not, CANNOT be about idealism, about perfection. It’s about starting to undo four years of damage.
So from the announcement of the nominee until November 3rd, 2020, you better be all fucking in. If you don’t like their stances on certain issues, if they’re not progressive enough, if they’ve reached across the aisle too many times, worry about it November 4th. Spend the next four years pushing them left, protesting everything you don’t like, picket the fucking White House if you need to. I will be right there with you. But that starts on November 4th. Until then, we are on a straight anti-Trump train and y’all better not fucking get off it.
I hate Trump too, but why do y’all keep phrasing it like “vote against Trump instead of caring about who the other person is!!” when people could instead focus on making sure the Democrats elect the best candidate possible to go against Trump… getting Trump out of the office is not the “only goal”. The “only goal” is voting the best candidate into office. Hopefully, that will be someone who isn’t Trump since I believe America has much better to offer than him.
So, yeah, I’m not waiting until November 4th to call out a politician’s shit. Us lefties need to make sure better politicians make it to the presidential election, not blindly vote whichever way points away from Trump.
^^^
Y’all sound exactly like the republicans who voted Trump over Hillary for nothing but out of spite.
No, really you do. You see Trump as a great evil (which he isn’t, but he is a pretty shitty guy and isn’t doing a good enough job in office to justify his overall sliminess). Just like how Republicans saw Hillary in 2016. It no longer became about putting forth the most qualified figure they could and voting their conscience; it became about keeping her from office. It was no longer voting for a third party candidate even though they have a snowball’s chance in hell just because you believed they were best for the job, but because any vote that isn’t for Trump is a vote for Hillary. Which, you know, is objectively not true. A vote for a third party candidate is a vote against both of them, not for one or the other.
But I’m super duper bored, so let’s just debunk this shitty thought process thoroughly because I’m tired of illogical voters. I don’t care if we aren’t voting for the same people or the same shit—vote your conscience, not out of spite.
That’s the best way to make change guys.
The main goal for the 2020 elections isn’t to vote out Trump. I don’t want him to stay past 2020 either, but that being your sole obligation throughout the election cycle? That’s just really stupid, and a fragmented logical process. The goal for the 2020 elections, as they are for every election, is try to push for someone you think will be the best. Not just by virtue of “not being Trump,” but because you like what they stand for and what they have to offer. I’mnot even ask to keep up with the news and try to stay informed and fact check everything you hear—though, you probably should, just in general—just to look for candidates you genuinely think would do a good job. That’s your role as a voter. Don’t be like the dumbasses who voted in Trump just by virtue of him not being Hillary.
People who can vote for whomever they choose. They can even choose to vote like this. I just wouldn’t suggest it if you want actual changes to be made.
Again, I’m not getting into the Trump Did This Trump Did That debate because it’s really fucking tiresome and no one’s listening because everyone’s already got their minds made on him. Which is fine. I hated him when he first announced he was running and I still hate him now; I just don’t like people spreading misinformation. Ever. Just…try to be objective, and don’t rely solely on pathos all the time. Sure, emotions and subjectivity have their place, even in a presidential race, but don’t make wild claims about a person’s heinousness just to further your agenda. It’s a generally shitty thing to do, you’re alienating people by doing so, and it doesn’t take a genius to look through hundreds of sources who prove your claims false. You can dislike a candidate, but try to at least spread true information, even if it doesn’t always fit neatly within your narrative. Again: lies don’t make change. And neither does dehumanising people, no matter how awful they may seem (and very well may be, and in some cases, are)… especially when using purposefully emotional language to encite a purposefully emotional response. That’s propoganda, and let’s really try to avoid that shit this election cycle.
Again. Don’t tell people who they can and cannot vote for. It makes you look like the asshole and alienates people who may have originally heard your message. And, again, this line of thinking will not change anything. Vote your conscience, find someone you really believe in. You’re better than this.
You can protest right now if you want to. That’s your constitutional right as American. It’s honestly basically a civic duty. As long as you aren’t violent, inciting violence, or damaging others’ property—you can protest. Whatever you want, whomever you want, whenever you want, however you want (as long as it’s legal.) But you can also elect a candidate you don’t think you’ll have to protest. Because, you know, you actually want to change things. And you have actual beliefs and convictions and aren’t a bunch of fucking robots. Goddamn.
Despite Trump’s order to to call 26,000 unpaid IRS workers back to
work (still without pay, of course), at least 14,000 of them did not
show up at the office as of Tuesday, according to The Washington Post.
Two House aides, speaking anonymously, say that 9,000 IRS employees
“could not be reached” and 5,000 more “claimed a hardship exemption.”
This, in the same week that La Guardia airport shuttered its doors
and other airports are experiencing major delays is just the beginning
of the destruction Trump’s shutdown is taking on Americans and the
United States.
“The shutdown appears to be affecting the IRS. In the call centers, which answer taxpayer questions over the phone, about 35 percent of calls are being answered, IRS officials told congressional staff, according to one of the aides. The initial plan for filing season was for 80 percent of calls to be answered. The average call time, of 7 to 10 minutes last filing season, has jumped to 25 to 40 minutes.
The IRS is also losing 25 IT staffers every week since the shutdown began, with many finding other jobs, one House aide said, citing the IRS officials’ briefing.
IRS employees have said they cannot afford to get to work or pay for child care as they struggle to go more than 30 days without pay.
Shannon Ellis, President of the National Treasury Employees Union in Kansas City sums it up when she tells The Washington Post: “People are panicking. It’s scary. It’s getting worse every day.”
Vampirism. Not a virus, not a monster, but a parasite.
The parasite starts its life cycle… somewhere. The soil, perhaps. Perhaps the act of burying and unburying your dead exposes you to the dormant parasite, and you become its first host. The parasite worms its way into your brain and starts making adjustments to your physiology and behavior. Maybe it exudes its own chemical pheromones that have been adapted to be wildly attractive to humans, or maybe it boosts your own magnetic characteristics. Maybe the parasite is photosensitive, or cannot tolerate temperatures much warmer than the average human body – you find yourself avoiding the light and sticking to dark, cool places during the day. Maybe the parasite feeds upon some minerals or proteins or other components in fresh blood, so you find yourself craving human flesh to replace the nutrients being robbed from your own system. Maybe the parasite must be transferred from its primary host to a secondary host before it can reach the final stage in its life cycle. Perhaps it enters your saliva and is transferred to the bloodstream of your prey, where it consumes them from the inside and reproduces in their dying body before being returned to the soil during to start the cycle anew. Perhaps complicated burial practices aim to halt the parasite’s life cycle at this stage, and vampirism only spreads when these practices are shirked.
“It’s funny. When you leave your home and wander really far, you always think, ‘I want to go home.’ But then you come home, and of course it’s not the same. You can’t live with it, you can’t live away from it. And it seems like from then on there’s always this yearning for some place that doesn’t exist. I felt that. Still do. I’m never completely at home anywhere.”
As we move into 2019 and presidential hopefuls start their campaigns, remember:
– DO NOT FORM POLITICAL OPINIONS BASED ON INFOGRAPHICS. Read source material. If a journalist is legitimate, they will not pass off their statements as fact without proof.
– DO NOT TAKE SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS AS TRUTH. Not even when they are made by someone you trust.
– DO NOT TRUST ANY SOURCE UNLESS IT IS CORRABORATED BY MULTIPLE OTHER CREDIBLE SOURCES.
There are already bots posting propaganda, actively targeting leftists, encouraging us not to vote in various ways.
Do not let them win.
This political system is heinously broken, but consider what evil still has to gain from silencing you before you allow yourself to be silenced.
We Rated 5 Men Who Are Definitely Not Spock Wearing Hats
5. Now, this is the lowest on our list because this is really not a hat. But given that our average human man on the right wears this hood so well, there was no way we could leave him off this list. Hats off to you, fellow human. You are a normal human being in every way, except for the excellence with which you wear your hood.
4. This cap is not my style, but the beauty of fashion is being able to enjoy it on other people. I couldn’t tell you who the handsome gent on the left is but boy, do I wish I knew. I’d have a thing or two to say to him.
3. Fedoras have earned a bad reputation recently, but “Spocko” here might singlehandedly change our minds. Don’t get me wrong, he’s no Spock—but this fedora is so charming that we might just forgive him.
2. Watch and learn. If you have unique ears to disguise, this is the perfect look for you. Worried about being found out as an alien? Don’t. This casual look will keep your identity safe. Of course, this individual has nothing to worry about. If he did have strange ears, they would be the result of an unfortunate accident he had as a child. But he doesn’t. This is not Spock.
1. Okay, fine. You caught me. All of these photos have been Spock in a hat. Are you happy now? Is this what you wanted? You’ve blown his cover, and for what? Oh look at you, you can recognise Spock. Yeah, whatever. You’re not special. But you know who is? Spock wearing this beanie.
In highschool I wrote a story about a middle-generation of stellar travelers. Their parents were born on earth and left as children, and the middle generation will not live long enough to see their destination. They live their entire lives on the ship and I wrote about them trying to find their place in everything. They will never know blue skies and warm beaches and open fields with warm breezes. They’ll never know birdsong or crickets or frogs. They’ll never hear the rain on the roof of a dreary day. I never could find the right way to end the story. I wanted it to be a happy ending, but I didn’t know how to do it.
I realize now that it was a book about me dealing with depression before I even knew it. Looking back at how blatant the projecting was, it’s obvious now. It wasn’t then.
In the story, the middle-generation people are lost. They’re apathetic. They’re just a placeholder. The only job they have is to keep the ship running, have kids, and die. As the middle generation of people began becoming adults, suicide rates were skyrocketing. Crime and drug rates were jumping. This generation was completely apathetic because they felt that they had no use.
In the story, a small group of people in the middle-generation create the Weather Project. They turn the ship into a terrarium. They make magnificent gardens and take the DNA of animals they took with them and recreate them and they make this cold, metal spaceship that they have to live their entire lives on into a home. They take what little they have and they break it and rearrange it into something beautiful. They take this radical idea and turn the ship into a wonderful jungle of trees and birds and sunshine.
And I realize now how much it reflects my state of mind as I transitioned from a child into an adult while dealing with depression. You always hear “it gets better” and “when you’re older things will be easier” and I was so sick of waiting for it to get better. I was in the middle-generation stage. And I was sick of it. I was so sick of waiting.
When I was in highschool I didn’t know how to end the story. I didn’t know how to have a happy ending. I didn’t have the life experience then to finish the story in a meaningful way. I didn’t know how to make it better for these middle-generation characters.
But now that I’m older, I’m learning. That if you sit and wait for things to get better, it never will. You have to take your life and break it apart and rearrange it into something beautiful. You have to make the cold metal ship into the garden that you deserve. You have to make your own meaning. You have to plant your own garden.
You have to teach yourself that being happy is not a radical idea.
