I don’t often talk politics. I’ll sometimes mention a social issue on
my blog, but I never repost or speak about political opinions on social media
feeds.
This isn’t because I don’t have them.
It’s because I don’t like to complain about something I can’t do
anything about, and I don’t believe that reposting or writing angry political
stuff on social media actually improves the world at all.
At best, it’s an echo chamber – because most likely the people you’re
friends with on social media all think the same way as you, so you’re all
pretty much just shouting, “Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!” back and forth at each other.
The people in charge are probably not monitoring our news feeds to find out
what they should do next.
At worst, it turns into a fruitless, pointless, ugly fight – one in
which everyone walks away angry and unsatisfied and no minds and hearts are
changed. It’s not that hearts and minds cannot change, because with open,
honest discussion between people who are currently sitting in the same place
and looking one another in the eye it is entirely possible, but I have never
(not once) seen it happen via social media, so I won’t waste my time.
Then there’s the fact that my political opinions are pretty depressing.
I could bash the President, sure, he’s certainly an easy target with the way he
constantly (and pointlessly) mouths off like an idiot via social media, but why
bother? At the last election I practically went into the voting booth crying
because I couldn’t decide which option was worse than the next – I felt they
were all universally horrible. So yes, I could say, “Trump is horrible!” except
that I genuinely thought the other choices were every bit as bad in different
ways. So by shouting about his badness I feel like I’m saying I wish one of the
other candidates had won – and that’s not how I feel. How I feel is that I
desperately wish there had been sane and reasonable choices available. There
were not, so I went in there knowing that regardless of who won America had
already lost.
During the last election I also considered the choice to disenfranchise
myself, and that’s a terrible choice I couldn’t make either. I had to go into
that voting booth because I couldn’t dishonor the sacrifices of the men and
women who struggled, fought, and even died to give me that right.
But how does it honor their memory when the only choices I have lie
between different types of monsters?
For monsters, my friends, is all we’ve got.
I’ve officially lost faith, all faith, in our politicians. I trust none
of them. I believe in none of them. I dislike all of them. America rose fast,
and now it falls just as fast. I believe deeply in our system of democracy, I
believe that it is good, but the political ruling class that has developed and
is currently infesting it like a horde of termites is not good, they are all
quite bad. Frequently I believe they are evil, and I do not know how to get rid
of them.
Being angry on social media isn’t going to do it. Neither is this blog.
But this is my space on the internet to talk about how I feel, even if how I
feel right now is pretty damn hopeless.