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Wednesday, February 3, 2021

Top of November 2020 (Facebook Compilation)

Here is a collection of the best memes and statuses from my public Facebook page over the period of Nov 1st through Nov 15th (You're welcome to follow me there.) We got behind on these posts over the holiday and while I focused on the admin "fortnight," so I plan on dropping them once a week until we're caught up. 

I also have realized that these posts are destined to be a biweekly staple here at Writing About Writing. Perhaps the time may come when the world is calm enough that I'll only write on FB a little and do one post a month, but that time hasn't come. Not with the election in the rear view. Not with the inauguration in the rear view. And as long as I'm spending an hour here and an hour there writing out these posts….well, work is work. So I guess this is just a new regular part of WAW now.

I'll make it clear if any posts have the context of being written after a particular event, but keep in mind that the "top of November" would have included both the last few days leading up to the election, the election itself, and several days after. So that's the general context.


A- There's nothing silent about you.

B- You're not the majority.



After 74+ million people voted for Trump….


I would caution my fellow white peeps to choose their words with care in the coming days. Being disgusted, revolted, and appalled by the fact that so many people saw his naked racism on display and in policy and voted for him anyway is quite different than being SURPRISED by that.

We certainly got bamboozled by some promising polling data that maybe the water's edge was not where we thought it was, and it is a pleasant fiction to imagine that Trump finally went a bridge too far with his open white supremacy. But BIPOC have been telling us the national situation was "REALLY THAT BAD" for decades. This whole narrative of total "shock" or being "flabbergasted" requires not having listened to them again and again and again about their lived experiences in our society.

For literally years. Decades even.

That's probably NOT the gaslighting message you intend to send.


Okay, now it’s time to ~checks notes~ demand they build a bridge to us.


"I'm not racist, and I'm offended that you would say so! But also I will swiftly give power to open white supremacists and their harmful policies if it helps my low five-figure 401k. But I'm definitely not racist."

-70 Million Americans

Look, this is really simple. 

Abusers accuse their victims of what they themselves do. Textbook. 101. Right out of the playbook––page one. 

Conservatives in their macro-societal-abuse dynamics have been disenfranchising voters through gerrymandering, voter-ID laws that are piss-easy to see through, closing polling stations, and voter scourges. These laws are proposed by Republicans, supported by Republicans, disenfranchise the opponents of Republicans, are voted on by Republicans and help Republicans win. Republicans are so shameless about this, they will straight up say the quiet part out loud: that re-enfranchisement efforts will cause them to lose.

Essentially by a few points here and there, they've been cheating. They've been cheating more and more every election for decades. The last election, they basically welcomed election interference because it was on their side. They can't win without it. 

And while I'm sure some of them are not capable of imagining how they could lose unless Dems cheated even MORE, this is actually a much simpler equation. This is projection. It is every game with a turnkey or imposter where the person points out suspicious things the others have done to keep themselves looking good.

Now the GOP is cheating SO much, it's become essential that they keep the focus anywhere but on their own voter suppression (which, sadly, they are actually doing quite effectively). Even if some really do capital B "believe" their own shit (but especially for those that don't), it's a survival mechanism to keep the focus on everyone....ANYONE else.


I don’t think I have too many Republican friends, even on this account, but if any of you are pulling that “now we have switched places” bullshit, you STILL aren’t paying attention. 

Joe Biden is many sub-optimal things, but he isn’t likely to endanger the life of Christians, encourage stochastic terrorism against white people, ban Christian-majority nations from traveling here, or treat cities and states run by Republicans like they’re a geopolitical enemy (though Russia as if it is not).


Now it's time for everyone's favorite game show, "WHICH IS MORE LIKELY?" The game where you choose which of two incredibly likely scenarios is actually the MOST likely.

We rejoin the game from our last episode. For $5000 and control of the board, please identify which is more likely:

1- That if tomorrow feminists changed their name to "humanists" or "egalitarians," suddenly ALL those people who "hate that word" would jump on board, give a shit, and fight the good fight against places where there is gender inequality. They would instantly care about street harassment, pay inequality, family planning, and sexual assault because just the word itself was simply SO off-putting that they couldn't bear to stand up regarding issues that disproportionately affect women as long as it came under such a sexist label.

Or

2- That, as has happened every single time a marginalized group demands rights throughout the arc of human history (ever, like literally EVER), the people who stand to lose power find ostensibly reasonable-sounding way to rationalize the fact that they have absolutely no intention of challenging the status quo, but would prefer a justification that sounds plausible to simply saying, “I don’t really care.”


Now....just as a thought experiment...

Juxtapose this election, and its high voter turnout yet STILL narrow results, with the far-left belief that socialism basically sells itself and "Bernie would totally have won" (and be sure and factor in places like Florida where there was a RED wave primarily due to the Trump campaign saying "socialism" a lot). Also please consider the possibility that actually NONE of our goals is even remotely realistic in a pluralistic nation that leans right unless there is a hearts-and-minds ground game the likes of which no dank meme (or calling anyone who disagrees a "bootlicker") is ever going to replace. Also unless there is a re-enfranchisement effort that goes on in mainstream politics more than once every four years. And that sort of institutional change will require mainstream civic engagements and legislation....or in common parlance: "selling out."

Because you can't govern if you don't win.

Or, of course, we can win a war against the greatest military of all time as well as the civilian militias that will resist us––all on their home soil––and institute our policies on threat of violence against the will of the vast majority of society of which we minority rule over in anti-democratic fashion. I suppose that's almost as realistic as socialism taking over a country in which leftists don't participate.


This one was post election…

I'm going to fantasize now.

A thing is about to happen here that has not happened since ever. The Georgians are going to wake up and find that they are strong––that their vote actually matters and can make a difference even if it can't get them everything they want in one election cycle. So they will turn out in waves for the run-off elections for their senate. 

And then Dems win two more seats and flip the Senate.

And Mitch McConnell will still be in office but won't be the majority leader. So he can't effectively be the most powerful human in US politics by simply not allowing ANY legislation he doesn't like to come to the floor for a vote. And Dems can get through some more progressive, Senate-approved appointments. And there will be real stimulus. And maybe Dems can take the country's temperature on a little minor court packing action. And McConnell just has to sit there and watch it all.

And the left realizes that it CAN have power and starts involving itself (they make the price of their political support the democratic reforms that will cement their influence further) and moving the slider away from predatory capitalism and billionaire feudalism. And there are sex parties to celebrate with no creepy guys and at least a couple of people who say "I **REALLY** would like you there, Chris." And a unicorn befriends me and lightsabers are real and....

Sorry, got a little carried away there.


I wish I could impress upon everyone who thinks their not-vote/protest vote is sending a message (to anyone) how much the story is overwhelmingly about Stacey Abrams and Co. and Georgia flipping and not how many leftists maintained their purity by refusing to participate.



Prescient 


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