A Rant

In theory I never had a real problem with Donald Trump being president. Calling him a racist, sexist, and misogynist? I never bought into that line of thinking. Those are loaded emotional terms and while he exhibits those characteristics I don’t think they really matter in the long-run and may hurt the people that want him gone. See, you’re making an emotional appeal to people who obviously did not care about those things. They’re left-wing dog whistles. It’s no different than a right-winger saying welfare queens when he means black people. Or urban. It’s coded language and is preaching to the already converted. We know he’s a racist, we know he’s a misogynist, we know he’s sexist. But it’s the shit he’s spouting about policy that should worry people more and the people who have his ear. Not what he is, but what he does. A person can be a racist and still care about kittens or some shit. Basically you can hide those characteristics and unless they’re going, “I hate those goddamn n*****rs and cunts. All of them! They need to fucking die or become servants!” You’re not going to engender that argument to a lot of people. Because he’s entertaining. And middle America apparently believes that matters more. [end_rant]

I don’t view the presidency as particularly hallow ground like some of my peers do. The presidency is and always will be the boobie prize for anyone dumb enough to take it on. My problem was with the forces he unleashed behind him. See, Trump is just the brand name for Republicans. He’s a slogan, a useful idiot. The real power was with people like Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell and President Steve Bannon. He always intended for himself to be the figurehead and for his Vice President to do all the work.

So, like his business: he’d slap his name on it and be seen as successful. It…hasn’t quite worked out that way. See, being president means being criticized…a lot. By your enemies. By your friends. By that shit-kicking underling you had the temerity to piss off. Why do you think every president ages 10 years faster than they would in private life? It’s a stressful job. Donnie the Con thought it was like being king, and while originally they did want the presidency to be kind of kingly..that ship has long since sailed. Now the president is that asshole in high school that took the election waaay too seriously and won by making a lot of fantastical promises.

While the real president has a lot of power we’re seeing the limits of it. Ronald the Donald has been stymied quite a bit to enact his agenda–granted he didn’t have much of one to begin with since he quite clearly sees the US as a dystopia.

Step 1: Build a wall.

Step 2: ???????

Step 3: Profit?

He’s not much of a long-term thinker that Griftin’ Donnie. His administration is ruling through executive orders which have no real power to do dick beyond pissing people off. So…winning? It’s an illusion. A fabrication. Something to make it seem like he’s accomplishing something to his base but doing effectively nothing. And that’s been Tiny Hand Donald’s business practice since forever. He’s Michael Scott from ‘Golden Ticket’. In fact Michael Scott perfectly sums up Lyin’ Donald Trump’s philosophy, “I want all of the credit, but none of the blame.” And that’s how he’s acting as President. He wants the credit for when things go well, but none of the blame when things go to shit. It’s why he criticizes the media so heavily. The media’s not hard to please. Just treat them nicely and they’ll treat you nicely. It’s that simple. They were practically his shills throughout the election because he treated them mostly nicely except for a few reporters.

It’s how Bloviating Don won the election. But I digress. He’s the figurehead for policies that are designed to hurt American citizens. He won’t make ‘America Great Again’ anymore than he cares about farmers in Wisconsin. Unless they can give him money somehow. See, MAGA should be, “Make Donald Trump Great Again,” because in the end that’s all he really cares about. I will give him heaps of credit, though, in focusing the left-leaning types in this country–myself included. We had it too easy under Obama. We were beginning to fight ourselves, but now that our president is every scum-sucking action movie 80’s villain…we have a purpose! Finally! A real asshole we can get behind defeating.

Lying 101: In every lie there’s a nugget of truth. And Trump is good at using that truth to his advantage. Jobs are sucking and corporate profits are soaring, but it’s people like Tiny Dick Don who are contributing to it. That and automation. Illegals? That’s a smokescreen. They’re not taking anyone’s job. No, automation is taking yer jerb and will continue taking yer jerbs. What do you think self-driving tractor and trailers are going to do? Take your job. Not an illegal. But oh, an illegal is a tangible Other. Ditto to Muslims. Oooga Booga! So unless you’re going to turn into Neo-Luddites and smash up every bit of automated machinery, you’re going to continue losing in the US, especially so under Bad Hair Day Donald.

Anyway…good morning! It’s nice to be back. Hopefully I didn’t bore you with this analysis/ranting. I won’t be discussing politics too much except every so often. Trust me, even I’m getting burnt out on it

Being The Best Me

You’ll hear this phrase or something similar at least once in your life: be the best version of yourself that you can be. There’s a lot of truth in that as we do shape our realities based on how we’ve acted previously. Dick someone over and you’ll probably get dicked over as well. Be a good person…yeah, still might be dicked over but you have support for when it happens. See, we like the idea of being the best person we can be, but yet have no frickin’ clue who the best versions of ourselves are. These things are all subjective anyway because it’s really dependent upon what you consider ‘the best’. If you’re a cocaine addict then chances are your best is going to be loaded on cocaine. Or if you eat a lot then eating less will do.

In my experience I think we should work on just being. I feel like very few people are ever just there mentally, emotionally, and physically–including myself We’re all just worried about things that really do not matter in our lives overall. Having anxiety does give you a better perspective on what’s bullshit and what’s not. For instance: I used to be so anxious about gamma ray bursts. Oh, I know they’re rare, but the anxiety let’s it play out in my head and just fills me with fear; or disease. So much disease fear. Body horror. Shit like that. I very much fall into what Alan Watts said:

“Try to imagine what it will be like to go to sleep and never wake up… now try to imagine what it was like to wake up having never gone to sleep.”

That used to, and still does, scare the piss out of me. However, I’m gradually learning to live with that thought. But it has given me a sense of what I value: my girlfriend and my relationship with her, my family, my sense of purpose, and all in-between. I’m learning to let go of the bullshit, though, I have had setbacks recently and I’m learning to overcome those, too. I’m a much stronger person than I once was. But yes, anxiety does give you a different set of values and realizations of what’s important. It’s why, for instance, I could give two shits about my biology class. Not because I don’t want a good grade, but that it’s all bullshit. We made it up, the grades, it’s not a measure of intelligence or how hard you can work, because I worked quite a bit on my exam and still flunked that shit.

I just worry about how my girlfriend is doing in the class because she needs this and I love her and want her to succeed. Where was I? Oh yes, being your best self. Your best self is an illusion and it’s based on  a mountain of subjective personality traits that we’ve concocted into making us think we need to be our best selves. No, we don’t. We just need to be ourselves, without fear, without shame, and to be brave enough to face a world that’s telling you to be otherwise. I’m not saying that if you have problems like being overweight (guilty) or procrastinating (guilty as well) or anxiety (so guilty) that you don’t need to work on them. Just that should you fail to work on them sufficiently today that there’s nothing wrong with that. We all work at our own pace. And that trying to be your ‘best self’ is a bit of bullshit that only adds to our already over-bloated collective anxiety. Be brave. Be who you think you are. Be care-free. Be funny. Be smart. Be confident. But never be your ‘best’ because it’s a losing proposition.

“The art of living… is neither careless drifting on the one hand nor fearful clinging to the past on the other. It consists in being sensitive to each moment, in regarding it as utterly new and unique, in having the mind open and wholly receptive.”
― Alan Watts