%%USERNAME%%    %%ACCWORDS%% %%ONOFF%% |
 |   A journey of self-improvement - or not. |
|
Sup? I'm Char. You may know me from timeless classics such as
and
I blog for things like
[Embed For Use By Upgraded+] Believin' all the lies that they're tellin' ya Buyin' all the products that they're sellin' ya They say jump and ya say "how high?" Ya braindead, ya got a fuckin' bullet in ya head |
Artist: Aesop Rock Song: Lotta Years [Embed For Use By Upgraded+] "JAFBG"  Prompt: Tell us about something/someone that fucked you off this week.Yes, I've lived to write another rant. Still attempting to recover from surgery, and I'm sure the process would be less grueling if I wasn't also in a bad place mentally, but here we are. It's an extremely difficult time for highly sensitive people and those who lean toward pacifism. This year just gets more and more shocking. Trying to wake up every day and either completely avoid the news, or wince at it through spread fingers, is fucking draining and depressing. So, here's some shit I'm gonna rant about and I'm gonna hope I get some kind of dopamine release. The thesis statement for my rant is this: My country has totally lost the fucking plot. Here are some things people need to acknowledge: 1. It is valid to feel multiple different ways about the same topic. As a fully developed human, you are allowed to view one issue from different perspectives and form multiple feelings about said issue. It is completely valid to say that you are against police brutality and also against rioting. It's fully valid to say that you are absolutely for peaceful protesting and then also draw a line at looting, burning, and violence. That doesn't make you racist. It doesn't make you a bad person. It doesn't mean that you don't support police reform or that you're okay with anyone being murdered by the police. What we all saw on that tape was horrifying and stomach turning, and yet, sadly not even the least bit surprising in this country. And still, you can be horrified by multiple things at once. It isn't a competition. 2. There is still a widespread pandemic. At the time I'm writing this entry, the US has had 105,634 coronavirus deaths. Two weeks ago, people were absolutely losing their minds about people protesting in groups. Personally, I was against those protests because of the virus. Now we have tens of thousands of people shoulder to shoulder in every city screaming and coughing on each other. We were going to see a second wave of the virus regardless, but we have history and science to lean back on in determining the effect that this will have on the spread of the virus. If what you're telling me is that mass protests about police reform are more important right now than stopping the spread of a pandemic, then I don't know what to tell you except that you don't care about human life and suffering the way I do. I'm not saying that people shouldn't protest or attempt to enact change, but what's really happening is that we're picking and choosing whose lives we care about which has been a sticking point for me throughout this entire pandemic. This attitude of "who cares, they're just old or immunocompromised people" is fucking disgusting. Those people who chose to go out in groups of tens of thousands are going to go to the same grocery stores, same doctors offices, as those people who are attempting to do everything in their power to preserve their life from this virus. They do not have an option to just not get food or not see their doctors. It is on us to do what we can to limit their exposure. And if you do not at the very least see that side of this, you're thinking too small and shortsighted. I'll fully admit that I'm biased here because to me, there is absolutely nothing more important than public health and welfare of society as a whole. 3. Protests need demands to work. Look at the Hong Kong protestors. They have a very specific list of things that they want. It is succinct. Five demands that they want met before the protesting will end. If we want to demand police reform, we need a list of demands. "Police reform" is entirely nebulous. What are our demands right now? We want systemic change? Okay, how do we reach that? What actionable steps can be taken right now that will stop the protesting? Without that organized list of demands, we have no way of reaching a compromise. We're dealing with a police state, they're not just going to say "Okay, whatever you guys want. Just keep pushing the goalpost back and we'll keep listening." That isn't the way these things work. That isn't the way the Civil Rights Movement worked. That isn't the way the Kent State protests went. Every protest needs a specific, actionable list of demands that can be worked through with the cooperation of the other side. 4. This is a build up of years, not one event. Speaking to my prior point, because this is a build up of years of police brutality, it's all the more important that we get an actionable list together. We can't say, "Arrest and charge the offending officer. Okay, you did that? Now arrest the other three officers and charge them. Okay, you did that? Now overhaul the entire justice system." That's the 'moving the goalposts' thing I was referring to earlier and it will never, ever work. That's why we need to acknowledge and recognize that this is not about one person. Quite frankly, I think a good rough estimate is that this is 40% about police brutality in the first place. I actually think that's being generous. I think the other 60% is social class issues, generations in cycles of poverty, a 25% unemployment rate, angst about a global pandemic, pent up anger and energy from a couple months in lockdown, 4 years of an overly divisive and corrupt president, etc. That's why this entire thing has moved away from Minneapolis and lost the original plot. We need to acknowledge what we're really angry about in this country. We need to acknowledge what is truly causing rage. 5. There are right ways to demonstrate and wrong ways to demonstrate. I've seen this wholly denied repeatedly in the past week. "You don't get to tell people the right way to express their anger." Wrong. What you mean to say is, "I don't have to listen to you when you tell me the right way to express anger." There are absolutely right and wrong ways to protest. Be loud, be as close as possible to the building where people can actually enact change, be supportive of fellow protestors, where masks and PPE, bring first aid supplies... I fully understand that the police are escalating these protests with tear gas and rubber bullets, often when they're not needed. Every step of the way, they have intentionally made this worse. Our absolute joke of a president couldn't be more agitating and inflammatory in this situation. But whenever possible, people need to move out of the way of emergency vehicles (ambulances, firefighters, etc). They have no idea how urgent this situation is, whose life is on the line, when they're throwing projectiles at firefighters and impeding emergency services from getting where they need to go. And just as an add in, if you are in the middle of the interstate destroying random citizens vehicles, you're a piece of shit. 6. Cope how you want to cope within reason (like I am now). This year is a complete fever dream. I'm taking weeks to recover from an emergency surgery, I'm trying to learn my first post-grad job from home, there's a massive pandemic, there's huge unrest. It's anxiety-inducing as fuck. It's depressing beyond measure. I understand the rage. I have advocated for police reform for fucking ever. But without proper organization we can't get anything done. I don't understand what the expected outcome of this actually is in a concrete way. Express your anger however you want. Express your disdain however you want. We have a fucked up socio-economical system that serves to oppress the majority of our population. We have police who are above the law and held at a different standard than the citizens. My points are 1) the lack of organized goals will lead to zero results, and 2) you have no right to harm or impede the care of innocent people. I've long been disturbed by police brutality. I've long been disturbed by the social class system in the US. We need actual results. As I'm sitting here, in the middle of recovery from surgery, in the middle of a pandemic, in the middle of civil unrest, I don't see any light at the end of the tunnel. I don't see anything positive in what's around me. I'm completely sickened by all the things I've seen from the police force. I'm sickened by people cheering about a security guard getting stabbed to death so that people could bust out the windows of an apartment complex. What hell am I living in where people want the total destruction of our cities? I've said it before and I'll say it again— United States of Kamikazes. I want the fuck out. Thinking I had lost the plot if not the passion for the novel |
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
