Well this is just swell

We have been fighting about politics and religion since the dawn of man, and we have managed to twine them together throughout. I have been arguing with the same friends over the same issues since college (I don’t think I really gave any of it much thought before then). This isn’t going to change, so stop trying to get it to change. No one is going to win – we aren’t going to fight the ideological differences out of our philosophical foes. Yet we continue swinging with this false pretense that we have two parties with two philosophies so if we argue about it all we will somehow meet in the middle.

Here comes the first of those angry rants I promised, and you people deserve it. I have been sitting by as you tear my world apart with the same endless fighting, so I am done pulling punches or being politically correct. I don’t care who you think you are, but I have news for you: not everyone thinks like you. And when you try to make them, it only makes it worse. So just stop already. Politics, religion, healthcare, and racism.

Healthcare? We are now fighting about healthcare???

We have been fighting about politics and religion since the dawn of man, and we have managed to twine them together throughout. I have been arguing with the same friends over the same issues since college (I don’t think I really gave any of it much thought before then). This isn’t going to change, so stop trying to get it to change. No one is going to win – we aren’t going to fight the ideological differences out of our philosophical foes. Yet we continue swinging with this false pretense that we have two parties with two philosophies so if we argue about it all we will somehow meet in the middle.

Except meeting in the middle is not an option. No one from either side is allowed to meet in the middle on anything, even if the result is something that works, because that’s not what its about. It’s about winning, it’s about imposing one way of thinking on the other side. Because our side is the right way, and if you can’t see that, then you just need to be stopped.

Healthcare? We managed to bring healthcare into this??? Oh boy did we ever. And this time, it’s not just about how we pay for it (which was bad enough but is really just an extension of the whole politics and religion thing), no, now it’s how we actually treat a disease. We are fighting – literally swinging punches and even shooting each other – over how we should treat a disease.

Do you know how much trouble I am having leaving expletives out of this? If anything counts as free-society shitting the bed, this is it.

Let me say it again as it relates to the treatment of a disease: not everyone thinks like you. And when you try to make them, it only makes it worse. So just stop already.

What really pisses me off is when people try to act like the damage from the fighting is not their fault when it was obvious it was coming, like they deserve to stand on the moral high-ground that is their ideology above the carnage and absolve themselves of any responsibility. If you have put yourself in a position of leadership, then lead, dammit. And leading means understanding where the path you are leading us on actually goes. If it will descend into a massive societal brawl, you need to think about that.

I argued against mandating the wearing of masks primarily because the guaranteed outcome: people were going to fight about it. Well guess what, they did. And how. And those that supported the mandate will say that the actions of the ones who actually did the fighting are to blame, that they went ridiculously off the rails.

No shit. That’s precisely how violence goes. No matter how right you think you are, other people are going to think differently. When you try to force them to be like you, they are going to fight you.

Then we brought race into it, which is pretty common because as much as things have changed in America, we can still draw solid correlations with all sorts of inequities along racial lines, including healthcare. But this time we are taking it to the next level: we aren’t just going to make it about fighting racism, it’s going to be about how we fight racism. There is only one true way to eliminate racism, and if you think you have some other ideology, please allow me to beat those thoughts from your head.

Human nature is what it is. It’s not going to change. You aren’t going to fight it out and end up with a bunch of people that all think alike, you are just going to keep fighting. You are all acting like bunch of toddlers right before naptime, and you should all be ashamed. No, you don’t get to watch a well-edited video of your favorite leader spouting off about how they have the right way and if only these other misguided losers would stop fighting us the world would be a better place, because you are just as much a part of the problem as all of them.

What we need now is real leadership, and that’s obviously not going to come from the people we have been looking to as leaders. Which leaves us only one choice: we do it ourselves. I know this seems impossible, but it’s not. It is going to require that we wake up and stop being manipulated into fighting for something – no matter what it is – because none of it is helping the situation for any of us. We need to connect, but not through the toxic cesspool that is social media, we need to meet as people, different people with different ideologies and philosophies and backgrounds and struggles and goals and dreams, and we need to start actually living again.

We have dug ourselves into a pretty deep hole now, so the sooner we recognize the depths of our predicament, the sooner we can start trying to get out. And to do that, we are going to have to stand on each other’s backs, no matter what we think.