The Party Told You To Reject The Evidence Of Your Eyes And Ears. It Was Their Final, Most Essential Command

Way back when G and I were just starting out, she introduced me to her people. Many of those around her were religious and that almost immediately caused friction since I am not. One of her sisters liked me, the other one was more 'meh' (and also more religious), and the husband of that sister flat out did not like me. He kept a relatively small circle of almost entirely hardcore religious people. His children were not allowed to celebrate Halloween because he believed it was somehow demonic (thus highlighting one of my problems with religion - nobody actually educates themselves about ish, they just blindly follow). I was fresh off meeting the immediate family when G and I went to lunch with one of her oldest friends, who we'll call Q. Q is white, blonde, blue-eyed and a California transplant from back East. The moment we were introduced, she shook my hand and said, "Are you a believer?". It was like the beginning of a cult recruitment film. The minute I said I was not of the same faith as her, she became disinterested. Lunch was awkward and full of small talk. She had no interest in getting to know me and, later that afternoon, contacted G to say that she didn't believe things were gonna work out between us. Q was involved in a lot of G's family and friend get togethers and we largely just ignored each other at those events. G and I never really talked about Q, or the issue that existed in us not getting along. But apparently Q talked her ear off about me. Her favorite play was to talk about how if we decided to have children in the future they would be "misguided" and "confused" about their faith. The entire time G and I were together, Q was dating someone who struck me as non-committal. Sometimes he would be at events, most times he would not. He didn't engage much with anybody when he did show up. She talked about his work being super important and claimed that's why he rarely was around. I later found out he was a flight attendant who preferred to spend the time he was in town with his friends, rather than her. He never seemed all that into her, despite her raving about how she hoped he would propose soon. She would continue saying that for 7 years, but never when actually in his presence. One of the last conversations G and I had before we broke up was about how someone could be that out of touch with what's actually happening in their relationship. 

Breaking up with someone you're so interconnected with can be complicated, and especially in this era of social media. Despite the fact G and I rarely speak anymore and have been unfriended on all platforms for a couple of years, I still get suggestions from her friends list. Most of the suggestions are friends that I had no real issue with. A couple that have come up have moved me to click on their pages and see what they're up to. Earlier this year, Q popped up in my suggestions. I made mention of it to G who informed me that Q's now ex-boyfriend unceremoniously dumped her only after she found out he'd had someone on the side a couple of years. She's been single ever since and now that she's north of 40, she's desperate to get married and have kids. Since that's not happening anytime soon, she spends her time shopping, working and pushing Trump conspiracy theories on her social media pages. It did not surprise me when I clicked on her Stories and found 15 (FIFTEEN!) slides about Trump. This was back in, maybe, March. It was about "China Virus" being a hoax and "Liberals" this and "Fake News" that. As election week wound down to its conclusion, I thought of her again and wondered how she would handle that her cult leader had lost. The answer was not surprising. She posted a whopping 23 stories about Jesus willing Trump to victory (eventually), and screenshots of her barking back at people who called her a conspiracy nut, and random podcast quotes about how Liberals have tried to steal the election. Much like the rest of the cult, she's not coping, she's denying. Looking at her stories is like a journey to some alternate universe. I felt bad for her, not because she's an idiot but because I can't imagine being that fucking delusional. She and others like her are the base that has elevated Trump and put us in this hole.

Q is a college graduate, but never struck me as particularly...smart. Despite living in such a diverse, urban environment for a few decades, she still seemed quite sheltered. She's Evangelical and that tells her to follow blindly, don't ask questions, Jesus first in all things. She has many friends of color (G among them), but somehow does not see the damage Trump's faux presidency has done to them. I have no doubt she's one of those, "Oh, but he didn't mean you" types when it comes to his insults to various groups of people. Like so many Trump supporters, she picks and chooses what parts of him she reacts to. Children in cages? No reaction. Black Lives Matter? That's clearly salty Liberals blowing things out of proportion. Election fraud? Biden and company did that because they know Trump wants to outlaw abortion. Abortion is the big issue she, and a lot of Evangelicals, hide behind, despite the fact Trump has done absolutely zero about that issue in four years. Hell, the fact that he wanted his own daughter aborted (and has probably paid for more abortions than he can count) is of no consequence to these people. Everything is a conspiracy. Everything is fake news. Everyone and everything is conspiring against someone who they claim wants to ban what is, apparently, the only issue that matters to them. What do you call a group of people who follow a man whose mantra is, "Everything I say is 100% true and everything anyone else says is 100% false"? A cult. These Trump supporters can't see reason or truth because they need a deprogrammer. They're so deep in the mass delusion, they can't even see the light from the outside of that tunnel. The irony is Trump supporters calling everyone else sheep when they are the most gullible group of all. It's upsetting that over 70 million people decided Trump should have another term. It's distressing that so many people think the last four years of horror were just what the doctor ordered. But it's not surprising. 

You Say We've Got Nothing In Common, No Common Ground To Start From

I was already planning on writing a post about this topic when the above cartoon made the rounds on Twitter this morning. The idea of various kinds of relationships breaking up due to a so-called difference in politics has been out there for most of 2020. I recall seeing a social media post from someone a few months back talking about how you shouldn't cut any of your friends out of your life over this election because you'll need them long after the politics of this moment play out. And I couldn't agree less. What's happening now is NOT a difference in politics. If someone is still supporting Trump, especially if they are enthusiastically supporting him, they are racist. At the very least, they're okay with his racism. In my book, that makes you one and the same. In no universe is supporting a racist okay, I don't care what you mistakenly believe about him ending abortions or whatever shit the Evangelicals and Midwestern gun nuts are using to justify idolatry of him. Trump is out for one thing - money. He has profited off the Presidency. He will profit off of whatever comes next. He will burn this country to the fucking ground, no matter what happens tomorrow. This man is a fucking lunatic who is mentally ill, has absolutely no redeeming qualities and is only about himself. Make no mistake that he will throw anyone and everyone under the bus should the authorities come calling about all the shady shit that has come out the past four years. And that's the irony, isn't it? We all know he didn't think he'd actually win in 2016, he just wanted to stir shit up and prove he could hang. He was pissed a Black man had been President for 8 years and a woman would succeed him. We know he hates women, especially educated women in power. He and all the rich fucks he appointed to be in his administration had no fucking clue how government worked. He thought he could delegate the Presidential tasks to others, take the credit for everything that happens and profit off his new position of power. What he didn't expect was that people would call him on his shit and a global pandemic would show what a clueless coward he was. When people blow smoke up your entitled ass your whole life, you expect that everywhere you go. Countless allegations of all kinds came out prior to the 2016 election; his pedophilic comments about dating his own daughter, rape allegations of all kinds, his hate of anyone who is not a rich, white asshole. It was all out there, all well documented. His lies were out there too. Hell, the fact he was trying to buy an election via whoring himself out to Russia was front and center. But what swung the whole thing? Emails. Emails that were never found to be illegal. Hilary Clinton had one investigation into her, Trump has had several and many are ongoing. That right there told people all they needed to know and yet...it still happened. Four years later, shit is even worse than anyone could have imagined. Things were already a fucking mess prior to 2020, but a global pandemic has just been icing on a misshapen, disgusting cake. While Americans continue to isolate themselves from an increasingly unsafe world, get sick and die in droves, Trump lives in this faux reality he creates for himself where every move he makes is gold and anyone who doesn't think so is branded fake news or liberal or a nasty woman. The lies have come fast and furiously in this election cycle. With no crooked Hilary tagline, he's become increasingly unhinged and lied about having Covid (notice how he has zero of the lingering effects many others report, which is quite something for an overweight old man who dyes himself orange), then latched onto white supremacist supporters and instructed them to commit crimes in his name. If someone is coloring in that bubble next to Trump's name, all of the above is what you are not only voting for and endorsing, but also condoning. Kids in cages? That's fine, as long as he forces women to have all the babies. Every single thing he's done is validated with a vote for him.

Make no mistake, when people say they're voting for Trump, they are saying all the negative shit he has done is A-okay. And that is why this is not a Bob and Sally issue. We are so far from this being the every four years Democrats vs. Republicans showdown. This is literally a battle between pure fucking evil and good. This is a battle between democracy and dictatorship. This is a battle between hate and love. "A battle for the soul of our nation," is not just a Biden/Harris tagline, it is the absolute truth. If you still support the hate and racism and lies and overall disgustingness that is Trump, even after all he's shown you, I do not trust your judgement. I do not want, nor need you in my life. There was a time for giving some of his voters the benefit of the doubt, some people voted for him thinking it was funny back in 2016. But that time ended around the time he botched Covid-19 back in February. If you're still on his bandwagon, you're just as disgusting as he is. I've been quite fortunate to find that I've been mostly aligned with good people through all this. I've only had to cut a handful of people out of my life. I've been surprised by some acquaintances being so comfortable in their support of him, but acquaintances are far easier to cut loose. Will you need friends long after this season passes? Of course. But this season has shown you the true colors of the people in your life. When people show you who they are, believed them. This season, awful and crushing as it is, is a blessing, of sorts. It's a time to purge undercover toxic people from your life. And that's not because they're voting for one guy over another, it's because their values and beliefs no longer align with yours, if they ever did to begin with. "Oh, he's not referring to you when he insults Mexicans/African-Americans/Asians," is not a compliment, or a justification. Because these groups know he refers to all of us. He believes everyone who is one of those colors are whatever insult he's hurling at the time. All the Chinese people are to blame for Covid. All the Mexicans are racist. All the African-Americans are lazy. If you're using that line to justify, what you're actually saying is you think it's fine that he insults any racial group at all. You're saying you think he's right about those groups. And that makes me question how you actually feel about me as a Hispanic person, or my daughter as an African-American/Hispanic person. You're saying it's okay for her other parents and I to have to have that extra "talk" with her about how to deal with the police. And I cannot keep someone like that in my life and look my daughter in the eye and explain it. Keeping someone like that in my life is telling Miss N that's it's okay for people to think she deserves less than anyone else. Twenty years from now, world not ending permitting, there will be a lot to answer for. You either voted for the big ass, racist baby or you voted for someone who gives a full flying fuck about people. How you vote says so much more about you this election than in any other election in the past. Bob and Sally may have no self-esteem or backbone, or no problem having no common ground. But some of us do.