There are lots of things to love about the country I currently find myself in. But then there are lots of things I could get quite anxious about as well. Our march of gammons following far-right adolescent Tommy Robinson was a concern. Our seeming inability to spot the problems with Islamophobia is another one. I thought I’d try to whittle it down, and here’s my conclusion; amongst the maelstrom of people’s rampant justification of hatred, it comes down to a basic refusal to ‘love our neighbour’, so what are the chances we learn to love an enemy?
I’m a huge admirer of this sort of approach – because it’s actually super kind! The guy in the nasty ‘patriot’ suit is treating people with respect, there’s no shame involved, he just gently talks about how certain political parties’ words do not align with their actions (here he is doing it last year as well 😂)- and the people who have been fooled by the grievance rhetoric are immediately challenged. Fantastic work! It seems if we really want to change people’s minds, we need to meet them where they are. The “Only equals can be friends” saying of Angelou comes into play here.
I honestly feel sorry for those countries where people are constantly scared for their own safety, where you have to drive in order to get anywhere ‘local’, where people are still grouped by race or financial means. It’s over-generalising, but having traveled there and seen segregation still in action (!); America is the obvious example (sorry readers from that country, and all states are quite different, but you’re painfully aware of the problems no doubt, especially if you’re non-white).
There are tons of positives about America; particularly the people, in my experience.
I’m often struck by US employment law though, which seems to have come straight out of Victorian Britain (sorry about that, ahem), and has somehow remained completely unchanged since the 1800s. It’s a sort of caricature of Capitalism, in which human safety and wellbeing is prioritised below accruing wealth. Extraordinary! There are more hopeful examples, obviously, it’s just the general trend is a touch … Dickensian.
Apparently a lot of people in the US have to use up vacation days when they’re ill?! WHAT?!!! What sort of holiday is that?! It’s no sort of holiday, that’s what. But I needn’t criticize the US; after all the UK seems intent on following that particular path as well, with “Hey let’s get rid of human rights” rhetoric being the clanging gong that heralds any slide deeper into the lukewarm turds of christofascism.
It does seem that here’s the inevitable symptom of the hate-your-neighbour logic;
… and yet globally there are lots of examples of cultures shifting away from the work-to-the-bone hellscape of late Capitalism, embodied so perfectly by the lonely child described above. So that’s good. Lots of hope about the place, and lots of well-modeled examples we can learn from when we’re ready.
It’s interesting the role of lying and inconsistency in the rise of a character like that, though. One of my current privileges is I seem to mingle with people throughout UK society, from all sorts of backgrounds, very different political beliefs and financial means, from the very top to the very very bottom. I won’t go into details, but I do seem to have quite the diversity of hang-outs. So it’s been interesting that despite my broad range of access to society, I have never, ever heard anyone speak positively about the President referenced above. Not five years ago, not fifteen years ago, never. And yes, I do spend lots of time with people I hugely disagree with; on politics, on economics, ethics, everything.
But despite all my travels, I have only ever come across broad-spectrum dislike of that particular man, that has seemingly been around since long before he appeared in Home Alone.
The one exception I’ve personally come across, is that I once overheard someone on an English street in about 2017 who said “Well sure, but America needs a strong leader. You’ll see”, but even that was a serious edge case that drew incredulity from the person’s acquaintances. And just as with Brexit; we have seen. Repeatedly. And the scraping-the-barrel-of-utter-fiascos outcome did happen, precisely as predicted. So if you’ve heard that Europeans in any way ‘respect’ that poorly man, I would suggest you have been lied to again.
Lying, inconsistency, lack of coherent thought … the symptoms are pretty obvious. No matter what someone says they’ll do about the economy or tax or ‘immigration’, perhaps we should learn to look at what they have actually done. Let’s look for those moments when someone’s words align with their actions; and if they are few and far between, then we need to learn to get them out of powerful positions.
And no, not all politicians are the same; that lazy cynical thinking is what gets people into concentration camp territory. Just ask the Germans; it does matter who you vote for. Lots of Euro discourse around for the last few years that mentions the term ‘Nazi’ is coming from the Germans – they’re pretty clear on what’s going on in America, and of all people, they’re well qualified to spot it.
Anyway, I’m only blogging to request that we are all very, very sure to make use of our votes. All of us, no matter what country we’re in, let us be careful to align our beliefs with our votes as closely as possible.
Vote for policies we agree with, rather than grievances. And let’s be brave in doing so, for our lives depend on it – beyond even the bullying of those who may turn up to the voting booths looking to intimidate, as if this is Russia. Eritrea. Somalia. Congo. If you need to intimidate people going to vote (or affect their opinions using big data and ad-targeted ragebait), then you should have no part in a democratic nation.
Clarity. Bravery. Consistency. It can’t be that hard.
Oh hold on, this is a sex comic blog …
*byoink byoink*
*germany*: about the thing… hm… you know what….If you don’t get it after 80 years…were out! Good luck! Don’t die!
I had to do a cople weeks of news detox to get distance from the rage. Then I forced myself to make a list of things Trump has done that actually could improve the present and/or our future. To my great surprise, the resulting list was far from empty, though most of the lessons required using filters.
An example: Trump has shown just how stunningly bad the US Congress has become at writing laws! With very few exceptions, the vast majority of laws rely on “gentlemen’s agreements” between the Legislative, Judiciary and Executive branches. Trump has shown these “agreements” are a total sham, that long ago should have themselves been codified in law (and Constitutional amendments, as needed)
Trump has also shown how to totally dominate the Legislative branch by using intimidation to rush through his “One Big Beautiful Bill”, all the individual parts of which would never have passed on their own. Then he let Congress squabble and achieve virtually nothing else since. Again, the structure of a “proper bill” should have been codified long ago.
Trump has also shown how slow the Judiciary is, especially the US Supreme Court, by deftly using the Emergency Docket to get approval for vague intentions, then relying on the slow and deliberative court process to keep the courts from interfering for many months. Again, formal rules are needed concerning what the Executive Branch is permitted to do quickly, and what it must do slowly.
Trump has also shown how a civilian agency can be “militarized” with few rules and little supervision, neatly threading between the rules governing the military branches and the police. Again, Congress failed to properly define the scope of such agencies, relying on “common sense” for their implementation and use.
The US government has been a poorly-defined structure for far too long, and Trump proved it. It’s a shame it got this bad, but hopefully we will learn our lessons and rectify the problems with something far stronger than more band-aid legislation.
The list goes on, especially in the international sphere. Agreements with the US cannot be enforced, and thus aren’t worth the paper they’re written on. This predates Trump! The US signed the original Geneva Convention, but has ignored the THREE Additional Protocols created since. The US is the largest sponsor of the UN, but uses it mainly as a tool to control others. The US is not a member of the International Criminal Court, and has actively obstructed its work whenever US citizens are involved, even including for war crimes. That list goes on as well. Trump is just making it much more obvious.
Sigh. The rages rises. But it’s not all Trump. He’s just the poster child.
The inherent problem is the indifference and laziness of the general electorate and their inability to apply critical thought to what are obvious choices between good and bad, right and wrong, and the potential for success or failure. That’s what’s enabled the current conditons to occur. How any sentient being could willingly vote for a presidential candidate who had a history as a failed con-man whose enterprises had been bankrupted six times while trying to operate gambling casinos, where the odds are stacked in favor of the owner, is beyond comprehension. If just defies belief. As we used to say, “..these guys could screw up the sunset.” I discovered recently that there is entity known as a “low-knowledge voter” in political science circles. It’s defined as someone who doesn’t know which party currently has control of the legislature (also know as the majority party in the US). And yet somehow, the vote of a member of that group has the same weight in determining who is elected as someone who has an acceptable understanding of the political situation, which every vote should. No wonder we are where we are.