Are You Real?

I've written before about how frustrating it is to be someone who writes when you cannot reach someone through words. When someone is grieving and you cannot comfort them no matter what you say. When you know someone is about to make a terrible decision but there is nothing you can say that would actually stop them. When an entire political party has convinced people that anyone who doesn't think like them isn't real.

I first saw it happening during the first Trump administration. For a long stretch I wrote it off as the Russian bots doing their thing. Anytime a liberal would talk about something terrible Trump was doing they would say they had TDS. Trump Derangement Syndrome. That their dislike for Trump clouded their judgement so badly they couldn't ever say or see something good about him. It's a weird one to me because I feel like TDS is real, but they've just got who has it backwards. The fact that they can listen to the word salad that he spits out in speeches and come away with "what he actually said was..." to me shows they don't see him or hear him at all.

But the one that pissed me off in the moment and now scares me the most was "orange man bad." That would be the comment. Sometimes with a troll face; orange man bad. It's a shorthand. The full sentiment is NPC says orange man bad. As in that's all they can say.

For those of you who don't play video games, or don't hang around people who do, an NPC is a non playable character. They are the villagers or people you meet on the road who have information or items you, the hero, need to play the game. But they are only programmed to say their set lines. They don't actually exist in any other context. No matter how many times you run into Billy the Goat Herder he is going to warn you that it often rains in Balcor.

NPC says Orange Man Bad.

You aren't real. You have no actual thoughts. You've been programmed to say Orange Man Bad no matter what happens.

My first exposure to it in the wild was when a friend of mine's son called her an NPC. Her son. Now he wasn't my kid so I didn't verbally slap him into next week but I was tempted. The level of disrespect that is in calling someone an NPC is outrageous. And to say it about your mother?

It pissed me off at the time. And now that Trump is back in office and we saw the huge support he has from young men? It's scares me. They've been told that the people that don't agree with them, the ones who don't agree with Trump, aren't real. Aren't worth your consideration. They are all NPCs in your hero game.

You can see that in action with Elon and his band of Merry Youth out there dismantling the government. USAID helps people? Not me it doesn't. Take it down. Health, education, regulations, environmental protection, consumer protection, take them all down! Gather your coins in the game as you dismantle the State. Yay! Nobody can stop you! It doesn't hurt anyone.

Not anyone real anyway.

And who is real?

Check your bank account. Probably not you.

You cannot reach people who do not believe you are real.

That's frustrating to me.

But I'll just keep writing these blogs and sending messages to my representatives (Luckily for me most of those have been "I appreciate what you are doing, keep it up" messages) and talking to people who know I'm real. Who I know are real. And who are all really pissed off. And really scared. And really need each other right now.

This is real. You are real. And we will keep going. Don't let them convince you that you are just a character in their hero story.

This is a multiplayer cooperative game and we are all hands on deck right now.