Spare Me...

Just realized that would be a great title for a short story, might be a Spare Me (Fiction) sometime...

ANYWAY...

I'm reading a few newsletters right now. A variety pack of liberal voices to make me feel better about the world. Action items, news recaps, think pieces, fluffy writing. Just a variety. One of them that I got this morning made me roll my eyes and swear out loud.

It was all about how we as progressives need to treat young men better. That we've got no space in the party for young (especially white) men. The party of inclusivity has locked them out. And they had no choice but to vote for Republicans. Even though the ones she spoke to during the election cycle believed in choice for women, had no issue with trans rights and thought the immigration issue was overblown.

But Joe Rogan and his like had told them it was manly to vote for Republicans. That they were owed things, the country made promises to them, strictly because they were men (mostly white men) and that progressives were going to give all those things to immigrants and trans people. So what choice did they have?

Empathy is for women and beta cucks. They are owed the top. Everyone else is taking it from them.

So we need to find a way to talk to them and get them to vote democrat.

Fuck that.

Oh my god fuck that so hard.

It gives me the same feeling I had during the election when Harris was campaigning with Liz Cheney. Or in Texas. Though now the full story has come out and the Texas thing was tied to Joe Rogan jerking the campaign around because, manly I guess? But the Joe Rogan interview falls under the campaigning with Cheney stuff. It's that we need to appeal to people who do not have the same ideals as we do while ignoring those that do.

Like not having any trans people talk at the DNC because the democrats didn't want the "trans issue" to be used against them. Ignoring the fact that there were already millions of dollars being spent on anti trans advertising. We needed to counter that, not ignore it. Or not having any Palestinians speak about what was going on in Gaza though they had parents of a hostage speak so the Israeli side got a chance. Even though there had been multiple protests on college campuses, an entire "none of the above" protest vote during the primaries, and BEGGING to be let on stage by elected democrats. There was a thirst for someone in authority to say, what is happening is wrong, not just one side is wrong and well shame about all the other death and destruction. They know better than to say you cannot hold two thoughts in your head, October 7th was wrong, but so is bombing Gaza. Easy.

Those were mistakes. Mistakes made out of what they felt was an abundance of caution, but mistakes. Don't speak to people who are not inclined to listen. That's what that was.

Let me say right now that my position is the same. I believe in voting for the best possible choice and there is no progressive stance that Harris was not BY FAR the best possible choice. I also believe in incrementalism. I think any steps forward count. And as always even if you believe your choices are between evil and lesser evil you ALWAYS vote for less evil. But I'm 56.

Incrementalism is not something that makes sense when you are young. Because sometimes the increments are so small you can't see them. Sometimes it takes decades of life to look back and say, oh wow, look where we've come from. You want a spot check? Read or watch any popular media from the 80s, 90s, even up to the 2010s. Listen to the language that was used. How casually some slurs are just tossed around. Even by characters who are supposed to be liberal. Things we would never say now. That's incrementalism.

"...the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The long part is the focus of incrementalism. It's long. It takes a while. But it bends toward justice.

Only if we keep bending it that way, though. And we have to keep in mind that there are forces pushing against that bend. Who have no desire for moral justice. And they are pushing it hard. Enough so that sometimes we get a good bend going, we think we are about to make giant progress and it all snaps back to where we were before. Backwards, away from justice.

But the interesting thing, for anyone who has done metal work before, once a bar has been bent, even if it's straightened all the way out, it's easier to bend the second time.

It makes me legit angry when I hear about how we have to be nicer to the people that feel they are being left behind. That we have to compromise our beliefs to make them comfortable. That too much change means they won't come along so we shouldn't push for it. That we should just do what they want because it's easier for them.

We have to push. We aren't going very fast even with all of us pushing. And right now we are in a position where that long arc has snapped back, so to stop pushing for change now? To say, okay, white boys, you're right, you get to call everyone gay and have first pick of well, everything, we will just go along until maybe you decide to grow the fuck up. No thank you, ma'am.

I believe in incrementalism. I believe in the moral arc bending toward justice. But it doesn't bend by giving in. And we don't go anywhere if we are willing to stop pushing.

How about instead of telling those young men that there is a place for them in the democratic party we just keep talking about who the democratic party is and what it believes in and the ones that want to help push can come help.

Stop trying to bend your own morals to fit with people who are not listening.