Remember,… way back in days of yore, when you could have a discussion and end it with the infuriatingly passive aggressive “agree to disagree?” The halcyon days when making drug addicts test for food stamps was something you and your cousins could disagree on without coming to blows. Well, this is a new era bitches. The simple days of entitlement reform and healthcare debates are a thing of the past.
Picture it, Astoria 2010. I was a deep thinker with integirty. I engaged thoughtfully and with an open mind. I was opinionated, sure, but I listened. There was promise on the horizon for me and my people. New York had just legalized gay marriage and the sparks of a national debate were beginning to burn bright. I had dealt with homophobia my entire life, whether it be the torment of children (I am no innocent in that area, either.) or the vitriol spewed by dear old Dad, and his third wife Merlyn. (Yes, her name is Merlyn.) I had learned from it, and transcended the emotions it inspired. Well, I thought I had.
The next few years of watching my rights and value as a person be litigated by politicians, religious leaders and keyboard warriors took a toll I never couldn't have imagined. The daily onslaught of pedophila and beastiality allegations were overwhelming. In order to insulate my emotions, I turned to my old friend sarcasm. It was fun at first, taking down neanderthals either too uninformed to have a valuable response or too stupid to even realize your insulting them. After the landmark ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, that debate quickly lost its lustre. It was a new era, not without its scars, and I had planned on reveling in it.
Then, a dastardly thing happened. I realized I was not dead inside. All those years of marginalization and degredation had taught me how to numb myself against even the staunchest of critics, but now I had a taste of true victory. Instead of resting on the laurels of a life changing Supreme Court win, my eyes had been opened to the plights and trials of other marginalized people. Jeez, I thought the gays had it bad. Did you know there are racists, too? And that racists have been around and legislating their hate and bigotry for like 400 years? Homophobes are pretty in your face about it all, but racists are sneaky. They don't even have to be blatant about it. They've been creating a system so intricate and pervasive for CENTURIES, and because it has been around for so long most people aren't even aware of how far reaching it is. In addition to rigging the system against black and brown people, it also provides a thin veil of cover for the bigots of today. Cue: President Donald Jezebel Trump.
In Trump's America, politics are no longer "agree to disagree" scenarios. Sure, if you search high and low you may find a topic so benign that even Trump can't polarize it. Alas, today's politics are more choices between right and wrong. It's difficult to see children in cages, knowing those children were ripped screaming from their parents arms with little hope of ever being reunited, and have respect for anyone who supports it. Watching video after video of black and brown people being terrorizecd and murdered, the only arbiter between their murder and a slap on the wrist being the color of their skin, makes "agreeing to disagree" a fanciful folly reserved for the naive.
We can debate how to solve the problems of today, but we cannot debate that they exist. They do. If you don't believe they do, learn how to use the google machine and educate yourself. Being willfully ignorant is no lot an valid excuse. Neither is being a bigot. Never fret, though, you can still be an idiot and eek by.
Imagine if gay people were out and proud in the 1700's? If there were a native land for us to be stolen from, beaten, chained and enslaved for centuries. Now, imagine you were free, and able to exist openly but you werer still treated like a slave. How willing would you be to agree to disagree about your right to exist?
Love and crumpets,
Glampa
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