Monday, November 14, 2016

It's the end of the world as we know it.....or not...



***Political Parties are referred to as colors just because I feel like it.***

On Wednesday, Nov 9th, 2016, the world woke up with a collective post election hangover. This election cycle has been the worst. It was a circus, it was messy, and we were given the worst possible candidates on all sides. In the Red was a shady businessman, in the Blue a corrupt life-long politician, and in the Yellow was a guy who probably smoke more pot than he should have and didn't have a chance to win. 

After the results were in, some people were happy, some were calling the suicide hotline. Oh, and as the results poured in, the Canadian Immigration website crashed due to all the people who wanted to leave America. 

My stance through the whole election cycle was "No One 2016" and "Anyone Else 2016". I knew I was going to focus on the local elections, but the Presidential one? I walked into the voting booth not 100% sure what I was going to do, and I left that section for last. I tried to make the best decision I could based on my own independent research of the candidates, and I'm just going to leave it at that. 

I went to sleep early in the AM (before the announcement was made) with the conscious decision to be at peace with whoever was elected. It wasn't going to be healthy for me to be all emotional about the results and pissed off for the next four years. I've been pretty convinced that no matter who was going to win, we were screwed one way or the other. 


With the election hangover subsiding, we're having news reports of protests, riots, cry-ins, and hateful behavior. Now, not everyone that is "protesting" or "rioting" is doing so because of the election. Some just like to have a reason to cause damage and loot. The sad part is that small businesses are being affected and the behavior is hurting hard working Americans. It is also hurting those cities being affected. 


Is this the behavior you want your kids to see? 

I'll address the cry-ins and the "it's the end of the world" mentality in a minute. Now, for the name calling and other hateful behavior. It needs to stop...on both sides. If you have a child, do you really want to teach them that telling someone to kill themselves and just throwing around terms like "racist," "Libtard," etc is OK? If you truly want to improve the future, this isn't the behavior to model for your child. Some of us are raising the next generation and we have the choice to be positive or negative roles models. Hate only begets Hate.

Also, in regards to the name calling, stop lumping everyone in together. To quote my best friend of many years, "Isn't lumping people into groups based on a single quality they may share dangerous and ignorant? Just because they voted for someone doesn't mean they are for all the same things as everyone else that voted for the same candidate. It also doesn't mean they have the same level of maturity. It also doesn't mean they've faced the same challenges that lead to that vote."  

Not everyone who voted for Trump is a racist, bigoted, xenophobic, misogynistic homophobe. On the flip side, not everyone who voted for Clinton are socialist, commie "See You Next Tuesdays" (I'm not spelling that word out on here). If you dumped a friend because of their political beliefs, and solely because of it, or if you only see a person because of their political beliefs, then you have deeper problems to address. My best friend and I definitely don't agree on a lot of things, but I love her to death and will never abandon her over politics. People are much more than their political beliefs.


If you want to protest, do so in a way that doesn't impede traffic or put anyone in danger. Trump supporters, if you're going to go around spewing hate, you need to get some perspective. It's unnecessary and ridiculous to behave like this.


Is it really the end of the world?

No, its not. If you put emotions aside for a moment and think about it, the world is still turning and life will continue. 

If you are an immigrant and are here legally, you're not going to be deported. For crying out loud, Trump's wife is an immigrant. Government agents aren't going to be storming around the country and ejecting every foreigner here. The government doesn't have that kind of manning or funding.  
 
If you're married to your same sex partner, you're going to stay married (unless you two decide to get divorced). It's much like abortion, the Supreme Court has made the decision and that decision will stay in place. 


On the KKK parade planned for NC:  1) They parade all the time.  2) It's only like 10 people. Trump has disavowed and denounced the KKK on multiple occasions. The KKK is still highly irrelevant this day in age. 

If you're afraid of him defunding various things, don't be. There is a process and he can't just arbitrarily go doing things. Even with a Red controlled House and Senate, they need the votes to pass anything and their control isn't staggering. 


Why is everyone so afraid?

This one is easy. Because the media told everyone to be afraid. There is a reason that I read British, Australian, and Japanese news with regards to American news. They generally have just a straight story with facts and figures. Hell, even on election night, Australia's Sydney Herald updated faster than The New York Times as the night went on.  Our media, across the board, has perfected fear-mongering. 

As Christopher Titus said in Neverlution, "And let's define 'terrorist organization'. A terrorist organization is an organization that scares you on a daily basis and makes you change your behavior. What does CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC do on a daily basis?"  He said it to be funny, but sadly, there is a lot of truth in it. Check out the clip below:

Our society are puppets to the media. They say "believe this" and people do...without doing independent research. Hence, why I read foreign papers and delve deeper beyond what the media says. 

On that note, People, stop believing things your friends and family share on social media. Don't share them either and continue the cycle. I can guarantee you that 99.9% of the things your friends share, are provably false. I know my friends and family are probably sick of me debunking everything they post, but I'll keep doing it.

Those posts are meant to illicit an emotional response without the person fact-checking. It is only click bait for revenue and truth be damned. That goes for everything from the "1 like = Amen" for a stolen photo of a sick or injured child to most fear-mongering articles on health and politics. 

It's been so bad recently that I think I sprained my eyes from rolling them so hard. No matter if you're Red or Blue, they're going to spin the crap to how they want you to see it, not how it actually is. Best fear-mongerers ever!



Emotions can get you or someone else killed, don't let these things make you emotional. Take a step back and do your own independent research. All American media has a spin to it. Just like I refused to be brainwashed by the Air Force, I refuse to be brainwashed by the media.    

So, what happened?

Blues, I'm sorry to say, you only have yourselves to blame. You may have showed up to vote, but your fellow voters did not. It may have been a troll, but I read a post on Qoura where a Clinton supporter was absolutely sure that Clinton had it in the bag and voted for Trump to be funny. Again, it could be a troll, but it makes one wonder how many may have actually done something similar. Seriously, there were like 15,000 votes for the dead gorilla, Harambe. I don't put it past any voter to vote for the opposite candidate to be funny.

The Reds numbers are just about even from 2012, but the Blue turnout was down. Clinton has actually received around 4.8 million fewer votes than Obama did in 2012. Overall turnout was at a 20 year low, with about half of eligible voters turning up to the polls. At current count, anyways. 

While the Reds turnout was about even to prior years, why didn't the Blues turnout in force? Well, there is that whole Sanders/DNC debacle that pissed off a lot of Sanders supporters. They may have stayed home or voted independent because of that. There is another segment that figured that Clinton had it in the bag, and didn't bother to go to the polls. 

By all accounts, no one really expected Trump to win. Multiple news outlets showed him behind and even one of his own guys said, "We'd need a miracle to win this," the night of the election. Even he didn't expect to win. 


If Bernie Sanders had been the Blue's candidate, I bet you anything that he would have won in a landslide. I didn't support him, either. I really haven't supported anyone since 2004. Apathy, thy name is Coffeeshop Curmudgeon. 

Final Thoughts
Some will read this and dismiss it. That's fine. I just felt like putting my thoughts out there. Just keep this in mind. You are a role model for the future generations. If you truly don't like the current climate, run for a local office and work your way up. Blocking traffic in protest, calling for people to kill themselves, calling for violence, or telling others to go back to their country isn't as effective as if you ran for an office, worked your way up, and changed things from the inside. You have control of your attitude and we have control of our destiny. This country has survived 44 Presidents and we will survive 45. We can survive it divided or together, it's your choice.

Live and laugh! It's the best medicine and 
Remember what's really important here: alcohol and video games. We're Gen Xers!