Wednesday, December 1, 2010

On Modern Politics

Mom's not going to like reading this one; she'll probably agree with the sentiment, but start hunting for the soap bar...

Politics in these modern times has a major problem. The problem is that there are two radical extremist 'sides' of a false-dichotomy Left vs Right axis, and both extremist 'sides' polarize completely to one side or the other, absolutely hate and demonize the other, and then label anyone who doesn't polarize alongside them as a polar-opposite extremist.

It is so mind-numbingly IDIOTIC and STUPID, and just about EVERY GOD DAMNED PERSON IS DOING IT!!!!


There IS NO SUCH THING AS LEFT VS RIGHT. It's BS. It's archaic, anachronistic, inaccurate BS from the seating arrangements of the French parliament THREE HUNDRED YEARS AGO, and IT NEVER MADE SENSE EVEN THEN.

The so-called "Far Left" (a true rarity in today's America, out-and-out far left ideologically pure socialist have been a tiny minority since the end of the '40s) label anyone who doesn't agree with their puritanical "Leftist" policies and beliefs as a right-wing nutjob. The so-called "Far Right" (a common sight in today's America, as militant far-right ideologically pure libertarianism has been on the rise) label anyone who doesn't agree with THEIR puritanical "Rightist" policies and beliefs as a left-wing nutjob.

AND YOU'RE ALL FUCKING INSANE. You argue and rant and squabble and fight and bicker and attack and hate and ultimately, when allowed to take it to the final conclusion, KILL EACH OTHER, over a complete and utter BULLSHIT political line in the sand.

NOTHING gets done, NOTHING is accomplished, all that is generated is more HATE AND ANGER. Our country is in shambles and you are driving its people apart, turning us on ourselves, threatening to destroy EVERYTHING we have accomplished, while foreign enemies who would love nothing better than to see us destroy ourselves sit back and laugh as we annihilate ourselves!

Would you all just GROW THE FUCK UP!!! You are all twice my age or more, and you are all acting like FUCKING TODDLERS! Anyone who doesn't agree with you is an enemy, they must be destroyed, they are evil, they are traitors, they hate America, they hate freedom, they hate equality, they hate my god, they are out to destroy us, they're idiots, incompetent, can't think, stupid, uneducated, evil, unamerican terrorist communist fascist nazis out to oppress us all!!!

FUCKING HELL! Listen to yourselves! Is this the United States of America, or the United States of Paranoid Schizophrenia!?! Listening to all of you, far left, far right, Socialist, Capitalist, I CAN'T FUCKING TELL!!!

The sad part is that it's all BULLSHIT, and YOU SHOULD ALL FUCKING KNOW BETTER. You are FUCKING ADULTS, damnit! FUCKING ACT LIKE IT. Someone who disagrees with you IS NOT FUCKING SATAN. They just have a different opinion. They disagree. They don't hate you, they aren't out to oppress you, destroy your freedoms, force you to think like them. They just disagree. They have a different opinion. Whoop-dee-fucking-doo. They are DIFFERENT FROM YOU. They are not a fucking clone! It is only natural that they are not going to completely agree with you on exactly everything. And, wow, they might even very much disagree with you! They don't even have to be stupid, just have different opinions and values! Does this mean they are wrong? Maybe. Maybe you are wrong. Maybe you BOTH are wrong, or maybe you both are right. THAT DOESN'T MAKE THEM THE ENEMY. It just means you disagree. And, hey, last I checked, it's a free country. We're free to disagree with each other. That's kinda the point! If we all thought exactly the same, well, guess what? We're probably in Oceania. Even if we weren't, it would get rather boring very quickly, and there wouldn't be anyone around to tell us when we ARE wrong before we fuck up and blow something up.

It's good that we disagree, it brings different ideas to the table and lets us examine things from different angles. Is somebody wrong? Maybe, maybe not. Usually, there's more than one way to skin a cat. There's usually more than one way to get things to work fairly well, and there sure as hell is no such thing as a One True Way. No, sometimes somebody IS wrong, either running their model on faulty or inaccurate knowledge, or they have a faulty or inaccurate model itself (their 'Map' of reality doesn't reflect the 'Territory' of what is actually real). Odds are, EVERYONE is wrong, to one degree or another. Nobody is perfect, nobody is gonna get it exactly right, at least not the firs time. There's an off chance that it can happen, but the odds are remote. Usually, everybody's partly right and partly wrong, about this or that, to one degree or another. Again, that's why having different ideas about how to do things is a GOOD THING, because it helps us work out what IS real and what is error, and find optimal ways of doing things, and continue to optimize as times change.

Sitting down and discussing our disagreements while still respecting each other, respecting each other's right to differ in opinion, without hating, without paranoia or shouting someone down just because we disagree or we don't like what they say, that is how adults discuss things. They don't scream and hate and blindly attack and yank each others' hair out. That's what toddlers do, and they get smacked in the ass for it.

Oh, there's one other thing that goes with being adults. Compromise. You gotta do it. Everyone has to compromise. You know how you have this list of things you want and how you want everything to be? Ain't gonna happen. Nobody gets everything they want. That's life. You have to compromise. Throwing a tantrum because you didn't get everything that you wanted is what a toddler does, and they get smacked in the ass for it. Adults make concessions, accept that they're not going to get everything they want, that they have to share the toys, and make compromises to get the best of what they can, while WORKING TOGETHER with everyone else to achieve common goals, and, hey, even make the place a little better for their kids.

If you don't like that? Tough shit. That's how life works. Nobody gets everything they want. Nobody should, because I can guarantee that you're wrong about something. I'M wrong about something, and odds are several somethings. NOBODY is perfect, NOBODY gets everything right, also part of life.

Now, are you all going to sit down, SHUT THE FUCK UP, and try to discuss your opinions and positions like the mature, sane adults you supposedly are? OR are you going to go back to your two-year-old temper tantrums because you stuck gum in each others' hair?