A blog in two parts.
There are two parts to this. Part one consists of words verses words and it is a bit incendiary. Part two is about the power of words and the stories that we choose to believe. It is a bit less provocative, but then again it’s hard to get the toothpaste back into the tube once one squeezes it onto your brush.
Part I…
So, I came across a political meme that has been making the rounds on social media, yesterday. That’s really not a hard thing to do these days. Pick a side and run with it to your hearts content. There’s something for everyone. Pick something that fits your world view, your confirmation biases and there you are. Just try not to get too carried away. This meme gets a bit carried away with itself.
I decided that I was not going to cut & paste it here as it is presented. No, that wouldn't be proper, it needs some fixing. Perhaps it’s part of my own confirmation bias, but I believe the truth should still mean something. So, instead of just cutting & pasting, I’m simply going to describe it for you, Gentle Reader. There is a picture of Trump glaring at the camera and pointing a finger. The words surrounding his precious little head read…
“In reality they’re
not after me they’re after you.
I’m just in the way.”
At the very top, above the postcard picture of that man of the people are those words. Words written by a peeved Proud Boy(s), a Trump cultist(s), a campaign writer(s), or some combination, thereof. Words specifically designed to strum all the strings of manipulation at once. Words designed to divide – it is an election, after all, but, regretfully, the last four years have gifted us with nothing but division. The words used here are marching orders. Words that say, in no uncertain terms, that Trump is the conduit to a golden future for the United States and if you think differently, you’re simply wrong, you Godless, leftist, Democrat, and you deserve to be crushed.
I have taken the liberty to address the points raised by this patriotic young lad(s) or lass(es), wherever your pronouns may be. I wrote in the brackets – emboldened. Here we go!
To answer all of those of you who would say “I can't believe you would vote for Trump." Well folks listen up! I'm not just voting for him. I'm voting for the second Amendment (because they’re coming for your guns! SPOILERS, no – that old chestnut is not true, no one is coming for your guns unless there is a good reason for it). I'm voting for the next supreme court justice (due to me being jaded and chocked full of biases also I don’t like balance), I'm voting for the electoral college (how do I feel about gerrymandering? Hold on, I have to look that up), and the Republic (dystopia) we live in. I'm voting for the Police (the good ones, the ones who kill people that are not the same color as I am, or the stormtroopers who make people disappear? There are so many to choose from these days!), and law and order (I do not like protesters and my second amendment rights are more important than their first amendment ones). I'm voting for the military (you mean the estimated U.S. military spending is $934 billion*. It covers the period October 1, 2020, through September 30, 2021?), and the veterans (who are having problems getting their medications through the mail since Mango Mussolini tried to kill the United States Post Office) who fought for and died for this Country. I'm voting for the Flag that is always missing from the Democratic background (another contrived lie; also, I’m beginning to think you don’t like Democrats). I'm voting for the right to speak my opinion and not be censored (Come now, you have never had a problem voicing your opinion – whether it’s not wanting to wear a mask during a global pandemic or just the casual refusal of science, voicing your opinion is not one of your problems. But, hey, if you could lay off the conspiracy theories, though? it would be appreciated). I’m voting for secure borders (and against Mexicans because they don’t look like me – any other people who also do not look like me). I’m voting for the right to praise my God without fear (Come now, let’s not be coy, you praise your God without fear already. As an American your idea of religious persecution pales in comparison to the real thing. But, God - which one are you referring to? Hard to say – there are so many. Playing the odds, 74% of the U.S. claim Christianity. Out of curiosity, if you claim to be a follower of Christ, which title do you prefer, Capitalist or Christian? Asking for a friend). I’m voting for every unborn soul the Democrats want to murder (this, too, is a lie). I’m voting for freedom and the American Dream (as long as it is for people who think and look like I do). I’m voting for good and against evil (No, you’re really not & horribly, horribly mistaken in this case). I'm not just voting for one person, I'm voting for the future of my Country! (Trump gave you a voice. You’ve kept so many things bottled up inside of you; poor dear. But it’s different now - now it can be your boot on the throat of those you think are your enemies. Your taking your country back! You’ll show ‘em all, won’t you, Sport?)
What are you voting for?!?! (I am voting to cancel yours. That’s a true story, right there).
In God we Trust; One Nation Under God (added to the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954, BTW)
Copy and paste. I did. (Of this, I have no doubt. There is no way you came up with this. It must fit your assumed world view. Fortunately for you, there are hosts of people out there – the Alt Right, Nazis, KKK members, run of the mill Karens oblivious to their own white privilege, etc. – who will give you all the opinions you should have and, after all, “It has always been easier to have an opinion than it is to think”, hasn't it? Yes, it has.)
There – Fixed!
It could be fixed better, but it holds water – depending on the intentions of the words.
Look, I get it. It is an election year, that’s one of the reasons it’s so slanted. The fact is, neither of us - the author(s) of this meme or I, are going to be changing our minds on the topic of Donald Trump. I can't speak for you, author(s), I can only speak for myself, and I can honestly say that if you identify as a republican or a democrat, that I'm fine with that. It's the way it is here in these United States. Third, fourth, or fifth parties are swallowed by the political machine so, effectively, we have a two-party system – republicans and democrats and, leaving the extremists out of the conversation for a moment, we can find common ground. I can work with either. But if you identify specifically as a Trump supporter, flags start to go up for me. Just being honest. Not that I write you off completely, that’s not the case, but it tells me a lot about what you, your priorities, and the stories you believe. Perhaps I’m mistaken. It has happened on occasion, so I am not blindly casting my nets out into the waters and saying, “All Trump supporters are wrong.” No, I'm not doing that. But, with God as my witness, you are suspect.
You have earned it.
I have my own reasons for this.
You wouldn’t care about them if I told you. But, I have my reasons.
You can shout, “God bless, Donald Trump,” all you want, but try to understand, when you do so, I have deep and serious misgivings as to whether you know either party.
But, hey, that’s my confirmation bias.
I have said this before and I can still say firmly, and without a shadow of doubt, it does not matter what side of the aisle you find yourself sitting on politically – we all lost on Election Day 2016. All of us. He found a way to unite us at last and right there at the very beginning.
We all lost.
And now, for Part II…
“All I suggest is a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest…” Simon & Garfunkel, The Boxer
Part II…
Words mean things. That shouldn’t be a revelation. The old adage about ‘sticks and stones’ is a lie. Words can hurt you, and in the wrong hands and they can be deadly. Language, written language especially, is a funny thing. Words come together – a noun here, a verb there, and, before you know it, there’s a sentence. Those sentences become paragraphs. Those paragraphs become chapters. Stories are saved and told and repeated and those stories – the ones that are accepted and believed, hold everything together. Is the story true or is it something else? Words and their resulting stories can unite, uplift, and inspire. The opposite is true, as well. Words can build up or they can destroy. Therefore, critical readers – critical thinkers, are essential. As a society, we need to be able to sift words through the filter of the truth. It has always been important to chose the stories we hold closest to our hearts, wisely.
Unfortunately, we focus more on the story and, more often then not, lose focus on the words that are used to tell it. Case in point. I could tell you that I believe in the 2nd amendment but that I wouldn’t mind mental health background checks before you are able to get one. You may say to yourself, “Well, that’s not so bad.” Or you could say, “That is an infringement on the right to bear arms”. Or you could ignore the words altogether and go right for the story, “They’re coming to take your guns!” In two out of three of these options there is room for discussion – for give and take, room for, dare I say, compromise. In the other tale, the story that the gun lobby has woven is the only thing you need to know, there is no room for debate or for thought. There is no rhyme or reason, it’s an opinion gone wild. Discussion or compromise? Sorry, there's no room. That’s how you get people who deny things like Sandy Hook – they believe the story that the NRA has seeded and some twisted souls mutate it to fit their own sick narrative. Lobbyists tell such great stories and their pockets are full so they can pay off as many politicians they can. That is corrupt and disgusting but it is the way of American politics. It will collapse due to internal rot one day, but for now, it’s business as usual in Washington, DC. This is why there is never discussion about reasonable gun laws. And there never will be. People go immediately into DEFCON 2 in defense of this story – the one where they are the lone patriot and the government is coming to disarm them. It’s really not going to happen, but the true believers don’t hear that. They can’t. There are too many defense perimeters to plan for, too many ammo caches to stock up on. “Molon Labe,” baby! Compromise and reason do not fit into their narrative. They don’t fit into the story they believe about themselves, because – after all, it is all about them and compromise is for the weak. Never mind that here in the United States there have been at least 2,654 mass shootings since Sandy Hook, with at least 2,908 killed and 11,088 wounded**. When new facts are presented the story must adapt. At Sandy Hook Elementary School 26 people were slaughtered, 20 children, six adults, and the shooter who took his own life. That doesn’t fit the overall narrative from the NRA, so the story must evolve – “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.” The story feeds itself. There is no room for reason or rhyme, no discussion, no compromise. Nothing happens. The story is a fantasy spun by a lobby group that speaks to the internal narrative of some heavily armed civilians who have their guns oiled, magazines full, with one in the chamber. Who knows, in the next chapter, maybe a few of them will get to shoot some, "bad guys" and all those fantasies can become a reality.
So, is the government coming for your guns? No.
Will there be any meaningful discussion about practical
gun laws? No.
Will anything change concerning this issue in the United States? No.
There will be no change with gun laws until people start caring about the lives of other people and, let’s face it, if we didn’t do anything after Sandy Hook, we are not going to do anything. We have listened to the wrong stories for too long. There is too much money to be made. Our fantasies that fuel our personal narratives were more important than the lives of those school children, their teachers, and the lives of all who have fallen since that dark day in December, 2014.
What we believe – our stories, can be dangerous things. How many people have died because of an ongoing narrative or narratives through the years? People die for stories every day, let alone in the sweeping epics of the history of mankind. Even before the discovery of gun powder. History has devoured their bodies and all we are left with are the survivor’s stories. As for what we believe – the stories we hold dearest, we latch onto the ones that appeal to our vanities or our hopes, and we take them with us as far as they'll go. As I said in Part I, opinions are much easier to have then thoughts. Opinions are preconceived and accepted. A data-set, so to speak. The idea is that the individual no longer has to think about any given data-set because it has worked for them in the past and it is presumed that it will work for them in the future. Right up to the point it doesn’t. Right up to the point where new data becomes undeniable and it is there that two things will happen – the narrative will evolve or it will be abandoned for a different story altogether. Perhaps it is a tale that fits best with what the believer once held as gospel truth. Perhaps not.
I took the first point from the manipulative political meme introduced in part one and examined it a little closer. I could have kept going down the list of unscrupulous presumptions found in the meme, but to what end? The meme is pure biased opinion that is the narrative it serves. It is supposed to not only preach to the choir but also to let the people sitting in the back pew of the church know where the speaker stands. It's a rallying cry for those who prefer to have opinions rather than thoughts. The meme deliberately attaches itself to a host of other stories that fit the personal narrative of about 40% of the population of these United States. We can’t ignore the words and just accept the stories we are being told any longer. We must challenge ourselves to find the truth behind the stories that we have been told and the ones we choose to believe. The truth should mean something, the same is true for words, and for people’s lives.
So, here’s to the truth, Gentle Reader. Find yourself a good story, one you can believe in - one that is worthy of your faith. There is an abundance of false prophets and ravenous wolves running around these days, right here and right now in these United States. Learn to spot them and turn them away. Stand in the truth and move forward from there.
Until next time, stay safe, wear a mask, and wash your hands.
Peace.
*Source: https://www.thebalance.com/u-s-military-budget-components-challenges-growth-3306320
**Source: https://www.vox.com/a/mass-shootings-america-sandy-hook-gun-violence
