It seemed like a truth that the world is run by sleaze. I've lived most of my life thinking there really isn't any way for basically good and decent people to make it into the highest ranks.
They all have some kind of racism.. or sexual deviance.. tendencies to physically or psychological abuse.. the most morally corrupt people run everything.
You don't get the world we live in unless there's a 1%. And that 1% isn't anything like the other 99. And the majority of the 99 can't do anything to affect real change.
In our lifetime we've seen that change many times (assuming you're over 18). But societal change has come in waves.. so many waves of change. They aren't just about morality but just seem to be natural ways in which society cleans itself up. It isn't individual.. the whole of society has to get behind something.
As an adult seeing that sure change happens.. it isn't ever happening before it's already too late. There are too many dead people that waited for change to happen or that need change to happen and it came too avoidably late for them.
I posted a couple of things on my Facebook. 1 being Kermit accusing the late Jim Henson of being his life long abuser (which of course while funny is in really bad taste).. and got blasted for it (being that my family is mostly strong black females).. and other HW scandal related stuff that gets little traction otherwise.
I made a joke about something I'd thought I'd overheard on CNN, that a man of the cloth was being investigated for dating teenagers when he was a teenager (not even that there were any abuses involved).. but just that there's a witch Hunt on for these abusers and a public cry for people to come forward.
Yes there are jokes.. yes they can be in bad taste.. don't let this opportunity slide by the way side because of some people trying to make a few jokes. Some people can't handle the reality that #metoo means every woman.. myself included. These aren't even the kind of jokes that have helped suppress the truth from helping to out real abuses and bring their perpetrators to Justice.. they are reactions to the scale of this upheaval catalysed by the Harvey Weinstein scandal. And I mean more personally because I make jokes about everything.
We all knew harassment and abuse and criminal activity rules in Hollywood and that the morally corrupt run the world.. the question is can we change how that works for the rest of us. Can 2018 start off with a clean conscience. It'll be cleaner and change will continue to happen.
So many times in the last couple of weeks though I've read comments about why is it only that this only now matters when we're hearing it about the 1%. Why aren't the everyday abuses as important. It's so frustrating that I want to claw my eyes out.
I mean shit.. IF it matters at all.. speak up. We know it happens to everyone. That's what this is all about. If you want to make a change.. speak up so that the change happens for everyone not just the loudest 1% that we're all to busy listening to to do anything meaningful for ourselves. The asshole judges and politicians that victim shame are being removed. Cops and correctional institution workers are being retrained to treat sex assault victims with the dignity they deserve. Teachers and hospital staff who are charged with the care of people who are especially vulnerable are being fired and imprisoned for their criminal abuses.. not just their lapses in judgment.
Some of them are not.. and that's the problem and why there's a need for change.
Name your abusers. If a crime was committed.. report it. You might finally find justice for yourself or a loved one and protect other potential victims from harm.
And then I read about the guy that.. (I stopped swiping and had to take a moment and found myself wiping my eyes).. the sick fuck that proposed to a 19 year old, my age he is.. and just destroyed her when she refused.
That's my age and that's my friends age. I would never conceive of anything like that.. but recently I just don't know what triggers someone to not care enough anymore to not do shit like this. She said she was aware of the possibility but that she knew I was ok because I never offered to meet up with her.
I didn't. Though I easily could have.
My other 16 year old friend told me that she did meet up with someone online and they nearly did do something regrettable. I wouldn't have suspected anything until she told me what almost happened had the room service person not interrupted them. True or not.. I don't know how I would have reacted if anything would have happened to her. There's no way to have put 2 and 2 together because they weren't supposed to be together.
There's nothing stopping monsters like that but.. I want to live in a world where it would never cross anyone's mind to do these kinds of things.
My heart has been hurting for so long because of all the pain I read about every day. There are some sick people out there. They need to find help. When the majority of people don't act this way anymore it'll be easier to pick them out of the crowd and get them the help they need. It just has to stop being so damned common.