In the days leading up to the election, but especially after, I had been trying to get a handle on the way people (who don't think like me) think.
As the debates reached a fever pitch both in person and on the internet, I began to feel less like I'm talking about actual issues with reasonable people than I am caught in some struggle against an enemy who wants to wipe me out.
Was I just being paranoid?
Suddenly I saw things not as debate or discussion but as tooth and claw and the law of nature. There is no such thing as progress, and civil discourse is a quaint myth. The only real winners are the ones who survive and multiply their number faster than anyone else.
Surely, Nov. 2nd proved me right. After all, can intellectual argument really hold a candle to the simple power of not having enough reading skills to understand condom instructions? Can gays and single people stand up to "the Bible says: be fruitful and multiply"?
Then I realized I wasn't just being paranoid, but I was becoming one of them. Seeing myself as the righteous victim. Seeing the world be against me. Wanting to overwhelm and crush my enemy instead of understand them. This must be what it feels like to be a Bush supporter.
And on that indignant note, my thought project ended.
As the debates reached a fever pitch both in person and on the internet, I began to feel less like I'm talking about actual issues with reasonable people than I am caught in some struggle against an enemy who wants to wipe me out.
Was I just being paranoid?
Suddenly I saw things not as debate or discussion but as tooth and claw and the law of nature. There is no such thing as progress, and civil discourse is a quaint myth. The only real winners are the ones who survive and multiply their number faster than anyone else.
Surely, Nov. 2nd proved me right. After all, can intellectual argument really hold a candle to the simple power of not having enough reading skills to understand condom instructions? Can gays and single people stand up to "the Bible says: be fruitful and multiply"?
Then I realized I wasn't just being paranoid, but I was becoming one of them. Seeing myself as the righteous victim. Seeing the world be against me. Wanting to overwhelm and crush my enemy instead of understand them. This must be what it feels like to be a Bush supporter.
And on that indignant note, my thought project ended.
onlyoblivion:
That's pretty much it. Not everyone will be as willing to acquiesce to tolerance, however, and that's why I'm laying plans to get the hell out of here before the next civil car starts up. As fun as it might be to just give in to bloodlust and kill me some Republicans, I clearly don't have that in me, and, as boring as it sounds, I'd really rather be freezing my ass off in Canada than getting shot simply because I dont see the harm in two dudes kissing.