The Pondering Absurdist

I added my second post on November 6, 2024. It didn’t stay up for very long. Let me just say that, despite my First Amendment rights as a citizen of the USA, I was not absolutely positive that I wouldn’t catch any flack from law enforcement… so I took it back down after a short while. There might have been an image included that had some Photoshop work done of a certain orange-haired buffoon in a less than positive light. There might have also been some less than complimentary words or phrases bandied about, like failed-businessman, adulterer, racist, bigoted, misogynist, fascist, convicted felon… a few things like that.

As someone who starts work early in the morning, I had gone to bed early on November 5, as I typically do. When I awoke on the 6th, I went about my business getting ready for work. Before I left home, I remembered to look online to see if there were any election results posted yet. To my dismay, the media had already declared the victor, and it was not who I was hoping or expecting. I was shocked, as I had thought there was no way that the clown candidate for the Republicans could have been elected. I thought his attempt was surely a joke, and that the people of America were smart enough to elect the only logical candidate, the one who would take America in a positive direction, progressing toward the future. Alas, I realized that for the second time in eight years I had to admit that I was truly ashamed to be an American, ashamed to be someone who, in the eyes of the rest of the world, was associated with all the racist, bigoted, misogynistic rednecks in the middle of this country where I was born.

For the past couple of weeks I’ve been on the Threads app off and on, reading and responding to some of the ignorant comments of the illiterate “far right.” I interacted with several of them, baiting them to show their low IQs and ignorance for all to see. I’m not proud that I stooped to their level, but I needed an outlet for my rage and shame. I truly believe that the country has been set back in time politically and socially about 80 years, to a time when fascism, racism, and bigotry were prevalent. To be honest, it probably won’t affect my situation much personally, since I am an older white man with a stable, white-collar career living on the West Coast, and (though I’m not wealthy by any stretch of the imagination) who has some financial sense. I could not retire today, legally or financially, but hopefully when I do I should be okay to live a modest life until I return to the earth. How it will affect me is mentally. I have a disdain for social injustice, and for the country I live in being run into the ground by individuals of lesser intelligence.

I don’t really think the MAGA crowd “won” the election, as much as I believe the real “loser” of the election is the entire country, at least for the next four years. This is especially true of women, who might soon be losing the right to say what happens to their own bodies, and some of whom might even be subjected to assault by the mouth-breathers in the red states who are running around proclaiming “your body, my choice.” I believe this is also going to be true of the LGBTQ community, and immigrants who are trying to make a better life for themselves and their families by moving to America. These groups are both prime targets of the bigoted, right-wing conservatives. Though part of the conservative platform during this election had to do with the cost of living and the prices of groceries, I am positive that the low-income families will continue to struggle and the (monetarily, certainly not character) rich will keep getting richer.

I planned to make this a shorter post than my original, deleted tirade, so I’ll just leave it at that.

PA