I wish I disagreed

 

What it means

Robert Reich is not wrong here.

I texted Caryn who transitioned in her twenties and she is not amused with good reason.

Someone wrote a comment on a video I loved which read "do you remember before the internet that people thought the cause of stupidity was the lack of information? Yeah, well it wasn't that"...

I wasn't wrong

Well I wasn't wrong about idiocracy. There is no cure for it especially in an age that openly celebrates and basks in stupidity and ignorance. We now let the chips fall where they may with more talk of sharks and batteries for good measure.

This election was about problems that have been building for decades starting in the 1990's under Neoliberal ideals. Today people are scared and worried about their future and thus more susceptible to despots even one as miserably and grotesquely incompetent as Trump.

We've seen this before in history and usually it's messy but the silver lining might be the errors made during this presidency will allow millenials and GenZ to formulate plans and ideas for the world to come assuming we don't blow ourselves up first.

I always have hope that there are enough people out there intelligent enough not to be fooled by rhetoric but am often proven wrong. But in fairness to the electorate they felt their fortunes were not doing well under a capitalist system that is waning in its bloated state. The little guy is losing out and they are willing to take risks that may yet bite them in the behind.

Unfortunately, some of the buffoons about to be put into key positions will show their ineptitude rather quickly. Get ready for RFK in charge of health.

No matter what, an overhaul in America was long being called for and so, for mostly worse in the interim, here it is.

At the very least the late night comics will get new material.

The flamboyant kid

 

Outer skin

If your impetus for gender variance is rooted in identity it shouldn't matter how you are dressed at all times. You can express yourself in a myriad of ways and always know who you are because identity comes from an internal sense of self. This includes what you decide to do or not do with your body. 

We don't become different people because our outer skin changes.

Conversely, if your cross gender expression has an expiry date after which there is desire to go back to your "normal", there is no reason to question anything. Just enjoy it but without distress.

Labels, most especially tired and antiquated ones, need not apply.

If it works for me

Every time I try to understand conservatism as a dogma I fail. Don't get wrong, I know where it comes from. I simply fail to sympathize with it. 

It should never really be left versus right in the first place but rather a stance which uses common sense principles to improve life for as many people as possible using reason. We understand it's never going to be perfectly fair but systems built to only benefit the few are not moral.

Conservatism at its core is firstly about fear of change which doesn't always have the best intentions. Slave owners were not happy to give up their property to the pleas of goody abolitionists who wanted the freedom and welfare of their captives.

Many conservatives of today might readily scoff that they aren't like that but then they have the benefit of hindsight from which they can laugh at what we now recognize as blatant lack of judgment. Except that in the mid 19th it wasn't so clear cut for everyone.

In general, the sentiments of conservatives seem to come from a place which ostensibly says "Don't change what works especially if it benefits me and please don't bother me with any inconvenient details"

I cannot sympathize.

Time's up

 

Goals

Having less things to aim for in life isn't bad it's just different. When you are younger you are busy shooting for targets which keeps you busy. Today there is nothing to shoot for in particular for other than to fine tune your patience and calmness as the world around you spins around chasing its own tail. You have already hit your milestones and they are behind you.

It can be an odd feeling not to have major goals but you slowly become accustomed.

People can be very nice

They didn't have my foundation color at Sephora and the young man checked that it had indeed been discontinued so he helped me match with the one I had in my purse. 

I waited in line and then asked a young woman behind me to give her opinion on the match. She was happy to help and agreed it was very close.

Third opinion was at the cash where the young lady approved of the tiny difference between the shades which I use sparingly anyway. 

Many people are very nice.

One for the history books

When the history books finally summarize Trumpism it will be as a case study for why there is no cure for human stupidity, ignorance and callousness. Watching cowards supplicate themselves before a revolting imbecile has been turning my stomach for several years now. 

People who called Trump a fascist and unfit for office folded up their spines and later licked his boots with glee. In the process any remaining self-respect was jettisoned for expediency, avarice or some other malaise of weak character. 

You feel bad for people waiting in line at Trump rallies spouting social media gibberish and it has made me despair that we will continue to create people without any thinking skills to speak of. They will continue to fall victim to people who plot with Machievellian fervor to advance their own fortunes at their expense. 

While I am hopeful for a Harris victory, the root problems which currently exist on a global scale will take longer than the patience of people looking for saviors with quick answers will allow.

No simple cures.

The good old days

At the extreme ends of each metro platform there are placards that read in French "thinking about suicide? Please first call this number". Sometimes the metro is interrupted and over the loudspeaker we hear there is delay because of an incident. We never know the cause. 

These placards didn't used to be there but we live in a more desperate time where we have gained desperation and anxiety but lost the intolerance of the era of my youth with a celebration of diversity I am very thankful for.

It turns that there are no good old days but instead we just seem to trade sets of societal circumstances.