It Ain't Easy Being Me

Thoughts, musings, experiences from an enlightened

[ainteasybeingme]

Pondering

White cop murders a black man = racism

White cop murders anyone else != racism

Any other cop murders black man != racism

Any other cop murders anyone else != racism

Black man murders white cop != racism

Black man murders anyone else != racism

White person murders black man = racism

Black person murders white man != racism

Anyone else murders anyone else != racism

Perhaps a different conversation needs to occur.

[ainteasybeingme]

Come out!

Please keep posting your racism and general bigotry. Put it out there. Make it known. Be proud of it. It makes it easier to interact and avoid you if necessary.

#fuckyourfeelings

[ainteasybeingme]

You’re Not Welcome

If I don’t specifically invite you to my home, you’re not welcome.  If I don’t specifically make an offer to help you, I’m not going to.  Are you just going to show up anyway, demand assistance?  “I’ll show him!  He WILL open his home and help me!”  Is that how it works?  You’ll be damned that I won’t open my home so you’ll make me.  You’ll demand that I help you even though I said I wouldn’t, or didn’t say I would?  Ego is the worst of all humanity’s traits.

[ainteasybeingme]

GUILTY!

All it takes nowadays is an accusation of whatever is in the news, the public negative: “you’re a racist,” “you sexual assaulted/harrassed,” “you’re a bigot, filled with hate,” “you’re a Trump supporter."  And worse, all it takes is ONE accusation.  Just someone saying the words is enough.  It’s no wonder society is so disconnected.  Stay away from me…you can’t accuse me of anything if we’ve had no contact.

[ainteasybeingme]

No One Cares

Humans are so egotistical and self-important they believe what is important to them should be as equally important to others.

[ainteasybeingme]

Embrace the Hate

No one wants to be subjected to hate, or what they deem as something negative towards them, whatever that may be.  The biggest thing right now is to do whatever is necessary, including acts of violence, in an attempt to “eliminate” hate, hateful people, and hateful ideas.  Here’s something to consider: you can’t and don’t want to eliminate hate.

Wha????  What the hell?  I must be a fucking racist bigot advocating Nazi’s, anti-gay, and other such bigoted, sexist, racial hate.  Right??  Well, wrong.  The rest of this won’t matter to a lot of you.  You’ve stopped reading and are yelling at me, posting on social media, commenting about how you’ve found another white privileged, Nazi racist, sexist bigot bro.  It’ll be a few commenters to your hateful spewing rant before someone actually reads the rest of this and comments that I’m not that at all, but you’re already lost.

I digress...and continue.  First a backtrack: you can’t and don’t want to eliminate hate.  Here’s why.

You look outside during “daylight” hours and see the sun and know that it’s light.  Why?  Because when you look outside during “nighttime” hours, it’s dark.  You walk into a room, flip the switch and, voila!, let there be light.  How about temperature?  You know the difference between hot and cold, subjective, sure, but like light levels, there are also temperature levels.  At a base, however, you know the difference between light and dark and hot and cold.

How about feelings?  Have you experienced happiness, sadness, joy, despair, excitement, disappointment?  How do you know what those are?  Let’s take one: happiness vs sadness.  First, understand that at a general level, feelings of happiness are not the opposite of sadness.  The opposite of any feeling is the absence of feeling so feelings are on the same spectrum, not technically the opposite of.  However, it is generally understood that the opposite feeling from happiness is sadness.

So, with that, have you experienced happiness?  How do you know?  How do you know what happiness is?  Remember, light and dark?  You know what light is because you know dark.  So the comparison stands.  If you know happiness, then you must know sadness.  “Happiness is owning a puppy.”  “Sadness is watching my old dog die.”  Yeah, negative feeling suck.  They are horrible.  But, to understand and experience the positive feelings, you must know the negative.

Back to embracing the hate.  You’ve experienced love, right?  You know what’s coming next...how do you know?  Of course the answer is because you’ve experience hate.  Here’s the trick.  You’ve either experienced hate by being hateful, or by someone hating you, most likely both.  Yes, you’ve hated.  <Blasphemy spoiler> Jesus even hated.  Remember the story of him turning over the money collectors tables in his temple?  Yeah, he was a little angry, hateful even.

See, it’s simple.  In order to experience positive feelings like love, you must understand what that means and you do so by experiencing a negative feeling like hate.  Hate is awful.  I’d rather not experience it at all, but I know I must.  How would I know how and if I love my kids, my wife, my dogs?  I wouldn’t.  Just like I wouldn’t know that it’s cold outside if I never experienced hot.

So, embrace the hate in yourself or others.  Don’t act on any of that hate and don’t allow other’s to act upon their hate, like with acts of violence, but attempts to eliminate hateful feelings in yourself or others is silly.

You can’t know true love until you know true hate.

[ainteasybeingme]

Illegal Immigrants - The Big Picture

I saw a video recently of ICE agents arresting parents allegedly for being in the country illegally. That’s what they do. The videographer was commenting about how they were breaking up families and through lots of expletives, asking Trump supporters if this is what they wanted, to break up families. This plays out on the news daily because it sells advertising so it’s not new. It’s a polarizing argument.

Sure there are some radicals on both sides that want a homogeneous population and the other side that wants to open everything and give everyone what they need. Both groups are fucked up and stupid. It’s the ones in the middle, particularly those like the videographer, that need a lesson in the big picture.

So, here’s some rebuttal points for their base arguments:

1) You’re breaking up families. Ans: No, we are catching criminals. If a father of 2 kids who is working hard to support his family is caught raping your daughter, would you say the same? The arrest of the rapist is just breaking up a family?

2) They aren’t bad criminals. They are just trying to make a better life. Ans: A criminal is a criminal and needs to suffer the appropriate consequences, removal from this Country if the crime is they are here illegally. If I were to come into your home and take your TV, you’d complain I think whereas I’d just tell you that you have a better TV than I do and I just want a better life.

3) That’s not the same! They are not just taking things from others. Ans: if they get hurt, where do they go? The hospital. Where do they send their kids for education. Public school. What roads do they drive on? What government services do they take advantage of? They ARE taking from others: you and me…they take OUR tax money.

If after these reasonable rebuttals, they continue their pro-criminal talking points, they tend to talk in circles when their arguments are destroyed with logic, they cannot be reasoned with and shew them like a fly…

Big Picture.

[ainteasybeingme]

A Little Help...

For the first time in over a handful of years, I have a car payment. It's a new expense that was unexpected and has placed a strain on my finances. I need a vehicle, you see. I use it to get to work, provide for my family, and get kids to school and their events. Other means of transportation are just not possible due to schedules and locations, so a personal vehicle it is. Given this need, requirement as it were, I have no choice but to have a car and suffer the expense. But, I could use some help with the payments as it takes away from other, more important things I could do with the money. I've never really asked for help, but I'm asking now. If you all could just give me a couple of bucks each, I could make the payment, keeping the car, and use the money for other things. It's just a couple of bucks out of your pockets after all. It would mean very little to you, a cup of coffee maybe. It would help me tremendously. A couple of bucks...

[ainteasybeingme]

While this is old, no report has been made to refute it. And if your answer to rising gas prices is to drive less, remember, you’d be taking money out of hardworking State employees retirement funds.

[ainteasybeingme]

Time and Energy

I struggle constantly over not posting replies to ignorant, idiotic, and plain stupid posts. You see, I know they're stupid, filled with complete inaccuracies. I know the poster didn't bother to research what they are posting, or because it completely supports their bias, they see it as truth. I understand. I get it...but they are still stupid. So I struggle with setting them straight. No, if it's opinion stated loudly as fact, I leave those alone. Arguing with one's opinion is just dumb because you're unlikely to change it. I try to do the same with the other posts because again, I'm unlikely to show them their "facts" are wrong. I'm unlikely to change their minds. People don't want to be shown they are wrong. They don't want to change. Trying to do so is a waste of my time and energy. So I don't, but I struggle with it. Of course, I'm wasting my time and energy posting this, but c'est la vie. It's cathartic. It's what this blog is for. Suck it.

[ainteasybeingme]

The Scarlet Letter

One thing you should never ever do: get convicted of a crime that requires you to register as a sex offender. You are branded for life.

Murder, assault, theft, embezzlement, and so forth are forgotten over time with no easy way for others to discover the crime.

Run across a football field naked: national registry forever!

[ainteasybeingme]

It Is Social Media

Did people just forget what social media has been used for since, well, the beginning of social media? People have been sharing, posting, and spewing questionable “news” with miniscule research, limited resources, or outright opinion stated loud and clear as fact since the beginning. It’s no different than what the pumpkin president has been doing. Oh! Oh! Oh! You want your president to be held to a higher standard??? Wha???? You want the president held to a higher standard than the one you hold yourself to?? Of course you do…

Sigh

[ainteasybeingme]

The Amazing Power of Stupid

Many years ago when Obama was elected to his first term, the government authorized a monetary handout in an effort to "boost the economy." Yeah, it didn't work as most people saved it instead of spending it. I know I did. With the press interviewing people about this handout, I remember one woman touting the greatness that was Obama since he was the one giving everyone all this money. The reporter asked the woman where the money was coming from and at first she said she didn't know and then she said, "Obama!" Cheering his name, the reporter asked where Obama was getting the money and she again said she didn't know. It was "Obama money." The report ended with her constantly praising Obama. Yeah, stupidity at its finest. I don't know why I'm still amazed at stupid people, but I am. I can't fathom people are so stupid. It's because of that that I don't read a lot of political or issue posts on FB. FB is the epitome of stupid posts. Occasionally I do, but it's rare. So it was during one of these rare occurrences that I found myself surprised once again. The post was about the government disallowing the purchase of "junk" food with food stamps. It's not a new sentiment. Clearly, if someone pays for something, perhaps they get to dictate what can be purchased. I went ahead and clicked on the comments to see what people were saying. Perhaps I was trying to be optimistic that the arguments were logical, reasonable, and we'll thought out. Perhaps I was looking for new ideas on the issues. Whatever the case, I was sorely disappointed. The first commenter stated the obvious: the government gives out money, they get to decide what their money is used for. She then added to that by saying that it was even more valid given that the government paid for the health care too. Standard stuff. It was the replies to this comment that brought my eye rolls front and center. The first reply, and the dozen or so after (I had to click out), said simply, "the government doesn't pay for these programs; the taxpayers do." Uh, wha???? Sure, one person spouting this nonsense I get, but a dozen or more? Really? Mob mentality is a real thing. It's how riots are born, but I still have difficulty understanding how people could be this stupid. No more clicking on FB issues posts. Sigh.

[ainteasybeingme]

The Free Press

The media/press suffers from the same issue as they government: they cannot be believed. In the government’s case, they aren’t believed because we know they are really out for themselves and their cronies. We just hope they don’t fuck with us too much. The media is also out for themselves, but they are unbelievable because they don’t just report on issues. Every article and every report seems to be loaded more heavily with opinion over fact. They aren’t news reports. They are editorials. So one “respected” journalist gives his “report” ala opinion and it’s gospel fact. It’s shared hundred, thousands, millions of times. Worse is the sensationalist article title which a large majority of the public only reads.

It’s how cynics are born…well cynics are born from people who want to find the truth and are hampered by the overwhelming numbers of opinions over facts or after discovering the truth find the selfish reason for the report. The public won’t ever wake up…just don’t fuck with us too much.

[ainteasybeingme]

Discussing Ideas

I read a post recently saying that people should find someone else who they disagree with and have a respectful, reasonable, decent discourse of said ideas with the thought being that if we did that as Americans, we could make America great again.

The thought that we don’t have those considerate conversations, and should, is a great idea.  It is, however, hampered by the problems of agreement and acceptance.  Simply,people don’t agree, which in and of itself would be fine.  However, people also can’t accept that they don’t agree and demand that others follow their way, which isn’t fine.  People push to legislate what they want.  They yell and scream and protest when people don’t do what they want.  They call people who don’t agree names and sling mud and insults.  It happens on all sides and those embroiled in the rhetoric are at fault.

The ultimate solution is to allow people to do their own thing.  Want to have a reasonable, considerate discussion of ideas with an opponent?  Listen, don’t call them names, ask questions to understand their position, and come to the realization that you may not come to some agreement, but they are allowed to have their opinion as much as you are allowed to have yours.

This, of course, is impossible in our current environment.  It’ll never happen.

[ainteasybeingme]

Cynics

The Country, neigh, the World, is full of cynics.  For the unintelligent, or those unwilling to look up a word they don’t know, a cynic is someone who is distrustful of another’s motives.  They look at people and information as unreliable no matter the source and don’t believe any “fact” as absolute truth.

This isn’t surprising to me.  I myself am a cynic.  I was created by the outside world just like all the other cynics.  It’s easy to understand that ideal given no “fact” is absolute and no one seemingly provides just the facts, or the truth as it were.  Reports of scientific fact are peppered with opinion, not just the true facts, and even those “proven” facts are refuted the next day.  It’s given rise to “alternative facts” and “fake news” and other such cynical verbiage.  And why shouldn’t it?  We are supposed to just believe what we’re told when we constantly find out what we’re told isn’t actually true?  Then even better, we are told to look into what we are told, don’t just believe the one source, which I do, and get competing information.  The side that yells the loudest gets the most “press” so that’s the side we are supposed to believe.  Try to show that side the competing “facts” and they yell you down as racist, sexist, whatever. 

So, it’s okay to change your opinion based on new evidence.  That’s all well and good.  How about not putting out new evidence until it’s been proven and duplicated and redone over and over again.  See, that’s the scientific method, but no, “new evidence” is reported when it happens because that’s news, makes someone money.  It doesn’t matter that it’s disproved the next day; the press may bury that somewhere because their reputation is at stake too, so we don’t get that information.  So, you go to the source, or a close approximation of that source, and their bias gives you their “facts” because they are beholden to money makers too, so their proof is subjective too.

So, argue that I should change my opinion based on new evidence.  Your new evidence will be blasted tomorrow and you’ll just look stupid for yelling at me today.

Why has no one worked to disprove the Earth circles the Sun?  Because there’s no money in it.  I’m a cynic.  Suck it.

[ainteasybeingme]

Use Whatever Bathroom You Want

The US Republican president overturned an edict by the former US Democratic president that allowed people to use whatever bathroom they gender identified with.  So a person born male identifying as a female, whether surgically changed or not, could use the women’s bathroom.  In overturning the edict, the Federal government said it was a State’s issue.  Of course, people are up in arms over the change: transgender people’s rights are under attack and they don’t have equal rights of “normal” gender people.

I don’t know why I’m still surprised at people’s shortsightedness or over their ideas of “rights,” but I am.  First, using a bathroom is not a right, especially in a private business like Target.  That’s up to Target to decide...sadly years ago, the Federal government got involved in the affairs of private corporations.  In that decision, does that mean, I, as a private citizen could be sued for a violation of one’s civil rights if I decided to make my bathrooms in my home gender specific?  I think that would be an interesting case.  An argument could be made in the use of bathrooms in public locales like State Capitals, City facilities, and Federal buildings.  The GOVERNMENT can’t discriminate; everyone has the same equality in the eyes of the government.  So providing equal facilities to all citizens is required for equality.  A simple solution to any concern over this issue is mitigated by having individual bathrooms not open to any outside snooping.  Stalls, for example, could have a sealed doors and walls that go ground to ceiling...simple.  Any gender could be in there and no one would know.

Secondly, by pushing this issue back to the State’s, the Federal government is getting out of the debate...for now.  You see, progressive states like California have already made laws allowing people to use whatever bathroom they want.  Another bible-belt state like Oklahoma might rule, wrongly, that you must use the bathroom specific to the gender of your birth.  When that happens, and someone in a public building gets charged with a crime for using the “wrong” bathroom, the issue would then go to the courts and continue to go to the courts until it gets to the Supreme Court, or the Federal law of the land.  It then becomes a Federal issue and in making a ruling, the Supreme Court or set the precedent.  Like same-sex marriage, people who haven’t come around already will at that point, and the issue will be settled, and be made more permanent over a Presidential edict...those, as we have seen, can be simply overturned by another Presidential edict.  They can’t do that with a Supreme Court ruling.

I will always find it stupid that people think they get to decide what others do.  If you want true freedom, people can do whatever they want as long as it doesn’t affect you doing what you want.  That includes individuals and private businesses.  Perhaps eventually, I’ll get into the idea that receiving public, governmental funds allows the public, aka government, the ability to decide what you can and cannot do.  But you won’t get that either...keep up the outrage.