Hey by the way the most important thing that everyone everywhere needs to goddamn internalize from the US 2024 election is that symbolic victories mean fucking nothing
Yes in Europe, yes in Asia, yes in Australia, yes in Africa, yes EVERYWHERE
(And especially Canada Iâm looking at you fuckers ours is up next and I will eat you)
Racism is not over, sexism is not over, bigotry is not over and pretending it was is how this happened and how the goddamn right wing is exploding globally
Smugly declaring âLove Winsâ and acting like one big moment fixed the problem is how it happened again
You need to actively rout out bigots and haters and their ideology, you need to educate people in how to spot it themselves, you need to accept that everyone everywhere is going to make mistakes and we must all always be ready to learn and improve and grow
Learning that you used to believe something that was wrong can be shameful, but if that makes you defensive and less likely to let go, that is the moment of ultimate failure
When you had the chance to do better and learn and stop, and didnât
Because yeah. People internalize the dominant attitudes they grow up with, often without introspection when theyâre little. And introspecting later as an adult can be hard and uncomfortable. And itâs still fucking necessary
You canât just declare âwell Iâm a good person so I have no unconscious biasâ
Accept that you probably still have some, even if youâve been doing the work - because you donât know what you donât know, and the dividing line between a good and bad person is when you learn you were wrong and either accept that and do better, or dig in and declare you couldnât possibly have been because youâre âa good personâ
Itâs not enough to try and dictate right and wrong to people, or declare that clearly âno reasonable personâ would do something
People need the tools to be able to spot the bullshit themselves, to think about what theyâre told, to feel safe addressing their unchallenged ideas so that even if itâs uncomfortable and upsetting, they donât immediately shy away and dig in
Getting complacent and not stamping down hateful voices every time they rise is what let them gain so much quiet power, because people believed the lie
That it was over, that society was âfixedâ now, that all that old bigotry was a thing of the past that âgood peopleâ these days would never consider
Does it still look over to anyone?
Cheering and declaring victory and that âthis time, it will never happen again! It canât happen here!â for grand symbolic gestures allow the bigots to move underground, hide, and grow
They do not stop pushing and fighting to destroy everyone they believe is inferior, and perfectly normal and reasonable people are much more vulnerable to that if they believe that bigotry was already âsolvedâ
Itâs not a sudden large explosion from nowhere - the current state of affairs has been a gas leak for decades, unnoticed and ignored until the spark caught
Clean house, starting with yours. Look for your unconscious biases, and take a step back to think clearly if someone else points one out
Thoughts and beliefs donât make you a good person if your actions are still harmful
Intent is not more important than impact
And to move on and grow as a person, you need to accept that you were wrong before and that you canât erase that history - but you can make sure it ends there
In the US, that means no more ânot my presidentâ. That is your president. Whether you voted for him or not, your majority did, and the first step to fixing that is accepting that it happened
In Canada, that means we do not fucking sell our election to Doug fucking Ford in Ontario, or to fucking Polievre everywhere else just because Musk wants to buy the prime minister.
Their âcommon senseâ plans are easily refutable bullshit, theyâre meeting with the fucking Christian fundies who think interracial marriage was a step too far, and theyâre trying to privatize our health care
There can be no palatable excuse to just ânot botherâ, or to say âwell I donât agree with that but this other thing sounds fineâ
Itâs a fucking sovereignty issue at this point - US Conservatives donât want us cuz weâll elect liberals, and if Elon can buy the right wing a win theyâll have less reason to discourage the asshole in chief
If you hate the liberals, vote NDP. We have a multi-party system and only one party is openly planning to sell us and the environment and fundamental human rights to the highest bidder (but the Greens are on thin ice cuz supporting the environment is good but not enough if you donât support the goddamn human rights)
Everywhere else, I dunno. Iâm not there, but the news doesnât look good, and the mindset still applies
No complacency. No âit couldnât happen hereâ. It could and it will if we are not all careful
2024 was a cautionary tale and we all need to learn from it because Elon fucking Musk specifically thinks he can just buy every government on Earth and make them do what he wants
And I will be a goddamn nightmare if heâs right
