While Team Trump was hatefully ringing alarm bells and gibbering about immigrants, drag queens, and trans people, Team Kamala was running a platform of love, inclusivity, and "can't we all just get along?". Not that I disagree with those sentiments, but it's obvious now that this business of "going high when they go low" is never going to get the job done.
What the Dems should have done was engage in some alarmism of their own about the threat posed by another Trump administration, a threat that, unlike the Republican brand of fear mongering, isn't bullshit. They could have started by saying, "these are the freedoms the Republicans are planning to take away from you," and then simply listed aloud the bullet points of Project 2025. There were too many liberal minded citizens who didn't bother to vote because they just "didn't know enough" about Kamala Harris to get enthusiastic about voting for her. Laying all the cards on the table and letting them know what the stakes really were might have scared them into putting that shit aside and doing their goddamn civic duty. And America might not be in the mess it is now.
Hi friends! I’m trying not to panic over the loss of TikTok and the ramifications of the SC decision, but I am very worried about it all. I am losing one of my main sources of community (as a chronic lurker) and I don’t want to let myself get complacent and lonely again. I have been lucky enough to find a small community here of people who clearly share my values and I would love to make new friends and feel more grounded in this world that is becoming scarier by the moment. If you’re in the market for a new friend - I’m 33, pan, demi/gray ace, she/her, currently only writing one extremely long WIP Drarry fic, but have read probably thousands of fics. Sometimes read other pairings like Wolfstar and other fandoms like Star Trek and The Hobbit/LOTR, but I am really a Drarry girl at heart.
Working on getting better at mutual aid, interdependence (parentified eldest daughters, unite!), and taking care of myself while dealing with the US’s increasingly apparent descent into fascism.
I have a cute dog who might actually be more anxious than I am, into art, music, Ghibli movies, going to be taking a stained glass class soon that I would love to rant about, have way too many bees in my chest currently and really wish they would settle the hell down.
I’m terrified of what’s to come, but I know the answer is community. I want to keep writing my fic, reading all of yours, participating in fandom, loving people, connecting.
If you vibe with any of this, please feel free to follow me and I’ll follow you back if I don’t already, and I might bother you in messages sometimes.
Farewell, democracy. Farewell, Hungary. My tears will make an ocean today. From tomorrow, I live imprisoned under your flag, raped and stripped of all hope I had left.
So Brexit happened yesterday, (or at midnight last night I guess, its whatever), and while I, like most young people, was pro-remain, my opinion is that despite the sham that was the referendum, with literally no independent coverage of the pros and cons of leaving/remaining (love that for our democracy), the results were the results, and as far as I was concerned that was that and we should honour them and move on. cant help whats happened etc, just get it done and move forward, focus on actually funding the NHS and shit. (I respect that not everyone holds that opinion though, and go for it dudes, this is just where im at :))))
bit pissed the fuck off now though, bc (no shade to the Tory society at my uni, you do you and express your lil angry political selves or whatever) when I was on campus yesterday I saw them legit out doing a victory march in the piazza like wtf
to contextualise why im pissed: Brexit has been the most polarising and destructive-to-society political change/event or whatever in my living memory: legit its been like watching my parents divorce again- no one is happy, everyone is stressed and upset and arguing, and the people on each spouse’s side automatically are against the other spouse and their friends bc they all disagree- ITS JUST NOT A GOOD SITUATION AND EVERYONE IS BEING HURT BY THE ARGUING AND UNWILLINGNESS BY ANYONE TO TRY AND COMPROMISE BASICALLY BUT YEAH
so yeah everyone’s mad, politics is now some cesspit of jabs between politicians and random citizens alike all assigning blame for the country’s problems and defaming each other’s character bc they disagree- literally most of the serious arguments ive had with my parents and family have been about the politics and ideology that informed their decision to vote leave and the putridness of their reaction to any liberal (including me) questioning why they voted leave, but bc at my uni most people are quite intensely left but come from liberal households I almost feel like I have to defend my family bc voting leave doesn't make them bad people, they just have a different perspective than others, and different priorities (as we all do ayy democracy) so its just one big mess and everything’s fucked and the future is so uncertain bc rather than making concrete steps forward everyone’s spent four years arguing, and I don't know how to have opinions and not feel guilty anymore
….and these people are having a fuckin party about it??
ive been seeing pics of people waving their union jack flags, and going to rallies like the pope’s in town for a gav, and they’re acting like this is some kind of ‘victory’ or ‘triumph’ for the united kingdom?? United kingdom my arse bro, we haven't been this divided since (idek when actually, im 19 lol) but POINT BEING this is a fucking shambles and it just makes me angry-
- im angry that despite my attempts to always respect the opinions of the people around me and their voices, their backgrounds, their perspectives on life that I maybe don't share, people aren't willing to do the same for me
- im angry that people would hold up the union jack, a flag which symbolises in its literal composition the coming together of different demographics into one united kingdom, and wave it as though Brexit has been anything other than the worst and most divisive thing to happen to democracy in 21st century britain
- im angry that some of these people not only hold up this flag, but then legit start referring to yesterday/today as ‘independence day’ like oh my FUCking god do you literally not understand at all the premise of what independence day means to so many people- the words literally represent for so many countries the moment where they, as a nation, took back political agency and control from literal colonisers (spoiler: a shameful amount of those times the coloniser was Britain, so wind your neck in maybe??) and began governing their country again independently of powers who stripped them of their agency against their will. How the fuck, sirs, can one compare Brexit which legit is just pulling out of a CONSENSUAL AGREEMENT WE ENTERED INTO OF OUR OWN FREE WILL, with no resistance from the other party other than the expected attempts to use their power to negotiate (literally we would have done the same, I don't get why ppl were so mad that the EU didn't want us to leave and didn't just hand every perk to us on a silver platter, why would they, our politicians were being dicky and offensive from the get go, how british) but yeah, compare that to LITERAL COLONIALISM WHY DONT YOU- the fucking insensitivity and stupidity just makes me so mad, like read a fucking book.
- also side note, also mad bc people act like they’re the most educated person in the room bc they read the news on facebook, and then dismiss you when you bring up a relevant point that you literally learned from your academic reading and political engagement across a range of news sources from a range of political biases, and then act like formal education is a conspiracy theory formed by the left (its not, and its literally history dude, im not making it up)
so yeah, in summary this is just a sad and a shit day, that people are now so divided and polarised that they can look at the hurt and anger caused by the last four years and think of today as a victory. I don't know what it means to be british anymore dudes, other than being angry, frustrated and divided
