Some not-so-nice but true things
Brace yourself, I'm about to share some things you may not have seen in your algorithm
Ok, yes, I can see things look bad. In various ways and places. (Remember Iran? Afghanistan? Me neither.) But at this moment, we have been directed towards Minneapolis, so that is where I will, as directed, direct my attention to.
Not great! Ok. But also. You guys. Calm down.
My Instagram stories are so full of hysterics and hyperbole and we live in a fascist country and oligarchy! and unfollow me if and we aren’t free if we aren’t free to commit felonies whenever we are told we don’t like a thing that I am verging on deleting the app.
An idle threat, perhaps. I still want to see holiday-themed nail designs and photos my friends take of their dogs. So how badly I wish to avoid the rest remains to be seen.
Before I delve deeper into the current thing, surely stirring many an Empath—and not an Uncompassionate MAGA Pick Me What-Happened-To-You-Meghan-You-Used-To-Be-Smart-And-Now-You-Keep-Saying-Things-I-Don’t-Like—into further hysteria and hyperbole, let’s start with this:
Are you really going to keep doing this? Every single time a thing happens? Are we going to do BLM over and over again for the rest of our lives? Are you quite sure everything is exactly as the corporate media, Hollywood celebrities, and your algorithm tells you it is? Are you sure you shouldn’t just… pause… and wait… and maybe not post anything until you look into [the current thing] a bit further? Lest… you are wrong?
Do you really need to threaten all your friends, yet again, who don’t fall in line exactly with whatever you’ve invented in your Instagram story as a fake test of their goodness? How many more times should we all do this? How many more purges will there be? Will the world be Good after a dozen? Or will it take fifty?
Do you feel better? Is anything better? Did the hyperbolic posting help you or anyone else?
I suspect no.
But who I am, but a baddie. A woman failing at my womaning by failing to express care and compassion in the correct way. (Publicly, and in line with the Good political party, the corporate media, Natalie Portman, and my algorithm.)
I am wondering if it is possible to have an opinion, and also allow for others to have an opinion, or perhaps no opinion at all. I wonder if we could all live with that.
(We could. I promise.)
Now, onto the current thing.
Just to be clear (and, to be clear, this is not my opinion, but the actual truth): what the “protestors” in Minneapolis are doing is illegal. Interfering with a federal investigation, interfering with or resisting arrest, driving a vehicle into or assaulting a law enforcement officer is a felony. It doesn’t really matter if your politics are the best and nicest politics in all the land of Oz. Those are crimes and you will get in very big trouble for doing those crimes. You put yourself in a dangerous situation when you get in between a cop and his job, or when you endanger a federal law enforcement officer.
And hey, you don’t have to trust me! Who am I but someone on the wrong side of history. You can look it up though. It’s true. It’s even true if you are Good and the other guy is Bad.
Here, I just googled this:
“Under 18 U.S.C. § 111, it is a federal felony to forcibly assault, resist, oppose, impede, intimidate, or interfere with federal officers, including Secret Service agents, during the performance of their duties.”
To be clear, I am not suggesting anyone deserves to die. I am suggesting, though, that it is very stupid to hurl yourself into the above mentioned situations and expect to come out unscathed or unarrested. If a federal officer feels you are endangering him or others, you are endangering yourself.
I guess the Democrats forgot to tell you.
Another point:
All countries have borders. They are used to keep people out. In most countries, you can’t just go in, illegally, and stay forever. You will get into trouble. Sometimes you will get deported. Sometimes you will get something much more unpleasant, like jail. I am not sure where progressive Americans got the impression this was not the case. Maybe it was the border Biden left wide open for a number of years. I’m sorry he confused you.
For me personally, despite my very badness, I don’t much like deportations. They seem mean! I would like good people who work hard and abide by laws to stay in America. Alas, I don’t make the rules. But also, so many of the people being deported are not those people… They are pedophiles and domestic abusers and rapists and other kinds of criminals. A lot of those people are kind of mean people! Even meaner than me :(
You need to be realistic, is the thing. We don’t live in a utopia. Sometimes unpleasant things happen, and maybe we don’t like them, but they still have to happen in order to have a functioning country and to protect the legal citizens of the country. That’s how good countries work.
None of these things are really my opinion. I know you have your opinions, and they are Nicer Opinions than the things I am saying here, which are Mean and Not Nice Things. I’m sorry.
I’m trying to help, I swear.
Anyway, next time maybe you will consider some not-so-nice but true things before leaping to hysteria and threatening a purge, because again, I feel like it doesn’t help.
Love ya!
So I have not commented on this site for a long time. I am catching up here. Meghan thanks for speaking, plain and true. You say it like it is.
Two nights ago I was accused by my adult son to be a right-wing bigot, as we were discussing the very topic you speak to today. I also say, wait, watch, think, and ask, what would you do under those miserable circumstance, is it okay to break the law, is it really that people who enforce the law are nazis, etc. Turns out my adult daughers feel the same way as my son, one daughter going so far as to say the mother who raised her is dead.
Needless to see I reeled for a few hours. Mothers are not supposed to express strong opinions. Mothers, even the old ones like me, are supposed to be in histrionics because a man was shot, as was a woman (all seen as brave innocents, not I must add, is it 'good' to shoot people down in the streets). My son was outraged that I was not, and was waiting instead to form a more clear opionion based on the facts as they emerged.
Then I listened to Dave Rubin, who calmly spoke to own thoughts on this matter. He said that we all appear to be watching two movies, although they are the same one, and coming away with an entirely different point of view as are those who are watching with different eyes. I concur. My family is a perfect example, a Canadian family, same movie, different understanding, as are my coworkers. One said this morning "we can no longer go to the states as we will die there." All hearing her agreed. I wanted to reply, 'only if you go armed, are violent yourself and would like to incite more violence, and have every intention of disobying the law to protect the criminal illegals.'
The divide that formed in Canada and also around the world over the 'c' shots and dogma, apply also to the ideological structures. Canada is dogma country, and if you don't comply, what out.
Also if you are an old or older woman who is supposed to be 'nice' because female, our families are or could be disusted with us, rather than proud of a grandma and mother who thinks first and talks after.
"Maybe it was the border Biden left wide open for a number of years." This has been a problem for the past forty years in the US, through both Republican and Democratic administrations. I lived in Canada for seven years. Yes, lots of immigrants there, but next-to-no illegal immigration. At the same time, no ICE-type raids. Why? They are unnecessary. There is an off-the-books economy in the US that doesn't exist in places like Canada. In the US -- lots more cash wages/payments going on. The reason the US is a magnet for illegal immigration is that the US does not enforce laws about proper documentation for hiring. Illegal immigrants are hired by many industries, and it's all done with a wink and a smile from government officials. Trump talks a big game but he is not truly serious. Why hasn't he pushed for national E-Verify? The US is the only developed country in the world that is de facto open borders. It's because that is what business owners want. It puts a download pressure on wages. Trump is not serious about doing anything about it. He loves cheap labor as much as Wall Street does.
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/05/trump-e-verify-fox-news-makes-it-too-hard-to-hire-the-undocumented.html