Swearing Emoji On ‘civility’ in politics.
Thoughts & Essays

On ‘civility’ in politics.

JavaElemental ☕

Look guys, all I can say is if I’m expected to “be civil” with racists, nazis and sociopathic monsters then y’all better get ready to be disappointed.

Back when Trump was elected, 248 years ago, on an old blog, I wrote something about “we have to learn not to be so angry with each other,” and trash to that effect, and I am here today to tell you that I was 100% wrong about that. Fuck Trump, his whole administration, the entire useless GOP, and all of Trump’s terrible, terrible fanboys, literally as hard as possible, preferably with something that has random sharp edges.

We’re talking about people who thought it was cool to steal people’s children and hide them away in cages, drug them against their will, and lose them in the system, just for trying to come here and find a better life.

We’re talking about a guy who said of torch-marching nazis that killed and beat people that “some of them were good people.”

We’re talking about an overtly racist administration that has been successful so far at only one single thing, and that thing is packing federal courts with racists and sociopaths, a move that will reverberate throughout our culture for generations.

We’re talking about people who have screwed the federal budget six ways to Sunday to pad the pockets of their rich benefactors.

We’re talking about people who think it’s somehow advantageous to kick off trade wars, piss off our allies, cozy up to tyrants and dictators, and give away the last of America’s influence over the world stage for nothing.

We’re talking about people who lie dead-eyed into your face and then get mad when you call them on it.

We’re talking about people who are trying again and again to take everyone’s healthcare away, a move that will result in the deaths of literally millions more people than under our current system.

We’re talking about people who stole away a free and fair Internet because they’re scared they’re not making enough money off us with it as it is.

We’re talking about people who did all this and a hundred other awful, shitty, petty little things to benefit themselves and no others and harm those they disagreed with.

And we’re talking about the people who voted them into power, happily, gleefully, or, bare minimum, unthinkingly, because they were mad about a black president and a possible woman president.

So fuck ’em. You can ask me for a lot, but you can’t ask me to be “civil” with people that stupid.

Actions have consequences. If you act like a child-stealing, racist, lying, dead-eyed monster, you can expect to be treated like a child-stealing, racist, lying, dead-eyed monster.

I’ll remind you that in the 2016 election, about half of all voters even voted, and less than half of that voted for Trump. So Trump and his goons are out here enacting all this heinous garbage while flying in the face of the will of the majority of Americans – possibly in the face of the vast majority of Americans.

And while they do that, while they lie to us, while they ban innocent Muslims from American shores for no particular reason, while they steal away South American children and deport South American parents for the crime of trying to find a safe place to raise their kids, while they sympathize with nazis and embolden racists, while they roll back gay and trans rights, while they sneak into place restrictive abortion laws, while they steal away voting rights, while they do all that, and more, we’re the assholes for using bad language and politely asking them to leave our restaurants? We’re the assholes for protesting?

And you think I’m supposed to buy that? Really?

I guess no one remembers back a decade ago when Bush II was president and we were all “shrill liberals,” but this outcry for “civility” is GOP standard operating procedure, and you can always count on the moderate mainstays on the news to fall for it. The GOP doesn’t want “civility.” They want to be able to do what they please and act how they want without facing any consequences for their actions. They want to screw over poor people and non-white people and women and non-straight people and everyone else who isn’t a rich old white dude, but they don’t want to be called names for doing it.

And importantly, they want that not because they’re tender, fragile snowflakes who’re getting their little fee-fees hurt, as some have said over on Twitter, but because they’re specifically trying to train people not to fight them. They want quiet, civil, polite, timid liberals who fuss gently and tsk quietly.

They don’t want millions of angry women in pink pussy hats screaming at inauguration ceremonies. They don’t want crowds upon crowds of people clogging up airports and donating hundreds of thousands of dollars to legal defense funds to fight Muslim bans down to the bitter end. They don’t want thousands of black people blocking streets and chanting that Black Lives Matter. They don’t want to be chased out of restaurants by angry protesters.

They don’t want us to fight their bullshit. That’s what these cries of “civility” are about. They want us patting our pearls with soft gasps, not fighting tooth and nail and screaming our heads off.

Fuck that. Fuck them. And most especially, fuck their “civility.”