$5 Trillion & SNAP

I just saw today that a company is worth $5 trillion dollars. Yes, you read that correctly. A COMPANY IS WORTH $5,000,000,000,000. Numbers start getting beyond my comprehension once they contain that many zeros. I bring up this company’s staggering financial milestone because in just a few days the US government has made the decision to stop SNAP benefits for millions of Americans INCLUDING CHILDREN and it’s infuriating to know that kind of wealth is out there. I’m not saying this company should fund the government or cover SNAP benefits for citizens, but to know that much money is just floating around while people are struggling is something I can’t quite wrap my head around.

The Pathology of Bigotry

The pathology of MAGA supporters continues to intrigue me. Just the same as the psyche of racists.

Last night I had an epiphany to write out all the things I think are happening in the minds of people who decide they “don’t want ‘illegals’ in the country” but have a very loose and strange definition of what “illegal” means, people who rave about the sanctity of true Christian values but support a genocide where thousands of children have been killed and a leader who should not be around children, people who believe in marriage but condemn love they don’t understand, people who cherish the Bible but hate thy neighbor.

By no means am I a professional, but I have been observant of behaviors over the last three decades of my life and have found some consistent ones in people holding bigoted beliefs. So these are just my thoughts.

Thoughts on Sept 10th

Words mean things, and when you are continuously espousing hate for marginalized groups there shouldn’t be surprise when empathy, compassion, or understanding isn’t extended from those same groups after an event like this. Especially knowing he would most likely not express any of those feelings towards anyone if the roles be reversed. Actually, there is proof he has not. He was a bigot. Plain and simple. There is no debating that. So when I hear this outrageous insistence on being sad or actively mourning him, it is insulting. While he was a public figure, he was still a stranger. Regardless of his views, it is odd that people are angry about the lack of sadness being felt and expressed. But layer the racism on top and it’s even wilder. I won’t speak for others here but I’ll share how I feel.

Nothing. I don’t feel anything for him specifically. I didn’t know him personally and I honestly barely followed his career. I’ve seen a few clips of his show and his debates, and was not impressed. He sounded like any other troll online who reduced complex situations into rage-bait talking points. No nuance or genuine curiosity. He was someone I rarely thought about and when I did see clips I rolled my eyes and kept scrolling. When I heard he’d been shot I was truly surprised. I was surprised because he didn’t seem important enough to be targeted so maliciously. Sure, he said things that made people angry, but he was a MAGA influencer. That was kind of his career, exploiting painful realities and pitting people against each other.

Yes, slavery was THAT BAD

I was taking a news cycle break but now I’m back and (overwhelmed) catching up with all of the terrible things the administration is doing and saying. One of the most harrowing is this obsession with downplaying slavery and trying to erase history at, specifically, the National Museum of African American History and Culture which I still haven’t made it to and with the current militarized occupation of DC, don’t know when I will.

As I have said in this blog before, one of the most glaring roadblocks to progress is American society’s refusal to wholly acknowledge, accept, and rectify the very real and brutal history of this country due mostly to the feelings of discomfort and guilt these conversations stir. There have been apologies issued by federal and local governments for slavery, even some (very) minimal efforts for reparations in some states. However, a concerted effort to teach honestly and fully in classrooms what happened during this dark time along with its heavy impact on political and social structures is still lost. While we are taught aspects of slavery in school, it is watered down immensely and minimized in ways that are damaging and detrimental to critical thought.

Oh Hope, Where Art Thou?

I haven’t been feeling like writing in here for a while because frankly it didn’t seem particularly helpful. I didn’t think it would be beneficial to anyone to read another pile on about this astoundingly atrocious administration, but here we are. I wish I was more hopeful and while I do see resistance continuing to form, nothing seems to be loud or effective enough to stop this group of evil politicians from continuing to bulldoze through people’s lives and make decisions that benefit so few while the rest of us are here wondering how humans can be so cruel and callous to each other.

I won’t go through the plethora of imbecilic posts, outrageous statements, absolutely unhinged messaging that has been coming out of this White House recently because, well, there are far too many things to fit in this single post and we’ve all been subjected to it already- either against our will or not. Every single day there’s something ludicrous happening that makes me all the more exhausted and begging for some semblance of reason or empathy.