November 11, 2024

This.

From “The Beautiful Mess” by John Pavlovitz.

“You shouldn’t let politics get in the way of your relationships.”

You’ve been hearing that for the past few months and seeing the sentiment pop up on social media in the wake of the election: the idea that family members and friends are too important to lose over a political position or a ballot choice.

I just wanted to offer a slightly dissenting opinion: bullshit.

That made philosophical sense in the past, prior to 2016, when we had parties and candidates who genuinely desired the common good, when we were just debating methodology or financial approach to problems that we all agreed were problems. It made sense when we imagined that our fathers, cousins, neighbors, and lifelong friends cared about diversity and justice and personal freedoms and helping people as much as we did.

We are way past that, dear friends.

Throughout this campaign, Donald Trump and his surrogates offered an openly nihilistic, misogynistic, hate-poisoned vision of an intentionally-divided nation without empathy for the poor or the sick; a naked declaration of white supremacy and intolerant nationalism; a movement completely devoid of policy and erected solely on those it would exclude and punish and banish.

And that is what so many of the people we once shared this life with have chosen, many for the third time now. That doesn’t just point to political fissure or ideological misalignment, but a complete moral incompatibility.

Non Algorithmic.

I’ve made a change to my approach around social media. I know, I go on about social media more than I should. But hear me out:

  1. I’m avoiding algorithmically based timelines as much as possible. Obviously I’m avoiding Twitter, as it’s owned by Sissy Space X and basically just contains the dregs of the planet and the journalists that support them. But this also means leaning away from Threads, Facebook, and Instagram. Facebook continues to be the hardest to ignore, because too many friends and family use that as their only means of communication.
  2. I’m giving Bluesky another whirl, and you can find my profile here. Since the online folks I have followed for years have scattered, a Bluesky profile let’s me keep in touch with some of them.
  3. I’m still on Mastodon and it’s still my preferred social media platform. You can find me here.
  4. My YouTube account will continue to grow, as I am enjoying the creative outlet of video making. I have confined my consumption of YouTube to my subscriptions list courtesy of a bunch of browser extensions and the like that hide the cruft along the sides of the pages.

In addition, I continue to approach my technology with a “pick your battles” approach. This involves a mix of Apple and Linux in my computing platforms of choice. I’m keeping a VERY close eye on Apple these days; Tim Cook’s exuberance the day after the elections was very concerning for me. Apple has pledged to keep user data private. Let’s see if they live up to that.

I’m writing further ideas down around cost savings and my technological habits. I’m letting them sit on a list of pondering notes for a few days before I take action.

It’s good to take a breath before taking action.

Reality.

Over the past six days I have experienced too many irrational emotions to the new normal in the United States. The fact of the matter is, the majority of American voters selected racist, sexist, small man who is also a felon to sit in the White House again. It’s a fact that can not be changed.

I can change my response to the situation. For the past week I let my feelings bring me too far down as I try to understand why Americans would vote this way. I was too wrapped up in feelings of betrayal and asking myself “why?”

It’s not for me to understand. I can’t control these voters, but I can certainly control my response to the situation.

I’ve come to the realization that if I found myself in the unfortunate circumstance of being on a passenger flight that has crashed and caught fire, more than half the people around me would grab their luggage from the overhead bins and trample their way to the exit. They wouldn’t care if I was stuck in my seat, they’d just be getting out. Fear fuels the majority of Americans.

This is a fact.

What I can do, and this is something that I really need to get better at, is take a “tactical pause”, take a deep breath, and then do what I can to help the flight attendants in that burning airplane situation.

I need to refuse to make room for fear.

There is NOTHING in this world that can happen where we don’t have room for a “tactical pause”. We always have time for a breath, we always have time for a beat. And with that moment we can look toward our center. Find it and embrace it.

“Fear exists for one purpose: to be conquered”.  

– Kathryn Janeway on “Star Trek: Voyager”

I stand by my decision to distance myself from those that would trample with their luggage to exit the burning airplane. Those with a loose moral foundation are what they are; and any hooting and hollaring around the situation is not going to make a difference.

Just be the one advancing and helping those around us that do the same. It’s our only way to safety.