On What Courage Requires
This is a blog.
It is, in its expression, a vehicle of free speech. It is not a part of “The Media”, that nebulous and undefined phrase that pretends to have semantic value, falsely presents itself as some sort of “real thing” and is used to excoriate those in journalism, entertainment, and expression of art, science, and knowledge.
But it is already, and will get much more so, very critical of the incoming administration — so critical, in fact, that outside of quotes in which the term appears, I will never use the name of the person at the head of it.
I will never, ever acknowledge nor give respect to the person taking that office. The kindest thing I can do is to use the name I have created for him: iDJiT, which is at the least based on his initials.
This places me at risk.
Some folks will say this is because he is white, or he is a man, or he is straight or cis or able bodied or (now) conservative or whatever they think of in terms of “political correctness”. They will deride and defame me as a liberal, a dummycrat, and all manner of stuff.
They are liars, of course, but they will refuse to believe that. Which is fine. I don’t give a fuck about their beliefs, since they are anti-American, and that is why I oppose the motherfucker.
He is Anti-American.
Not UnAmerican. I know a lot of people who are unAmerican. Libertarians, Anarchists, Socialists, Communists, assorted and sundries variations and combinations.
I mean, explicitly, Anti-American.
He demonstrated it, to cheers and applause, for a year, and won.
And now, because he won — and to the great delight of millions of Anti-American citizens of the US — I am at risk because I will speak out against him, against his cronies, against the efforts of a motley collective that seeks to regress this nation’s progress and undo the just society that has been fought against by them for over 150 years and has taken over a party that once stood for everything they oppose.
Anyone who opposes the orange fuckup, the iDJiT, is at risk.
Here is a challenge for you. One you need to think through, very carefully.
There are seven major television news networks in the US.
People don’t like that they are effectively normalizing the iDJiT.
How do they not do so?
How do they cover the person occupying the most powerful office on the planet, the de facto leader of the very nation they exist in, without normalizing him?
To answer this, keep in mind, you need to understand what normalization is, how it works, what does it, and why it happens.
You also need to understand the business of news, and the give and take between ownership and the audience ratings and the need to sell commercial time.
So, understanding these things, you can answer the question.
Which is still, how do they not normalize him?
This is a tough question to answer, one that few will be able to handle on “my side” of things.
Because it offends us, it offends our sensibilities, our very USian natures, the history and ideals of the very people who founded this nation. Because the US is the product of the Constitution, and the Declaration, and the Bill of Rights, and those three things are the product of Liberalism. Literally.
To be an American is to live under Liberalism. Every nation that places human Rights at its core is a product of Liberalism. Many folks think of liberalism as an economic system (and a capitalist one, specifically), but it isn’t. Socialism and Communism are forms of Liberalism.
And because the nasty piece of human excrement is Anti-American, those of us who still hold to those ideas and ideals are at risk.
Which means we require Courage.
We will be threatened.
We will be intimidated.
We will be arrested.
We will be jailed.
We will be smeared in the press and on social media.
We will be attacked at your home and place of work and we are likely to be fired for it.
We will find that as more people — the loudest, most popular ones, first — are subjected to this, that more people will grow quiet.
We will be told to be silent for our own safety, to go along to get along. To not rock the boat or makes waves or be warned about being a team player with analogies to baseball and football and basketball.
We will find people moving away from you, calling us weird, unaware of how accurate that word is.
We will find that these things happen to us when we speak out, act out, stand out, in opposition to the new administration.
Names will be taken, so we will never give ours. Photos will be taken, so we will never allow it.
That is what they want. These anti-Americans.
That is what they will do.
This is what we need to prepare for. This is what Courage Requires.
Not in fear, though. We do not fear any of these things. We will embrace them. We will not hide, will not run, will not say we will behave.
We aim to misbehave, aim to be louder, more visible, more defiant, more courageous and more powerful.
Now, more than ever before in our lives, we will be the change we want to see in the world.
Be brave. Be defiant. Be the voice of Freedom.
Be ourselves, no matter what the world throws at us, knowing they will throw everything at as.
We will smile when they do it.
Because the fact they do it proves that the ones who are truly afraid are them.
Of us.