Enough said:
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Marissa's musings about liberty, individual rights, justice, grief, loss, and other random things
Generally, I’m not a big advocate of pointing at people and laughing. Generally, I consider this a pretty mean thing to do. But honestly, I 100% agree with the below posts from Twitchy and the Firearms Policy Coalition:
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I am so utterly sick and tired of Democrats and their hurtful and intolerant words and policies. I am so tired of being insulted, attacked, shamed and ridiculed. I am so tired of the vicious, nasty, and pompous condemnations of people who have done nothing wrong. I am tired of innocent people being hurt, and then when they express their hurt, treated as if they are the problem. I am tired of people violating the rights of others, and then acting as if they’ve done something positive, something that gives them a claim to the moral high ground. I am tired of the self-righteous intolerance, tired of the bigotry mischaracterized as virtue. I am tired of the hypocrisy, the inconsistency, the double standards, the lack of logic, and more than anything else, the lack of empathy.
They hurt us, and then criticize us for being hurt.
They anger us – by taunting, insulting, ridiculing, and attacking us – and then criticize us for being angry.
They violate our rights, and then criticize us for protesting (after they themselves have spent months and months engaging in the most violent and vicious protests imaginable).
They are cruel to us, and then accuse us of being cruel.
They exclude us for being different, and then accuse us of exclusion.
They engage in a campaign of systematic obliteration of all diversity from our world, and then pontificate about the importance of diversity.
They insult us because of our skin color, and then accuse us of being racist.
They condemn us for being “insurrectionists” and “traitors” – as if resisting authority is self-evidently pejorative – and then characterize themselves as “fighting back” and “the resistance.”
They have demonstrated, again and again, the most abject and appalling lack of empathy imaginable, and then accuse us of lacking empathy.
For so long, Democrats have pointed and laughed – and far worse – at people who have done nothing whatsoever to deserve such treatment. For so long, Democrats have piled on – inflicting additional pain and harm on people who are already hurting – and then acted as if this somehow constitutes moral virtue. It’s past time that they get a taste of their own medicine. Maybe then they will actually understand the magnitude, the severity, the sheer enormity, of harm that they have caused and the pain that they have inflicted.
It’s been several years since the atrocity that was done to the Lion of Atlanta, but I saw this Instagram post about it recently, and I felt the need to share my thoughts.
“F*** your dead,” wrote the excuses for human beings who committed this atrocity. And of course, “BLM.”
The excuses for human beings also crossed out the word “Confederate” from the phrase “unknown Confederate dead” on the monument.
Translation:
F*** anyone who differs from us in any way. F*** anyone who differs from the norm, from the majority.
Only our lives matter. No one else’s. No one’s feelings, perspective, or viewpoint matters, other than ours.
Anyone who differs from us in any way needs to be erased from existence, as if they never lived at all.
Only bland, mundane people who conform to social norms and mindlessly comply with authority should be allowed to exist.
The only people who deserve to be honored, memorialized, or respected are those who look and think like us.
Those are the attitudes of the excuses for human beings who committed the atrocity towards the Lion of Atlanta.
And those attitudes are the antithesis of diversity, the antithesis of inclusion, the antithesis of tolerance.
I say:
F*** you, excuses for human beings who wrote these things.
F*** your contempt, hatred, and intolerance for anyone who differs from you in any way.
F*** your bigotry.
F*** your authoritarianism.
You demonstrate that supporters of the BLM movement are the real bigots, the real racists.
Our society should have unanimously and unequivocally condemned this movement the instant its slogan was found graffitied, alongside profane insults, on the Lion of Atlanta.
Yet despicably, our society did the opposite.
Society’s embrace of the movement responsible for this and countless similar atrocities is an injustice worse than words are able to convey; it is the worst injustice imaginable.
“The flag of traitors.”
Yes, the flag of people who thought for themselves, and resisted authority, as opposed to practicing obedience, compliance, and mindless conformity.
I’m not sure why you consider that to be a bad thing.
“The flag of losers.”
Yes, the flag of people that you oppressed and harmed. That flag of people that you actively inflicted pain on, using your power, strength, and wealth. The flag of people whose land you invaded. The flag of people whose rights you violated. The flag of people that you forced to remain part of the same country against their will.
I’m not sure how that makes those people and their flag bad, and you somehow good.
The fact that you would call the Confederates “traitors” and “losers,” as if these things are insults, means that you are a bully, a bigot, a conformist, and an authoritarian.
The fact that the Confederates “lost” does not reflect badly on them. It reflects badly on you.
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100% correct.
As is the first comment on the post, which reads as follows: “How come whenever I talk to my non-Democrat (Republicans/Libertarians) friends they’re capable of mutual conversation of differing political opinions, and can critique those they vote and support for and their policies. But my leftist/Dem friends aren’t capable of criticizing anyone in the Democrat Party, policies, etc. It’s almost like they’re a cult or something and incapable of individual and critical thinking” (comment edited slightly by me for typos)
Bingo.
Horrific, agonizing pain. My limbs feel like lead, my stomach feels sick, my lungs feel like they’re filled with rocks. I am crushed beneath an avalanche of grief, sadness, and anger. The agony is like a knife that stabs me in the heart. The entire world is dark, horrifying, disgusting. It feels as if my soul is being eviscerated, as if I will never experience happiness again.
This is something I’ve experienced hundreds of times over the past four years.
In this most recent instance, this pain was directly caused by Rep. David Trone, who despicably sponsored a bill * – known as HR 7474, the Robert E. Lee Monument Removal Act – which would turn the Antietam (Sharpsburg) Battlefield into yet another thing whose entire purpose is to send the message that people like me shouldn’t be allowed to exist. Yet another place in which I am not welcome, yet another area of society in which I cannot participate, yet another part of our physical world that would be altered in order to ensure that I cannot feel represented or included.
Despicably, Trone said of his act of vicious cruelty and aggression: “I thank my colleagues for joining me in this effort to ensure Antietam honors our nation’s victory over the Confederacy rather than memorializes historical figures who fought to break up the Union and restrict fundamental human rights.”
As if forcing people to remain part of the same country against their will somehow doesn’t restrict fundamental human rights. As if inflicting on another human the type of pain that I described in the first paragraph of this blog post somehow doesn’t restrict fundamental human rights. As if decreeing that only one side in a war deserves to be honored, only one perspective acknowledged, only one story told, only one viewpoint reflected, somehow doesn’t restrict fundamental human rights.
To “ensure Antietam honors our nation’s victory over the Confederacy” completely defeats the purpose of even preserving the battlefield as a historical site, both because the entire concept of a battle requires that there be two opposing sides, and also because there is no benefit in something existing when the very attribute that made it beautiful, distinctive, and remarkable has been destroyed.
David Trone would like Antietam to be transformed from a historical site honoring a battle and the soldiers who fought there, into yet another monument to authoritarianism, compliance, and mindless conformity, into yet another piece of propaganda designed to send the message that any person who differs from the mainstream, from the norm, from the majority in any way, has no right to exist.
As if sending this message somehow doesn’t restrict fundamental human rights.
David Trone’s decision to introduce this bill is an attack on me as a human being. It is an attack on me because I am different, because I do not fit in, because I see the world differently from most people, because I have different interests and passions and values and ways of thinking than the majority. Because I am different, the Robert E. Lee Monument represents me. It makes me feel included. It makes me feel that people like me are allowed to exist. By attempting to remove it, David Trone is attempting to turn the Antietam Battlefield into yet another instrument in society’s war against people like me. Yet another thing that used to make me feel represented and included, now turned into a cudgel to beat me with. Yet another tool for society to use to hammer home the brutal and intolerant message that I do not deserve to exist because I am different.
Tell me again, why does America need another monument to authoritarianism, compliance, and mindless conformity? Why does America need yet another memorial honoring the same bland, mundane, and meaningless values that people are already bombarded with every day, in every facet of life?
Tell me again, what is the point of the Antietam battlefield even existing, if its existence does nothing other than to stab my heart, punch me in the gut, stomp on my face, and inflict horrific and agonizing pain?
Pardon my French, but fuck David Trone. He doesn’t care a whit about fundamental human rights. If he did, he would campaign passionately against vaccine mandates, gun control, the Durham-Humphrey Amendment, and the use of full-body scanners at airports, to give just a few examples. Each of these policies restrict fundamental human rights vastly more severely than anyone from the Confederacy ever did.
How dare David Trone pontificate about fundamental human rights while simultaneously going out of his way to violate them?
How dare he go about his life as if nothing is wrong, while his actions inflict horrific and agonizing pain on other people?
It is mentally exhausting and demoralizing that acts of vicious cruelty and aggression, such as this one perpetrated by David Trone and his 6 co-sponsors, continue to happen. I am tired, I am angry, and I am exhausted. I don’t deserve for this pain to be inflicted on me, and David Trone has no right to inflict it. Despicably, he pontificates about “fundamental human rights” while actively violating mine.
I learned from a quick Google search that David Trone has a wife and several children. How would he like it if his wife and children were beaten, strangled, dismembered, burned, and had their limbs sawed off and their bodies cut to pieces as he was forced to watch? That might sound sadistic, outlandish, excessive, ridiculous… but it has been my reality for the past four years. Perhaps if this happened, David Trone would experience a tiny fraction of the pain that I’ve experienced. Maybe then he’d have a shred of empathy for the people he’s harmed. Maybe then he’d work towards enacting policies that would compensate me for the pain I’ve suffered, rather than actively inflicting even more of it.
* as well as 6 other members of Congress who co-sponsored this bill
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100% true.
… other than to say that this is 100% true:
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I came across this post from “Defiant Ls,” which shows not only the blatant hypocrisy of Rep. Anna Eskamani and so many others who share her political views, but also their disturbing practice of presuming the truth of what they are trying to prove.
In particular, the use of the term “election denier” demonstrates the intolerance and authoritarianism of the left.
When you call someone a “denier,” you are presuming that the thing in question is true and therefore that the person is wrong to deny it.
The use of the term “election denier” presumes that the election was legitimate.
The use of the term “Holocaust denier” presumes that the Holocaust happened.
The use of the term “climate denier” presumes that climate change is occurring.
The use of the term “science denier” presumes that the scientific findings in question are correct.
I could continue giving more examples, but I think you get the point.
The problem is not the act of claiming that an election was legitimate, or that the Holocaust happened, or that climate change is actually occurring. In fact, I would probably agree with these claims. The problem is presuming these things. A person should never presume the thing that they are trying to prove, no matter how obvious they believe that thing is.
If you believe something, you need to state it, as opposed to presuming it.
If you believe that a person is wrong, you need to state that, as opposed to presuming it by calling that person a “denier.”
Presuming the truth of what you are trying to prove implies that there are no possible views that a person could have, other than your own. It doesn’t even allow for the possibility of alternative views existing. And that is the ultimate in intolerance and authoritarianism.
As almost everyone knows, the state of Colorado decided last month to disqualify Donald Trump from appearing on the ballot for the Republican primary.
In making this decision, the Colorado Supreme Court cited section 3 of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, which bars from federal office anyone who has engaged in “insurrection or rebellion.”
This provision was passed in the aftermath of the Civil War, and its use against Trump reflects the same authoritarianism that the 1860s United States used against the Confederacy.
Contrary to the assumptions of almost everyone, insurrection and rebellion are not bad things, but good things.
Insurrection and rebellion are acts of resisting authority. They are acts of courage. They are the manifestation of thinking for oneself, as opposed to mindlessly complying with authority and conforming to social norms.
Therefore, insurrection and rebellion are morally good things. They should be praised and encouraged, not condemned and punished.
Just as it was wrong for the Union to wage war on the Confederacy for attempting to leave the country and form a new one, it is equally wrong for courts to disqualify Trump from the ballot for standing up to an oppressive, unjust, and wrong system.
Both Donald Trump and those who fought for the Confederacy engaged in insurrection and rebellion.
In other words, both Trump and the Confederates demonstrated courage and moral goodness by standing up for what is right, even when it was difficult and unpopular to do so.
Both Trump and Confederate historical figures deserve to be honored, not punished, by our society.