Slide to the Left

Today’s post is a writing challenge. This is how it works: participating bloggers picked 4 – 6 words or short phrases for someone else to craft into a post. All words must be used at least once and all the posts will be unique as each writer has received their own set of words. That’s the challenge, here’s a fun twist; no one who’s participating knows who got their words and in what direction the writer will take them. Until now.

My words are:

rigged ~ wind ~ blurb ~ barrel ~ watch

They we're submitted by: https://dlt-lifeontheranch.blogspot.com/

Spectacular year we're having in the U.S. isn't it?

First in a very Jackson-like move by a similarly Jacksonian president, we slid into 2021 with our leaving President insisting our election was rigged. That bag of wind wound people up so severely that we saw the Capitol breached and an attempted fascist inssurection that cost real lives and almost cost more. And for what? To assuage his fragile ego? So a megalomaniac could grip any shred of power he could get his hands on with no real tangible benefit to the people? The entirety of this "coup" is farcical but also shows how close to fascism we stand.

I'm under no impression that any real change in this country will happen without violence. There were protests all summer long against police brutality and extrajudicial murders. People were run over, shot, harassed, slandered... And still killed by police. Arrested. Murdered under bizarre circumstances. And all for a 17% decrease in police killings over that month. What does it take to end it? It certainly isn't going to stop on its own. As John Brown said before being hung for his actions against slavers and slavery, the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood. How much blood will need spilling before it is more than just a couple thousand people in the streets?

With even a slight knowledge of past insurrections and history, it is very clear we're on a slippery slope here. With the level of misinformation and propaganda we're seeing combined with antisemitic cults and growing extremist militias, we might soon barrel right into a second civil war. In my lifetime. And with that comes levels of violence that will make January 6th a blurb, a paragraph in history books to discuss the signs of where we were headed and nothing more. It will be a signpost barely discussed, a pale comparison to the chunk of history that follows it... And unfortunately I don't think we have time to stop this slide. We've platformed cults and conspiracies and alt right mouthpieces... We give them credible air time on mainstream news networks and wring our hands when it comes to equally calling out the Nazis and the people who allow Nazis to exist unchecked. We root for teams--blue or red--without critically examining their politics. We watch while both parties hypocritically point fingers at the other side for things they do themselves...It's getting harder and harder to stay informed, to know how to navigate the news, to be able to read even the most simple bill or state amendment proposal. Voting rights are constantly under attack, and the people who *can* vote are more and more left feeling no vote they make will fundamentally change their lives. With the popularity of things like $15 minimum wage and aid packages being far beyond the majority while representives on both sides of the aisle decide for us what we actually want without our input, who can blame folks for not voting? No matter who they vote for, the person being paid to represent them will vote their own interests and treat us like we're too inexperienced and naive to know what we want. We're naughty children who need to be chided and scolded and told what's best for us.

We're watching as it all works the way it was always intended--to keep the rich getting richer and the poor put in positions it is impossible to escape from without riots and protests and violence. Trump was right when he said things are rigged; he's just wrong about who this system is rigged against. How much longer can we sustain a rigged system? A racist, classist, homophobic, transphobic, violent system? How much longer can we watch while people starve and freeze on our streets, die from treatable illnesses without healthcare, and let these people rule in favor of corporate interests?

I don't expect things to be better in my lifetime, but for my child's sake, I hope we stop watching and start acting soon. We won't have even a rotten system to leave them if we don't. 

And no Biden won't be that answer either. We're just delaying, at best, and contributing (ahem bombing Syria) at worst.

Links to the other “Use Your Words” posts:

Baking In A Tornado https://bakinginatornado.com/

On the Border https://dlt-lifeontheranch.blogspot.com/

Wandering Web Designer https://wanderingwebdesigner.com/blog

Part-time Working Hockey Mom https://thethreegerbers.blogspot.ch/


The Crazy Mama Llama https://crazymamallama.blogspot.com