The Fuck Would I Say What For?

[trigger warning: hackneyed, overused phrase]

At the end of the day you’re not going to know any more of my political opinions than I choose to share, which is basically “Let the fucking gays get married and shut your homophobe mouths.” But then again I still describe my favorite boots as ‘faggy’.

I am left-leaning enough to want the world to be a better place and smart enough to realize how utterly fucked people who share my opinions are. All I want is for people to keep talking, because it’s a hell of a lot easier to watch Dancing With The Stars or fucking Glee than it is to educate yourself about American history or global politics, but if you’re at least chit-chatting about the world then you’re thinking about it, which is good.

And I’m old enough to know that for some people, that’s as far into the pool as they’re willing to dip their toes, and that is okay. Not everyone is an activist. A lot of people are just trying to live. Personally, I just want to have kids and raise them well and ensure that the entire planet isn’t a cinder by the time they learn to tie their shoes.

Everyone who thinks they’re right about what should or shouldn’t be happening needs to go outside and look around. The whole world is teetering on the brink, but we still have to live in it. And that means getting along with people who don’t share our opinions in the ways that are as beneficial to the largest number of people possible, because it’s a ‘global community’ now, right? For better or worse we’re all in this together, and that means straight white guys, black feminists, Libyan orphans, Pakistani fathers, Muslim women, hardcore Christians, Chinese factory workers, college undergrads, baby seals, plankton and Kim Jong Il.

We can’t all be happy at once. Ever.

The best we can hope for is that we move forward, toward as many good things as we can, for as many people as we can.

The more we talk the closer we get to figuring out what those things are, and the more you think you’re “right” the more you’re missing someone’s point.

Nobody’s right. We’re all just stumbling along, trying not to die.

(But we will, and we should probably come to grips with that.)

Fight for what you believe in, but understand that not everyone can or will share your passion. That doesn’t make them bad people. The most hardcore Ivy League Young Republican has nothing in common with your average bone-deep militant feminist, but in the eyes of a run-of-the-mill Egyptian revolutionary they’re both asshole Westerners who don’t know shit about the world. All three of them need clean water, though. So whose cause is “best”? Or “correct”? Now ask the average 20 year old Japanese secretary how she feels about the Sudanese secession. No answer? Ask someone from the new republic of South Sudan. The entire world is in turmoil. Fix what you can. Not theoretically, but physically. Make sacrifices. But understand that other people are doing exactly what you’re doing, even if it’s completely in opposition. 

Some people will straight up disagree with the things you hold dear. If you can’t change their mind, well … 

You can at least try to understand where they’re coming from. It’s what you’re asking of them, after all.

Everyone’s beautiful to someone, right?

And the last pure Communist with the best ideas about how to live apparently got nailed to a tree, so keep that in mind.

It’s rough out there.