Well, yesterday was the day (11/3/2020). We'll find out if the giant wave of stupidity and hate crashes harmlessly against the shoreline or if it will drown us all with its vitriol and selfishness. My hope is that forces of common decency can pull off one last trick before humanity flushes itself down the shitter.
Walking around my neighborhood has me feeling less than optimistic and my anxiety has been running rampant. I've been filling the house the sounds of John Prine and The Clash to help keep the demons at bay and that seems to be helping. Keeping the television turned off and the phone on the other side of the house have also been good decisions.
I have gotten really tired of local media trying to put forth this idea that Pittsburgh is some sort of forward thinking haven of progressiveness. It's really not. Especially when the majority of people in this town get their information from sports talkshow hosts. It was very unsettling how every one of these dipshits became epidemiologists overnight and were spouting bullshit over the public airwaves all because grown-ups playing games went away for a while. And when sports did come back their little brains couldn't grasp the idea of athletes kneeling in quiet protest or withholding their labor when police are murdering people on an almost daily basis. Sports and racism go together in Pittsburgh like chocolate and peanut butter.
While in COVID lockdown, I've been passing the time with home improvement projects so the house that I shouldn't have bought doesn't fall over. One of the more peculiar downsides of this has been making the acquaintance of the asshole down the street. He flies a B*ue Lives Matter/thin blue line 'Merikkkan flag on the front of his house while also flying a “Don't Tread On Me” flag. Something tells me that he doesn't know the meaning behind at least one of those two flags.
Since I don't want to be dressed in my usual black cargo pants/shorts and black t-shirt while working outside in the sun, I'll throw on one of the many shirts that I've collected over the years from marching in the Labor Day parade. The designs that my union prints on these shirts fall squarely into the “America, Fuck Yeah!!!” category so I see no other use for them other than to wear them while doing yard work.
Mr. “Don't Tread On Me” always sees me working on the house while he's walking his dog without a leash and not picking up after it or while he's setting off fireworks in the middle of the day. I'm guessing he sees the sappy flag store patriotism printed on my shirt and has made the mistake of thinking that we are like-minded in some way. His topics of conversation always stop just shy of whining about the large Latinx population of the neighborhood. This asshole has only been in the neighborhood for a few years as compared to my sixteen years so he bristled a bit when I said the area has been that way long before I moved in. He also gave me an odd look when I told him my concerns over the early stages of gentrification that are starting to happen with the uptick in house flipping that's been going on. He didn't really seem to understand how I could think gentrification was a bad thing. The next time I'm working in the yard I'll be sure to bring out a boombox with “Cop Killer” playing on a loop. From the looks of his Virginia license plates he's probably an ICE agent here to hassle the locals.
To help break up the day while I'm day jobbing from home, I've been going for long walks around the neighborhood as soon as I punch out. I can't go a hundred yards, in any direction, from my front door without encountering T*ump merchandise. From the typical campaign yard signs to giant flags to window decals that cover the back windows of pickup trucks. This shit is everywhere and the people that display this nonsense give off a vibe of confrontational pride about it. Good for you. You spent $39.99 to tell me that you're an asshole. In my mind that shit is the same as a swastika.
I am very worried about how these assholes are going to react regardless of how the election shakes out. I remember walking around Downtown a few days after the election in 2016 and being surrounded by drunk white boys screaming “Yeah, T*ump!!!” on every street corner. The mindless violence that these people are capable of at the drop of a red hat is alarming.
So much for being “Stronger Than Hate” while also having a complete disregard for the teachings of Fred Rogers. All of these so-called Christians falling in lock step with the antithesis of what that man stood for make my brain hurt when they start quoting him. The great selfish “Fuck you” of it all will be on full display for at least the next few weeks.
When I woke up this morning, I was shocked to see that several numbskulls that look like pudgy versions of my high school bullies and gym teachers were elected to public office. They also happen to be the spitting image of toxic masculinity and white supremacy. As my stomach sank, I immediately thought of the Kurt Vonnegut quote: “True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country.”
One of the sadder parts of this is knowing full well that several members of my immediate family voted against their nieces and grandchildren's futures. I don't know if it's short sightedness, selfishness, some religious bullshit or pining for a time period that never really existed but it's disgusting to me whatever it is.
No matter the outcome, we are so collectively fucked beyond fucked. I guess I'll start looking into filing for political asylum in New Zealand.
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