When I finally went to bed late last night, there was a small part of me that hoped I would wake up this morning to find that Donald Trump’s improbable victory had been nothing more than a very bad dream.
Barring that, which I knew was a bit of a long shot, I hoped that I would at least wake up with the inklings of a plan for what to do about this catastrophe. I hoped I could write a rousing blog post sketching out my thoughts on the road ahead– for this blog and for the anti-Trump movement as a whole.
Alas, that didn’t happen either. I’m still processing the bad news, emotionally and intellectually. And I know a lot of you are doing the same.
And that’s ok. Trump will not take office until the end of January. There will be plenty of time to come up with ways to fight back against the orange one.
Right now the important thing is to take care of ourselves and those around us. Give yourself however much time you need. Avoid stress. Don’t beat yourself up for what happened, and don’t take out your anger on others on our side. Turn off the news if need be. Do whatever you need to do to clear your head and keep yourself safe.
In the comments here, feel free to continue the discussion that started in the “VOTE” post yesterday. And please share any self-help and self-care strategies you have — even if all you’ve got at the moment is pictures of cats and videos of hedgehogs.
If trolls show up, or if there is anything else that pops up in the thread that I should know about, please send me an email about it.
We can fight this thing. We can beat this thing. But first we need to get ourselves centered.
Hugs gratefully accepted, dude.
@EJ, that’s awful. I’m glad that the harassment has slowed to a crawl for you, at least. You handled it really well.
As for Joaquin,
Here’s what we imagine happening
Here’s what we’d like to see happen
http://i.imgur.com/kzrE4em.gif
Here’s what’s actually happening
http://24.media.tumblr.com/dda7633b41d5b43c0f45269d6f9a06a8/tumblr_mq3mbbXXQh1ri8sugo1_500.gif
@JoaquinRL1
There’s a significant difference bewteen an anime girl stalking you and a person actively harming you and others. The fact that you keep speaking for others to the point of marginalizing the damages done to the “men you are in support with” shows how vile you really are.
@EJ
Sorry man about something thay dreadful.
@EJ, {{hugs}} if I may. That’s horrible – and also illuminating; as you point out, things don’t just always map neatly when flipped, but the core of it is all there: the behaviour is utterly unwanted, deeply intrusive and often frightening – and it’s completely outside your control, because it’s got nothing to do with whatever you may say/not say, or do/not do. It’s 100% on the other person (something the Joaquíns of this world prefer not to see, of course).