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.
It’s been less than 24 hours since this bloated shitstain excuse for a human being was elected, and I’m already seeing idiotic apologist FB posts from apathetics, “moderates” and edgy “devil’s advocate” types saying bullshit like “We need to move forward and work together.” You democrats/liberals are being too intolerant, why can’t you respect the beliefs of others” etc. Seriously, you can all go fuck yourselves. I had to listen to a year of a campaign based on hatred and intolerance, and you expect me to forgive YOU for voting for a white supremacist in less that one day? I can’t even be pissed for one FUCKING day or I’M intolerant? Seriously. FUCK. YOU. And fuck everybody telling others how to feel (in bad faith, not if you’re legit trying to help people you care about cope) in light of a national tragedy.
Thank you to every one who responded to me with kind words and advice (and axe you were not condescending at all, n worries friend ) I’ve calmed down a bit. I’m sitting with friends enjoying a bottle of blackberry wine and watching cartoons. So for now anyway things are manageable.
WTF???? Did they miss the whole Cheeto campaign???
@Hu
Are you being serious right now? He’s not homophobic or transphobic because he has a single gay supporter and a single trans* supporter? Really???
@Kat – Any container is fine, and you can MacGuyver a whole lot of things, though the reason for the plastic see-through cover is to get a greenhouse effect going. You can mimic that with gladwrap over the top (with a couple of holes in the side of the container, plants have to breathe).
Plants need water, oxygen, sun, and minerals to make sugar, and sugar to make tasty things. In winter, your sun is a hard to acquire resource, so that’s why you want things to be transparent, but if you have a sunny windowsill you can do it.
Systems I have set up have been similar to:
https://www.milkwood.net/2014/07/14/researching-diy-vertical-garden-ideas-that-actually-look-good/
But you only need one! Heck, you can do it in an eggshell if you like.
@Weird (and stunned) Eddie: They don’t think that they’re being intolerant. Or intolerance is only bad when Democrats or liberals do it. Or they wilfully ignored the hate in the trigger-happy groping Cheeto’s campaign.
@Kupo
the worst part of the argument is it ignores that it internalized homophobia and internalized transphobia are a thing
@Weird
Or just be ignorant of the news but still believe your statements parroted from cultural osmosis like it has any form of meit. Like my roommate where I felt like I was recreating the skit where Bart was trying to tell Homer something with how many things that he doesn’t research. It was pretty much this
A: false statement
Oogly: *losing mycomposure proves A wrong with sources and arguments
A: continues this and repeats
A: then says general platitudes of unity
Oogly: I pointed out why that was a load of bull.
I swear he isn’t malevolent, he doesn’t know what the fuck he was talking about, that useless Devil’s Advocate for an inpractical orange devil. I’m not even sure if he even got the idea that maybe he should stop saying shit without something to back it up.
Like christ when he was getting pissy about trans people opting out of basic training, I had to highlight that same article on the part where it is only when they are going through transition.
I guess it’s a good sign that I’m still contemplating the electronics project I bought bits for yesterday before things went all verkakte? I was just running some tests on a fancy LED (tri-color: depending on which electrodes are getting current it’s red/green/amber) and realized I know what voltage level I have to have to make sure all three colors light correctly (and what this will mean in terms of resistors and suchlike).
@Hu, his VP pick is decidedly not supportive of LGBT rights. He thinks that being gay is an illness that can be treated by “conversion” (e.g. electroshock) therapy, and I believe his was one of the states pushing the bathroom bills.
Also, recall that Pence was brought on, being told that he’d be the mot powerful VP in history, responsible for foreign and domestic policy.
And recall that the Senate and House are now solidly Republican, and many of those people are itching to reverse every single advancement Obama made.
And recall that there’s a Supreme Court seat waiting to be filled on day one.
Yeah, I don’t see where you’re coming from on that one.
@Hugseverycat
In a small moment of comfort, my SO’s sister is a non-voter and posted so on Fb. Today she offered one of these “let’s work together” platitudes and a member of her own family basically commented, “You didn’t vote, so shut up.”
@Weird eddie
They missed…the entire Trump campaign I think?
@Hu’s on First
While I tentatively understand your point, some things that must not be forgotten:
1) Milo is about as far from an LGBT-friendly icon as you can get – he’s spoken about wishing he could be cured of his homosexuality, he’s gone on record saying that gays should get back in the closet, and he’s virulently anti-trans. Cait is better – marginally – but even while she was helping stump for Trump the counternarrative that Trump doesn’t give half a damn about anyone who is not wealthy, white, and famous was already strong.
2) Trump chose one of the most LGBT-hostile governors in 21st Century America as his running mate, a man who will now be Vice President and advising President Trump on policy.
I don’t think it’s really safe to call Trump “pro-gay” or “pro-trans” because of the things he’s said – the people he surrounds himself speak far louder. “Tell me who you walk with, and I will tell you who you are”. I don’t really think that homophobia and transphobia were in any way beaten – not with the allies Trump has cultivated.
Trump is pro-gay like Reagan was pro-gay.
@Steampunked
Thanks for this terrific info!
That’s what really gets me about this. All these Trumpistas going around talking about how Trump is going to break down the establishment and “clean things up”. But look at who he’s surrounding himself with, look who’s going to be doing the actual work of the executive. The same goddamn establishment assholes. Just the greedy, arrogant, heartless ones.
@calmdown, it ain’t about us being tolerant or intolerant. It’s about them trying to use some of the words they’ve learned from us to get us to shut up. We’ve been talking to them about tolerance and just listening for awhile, but all they apparently have understood is “telling someone to be tolerant is a way to get them to shut up”. It’s like an accusation of arrogance – doesn’t matter what situation you’re in, it’s a way to avoid actually addressing the topic.
@calmdown I had to explain to a ‘don’t be so intolerant of trump voters!’ person today that they supported a candidate endorsed by the KKK. So, hell yeah, I’m going to be ‘intolerant’!
Headache is a dull roar (not as bad as before) and I’ve talked to some friends and generally reassured myself that the world still exists.
One friend posted a wonderful vid on her FB of an Australian boy who makes stuffed animals for kids in hospitals and it made me bawl the tears I couldn’t muster for my feels this morning. The boy has gotten quite adept at designing amazing stuffies by making 800 of them! I’m getting teary again thinking about it.
I don’t plan on wasting too many more tears, though. As much as I like to feel sorry for myself, this is bigger than just me.
But for today, I’m gonna take my banana bread and yams out of the oven and then get ready to retrieve Catbeast from the vet’s. After that, I’m gonna get good and baked again; I’m still stressed and the stress goes right into my back and shoulders and hurts like hell.
We’ve been hearing the “be more tolerant of intolerance” since at least 2000 election, probably before. I’m SO over it, and I’m fine with my anger making these assholes uncomfortable. They need to face the reality of what they’ve done.
So I feel less suicidal now than I did this morning, which is good. I’m kind of tricking myself by remembering that Trump was pretty pro-choice before he decided to be a Republican, so maybe at least some of his rhetoric was just pandering to the base. I don’t know how much, and it’s not acceptable regardless of his motives, but it’s possible that he’s not finished punking the US. The more he punks the Republicans, the less horrific the next 4 years will be, and I did make it through 8 years of Dubya, who was an absolute joke. Maybe I can make it through this.
eta: I bought a new African violet for myself. This is not my violet, but it looks like this:
http://www.buyafricanviolets.com/images/African_Violet.jpg
Plants make me happy and unlike Captain Awkward I am pretty good with African violets, so I have good hopes that this plant will live to see America free again.
Knew a guy in college who thought thrusting his fist in the air and shouting “We will not tolerate intolerance!” was just the funniest gotcha ever.
Remembering Rush Limbaugh’s statements about the Harvard soccer team “scouting report”, Limburger described this behavior as “just human nature”. It’s like people would hear the unconscionable things The Cheeto said and just take them in like he was reciting poetry. Because (to the listener), this shit comes from a place of normalcy, so they don’t think about WHAT is being said. You could object, saying “hey, that’s SEXUAL ASSAULT” and they would say “yeah, so?” Like you had said “hey, THATS BIRD WATCHING”
We’ll see how I feel, but I might have to call in sick tomorrow even though I had taken today. I know of three Trump voters at my work and one of them is one of my managers. I’m not sure I trust myself not to tell them exactly what I think of them. The one who’s my manager is a woman and one of the other Trump voters there is a Jewish man. What the fuck they were thinking, I don’t know. I know they think James O’Keefe videos are legit.
Anyway, I don’t think I can look at their faces yet.
@Weird eddie
Yeah, like actions have no moral values. Also, my response to you before made no sense, I didn’t scan that the Cheeto was Trump and I thought there was some kind of Cheeto-related Trump campaign that was especially hateful (but with all the weird shit the alt right comes up with, can you blame me?) so sorry about that lol. I’ve not been sleeping well and am very tired.
@All
In other news, I decided to dye my hair purple some time ago solely because of how much alt right shits hate it. So yesterday I did the deed. I plan to become everything they hate and proud of it. I am already overweight so that’s taken care of, but I’m going to take it a step further and try to like my body. Next step, additional piercings, tattoos, and several cats. Oh, and speaking of cats, definitley getting new glasses, with extra cat-eye.
I have spent most of today lost in despair. However, I can not afford to wallow. I will not be hurt by Trump. So I shall take that privilege to fight back for the people who are not as lucky as I am.
Mammothers, I want you to know that I love you. You are important. You matter. I will fight for you.
One of the things that really annoy me is all those people who just gloat about the ”death of PC”. Aside from the extreme irony given how Trump can’t handle any criticism or mockery, it’s just so pointless.
Who the fuck cares about ”PC”?! Is upsetting a bunch of people you disagree with worth so much to you that you vote for someone like Trump?! (or in my country, support someone like him? Alt-righters here love it, and they’re all parroting each other… the left, the feminazis, PC, blah blah blah, that’s about the scope of their arguments.)
And then many of them have the gall to say that really, to be very honest, women should not vote because they’re irrational and just dumb and emotional.
I feel sorry for all decent people in the USA, I don’t share in the ”lol, let’s watch it burn”; many people’s lives will get worse and it’s just not funny, it’s sad, and it’s not a misfortune that I can find any joy in and I feel no schadenfreude. Politics isn’t a reality tv show, do people even realize that?!
And then there’re those that say ”well, Trump isn’t my cup of tea either, but I would NEVER vote for Hillary”. I can’t prove it but I strongly suspect that a large amount of that is just plain old sexism. They’d rather vote for a fraudulent, misogynistic, racist, extremely shallow, bullying, abusive, empty-headed sex offender, a guy who’s like the parody of a bad 90s movie’s ”corporate villain”, than a woman.
I say ”a woman”, because let’s face it, if she can’t win from TRUMP, she can’t win from anyone, not even a literal dog turd, and that’s just bizarre. Look at them in the debates! Clinton was prepared and knew what she was talking about, Trump was just bloviating and making a fool of himself.
This really shows how ”we” (as in, the West) still have a long way to go in many respects.