Everybody, Please, Just Stop

You know what frustrates me most about all of this? I can’t stop it. If this were a room full of twelve people, I could do something about it. I could reason with everyone individually, and we could all come to an agreement. But this isn’t a room full of twelve people; this is Whac-A-Mole with a billion moles, and every mole is operating in different time zones, and it’s just impossible to keep up.

If I could say anything to the world and have it listen, I would say “Stop.” I would tell everyone to stop moving and be quiet for a few seconds, take a few deep breaths, and just relax. I would have everyone look at everyone else in the face and just think about what they see, instead of hiding behind the noise of their speech.

If Donald Trump winning the presidency last term made you either happy or sad, validated or invalidated, you’re lost. Likewise, if Joe Biden winning this year makes you the same, you don’t know where you’re going. You don’t know why you do the things that you do. You don’t know why you believe the things that you believe. If your identity is bound up in your political beliefs, you have no identity; you are nobody. If you think that the American president is an indicator of your promise, you have no promise.

I’m not worried about a Trump presidency or a Biden presidency; these are trivial outcomes. The right person for the job of president of the United States is whoever will be the most effective at maintaining the ship of our country afloat. And right now, neither candidate is capable of doing this, because the country has simply devolved into chaos. And this is what worries me. Radical leftist ideology has permeated our society to such a degree that our media is openly biased, our universities are corrupt, our tech companies censor speech by silencing voices that they find disagreeable, and our leaders support valueless, angry, ignorant, arrogant, soulless, pseudo-terrorist organizations bent on re-writing American history and dissolving American culture and values. And everyone else is just trying to keep this ideology from ruining all that is benign and good about our lives. How can we not see this?

There are 8,000 pronouns, and we must use the correct pronoun when referring to people or else we’ll be fired. If we go on a date with a person who identifies as female, we must get explicit, written consent from her to even ask her if she would be okay with us asking her if we could get written consent from her to kiss her. If we’re White, we’re automatically racist and responsible for the sins of all White people ever. If we’re straight and male, we’re automatically misogynistic and guilty of the crimes of all misogynistic men ever. If we disagree with the latest ideological trend, we’re automatically deplatformed. If we ask a forbidden question or say a forbidden word, we’re automatically cancelled. If we wear a red hat…

Change happens at the level of the individual. This is why so much is changing today: because the minds of individuals are changing. But this is not a good change. That literally half of the country is thrilled that their guy won — or, more accurately, that everyone else’s guy lost — is indicative of a serious moral problem. If our elected leaders are those who work to maintain order such that we can continue our lives in peace, then let’s not treat them as players on a field, and politics as a sport. Let’s take this seriously, okay? Enough about White people and Black people. I don’t. fucking. care. And if you do, you’re racist. And if you’re a politician and you care about race, you’re the systemic problem that everyone’s been banging on about.

Here’s the deal: If you can be racist to me, then I can be racist to you, and there should be no problem with this. If you can call me a White nigger, as Dave Chappelle did on SNL, then I can call you a Black nigger, and there should be no problem. If you can destroy my business, then I can destroy yours, and there should be no problem. If you can make generalizations about me, then I can make generalizations about you, and there should be no problem. If you can fire me on the basis of my political beliefs, then I can fire you on the basis of yours, and there should be no problem. If you can censor my speech because you don’t like what I have to say, then I can censor yours, and there should be no problem.

Except of course there’s going to be a problem: we’re all going to be racist, we’re all going to be calling each other niggers, we’re all going to be destroying businesses and making generalizations and firing each other and censoring speech. And how is this productive? I mean, at least we’ll all be able to say — to ourselves and to our friends who agree with us, of course — that we’re right. “I knew it all along,” we’ll say. “Those niggers are nothin’ but trouble.”

Man, enough already. What say we aim at something greater than ourselves for once, huh? I get that it’s euphoric to feel like we’re a part of something, but damn — we’re not. None of us are. Honestly, where are we going? Where does any of this nonsense lead? What do the likes and retweets and endless monologues and articles and videos and comments and retorts and fundings and initiatives and takedowns and cancellings and apologies produce? What becomes of us when all of this work is said and done, whatever this work is that we all think we’re doing?