Tag: politics

I am complicit

On By MiriahIn LifeLeave a comment

It is rightly said that white women are the cradle of white supremacy and misogyny. Even when we are not actively teaching our children to hate, we perpetuate hate through our silence and inaction. To “keep the peace” we pretend we don’t know. We excuse the inexcusable. We ignore what’s right in front of us. We are okay with our family members’ cruelty as long as we personally are not the victim.

Because when we acknowledge, when we bear witness, we can’t escape the reality that we are complicit.

An angry cat carved into a pumpkin and illuminated.
Last month’s Halloween pumpkin

A week ago today in a zoom call with my two siblings, I asked my brother who he voted for. I needed to know (see my last post), and I hoped he would say Harris, but if not, I figured he would say something like “I don’t want to talk about politics.” Then my sister and I would awkwardly pretend we didn’t know he voted for Trump.

My brother proudly declared he “voted with his wallet for Trump” and when I conveyed how horrifying it was to me that he that he would vote to take away my human rights and the human rights of my children, my own brother – who has on numerous previous occasions claimed to love me – he laughed. He took delight in my despair.

He gloated.

Then he proceeded to spew misogynist and racist Faux News crap.

After I told him to fuck off and I left the call (yeah, when I’m really angry I lose all ability to articulate), my sister told me later that before she ended the call, he doubled down on the misogyny and racism and complained that he and our mother (who passed away in 2021) had an ‘understanding’ to never discuss politics.

Thing is, Mom followed politics closely, and she was passionately progressive about social issues. For example, she and I went to a rally together to protest the first Trump regime’s obscene treatment of immigrants.

So what does that say about the relationship between my brother and our mother? I think Mom never discussed politics with her son because she wanted to believe he was a good person. A moral person. A kind and compassionate person. That’s what I wanted to believe about him too, even with ample evidence to the contrary. But now I have no such illusions, and I’m done pretending.

Hope Lost, for now

On By MiriahIn Life, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Last week we learned what many of us feared – half of people in the US worship a grotesquely disgusting creep. They voted him into the office of US president. Hate won.

Like many who envisioned a bright future ahead, with leaders who lifted people up instead of punching them down, that hope has been crushed. Electing Harris would have been the first step on the road to a positive future.

Most Trump supporters are very proud of their bigotry and wear self-identifying t-shirts and hats. I live in a mostly blue area of Washington. For me personally, the worst part is certain internet communities I’m a member of. Knowing there’s a 50/50 chance that any person I interact with there is a Trump supporter saddens me deeply.

Why? If you voted for Trump, this is what that says to me (and the blue half of the US) about who you are:

  • You are a white supremacist. You could never vote for an extremely well qualified black woman over an extremely unqualified white male reality show host.
  • You enjoy the idea of anyone who isn’t white enough getting deported, regardless of their immigration status.
  • You are a fascist (but too stupid to recognize what fascism is).
  • You are a misogynist, and your hate includes all women, even your own daughters. You don’t care if they die from treatable medical emergencies. If you are a woman, you especially hate yourself. To you, women are not human beings, they are property.
  • You approve of rapists. Like Trump, you believe men are entitled to use women’s bodies however they wish and have probably acted accordingly.
  • You are ableist.
  • You are homophobic.
  • You are transphobic and obsessed with other people’s genitals, especially school children’s.
  • You are too stupid to understand that unless you are very wealthy, you will not be the exception.
  • You have no empathy at all.
Photo of the Seattle Japanese Gardens, Washington Park Arboretum, in November 2024
Seattle Japanese Gardens, Washington Park Arboretum

This is where a lot of bloggers outline their plan for coping and taking action. I still have hope for the future, but I don’t have a plan.

Yet.