I’m Fed Up With Being Democrat
I was never a fan of news. I was the ignorant one on world affairs who advised my family on the perils of watching the news. That was until 2016 when a then monkey (now ‘former’ monkey) turned out to be the biggest rival for the presidency. Like such a news-averse 26-year-old, I wouldn’t get my news via the major outlets. I got my news about the debates and current affairs from Saturday Night Live sketches. Then, I woke up and shit… He’s president?!
I up and skated out of the States in early 2017 for reasons the then-president made more apparent, hence the news I started to follow became a drug for me, as it is for everyone else who still watches it. Before the internet came around, Neil Postman wrote a book ‘Amusing Ourselves to Death’ about how everything on TV even the news is formatted for consumption. Formatted more to amuse people than to inform people. I fell into the trap. I didn’t even live in the States, it was some sick sense of Schadenfreude I’d return every Tuesday morning expecting my YouTube news fix (in my part of the world, Monday’s news comes Tuesday mornings).
I watched my propaganda from abroad, and through the lens of other news outlets each with their take on the story. I used to wonder, who are the buffoons that rev themselves up on all the fearmongering and hate speech that Fox News so covets. Wonder I did, until the fallout of Cambridge Analytica and the resulting documentaries made clear that we only take in news from our bubble, and I don’t have to be in the States to feel how bubbly it is there. There’s a lot of pissed-off people, and unfortunately, there are news networks willing and able to capitalize on that for their own agenda instead of resolving the problems at hand, but that’s another topic.
In short, I drank the democratic kool-aid for four years, as hopes for someone who’s not an egomaniacal imbecile to become president came to fruition. That brings me to my revelation right now.
The Democrats are right, and they’re so obsessed with being right, that they’ll alienate the other half of the population, whereas the Republicans are so steeped in their own Kool-aid that they’re willing to go to war to make the problems they fear so much a reality. I can’t help but feel the condescension as Jimmy Kimmel points out violations of ‘rightness’ that one of their Republican constituents so exemplified by fleeing his state for somewhere warmer. I can’t help but feel the racism when Seth Meyers caddies up a Southern accent to mock some dumb argument Lindsey Graham made (Trevor Noah’s a sly fox, I got nothing against him).
Just like how Democrats define MAGA followers by the people they surround themselves with, that’s how I’ve subconsciously associated myself with Democrats. If this is what it means to be Democrat, in any way, then I’d want no part of it (if my opinion as an ex-pat even mattered). Even if the president is holding an olive branch, it sure doesn’t feel like anything’s changed between his supporters.
I’m not surprised Amurica’s in the deep shit it is. It wrought it upon itself, and sadly it’s still revving its engine, now the underdog’s the top dawg, and Biden’s supporters in the news outlets are his cryptic apostles that vomit back the same doom their Republic counterparts salivate, only in a we’re right and they’re wrong sort of way. I made the mistake of turning Rachel Maddow and whoever the other guy on that outlet is, and I was reminded of the bratty straight-A student in class who uses their rightness to rub it in your faces. They seem to forget, it doesn’t matter how right you are, at end of the day, it doesn’t change that they’re still your neighbors.
I wish the Democrats would stop trying to be right. I wish the Republicans would pick some values and stand for them, I wish a power outage would strike only the major news outlets, and I wish for a hike in the Alps with Tim Ferriss, but who gives a shit what I wish for. I’m just an ex-pat.
After the last shit has had a chance to projectile off the last fan, I hold hope something better can come out of the two bulls butting their heads in the United States. Something that doesn’t seek to blame, but instead seeks conversation. Something that doesn’t hate but takes a moment to try to understand a people before judging them. Something that reminds people, we have a lot to be grateful for! With that said, it was amusing but I’m signing out. The world’s a big place, we could be spending more time with our neighbors.
#TheBestNewsIsNoNews
