I Believe...
...that if the best you have in response to hate and rage is more hate and rage, maybe a bit of "tone policing" is exactly what's in order. The concept of "He hurt me so I'll hurt him back" is something we try to teach our children to avoid. Why should adults get a pass on that? I won't quote MLK because it is anathema for a white guy to do so but he was right even if a white guy quotes him.
...that the Kate McKinnon cold opening on SNL would be more moving had SNL not previously had Donald Trump on as a host of the show. SNL isn't journalism - they don't even have to pretend to be objective.
...that with all that has unfolded in the past week or so, watching Progressives argue about whether to wear fucking safety pins is just one more illustration of how we blew this one. Seriously?
...that...uhm...oh for fuck's sake...STEVE BANNON? This really IS like the worst episode of "Black Mirror."
...that, when pulling back and seeing the bizarre see-saw of Bush to Obama to Trump, it is obvious that while we on the Left - the promoters of ideas like equality and justice for every American citizen, #BlackLivesMatter, increasing the rights and protections for the LGTBQ community, economic policies that promote women, pro-choice, pro-environment, etc - have better ideas for a better future, our strategy of communicating these ideas has failed. There is a distinct difference between the necessary preaching to the choir and convincing those outside the church to follow along. We're very good at the former and woefully insufficient at the latter.
BONUS BELIEF:
I believe that the Left needs to revisit how we protest. Between January 3 and April 12, 2003, 36 million people across the globe took part in almost 3,000 protests against the Iraq war and it didn't change a goddamned thing. Waving signs, screaming at police, chanting. Not effective. Imagine, however, 5,000/10,000.25,000 people, standing in rows, wearing their "Sunday best," keeping completely silent and immovable in the face of riot gear police. THAT would be non-violent, non-aggressive non-compliance on a massive scale and make a far more powerful piece of political theater than the unfettered rage of the modern protest march.
