![I Believe... [Warning: Strobe Lights and Personal Castigation Ahead]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/579fa3912994ca0eff850271/1542796598405-22VR612NDTPLE1SM98VJ/63D3D89E-A10F-476D-AACA-F8F058399C12.JPG)
I Believe... [Warning: Strobe Lights and Personal Castigation Ahead]
...that, in the spirit of appropriate trigger warnings, can we have some that warn us that a comedy show will be more like a lecture on how awful white guys are?
![I Believe… [A Cake By Any Other Frosting]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/579fa3912994ca0eff850271/1527877807408-JOPT93G1ZR817AUYYXQP/ibelieve....jpg)
I Believe… [A Cake By Any Other Frosting]
…that there's a reason that the wealthy are most often portrayed as the villains in popular culture and it isn't envy. It's reality. If your motivations in life are a soup of individualism, competition, and materialism you are the villain.
The Long Road to the Trump Presidency and Where We Go From Here
On the ListServ (a prehistoric version of Faceborg and Twitter) you find a thread espousing the new GOP-driven “Contract with America.” Users with fake names espousing the “Taking Back Our Streets Act” and the “Personal Responsibility Act” and conspiracy theories about then President Bill Clinton and his “manly” First Lady.
“Who pays attention to this shit?” you ask after perusing the thread for three hours. The irony is lost on you.
![I Believe… [WOLVERINES!]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/579fa3912994ca0eff850271/1519303151159-RE3BON2J0JENTW87Z05A/IMG_1629.JPG)
I Believe… [WOLVERINES!]
...that, if you think high school kids can’t be heroes, you never saw Red Dawn. WOLVERINES!
![I Believe… [If You Appropriate, Pay the Toll]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/579fa3912994ca0eff850271/1517269315725-43EAJW74MIP59W6X9FVD/ibelieve....jpg)
I Believe… [If You Appropriate, Pay the Toll]
…that cultural appropriation is best addressed by making sure those cultures appropriated are handsomely paid for it. Even then, it's iffy but economic redress is concrete rather than an apology.
Digital Tombstones and Dying Invisibly in Plain Sight
By 2012, just eight years after the platform was launched, 30 million users with Facebook accounts had died. That number has only gone up since. Some estimates claim more than 10,000 users die each day.
Let that sink in for a second.
I don't know if this fact unnerves you but it sure as hell gives me a moment of pause.
Cutting Off Your Nose
There are thousand ways to sell your idea in the marketplace of them.
Every NFP org out there (and there are a LOT of them) has the schtick to get you to part with a few of your dollars so they can continue to operate. Lots of causes know how to use Kickstarter and IndieGo. Public radio shills to you by reminding you three or four times a year how you listen to them and need to pony up a couple ducets to keep listening. Hell, even the multitudes of homeless are trying get a few ounces of silver and ask you as you pass the Starbucks for it with a hopeful but determined look.
The techniques range from
You Can't Live Without This Thing
You Can Assuage Your Guilt By Giving Money to This Thing
Without This Thing Society Will Collapse
TRUMP Hates This Thing So Pay Me For It!
And then there is this:
To Find the Right Answer You Have to Ask the Right Question
How hard is it to Google "Who is Frederick Douglass and is he still alive?"
Online Politics and How It Contributes to a Culture of Exclusion
"We" is automatically wed to "Them."
Anxiety is the thing that’s ripped our country apart. It has divided us, caused us to fear and hate those who think and live differently than us, and even caused us to hate those who only slightly disagree with us. It has led to panic and overreaction. And I worry that American Anxiety is only going to exacerbate the social and political divide in this country to the point that there is no coming back.