Whether it’s the Right’s attacks on the LGBT community and/or their ever present war on women and/or their regressing from intellectual enlightenment, I find I’m angry a lot of time. Recently, there’s been a deluge of libertarian memes spilling out on my social media, and I’m finding that adds fuel to the fire in a natural way.
I don’t enjoy it, being angry, but I am comfortable with it: like wearing a perfectly broken in hat. Like my hat. ASIDE: Someone I adore commented the other day that I’ve turned my hat into a marketing logo. Part of my overall brand. I’ve never really thought about it like that with any seriousness, but, yeah, I think I have. The thing is, I just really love my hat and seeing myself without it feels insincere. END ASIDE.
One of the things that pisses me off and helps me maintain my sense of outrage is … inspirational quotes telling me to calm down.
“Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.” – Buddha
Bullshit.
My typical response to this one is a link to a Kevlar glove. Being angry as a lifestyle means proper preparation.
Under the surface, I’m pretty much seething and boiling about 90% of the day and night. I am constantly woken in the middle of the night from dreams of vengeance and needing to pee (because I’m old enough for that now).
DO I LIKE IT?
No. I do not.
It is, however, quite useful considering the conflict based nature of my personality.
Like this: When I put together a weight loss and health & wellness drive for The LEFT Show a few years ago, I not only made it a competition, I added an attack component to it. Participants could not only compete to see who could lose the the largest percent of their total weight, they could gain advantage by sending unhealthy foods to the other players. Rule number one was you had to eat whatever was sent to you, unless you were allergic. If that were the case, you had to eat the caloric equivalent of the sent sabotage.
“However many holy words you read, however many you speak, what good will they do you if you do not act on upon them?” – Buddha
That’s a great jumping off point.
GOP WAR ON WOMEN
State after right wing state are passing laws restricting access to abortion. Troubling behavior. Worse, they’re no longer carving out exceptions for rape or incest. They are passing laws where the punishment for expelling a zygote is far more severe than sexually assaulting a woman or a child. With the Supreme Court having already voted to end abortion access for women after Mitch McConnell rigged the court … what’s not to be angry about?
“With fools, there is no companionship. Rather than to live with men who are selfish, vain, quarrelsome, and obstinate, let a man walk alone.” – Buddha
Buckle up, Buddha!
GOP WAR ON CHILDREN
I’ve got two kids in the LGBTQ+ community. It’s personal. The thing is … it hasn’t always been “personal”, but it has always been personal. There has never been a time in my life when I have “had a problem” with LGBT folk – that is not to say I’ve never been an ignorant shithead, I totally have. As to active dislike, discomfort, or, more importantly, a need to advocate AGAINST their very existence … yeah, never been there. I don’t get it. I don’t understand it. I’ve read the Bible several times (know your enemy) and it’s just not in there, this need to hate, discriminate, and persecute.
Kids? You’re attacking kids? Vulnerable, fragile kids? In the middle of the right wing’s attack on abortion, they’re also attacking actual kids (not zygotes) in an orgy of hate and flat indifference.
(I have been writing this for several days now, and every time I think to try to wrap it up, the Federal Government does something even fucking worse. Wow. )
Speaking of attacking kids, did you see what the Republicans did with BABY FORMULA? The Democrats posted a bill to make it easier to get – Republicans voted against it. Democrats posted a bill to expand WIC access to BABY FORMULA and Republicans VOTED AGAINST IT!
They’re going to force you to carry a pregnancy to term, and then murder the baby and the mother with malnutrition.
Are you fucking kidding me? How in the hammered fuck are Democrats losing to these evil fucking monsters?
“A disciplined mind brings happiness.” – Buddha
WRAP UP
You have to pace yourself. You’ve got to prepare to be angry and stay angry. A few years ago, I got tired. I was burning out. I had outrage fatigue and I mentioned it on The LEFT Show. The Obama Administration had used a drone to take out an American who had joined Al-Qaeda. I couldn’t get mad. I tried. I really did. It was against due process, it was unconstitutional, it was totally fucked up and, most importantly, IT WAS WRONG. I was totally over it in milliseconds. I admitted it out loud and triggered a friend’s outrage about my lack of outrage. Totally fair.
I took a long look at what was happening to me and took note that I wasn’t watching anything other than the news. I wasn’t reading anything other than the news. I wasn’t talking about anything other than the news. I was full and overflowing with sensationalism and cynicism. So much so that I couldn’t work up anything other than mild disdain at what was, in fact, an illegal murder of an American citizen but his government’s military.
I wasn’t pacing myself. I was running at 7500 RPMs constantly.
So … I slowed down a little, just a little.
“There is nothing so disobedient as an undisciplined mind, and there is nothing so obedient as a disciplined mind.” – Buddha
That’s more like it. If you are always running at 110%, that becomes your normal, and you are then unable to achieve more when you need it.
Tonight, a song popped up on the algorithm. “Holy shit,” I said, literally out loud to an empty store. “Is that Alkaline Trio doing Moving Right Along? What the Hel?”
I listened to the whole thing. It made me happy. I soaked it in like a morning cup of coffee and held on to it as long as I could. When I got home, I sat down at the computer, pulled up Ultimate Guitar Chords, tried out Hope That Somethin’ Better Comes Along a couple of times, then settled in to finish this and watch some news. Like a shot of wheatgrass, a few minutes of simple joy recharged my outrage batteries, and BAM, I finished this.
“One moment can change a day, one day can change a life and one life can change the world.” – Buddha
