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Circle one: Yes No Maybe
A developer & designer.
Based in Los Angeles /
Southwestern Colorado.
Say hello.
The country chose darkness. A majority of voters looked right into racism, misogyny, and anti-queerness—on full display—and said to themselves, “Yes, that. I am choosing that. I have my reasons.”
Those of us that did not make that particular choice will spend months (years, actually, if not decades) re-litigating what “went wrong”, but I don’t think it’s actually that complicated. Even those that voted for this darkness under the “it won’t actually be that way” assumption, still made an active choice. And I don’t think we should write it off and try to explain it as frustration about—pick your pet issue: the economy, progressive values, etc.
You cannot ignore a bully without implicitly supporting them. You cannot ignore transphobia without supporting it. You cannot ignore the elimination of the rights of women without being in full support of taking away those rights. And you cannot ignore White Supremacy without offering it your support. These things must be called out. And a vote is an affirmative choice—an expression of support.
People are hurt. And hurt people do things that are selfish and yet—often, reliably—not in their own best interest. I understand that. But there has to be a line in society that even selfishness does not surpass. This year may or may not mark our country’s beginning dalliance with full-featured fascism; time will tell. But it absolutely shows the outcome of a culture that has become so individualistic that even the most basic tenants of a collective society no longer look attractive to these individuals—like the right to exist, to travel freely, and to have domain over our own bodies. It has become ok to nibble at the margins of those ideals, “because it doesn’t affect me”.
Yes, we have always been a country built on racism, a country late to grant rights to women, and a country that had to be drug by courts into some modicum of permissiveness toward queer existence1, but this election put it all on display—no dog whistles, no code to decipher—and the majority of people still said “yes” to all of it, with clarity. That breaks my heart. My personal disposition trends toward acknowledging the cynicism in our world, but I had actually hoped a majority of us knew better.
In 2016 my surprise led me to believe I didn’t understand the country I was living in. Now, sadly, in 2024, I believe I do.
On the last two, note have we’ve never managed to add the Equal Rights Amendment to our Constitution. It just hangs out there in the wind, un-ratified, its absence alive as fodder for Supreme Court Justices to whittle down personal freedoms as they please. Justice Anton Scalia, for example: “Certainly, the Constitution does not require discrimination on the basis of sex. The only issue is whether it prohibits it. It doesn’t. Nobody ever thought that that is what it meant. Nobody ever voted for that.” Chilling. ↩
On hiatus, but always curious. Say hello.
/now is inspired by Derek Sivers’ concept of the same name, with a few additions. I intend to update it regularly, but infrequently.
My writing on this site comes from my own personal views and does not reflect or represent the views of my employer.