Tag Archives: facist

350. EQUITY AND FAIRNESS

I have several half-written posts.  Can’t seem to focus and am being overly self-critical over what I choose to write.  It’s as if I am expecting only great prose consistent with my history of keeping it short, writing clearly without repetition, culling my adjectives with literary precision, mixing my rhythms, ditching modifiers, letting the verbs do their magic, and throwing in some unexpected words to shock you into greater understanding.   AS IF!!  

That’s never described my writing style, so why start now?

One topic that’s been rattling around in my mind quite a bit lately is feminism.  And with recent events in the US, I’ve realized my views about it are deeper than I once thought.  I’ve posted about this before and will try not to repeat myself.  If you want to understand how a submissive woman who apparently has surrendered to the patriarchy rationalizes the feeling that she is a feminist, read that prior post.     This post takes a different angle to what feminism means to me.

MORE THAN FEMINIST… A HUMANIST
I consider myself a feminist with a little “f”, not Feminist in regards to what the word represents to most people. To me, feminism is a part of humanism, and I consider myself a Humanist (capital “H” for sure).

Humanism encompasses gender, race, and all other criteria society uses to identify and separate people.  It accepts that such identifiers can be helpful for statisticians or community psychologists to understand and quantify certain things, but it does not accept those labels as assigning values as to the level of goodness or purpose a person has.    

WE ARE ONE, BUT NOT THE SAME
Feminism, as a movement, has the noble goal of equality; however, for too many people the term “equality” gets interpreted as “sameness.” And to me, it is not about equality. It’s about equity and fairness, not equality and sameness. There’s a major difference between those as I covered in this post.

I don’t know any woman that wants to be the same as men, but plenty that what equity and fairness.

We should never strive for sameness. Not because one gender is different from another, or a particular race is different from another, or people with certain sexual preferences or sexual identify are different from those with other preferences or identify a certain way, or that people with or without certain religious beliefs are different, or people from certain parts of the world or regions within a country are different. We shouldn’t strive for sameness because WE ARE ALL INDIVIDUALS. We are different. I am not the same as everyone who shares my gender, race, sexual preferences, sexual identify, beliefs, or geographic location.

There is a sameness that unites us all. Where we are the same is that we are humans. Humanism is about not defining ourselves and not defining others by categories of gender, race, religion, geography, sexual preferences, you name it. It is about defining ourselves by how we treat others and define them by how they treat us and others. It’s about how we interact with others and how we make others feel and how they make us feel. It’s by the equity and fairness, both in how we treat others and how we expect others to treat us and everyone else. If we must categorize people, categorize them by “healthy or toxic,” nothing more.

I think that has been the secret sauce to my happiness. I have filtered out any toxic people and any toxic thoughts. I surrounded myself with people who are healthy for me and I focus on the things that fulfill me and give me purpose. I have found equity and fairness in my marriage and in my dealings with friends and family.

Advocating for the right of women to achieve equity and fairness is a no brainer. It’s simply being humane. That’s what feminism means to me . And if that equity and fairness comes from leading, working, or doing anything considered “man’s domain,” or comes from submitting, serving, or doing anything considered “traditional” woman’s roles, or anything in-between, that’s fine by me. It’s not for us to define what others should find equitable and fair for their lives — but it is up to society to ensure everyone has access to what is equitable and fair for them.

CURRENT EVENTS
I was going to end the post here, but recent events prompted me to dig a little deeper into my thoughts about this.   As I previously stated, it is more than something I believe about women.  I believe it is a right everyone deserves.  Regardless which label a person fits into regarding their gender, race, religion, region, or sexual desires, the only constraints anyone should have in their pursuit of equity and fairness is that the things they do should not infringe on the equity and fairness of others.   And that is where my ideal hits a wall.

Too many people feel an “affront to their sensibilities” is the same as as loss of equity or fairness. They equate their disdain for someone based on their gender, race, faith (or lack thereof), sexual preferences, or place they are from the same way others might look at someone who endangers their physical well being. Such people may even go so far as to accept an immoral and corrupt leader just so long as that leader allows them to act on their disdain for those they label “others.” They may even go so far as tolerate the murder of man as collateral damage towards protecting their sensibilities, protecting their status quo. 

They feel harmed by someone kneeling in reverence as a solemn reminder of injustice, but not kneeling to subdue, oppress, and kill, because at least the latter is consistent with their sensibilities. 

They feel harmed when someone in need is given help, unless they are the one in need. They feel harmed when others demand fair wages for their work.  They feel harmed when someone makes a choice about their life that is inconsistent with choices they would make for themselves. They feel harmed with other demand equity and fairness.

They have a mindset that THEY are the victim.  The victim of having to live with anyone or anything that is different from them.  

And the irony is, these “victims” are quick to become the victimizer, as forcing their mindset on others is the only thing that gives them purpose.   And the more they victimize the more their victims cry for justice.  And the louder those demands for justice, the more harmed the victimizer feels.   These are the people who should receive the full force of societies disdain.  Not a gender, not a race or religious belief, not a geography or sexual orientation – but a mindset that hurts everyone, physically and economically and the mindset that denies equity and fairness to others.

ASSHOLES
Yes, we will find that people who have that mindset tend to skew towards a certain gender, race, religion, etc., but to define them by those terms is to do to them what they are doing to everyone else. I may poke fun at white, male, reichwinger, closeted-gay Southerners clutching their guns like a two year old’s favorite teddy bear, but like all stereotypes, the semblance to the truth is tenuous. Let’s call those with this mindset by how they treat others and not by their gender, race, or other identifiers. They are cancers, they are inhumane, they are immoral, they are evil, they are unAmerican, and they are assholes. And we need to stop putting them in positions of power because empowering them allows their mindset to spread.

And once these assholes have usurped democratic institutions such as free and fair elections, we are no longer represented by the views of society at large, but by a group of assholes who represent a cancerous minority view.   And in all human history, minority rule can continue only by fraud and force, and such rule has NEVER ended well.    If the voice of the ballot box is voided by the assholes, what voice does the majority have left?   

The scarier proposition is that what’s going on today is nothing like what we are facing come November.    Whether the assholes win or lose, it will be bad.  And win or lose, we can only hope police, Justice Department, military, and the courts will side with the Constitution – but don’t be so sure that they will.  Those institutions have been stacked with assholes. Sadly, even our camo-wearing military leadership.

IT’S NOT ENOUGH
It’s no longer enough to not be a racist, we must be anti-racist.     It’s no longer enough to not be a fascist, we must be anti-facist.  It’s not enough to not be an asshole.  We must be anti-assholes.  

It’s not enough to just blog about this.  I am doing what I can within my power and ability to support organizations that facilitate and demand change.  And more than that, to challenge and call out those that do not.   This isn’t a political blog, so I don’t intend on sharing specifics or which organizations I think fall into each category.   

This post was intended to pound home my ideas about feminism, which are linked to ideas about equity and fairness, which are linked to current events. Through equity and fairness we can bring about a better neighborhood, a better community, a better country, and a better world.

That’s what feminism means to me.  That’s what humanism means to me.

NEXT: 351: Our FREE (three) time thanks to COVID

286. We are not okay, but we will be

286

We interrupt this blog with an important message. 

Religion or politics?  Pick your poison.    

Well, I am going to pick politics.  But before you click away screaming, I hope you stay with me on this one.   

Although my conclusions are things you have heard before (which means you’ll either love them or hate them), remember – this is Jenny.   It isn’t just about the destination and stating my personal conclusions.  It’s about how I reconciled the thoughts in my head that influence the ultimate actions and viewpoints I have. 

In other words, that means one of two things, or a combination of both.  An esoteric ramble or a rant.   Let’s call this one an esoteric rant!  

Even if you hate the destination, maybe you’ll find the journey interesting.   Probably not, but, oh well.  It was important to me to make it abundantly clear where I stand politically.  When the crap ultimately hits the fan, I don’t want there to be any doubt as to where I stood.

For readers outside the U.S., I hope you find my take on this interesting and clarifying.  For those in the U.S., well, damn it, just vote!

WHAT DO I STAND FOR?
I stand for democratic principles –
principals that have been the hallmark of what it means to be an American since the founding of our nation.   Yes, there were times and are times when our actions stand in contrast with those principles.  But the ideals of democracy have been so valued and sacred to Americans that they always push us towards fully embracing those principles for everyone.

And when those ideals push us, it is always uncomfortable for those being pushed, but short of our Civil War, no group of Americans betrayed their country and pushed back in civil war.  Of course, in that war, it was our government pushing democratic principles on the South.  What if it were the other way around?  What if it was the people pushing democratic principles and the government pushing back?   And wouldn’t it be ironic if the government that was pushing back was in power because of the South?   Wow, that would be some interesting fiction. 

Oh well, that would never happen in a democracy.  In a democracy the government is representative of the people.  Hold that thought.    

PARTY AFFILIATION?
I was a Republican for quite some time.  The GOP I was first exposed to was billed as the party with the ideals of Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt.  I was taught to think that was still the case.  Once I took the time to question things and seek my own answers, something clicked in me.  Those ideals were not the ideals of Reagan, Bush I or II, and certainly are not the ideals of the right-wing extremist party of Trump.  Those ideals still existed, but they now existed somewhere else.  Consider that I am for these ideals: 
 

  • The spirit of our people is the strength of our nation.
  • America does not prosper unless all Americans prosper.
  • Government must have a heart as well as a head.
  • Courage in principle, cooperation in practice, make freedom possible.

These are the ideals in the platform of the Democratic Party… oops, did I say Democratic Party?  I meant, the Republican Party.   However, it is from the GOP circa 1956.   Yes, the GOP once was the progressive party.  The Democrats of that time were controlled by the “Dixiecrats,” the Southern Democrats who basically molded their behavior around that of a modern-day plantation owner.  Scum every one of them. 

What changed?  

CHANGE 1 – PARTIES FLIP (late 60’s/early 70’s)
Kennedy was a new type of Democrat – progressive on social issues.  Nixon was a new type of Republican – one who is willing to suspend the mechanisms of democracy in order to win for himself.  And his aide, Pat Buchanan, saw an opportunity to bust the Democrats strong hold in the South.

They saw the South as easy prey.  Southerners had a long history of voting against their self-interest if it meant they got to hold on to their racism.   The new GOP would see to it that they catered to that racism and continued the racist policies of the Dixiecrats.  

They also made a bet.  They needed the religious vote, especially among Catholics who at the time voted overwhelming for Democrats.  How could they get these people to switch their votes and abandon their self interests?  Abortion!  They would see to it that anti-abortion became a lynch pin in their platform.  What?  You thought they did this on moral grounds?  No, it was strictly a political play.

Still needing another issue, the polls told them that gun ownership could be as emotionally charged as abortion.  So GOP went all in on scaring Americans that Democrats would take their guns and they’ve kept up that scare ever since. 

Those bets paid off.  By the start of the 1980’s, the South had stopped electing racist, corrupt, Dixiecrats, and started electing racist, corrupt, Republicans.   Thus the great southern tradition of voting against ones self interests continued.  As long as Bubba got to keep his racism, keep his guns, and push an anti-abortion view, they would give up on education, infrastructure, healthcare, etc.  The South remains at the bottom of practically every metric that measures wealth and prosperity and at the top of practically every metric that measures government hand outs.   

Yep, them Southerners are basically economic socialists sucking off the government teat and they don’t even know it.  Hey, but at least Georgia still makes it hard for African-Americans and Latino’s to vote, Mississippi has prisons overflowing with African Americans who are used as a (slave) labor pool to do work for pennies an hour, and Kentucky joins six other Southern states as being down to their last clinic that can perform safe abortions.  Yee-haw!! 

There was a problem.  While the GOP continued what Nixon started, there were still plenty of GOP leaders, mostly outside the South, that provided some balance to the party.  Over time, these GOP leaders became to be ridiculed as “moderates.”  

CHANGE 2 – PURGE THE GOP MODERATES (2008)
In 2008 the tea-baggers happened (Tea Party movement).  They ousted the moderates in the GOP.

Lyin’ Ted Cruz is a great example.  Although David Dewhurst wasn’t much of “moderate,” he was too much of one for the extremist right.   The extremists tapped Cruz and heavily funded him for a seat in the Texas legislature.  He first had to run hard against well respected and fellow Republican, David Dewhurst.  Cruz did so by calling out Dewhurst  as “a moderate.”   

That label was used over and over by these new extremists to unseat moderate after moderate, in elections throughout the country.  Cruz beat Dewhurst, then beat the Democrat candidate and joined the Texas legislature.  Cruz was then tapped by the extremists tea-baggers who funded him to now run for a Senate seat.  He went about winning it much the same way – calling any potential GOP opponent a “moderate.”   

CHANGE 3 – VOTER SUPPRESSION
I don’t need to state much as there is so much already out there on this.  Gerrymandering, voter suppression, and now, outright hacking, has become an important tool for the GOP to maintain power.  None of these efforts would be championed by the GOP if the electorate were likely to vote GOP. 

CHANGE 4 – RISE OF MAGA/FACISM (2016)
Trump leveraged his celebrity to take his message beyond the South, to mostly blue-collar workers everywhere.  They were most at risk for being misled and Trump exploited that.

Truth has no home with him.  Every speech is full of lies, reinforced by his mouthpieces, reported as fact by Fox, and magnified by his Russian troll-bot allies.  Want to track his lies as he tells them?  Follow @ddale8 on twitter.   

Trump knows that people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one, and repeat it enough and people will believe it.  Trump knows you never allow the public to cool off; never admit fault or wrong; never concede any good in your enemy, never accept blame.

Did you know those prior two sentences are directly from a psychological profile prepared by the United States Office of Strategic Services?  They were, but it wasn’t a profile on Trump.  It was a profile on Hitler.  

In two years the GOP went from bad to worse.  Imagine where it will be in just one more year if left unchecked?   Today it is completely corrupt, indecent, and immoral.  Anyone affiliated or supporting the party is complicit and will carry this shame through history.   They have disgraced this country and are a danger to our democracy and values.  And those aren’t just my words.  That was taken from Steve Schmidt, a former GOP strategist and echos many of the sentiments of those who once called themselves members of the Republican Party. 

I am for humanity, decency, diversity, equality, compassion, justice, (the true “law and order”).   My anti-GOP feelings are the by-product of the fact our president and the GOP are the opposite all of those things.  

CHANGE 5 – TBD
Consider your options if –  

  • If someone doesn’t value evidence, what evidence are you going to provide them to prove they should value it? 
  • If someone doesn’t value logic,what logical argument would you provide to show the importance of logic?   
  • If someone doesn’t value compassion, what appeal to compassion would you make to resonate with their capacity for compassion? 
  • If someone doesn’t value justice, what rule of law would you cite to show the need for justice?
  • If someone doesn’t value the principles of an American democracy, what patriotic feeling can you evoke in them when their sense of patriotism is numb to the violation of those principles?       

I can point to specific events where the GOP hasn’t valued evidence, logic, compassion, justice, and American democracy, where their base has applauded each and every event.  I’ll let you fill in those events for yourself because frankly, there are too many to cite.

I believe we are at the point that you can no longer appeal to facts, logic, compassion, justice, or principles of democracy when dealing with MAGAts and Facists. 

As the fascists have accelerated the pace to control the courts, the justice system, and the voting booth, consider this

Once the mechanisms of democracy are so undermined that the views of the majority no longer have a voice, what is left for that majority to do in order to be heard?   

Minority rulers who are driven to stay in power at all costs must suppress freedom in order to maintain control.  Minority rulers, whether a person or a party, don’t stay in power in a true democracy.   History is not kind to countries that have had minority rule.   

So what’s next?  I don’t know.   Hopefully it is decided at the ballot box where true democracies decide such things.  

One side bet I have — countries like Venezuela better watch out.  Trump needs a war and he doesn’t do things unless the fix is in.  North Korea and Iran are too messy.  Aha!  Pick a fight with a much smaller military, and something closer to home to really increase the “fear factor.”  If I were a bookie, I’d be giving the odds on favorite as being Venezuela.  And the best time to stoke the flames of war, oh, about mid-2020 should do it.  Sooner if  an impeachment conviction is looking likely.

Whether you like the candidate or not, whether you consider yourself a Republican or not, this is the year I hope people vote straight ticket Democrat.   Anything else is a slap in the face of all who have fought and died to uphold American principles of democracy.   But frankly, I just want people to vote – assuming they haven’t been blocked from doing so and that systems aren’t hacked.

If our elected officials better reflect the values of the majority of Americans, then the right people will be elected, whatever those values may be.  That’s how a democracy works.  That’s how it will work here.

My concern isn’t that it won’t work out.  It will.  My concern is how many MORE people are going to have to be oppressed at best, killed at worst, before we work it all out.  The voting booth can keep that number to a minimum.

This ends my political rant.

Back to your regularly scheduled kink.

Next: 287. Times Up for my Time Out!