Let's talk about some of the fallout from this US presidential election. Now if you haven't seen the previous article, I recommend you read that first before moving forward. Blogged about what happened—both sides—and how to move forward. That said, a few things have happened. They've been reports from people that voted for either candidate being harassed by the other supporters.
Football player, Chris Weatherd, showing his car being vandalized with racial slurs.
Others describing harassment from strangers, assault from strangers.
A picture of a young gay man who was allegedly attacked by a Trump supporter went viral.
And on the other end, there was a video (that blew up) of a man—who allegedly (he) voted for Donald Trump—being attacked by a group of Clinton supporters.
And when I see all of this, whether it be one side, the other, if it goes viral organically, if it's coming from mainstream media, I think that it's important to ask questions. What's real? What's not? Even with that video: Why is that car stopped in the intersection? How do they know that he voted for Trump? What the hell's happening? How did that interaction start?
With the people who were saying they were assaulted, is there a police documentation of this? These last eighteen months have been a prime example; propaganda can spread so fast!
And we've seen supporters on both sides accept only the things that proves everything that they believe and the people in their bubbles believe is right—dismissing everything else like it's bullshit. You've got to be open; some don't describe all. I feel like that's where a big part of this problem stems from. You see some people that you hate and then you associate it with an entire group. There are people pointing fingers everywhere. It's the DNC's (Democratic National Committee) fault because they screwed Bernie. Pretty accurate.
It's the media's fault. It's this, it's that. If I looked at one moment where I went “Ow, that's where Hillary really, or rather literally, shot herself in the vagina.”, was when Hillary said: “You can put half of Trump supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables.”
She just lumped up an entire group—in this case—in a basket. You say they are all racist, sexist, misogynist, the worst kind of people. And guess what, there are Trump supporters that are incredibly racist, incredibly sexist, that are members of the KKK! But you and many of your supporters dismissed the entire group as those people.
A group of people that weren't racist or sexist and they just felt beat down and not listened to by their government. You put the nail in the coffin on that when you looped them with the most extreme of his supporters. And if you're one of the people that are doing that, you are in the wrong. Same as if you are in the wrong if you show an image like this and go like “Oh, look! All black people are violent!”
Using the image as an example, let's just assume that everyone in that group, they started it. The people in that image represent the people in that image. They also probably are representative of a smaller group, but they do not represent the whole.
You've got some people that have extreme views. You've got a bunch of people then being pushed and assumed to have extreme views. You've got the desire to view things from a different perspective at an all-time low. It's not helpful when your argument becomes us versus them. Might go with my blog and the way that I talk to people, with the way that I talk about the news. It's not stupid hippy-dippy bullshit to try to find a middle ground.
I do not believe that anyone on either side wakes up with anything other than “I hope that I can do good for me and mine. I want to live. I want to have a good life. I want to be happy.”—and then a million different other things fuck that up. And we'll never all be on the same page, but I think that we have to have a start.
Also, there have been protests.
What I was just preaching about also extends here. There were tons of people, just peaceful protesting.
You've got idiots like this popping up on TV and hurting their cause with a “…grab Donald Trump by the pussy!” remark.
Thousands of people in many cities across the United States marched to protest the election of Donald Trump.
I saw a lot of people online saying “This is whining.” “Look at these kids.” “We didn't do this when Obama was elected.” I'll say now what I would've said if Trump people took to the streets: Freedom of speech is good, peaceful protest is good.
To the woman who started screaming that people need to die: Calm the hell down with that craziness! In case it's unclear, this particularly pugnacious protester provided justification for death and very vehemently validated violence during a live segment on CNN saying: “There will be casualties on both sides. There will be because people have to die to make a change in this world.”
Reportedly, there were also 124 arrests. There were some reports of damage, vandalism, injuries in several locations.
And so to the people who were destroying property and/or using this as a reason to attack someone, fuck those people!
And to the few that set fire in front of Uber headquarters, what have you accomplished other than completely ruining your argument. You let the world know you were angry, but also that they really shouldn't listen to your opinion because you're a person who starts a fire in front of Uber headquarters.
Like I was preaching earlier, I'm not going to take the people who were angry and they're being outspoken and peacefully protesting, and mix them in with these violent few.
It's the same reason to why I won't say all Donald Trump supporters are all for that guy's car getting vandalized and swastikas and threats.
And actually, what makes me a little more nervous, is how one man responded to this. Sheriff David A. Clarke, Jr., a man who is reportedly on the shortlist to be Donald Trump's Secretary of Homeland Security said:
To which then the argument could be: Well, if you're talking about the will of the people, the popular vote as of right now—as I type this—is still in the favor of Hillary Clinton.
And as some of you know, the United States has a centuries old system called the electoral college—that elected Donald Trump.
And hopefully, if there's anyone that respects protest, it would be Donald Trump. In 2012, when he wasn't happy with the election, when he was frustrated, he tweeted:
Now if people start destroying stuff, yes, crackdown on that, but peaceful protest should be embraced.
If you've been on my blog long enough, you know that I have supported the protest of groups I didn't even agree with.
But, with that said, on the note of the shortlist, the Homeland Security Secretary, a shortlist of people that might fill out Donald Trump's cabinet has been, well, leaked, reportedly. I'll highlight a few that are going to excite or horrify you (depending on your nationality).
Some people listed for Attorney General:
Governor Chris Christie
Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani
Senator Jeff Sessions
Attorney General Pam Bondi
Secretary of Commerce:
Chris Christie
Maybe former Governor Mike Huckabee
Secretary of Education:
Ben Carson?
Or Hoover Institute fellow William Evers
Secretary of Health and Human Services:
You have Ben Carson
Newt Gingrich
Governor Rick Scott
Secretary of the Interior:
Former Governor Sarah Palin
Secretary of Defense:
Possibly, the very vocal, former General Mike Flynn
So there's that.
Then there are also people calling for the 'Calexit'. That being a campaign for California to leave the United States.
A bunch of people want California to secede from the Union. Saying California by itself is a huge, large enough economy.
With how heavy the Clinton vote was in California, passions are high hammering that the president-elect, Donald Trump, or rather a Donald Trump presidency is not representative of what they want in their lives. Turns out Hyperloop One co-founder (and Uber investor), Shervin Pishevar, is in the driver's seat of the Calexit bandwagon. Saying California is the sixth largest economy in the world.
Personally, I don't support that. I utterly understand where the desire's coming from, but I also believe it is short-sighted and doesn't take into account the other side.
As of right now, almost everyone in California doesn't feel represented. There were around 9 million votes in California. 5.5 million people in the state voted for Hillary Clinton.
Those people don't feel represented with Donald Trump as president. You know who else doesn't feel represented? The just under 3 million people in California who voted for Donald Trump.
Yes, he is their president, but that's 3 million people that voted even though they knew California is an incredibly blue state—that it was 100% going to go to the Democrats.
Those same people most likely felt the same sort of underrepresentation when Obama was elected. And in fact, when you look into it, there's been a desire for years for California to be split up into several different blocks. There's a lot of people!
California's a big state. When you think of California, most people just think of the San Francisco elite, the LA elite. I hate to jump the gun, but there are a ton of people in the state that do not fit that demo.
The scenario's sort of like having a bunch of people like “Hey, we're gonna take our toys and we're gonna play elsewhere.” Not taking into account the third of people like “No freaking ways. 'Cause it didn't go your way this time, you're gonna leave? The hell's that about?!”
I think this is where I'm going to end talking about this. There is more to talk about. Donald Trump met with President Obama on the tenth.
A lot of talk about what Trump said versus what he's going to do, whether it be about trying to put Hillary Clinton behind bars…
…or the Muslim ban—that he talked about and promised—that has now disappeared from his website.
There'll be no shortage of time to talk about this; he is going to be in office January 20th.
What I do ask for (and what I hope for), is compassion and understanding. It's important for many on both sides to have because many on both sides don't.
If we as people view everyone that's not a part of our group as the monster and we treat them like the monster, they either become the monster or we are actually the monster.
That's where I'm going to end this article.
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