A Blog About Life… Isn't That Unusual?

This is a post that came from one of my friends, which well summarizes how I feel, too.

So, I said no politics. I just can’t help myself. If you’re more upset that people are protesting than you are upset at our spying, lying, bloated, progressively worsening joke of a government, we’re just never going to see eye to eye. I give no fucks what gets millions of Americans active, I just want Americans active and caring about the endless stream of shit our leadership has been.

From Reagan and his war on Blacks, I’m sorry, I mean drugs, for sure, to Prescott Bush trying to overthrow our government, to George Bush 1, Prescotts Son, as head of the CIA trying to get JFK to blow up buildings in the US and blame someone else to start a war, to that exact thing magically happening during George Bush 2, the grandsons presidency, from the fight against basic healthcare and education while Amazon pockets billions and pays no taxes, from the NSA spying on everything we do, to bombing American citizens without due process, to covering up for racists, rapists and pedophiles.

I am sick of my government.

And don’t even fucking bring up Corona. There’s almost no stopping her now. Because when she could be stopped and contained, our fucking government was lying to you saying it’s a hoax or just the flu. So now Corona is here. The death toll we will pay to her as Americans over the next few years, is payment that is completely due to the hubris and detachment from reality of our government.

When Trump was elected, I was happy. I thought it would be amusing for a few months, then we’d impeach his megalomaniac ass, and my hope was that we would remember, we, Americans, own those politicians, not the other way around. Sadly, the divisive propaganda that is ubiquitous in the modern age works brilliantly well, fracturing the populace into jagged and broken parts that refuse to work together.

Which brings me back to point 1.

Anything, I mean Anything, that gets this many Americans moving together, I support with every drop of blood in my body. That’s without even touching the actual systemic abuse and racism rampant in police cultures. As most know, I loathe police. From kicking [fiance] across the floor in her diapers [She had MS], to leveling m4s to my head, from illegal searches to nightly harassment, from the cop in Iowa who threatened to plant drugs to the fatfuck sheriff in Hartford who clocked someone on the interstate at 75 and then pulled me over going 35 and claimed the 75mph was me, to the one cop who leveled a gun at my four month old kitten and threatened to kill it if I didn’t “control the animal”, and on and on and on and on… and I’m a white boy with a father with military and police connections. And amazingly, not once in those situations did one of those legendary “good cops” intervene.

I cannot imagine the horrors those pieces of shit would drop on those without my privilege or protections.

So again, if you’re more upset about Americans getting together to exercise their first amendment rights, than you are at a government that is regularly violating those rights, you truly need to rethink your position. Please. I beg of you, don’t drink the koolaid, think critically and carefully.

Also, if you went from supporting “Reopen” protests, to opposed against the “BLM” protests, especially if you mention Corona as a reason why the BLM protests are bad, just do us both a favor and delete me. You’re out of my mental gymnastics league, too adept for me.

A 75 year old man is pushed by two riot officers. Perhaps being in the ranges of 20 to 35, I don’t know. I didn’t check. I just noticed that the man was only wearing a light sweater and pants, versus the officers in riot gear. The officers looked to be decked out in gear that only America’s healthcare employees could wish for, as they’re the ones fighting the world wide pandemic.

The man was shoved unexpectedly. It may not have been a shove, even, so much as a push to just make the man begin walking backwards. This is not what happened. The man, who was holding nothing but a cell phone and a riot officers helmet, lost his balance after being pushed. He stumbled one or two steps, then fell. His lower back hits the pavement first, causing his upper body to accelerate faster towards the ground, and his head similar to a whips tail, hits solid concrete.

The officers continue marching forward, but only for a second or two, before the one that the man had approached notices blood streaming out of the old mans ears. He has a very panicked reaction, but only for a split second as his squad instructs him to continue moving forward towards the protesters. The remaining officers take notice, having very little reaction; an immediate “bystander effect” onsets.

This man is regarded as being in a “serious, but stable condition,” a few days later. Which means nothing more than he’s alive, and not getting worse. There is no indications as to whether his condition is expected to improve over time. He could be in a coma, relying on life support, as far as the hospitals announcement goes.

Four days after the video was released to public, the president tweets, verbatim:

Buffalo protester shoved by Police could be an ANTIFA provocateur. 75 year old Martin Gugino was pushed away after appearing to scan police communications in order to black out the equipment. @OANN I watched, he fell harder than was pushed. Was aiming scanner. Could be a set up?

---

This is where I am going to stop this style of writing, as this lays out the mindset that I am in. I’m upset – obviously, I’m enraged, sad, shocked, and confused.

The police commissioner states almost immediately that officers were, “Simply following orders.” This is an issue, if that defense holds up worth a flipping fuck. Has no one ever heard of THE MILGRAM OBEDIENCE STUDY. (If you don’t feel like watching the full documentary, find a summarized version, or educate yourself, you simplistic small-minded fucks.)

The fact that officer had ANY reaction is a sign that there is a human inside that suit of armor. That HUMAN reaction is what this world needs more of. He realized they fucked up as soon as he realized there was blood on his hands. I guess good thing there’s so much camaraderie in the police force. Cause the 57 other police officers resign in solidarity after the two officers were charged with 2nd degree assault. They also only resigned from the tactical response unit, after their union said they wouldn’t cover any costs of legal fees for officers involved in bad behavior in response to the protests.

Our president, who we are supposed to rely on for appropriate action during times of chaos and crisis, decided his best response was to send a character limited tweet, as to not waste too much time on the subject.

Our president decided to tweet bullshit campaign propaganda about a man who MAY HAVE PERMANENT, SEVERE BRAIN DAMAGE, to help him win an election.

OANN is a small news company, established 6 years ago, in 2013, and is known for being far right. It’s twitter follower-base stacks a measly 850K when compared to other news outlets. (Fox news, established 23 years ago / 29M followers) (CNN 40 : 48.5M) (Wall Street Journal 130 : 17.8M.

This is who the president has to tweet to in order to try to look legitimate? I understand how he thinks the rest of the media is “fake news” and whatnot, but this would be best compared to being in a relationship and everyone telling you to get out of it, right? Maybe, if the majority of people, with a third person perspective, are weighing in with negative thoughts, you might be in a unhealthy relationship.

He is blind to how bad of a position he is in, and where he is taking this country, and this world along with it.

Going back to the incident. That man is 75 years old, our president is 73. Do you think he could be pushed by two officers and hold himself up well enough to keep from hitting his head? When you are 75, do you believe you will have the reaction time to save yourself?

Do you believe that this was set up? Would you risk your life just to get this moment on camera? Would you allow your friends or family to risk their lives to capture tragedies on camera? I am so very and seriously confused with how people can believe this borderline North Korean-type propaganda and fucking run with it. I am sick of dealing with mountains of idiots with no original opinions or thoughts on what’s going on around them – yet I am called a sheep.

If Martin Gugino dies, or even has life-altering effects, he was nothing more than a martyr, and I feel awful for him and his family and his friends.

Fuck this world.

What is it that causes destruction, tragedy, and pain?
It is not logic, nor self-preservation, but something much stronger.

The human emotion is a very dangerous thing.

It cannot be controlled
It cannot be contained
It is the single, most important X-Factor for the human race.
It is a powerful force with the ability to leave a lasting effect…

Humans are much like cancer cells
Continually feeding, breeding, and growing
Entirely unaware that this action will eventually lead to their own destruction.
For this behavior eventually kills the host in which they inhabit, and in turn causes their own elimination.
In the end the fundamental difference between development and destruction is: A question

Can change occur?
What is needed for change?

A catalyst, an ignition source.
And where does this come from?
Only an ignition source of great magnitude can begin to change its course.
A source of purity and a undeniable desire to alter the path.
A source found only deep within human emotion.
The very place that the human particle annihilation began.
It is only here that they may face the machine.
The true test of change lies within a challenge of strength between the human emotion and the machine.
So exists the question
Can change occur?

I have been meaning to have input on COVID-19, but this year seems to be getting too shitty too fast, so I’m guessing I won’t have time to sit down and go over everything concerning that. Instead, since general public health safety is no longer relevant, let’s focus on what is: These protests.

First and foremost, I want to be clear on where I stand on this. Something has to be done with police brutality in general, and especially when it’s concerning a minority person(s). It’s a known fact that if people are given a position of power they will use it and abuse it. There is systemic racism integrated into our social justice platform, and we are in desperate need to change and eliminate that. There is no doubt in my mind about it.

So, in order to lay out my thoughts properly, I feel it’s important to define both a protest and a riot:

Protest

An organized public demonstration expressing strong objection to an official policy or course of action.

Riot

A violent disturbance of the peace by a crowd.

A protest is not inherently violent, and a riot is not inherently a protest. Riots have been ignited by sports games going the way a city wanted it to go, they’ve also started by sports games going the way a city didn’t want it to. Riots happen because there is a crowd of people, and a few of those people become violent and derail the rest of the crowd.

Protests happen because there is enough people in agreement that something is wrong. Whether it’s a system, policy, whatever. If there are enough like minded people saying that there is something wrong, protests can happen. Generally protests don’t happen until these injustices have gone on for longer than they should have. Especially in this particular circumstance, these protests are people who feel like there’s nothing else they can do in order to correct issue at hand.

So, riots are not protests. Protests are not riots. Think of them as adversaries, as they truly are in this case. People are supportive of the protest, and lash back at the riots. I’m also in this group. Rioting will not rectify anything, you are just burning your own cities down.

The problem is that there are people aware of this fact, and use it to sabotage the protesters. Take a look at what’s happened in these cities. Many of the people inciting riots and helping burn cities down are not from those cities. There’s evidence that it’s white supremacists, members of the Ku Klux Klan, hell, even police that are actively working to sabotage what starts and could very well stay a peaceful protest.

There is a proverb that comes from farmers, “One bad apple can spoil the bunch.” While that phrase can be taken literally, it’s more popular use is exactly what’s happening in this case. A few people becoming violent in a crowd can easily entice the rest of the crowd into becoming violent. There are people that are coordinating the inciting of riots at these protests, and they are doing it surgically, efficiently, and effectively. It is the perfect counter to a protest — which is what people resort to as their last effort for change.

If people’s last efforts to push for change are so easily countered by a few well placed people trying to start a riot, then this isn’t something that can be easily changed on a systemic level… This is something that needs to change on a human scale. Humans need to learn to not be racist, we need to learn to not abuse power, and treat humans truly equally.

We have beating around the bush on equality for generations. Let’s start at the slave trade. There were people who knew it wasn’t right, and they got together and protested. What does society do? Got rid of the slave trade, but keep the segregation and unequal human rights. Well, that wasn’t good enough, so again people got together and protested for equality and to put an end to segregation and they got it – almost. On paper, everything says that all people are equal, but whatever social fabric that we have still holds onto our past generations racism, and that is the fundamental problem. If we still have subconscious bias against colored people, there is no attainable resolve to these atrocities, and we will continue on with this mistreatment, and they will continue on, rightfully, protesting. Bringing me back to the point that if a protest can be negated easily and efficiently by inciting riots, protests are no longer a measure that can be taken to achieve a very much needed social goal. And. That. Is. Fucked.

So let’s talk about subconscious bias, as that seems to be the foundation for allowing these murders to take place. I would be a liar if I said I didn’t have any subconscious bias against other people. There is something in me that does fear colored people more than other people. There is also this feeling when I’ve interacted with police. It -feels- like a natural gut feeling sort of guard comes up, and I will become more cognizant of my surroundings. I don’t understand why it happens, but I absolutely hate it. It’s happening on a level that I cannot control, and I do my best to mitigate it. The fact that I can recognize that I’m having irrational reactions to another human is the first step to resolving my bias.

If you cannot identify this bias, but still have the same sort of guard around certain people, you should take a deep look at yourself and try to rationalize that feeling. If it’s not a race thing, please let me know what your thoughts are.
If you do not feel this bias, and react the same around everyone regardless of race, I need to congratulate you. You are the people that need to teach the others such as myself on how to be a better person.

This is the last point I want to make as well, as it also plays into casual racism and whatnot: Stereotypes.

In my history I have stereotyped people, I have laughed at stereotypes, and even laughed at racist jokes. I would like to think that the comedic side of those jokes takes precedence over the underlying racism and hatred… Sadly, my opinion is changing the more I see how bad our culture really is towards minorities. I love all forms of comedy, but it is exactly these stereotypes and racist jokes that are easily impregnated into the minds of others, especially children, and further the development of casual and formal racism.

Behind closed doors, people talk about how they truly feel, good or bad. Being behind closed doors with other people is a great social experience, because you get to know someone better than you previously did. Behind closed doors is where people act comfortable with one another, and bonding can take place. This is also where you can bond over acceptance and love, or hatred and racism. In my life, I’m seeing a lot more bonding over what people dislike a hell of a lot more than what they do like. Perhaps this says something about the people I grew up with, the people I’ve formed friendships with, and the people that I’ve dedicated my time and interests to.

I want to be clear here again. I support the protests and what they are attempting to achieve. I don’t believe those protesters are the ones forming riots. There are bad people seeded into the protests to incite riots, and protesters are caught up in the chaos and cave into it.
I also am not a role model human being, I have my subconscious biases, but I am working to eliminate them. I would like to pledge to not take part in forms of stereotyping, or racist jokes. I am not a trend setting person like a few of my friends are, but I would like to try and be one for this cause.

I also believe this is a change that needs to happen on a completely different level than a national reform of any kind. This is changing how humans have thought and learned from each other for generations. This is a huge cultural shift that needs to take place universally. My hopes are high, but my expectation is that we will fail repeatedly in this endeavor. I just hope we still have a functioning society in the end.

P.S.: Cause you gotta have a post script…
If you read this, and thought it was an interesting take, I have another building block to add. A few years ago, when we were upset about boarder patrol separating families who entered the country illegally, I also appended my thoughts on how it gets so bad in such a hurry. I blame it on the speed that we are able to send and receive data. If you’re interested in reading it, it’s here.